[choglund]

Jeanna:

Ok this is my little piece of advice from someone new to the hobby to another.

I just started in this hobby a year and a half ago so I still consider myself a real beginner. I was sooo unbelievably paranoid when I started my tank up, I was so scared of doing something really really bad and killing everything. I must have driven my brother insane with all my questions… ok I still do… hee hee hee. :rolleyes:

Testing the water was the one thing I could do that made me feel like everything was okay. It was something relatively reliable and real that I could look to know how the tank was doing. When I first started I had no clue what “felt” right…..

When I first set up my tank I tested for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and PH.

When you are new to the hobby there are a lot of things that will happen in the tank that are confusing, surprising and quite frankly weird.

Once you have had your tank for a while, and feel more comfortable with it, you will find that you test less and less. After a year and a half I still test, not as frequenlty but I still do it.

I use the salifert test kits; I have had problems with the nitrate and ammonia test kits of other brands.

I hope this helps. Us newbies need to stick together. :D

Cheers!
Cheryl