5/3/13

Aquacheck!

The Aquacheck has five components which are free chlorine, total chlorine, total alkalitnity, total hardness and pH.  Free chlorine refers to the ions that are free in the water, total chlorine is the combination of free and combined chlorine, the buffering capacity of water is total alkalinity (or resistance to pH), total hardness is dissolved minerals in the water, and pH is how basic or acidic the water is.  It can range from 0-14, zero being most acidic, 14 as basic, or 7 as neutral.  These checks are important to know the quality of an aquatic environment.
Our aquacheck turned out pretty well! Our free chlorine was zero as well as total chlorine.  The total hardness was 425, the total alkalinity was 240 and the pH was 8.4.  The pH levels are great because a pH of 3 kills the fish and ours was way high than that. The pH should range from 6-8. Our free chlorine and total chlorine is great that it's zero because chlorine can kill the fish. The hardness is good because they need hard water to survive.  The alkalinity relates to the pH and is okay for the fish but is not the best the best would be maybe around 350 (I think Mrs. Wood said but it's hard to remember). However our tank seems to be a pretty healthy environment so far!



]