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Hi new to this and wondering how my water is here's my parameters from strips not great but all I have ATM. PH 7.6 kh 180 Gh 125 nitrate 50 nitrite 0.5 and ammonia is 0.5 I was unaware about cycles etc and quite worried my fish look healthy spawning etc no deaths for a month or so any help welcome. I do weekly water changes as much as 50% but more 30% live plants and small feeds regular thanks in advance wayne

Hi Wayne and welcome to Fish Profiles!

Let's take the readings one at a time.
pH 7.6. 7.0 is considered neutral and your water is trending toward "Hard." It could be great for live bearers, and close to great for hard water fish such as the African Rift Fish.
The industry is relying on "Fish Farms" to provide us with fish for our tanks and easing the strain on the natural populations of fish. The ones raised in fish farms will enjoy the pH of your water and your fish should do fine.

GH 180 is considered "Slightly Hard" and also, should be just fine for your fish.

Nitrate - 125 is actually sky high and you need to do water changes and vacuum the gravel to get it down, way down. A tank with no plants or just a couple should have a nitrate reading of zero. A well planted tank should run around 10.
(the plants will take up the nitrate as a nutrient.)
A large water change, of at least 50% is a start and be sure to vacuum the gravel as well. Something like the Python water change system is great. Mentally divide the non planted area of your tank into 4 sections and with each water change, vacuum the gravel right down to the glass bottom to get rid of any waste food that is decaying and any solid fish waste.

Nitrite 50 is also sky high.
Read up on the Nitrogen Cycle. Once the tank has cycled, the Ammonia will read, effectively zero, the Nitrite will read zero, and the nitrate will be the highest value.
Many towns treat their water with Chlorine and Chloramine.
You need to treat your water to eliminate these chemicals. The problem with treating Chloramine is that it is a mixture of Ammonia and Chlorine. The test kit cannot distinguish between Ammonia and Chloramine, and actually adds them together in its reading. So, even in a cycled tank a reading of .025 Ammonia is normal and can be ignored.

Ammonia 0.5. Your tank is still cycling. but well on its way.

You might give some consideration to not using the paper strips for testing and shift instead to test kits using water and liquid reagents. Such as the API series of kits. Test strips are very inaccurate. They must be kept in a cool, dark, dry environment and over time as they age they loose their accuracy. The liquid reagents are more stable and give better accuracy.

I would also advise you get a second opinion on your tank water's chemistries. Take a water sample to your local pet store and ask them to please test your water for you. They all will test the water for free, as they expect that if they find any problems, you will purchase the "solution" from them.

Hope this helps...

Frank


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