hey guys welcome back to Kaveman aquatics this week we'll be talking
about the API fresh water master test kit we're gonna talk about how to
properly use it how to test your water get the correct parameters if you
haven't already please hit that subscribe button hit that Bell button
hit that thumbs up button and let's get right into it so first thing we're gonna
do is collect our water sample from our tank we're going to want to match the
lines on the tube as close as possible so that we can get an accurate test
reading
first thing we're gonna test for is ammonia ammonia has two bottles that
you've got to use to test properly first bottle is going to have eight drops in
your test tube I always like to give my bottles a quick shake no matter what
this stuff's been sitting for a while you never know it's got a good mixture
or not so I'll give it a shake for a couple of seconds before putting the
drops in I'm going to go ahead and add eight drops of test bottle number one
for ammonia
next bottle is bottle number two I'm also going to give this a good shake 510
seconds to make sure all the solution is mixed up well and then I'm going to go
ahead and add another 8 drops of this ammonia bottle number 2
make sure I put the caps back on test bottle securely cap my test tube give it
a good shake for about 5 to 10 seconds make sure all the solution is mixed well
and then we'll take a look at our color codes on the back of the manual for the
API master test kit for ammonia you should get a reading of a yellowish
color which should be zero parts per million you should not have any ammonia
in your tank whatsoever if you do have ammonia then your tank is probably not
cycled yet and you shouldn't have any fish in your aquarium yet now you are
supposed to wait about 5 minutes to let the colors develop so we will let it sit
here for a while while we test the next parameters the next thing we're going to
test is nitrite
give this a good shake for about 510 seconds
and we're going to go ahead and add five drops of nitrite put the cap back on our
solution cap our test tube give that a good little mix for five ten seconds as
well and we'll see what color we got compare it with the manual test
coloration
as you can see the test solution comes out a light blue color light blue is
where we're supposed to be also at zero parts per million for Knights right you
shouldn't have any nitrite in your aquarium either in a property cycle tank
your ammonia should read zero and your nitrite should read zero as shown if you
need more information on the nitrogen cycle I'll put a card up in the top here
take a look at that when you get a chance now I'm going to go ahead and
grab my next two test tubes fill them up with tank water up to the test line and
we're gonna go ahead and test the high range pH I keep African cichlids so the
pH levels in my tank is a bit higher than normal aquariums so I do the high
range pH test the tests for the regular range pH is exactly the same just use
the bottle that says pH instead of high range pH
I'm gonna go ahead and add five drops of the high range pH solution into the test
tube give it a quick mix about five to ten seconds and then read the results I
usually keep my tank around 8.0 to 8.1
let this color develop for a little bit see what we end up with next and final
thing we're going to test which is very important in your tank is nitrate
testing nitrate is important because this is the indication of when you need
to do a water change you cannot remove nitrates from your aquarium without
doing a water change unless you have a heavily planted tank the only way to
remove the nitrates from your water is going to be with a water change testing
for nitrate is a little bit different than the other parameters we're gonna
shake our first bottle vigorously for about five to ten seconds just like the
other ones then we're going to add ten drops into the test tube
we're going to cap our solution bottle then cap our test tube and give the test
tube a little bit of a mix to make sure this solution from bottle one is mixed
well with the tank water these steps for nitrate are very important to follow or
you can have a false reading now we're going to take our bottle number two of
nitrate and give it a vigorous shaking for 30 seconds and by vigorous I mean
pound the bottom of that bottle as much as you can and make sure that solution
is mixed well or you will not get an accurate reading
now we're going to go ahead and add 10 drops of this second bottle for nitrate
now we'll cap our solution bottle cap our test tube and now we want to give
this test tube a good mix for one minute
mixing well for this one entire minute is going to give you an accurate reading
if this test is done improperly you're gonna get a false reading you may want
to do a water change immediately if you don't need to you also may think that
you don't have as many nitrates as you do have this is an important test to let
you know the level of nitrates in your tank this is going to determine whether
you need to do a water change or not the safe zones for your fish or no more than
40 parts per million if you have 40 parts per million or less you should be
fine once your nitrates reach about 40 parts per million it's time to do a
water change as you can see the color shows about 20 parts per million but you
do have to give this about five minutes for the color to develop usually with
nitrates it'll start off with a lighter color and when as you wait those five
minutes it will get darker
I'll speed this up to see what this looks like after five minutes so five
minutes have gone by and it looks like my color is around the forty part per
million range which means that it's time for me to do a water change if you like
this video please hit that circle subscribe button then hit that thumbs up
button and then watch this video on how to do water changes see you guys on the