How To Test The Water In Your Aquarium

How do I test the water in my aquarium?

When you want to test your aquarium water, there are basically a couple of methods you can go with. You can get a sandwich bag, or a zip-lock seal bag, or a small piece of Tupperware, and you can bring about a quarter cup to a half a cup of it to your local, reputable aquarium store and they can test it for you. Or, you can buy your own test kit, which is what I recommend, because you don't have to schlep water around, and the test kits are really simple to use. They've got little test tubes in them, with a level where you fill the water up to. And then they've got reagents, which are typically drops, easy to read instructions. You just follow the instructions. They have little colour-coated charts that let you determine what the levels are based on the colour that the water turns after a certain amount of time. All the instructions are right in the test kits and they're super-simple to use.