Aquachecks are important to know the quality of your water, whether it be in an aquarium or something else. The five components of an aquacheck are free chlorine, total chlorine, total hardness, total alkalinity, and pH. Free chlorine refers to the free ions in the water while total chlorine is the combination of free chlorine and combined chlorine which is the combination of ammonia to form chloramine. Total hardness refers to the amount of dissolved minerals in the water. Total alkalinity is the measure of the buffering capacity of water, or in laymen terms, the resistance to change in pH. pH is how acidic or basic water is, ranging from 0-14, 0 being the most acidic while 14 is the most basic and 7 is neutral.
The results of my aquacheck was .5 for free chlorine, 0 for total chlorine, 250 for total hardness, 180 for alkalinity and 7.8 for pH. Overall the results were good except for the free chlorine because chlorine is what kills fish. The hardness is good for the fish I have selected for my aquarium and the alkalinity is decent because a higher number means a higher resistance to change in pH. The pH was neutral/slightly basic which is good. A pH of 4 affects fish reproduction and a pH of 3 kills adult fish. So all in all, the aquacheck showed that my water was good for my fish to live in.
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