What is Reddit's opinion of UBANTE Professional Quality TDS, EC & Temperature Meter, Water Quality Test Meter,0-9990ppm.Accurate and Reliable Water Test Meter. Ideal for Drinking Water, Aquariums. (Yellow)?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Sure. Anyone who has an aquarium usually should be able to test for those things anyway. I don't test very frequently. But, water treatment plants often have spikes of any of those things seasonally, so I test before and after winter at least. For your hardness and I presume you also mean pH, you can get your water hardness info from the water treatment plant (depends on their souce water). And then test your tap for pH. If you only want a TDS meter instead, you can try this one, but it measures the exact same as the info from my treatment plant. So, it's not needed. Unless you have dwarf shrimp. You'd still want to be able to test for pH and Nitrates even in a cycled aquarium periodically.

Thank you so much for all the information! I have lists upon lists of notes about stuff I'd like to do and you guys are answering so many questions. Thank you from the bottom of my heart <3

I will rethink the decor because the rocks I'm wanting to use do raise the PH slightly. In a bigger tank, that probably wouldn't be a big deal but in a 5-8 gallon, that's big.

For a TDS meter, is something like this okay?

Would I throw everything off if I add a bubble curtain or air stone to ensure the tank is properly aerated?

Someone mentioned culling and I'm wondering when I should do that. If I start with 5 shrimp, should I wait until my population is about 200 or cull every month? I've watched videos of how to catch and how to cull but no one seems to answer the "when".

Thank you all again and I hope you wonderful people are staying warm!

Ah ok. You didn't say you were on Well Water. (say that first next time lol). All well is going to have minerals and things that will affect tank water. But, it depends. Where I grew up we had no issue. But, I have a friend who lives on the water and salt water intrusion occurs so their water can't be used. But, unless your well has been deemed not drinkable, then it may be ok for the fish. You will need the API Master Test kit anyway, so pick one up. Cheaper on Amazon of course. See what the pH is. Then also pick up an inexpensive TDS meter like this one which is the one i got, but says it's out now. But, you can read the reviews and get an idea why I chose it. It had the best reviews I'd seen. You can probably find the same one from another seller. So, test your tap for pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. If the pH is <8.2 you'll be ok for "most fish" and then test for Ammonia and the other 2. If there is anything other than 0, it will depend on how much their is of any of them as to if it can be used. You can test and then ask us if that happens.

But, just thinking, bring some with you to the LFS and ask them to test for those 4 PLUS GH and KH so you have a comparison (for the 4) and so you can see what you're working with on the other 2.

To have the fish tank at 30 gal or thereabouts, you will HAVE to have a regular source of 15+ gallons anyway because there are always times when something happens and you have to do an immediate water change....forgetting that your hands had lotion on them or someone sprayed air freshener in the room, or... so, if your water isn't good enough, you'd have to buy RO water from the LFS. Mine sells it for like 72c ents a gallon. And then you'd have to remineralize the water with a product like RO Right, or KH and GH Builder or....

If you don't have a gravel vac, you'll need to get one of those too. You'll clean half the gravel one week and half the gravel the next (or farther in between right now with only one fish). You can input your info on Aqadvisor.com later on when you may want to add fish (use it as a guide only though!) and don't add fish till you know this guy is healthy and have figured out the water issue. I don't know, I'd bring the pic of him in to the LFS with you and see if they know what it is. Like I said, I've never had a pleco. You can also post a new pic and just ask what do people think is going on with my pleco. And skip all the rest and you'll likely get lots of answers. Then I would get some Kanaplex and probably treat with that as it's sort of covers both fungal and bacterial. It's a basic one I've kept around and used over the years. It's high quality and effective for most things I've used it for. Make sure to take the carbon out of your filter when you're treating if you still have one that includes it. You don't have to use carbon so that's why I wasn't sure.