Off the Chart GH & KH Reading

[Brendt]

hi all, my fish tank is currently in a Fishless cycle a 10 Gal and today i decided to test the GH and KH of my tap water as some people on here were saying for me to test the GH and KH to see what kind of fish are compatible with my tank. well either i did it wrong or my GH and KH are off the charts however i did the tests 2 times and got the same exact result. and the method for both tests were as follows start with a clean tube, drop, cap, and rotate up and down a couple times and repeat until the desired color... what do i do?? what kind of fish can i get with such high GH and KH in a 10 Gal? should i retry? should i test my tank water?although because my tank is currently cycling im sure the measurments will be off.

From my tap
my ph is 8.0
MY kh took 18 drops
My GH took 24 drops

which i have no clue what the drops break down to in PPM as the chart wasnt very clear for a newbie

Thanks guys

 

[Colin_T]

most of your hardness is carbonates & bicarbonates (KH), the remaining hardness is made up of other minerals like chloride, sulphate, phosphate, etc.
Most GH test kits pick up KH as well. Whereas KH test kits only read carbonates & bicarbonates.

What test kit do you have?
Do a google search for instructions on the test kit to find out what 1 drop equals in ppm.
If the kit has 1 drop = 17ppm then your water is around 400ppm and that is pretty hard. If you want to reduce the hardness mix mains water with reverse osmosis (R/O), distilled or rain water to lower the gh

 

[Essjay]

GH is the amount of divalent metal ions in the water. In practical terms, this means mainly calcium, some magnesium and trace amounts of other divalent metal ions. GH does not include anions or mono and trivalent metal ions. Source of information - son who worked as an analyst at a water testing company (now a PhD chemist).
Carbonate and bicarbonate are anions; sodium is a mono-valent metal, aluminium is a tri-valent metal etc. Source of information - my BSc in chemistry.


@Brendt - when you tested the GH and KH did you look for the change in colour, or did you continue adding drop until the new colour became intense? (Some instructions are vague; they imply you keep adding drops until the second colour is intense which can be interpreted as continuing to add drops after the colour change until the new colour is really bright, but it is the colour change not the intensity that is important)

 

[NickAu]

 

[Brendt]

Hi all, so I did test until the started to changed not until it was bright and intense also after a google search it looks like the test I used was the API brand and it comes out to 1 drop = 17 PPM roughly l. I’ve kind of floated the fish ideas around in my head on what I would want to keep and it’s been an ever revolving door since the tank is cycling. Now I’m thinking 1 or 2 Indian pea puffers would they do well with my water parameters?

 

[seangee]

Now I’m thinking 1 or 2 Indian pea puffers would they do well with my water parameters?

Those are really cool. http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-travancoricus/

I was toying with the idea of setting up a species tank for them. You do need to be aware that:

1. They need live food
2. They need to be fed every day

That's the main reason I gave up on the idea. They probably wouldn't survive if I went on a two week holiday and certainly not 3.

 

[Byron]

If you are on municipal/city water, you should contact them to confirm your results. They may have a website with data, or simply call them. If you are on a private well, that option isn't obviously available.

Using the API liquid GH/KH test, after you add a drop to the tube of water and shake it, set the tube on a white surface (a piece of pure white paper works), and in daylight but not direct sunlight, not artificial light. Look down through the open tube to discern the colour. This is much easier than sideways, and the first drop that changes the colour is much more evident.