Gh & Kh Tests Done

tennis4you · Jul 20, 2008

Since I had the pH crash, I was told to do a hardness test. I went out and bought one yesterday. I tested it but I really could not tell you what the results mean and what I should do as a result.

My pH is still reading at 6.0 (as low as the chart goes, so it might actually be lower) and I have done a 10% water change every other day since I found the low pH. Not sure if it is helping yet or not, all readings come back at 6.0. For all I know I could have been at 5.6 and it is climbing but not over 6.0 yet. But the canister filter has been cleaned and I am hoping that will help too.

Anyways. Here are my test results...

KH: It took (2) drops to make the water change color which comes out to be 35.8 ppm. I think that is low?

GH: It took (11) drops to make the water change color which comes out to be 196.9 ppm

Can anyone educate me on what that means and which ones I need to do something about?

Thank you,

Colin_T · Jul 20, 2008

Check the PH of your tap water as it might be low as well.

a KH (carbonate hardness) of 2 drops (2 degrees) is pretty low. If you get the KH up to 6 or 7 degrees then it will help to hold the PH more stabile. You can use sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, but not baking powder they are different) to raise the PH. Otherwise put a piece of limestone or some shells, coral rubble in the tank/filter and that will help to increase the PH a bit.

A GH (general hardness) of 196 is average. Below 100ppm is soft, above 300ppm is hard. 200ppm is pretty good. Most tropical fish are fine in water with this hardness so don't bother trying to adjust the GH unless you are keeping wild caught rift lake cichlids from Lake Tanganyika.

10% water changes don't do anything, try doing bigger water changes 20-30% and you should see better results.