How Important Is Gh To The Fish Tank?

[IceH2O]

How important is GH to the fish tank and is it a problem that it rises during the week?

Mine goes from on average from 4.2 after a water change to 8.4 in a weeks time.
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[Rodders]

You must have something in there effecting it?
Rocks can sometimes effect it if its the wrong type.

 

[IceH2O]

All I've got in there is regular aquarium gravel and 2 ceramic decorations made by Top Fin..I hadn't ever done testing until the beginning of December so I don't know if its always been this way or if its a recent thing.The PH 7 and KH 5.6 stay constant so nothing is affecting them.

Is there a way to test the gravel and ceramics to see if they are the culprits?

I should mention that the gravel has been in the tank for about 5 years.

 

[sylvia]

it should not be having an effect on your fish if pH is constant. Do they look stressed?

 

[rdd1952]

Of the 3 Hs (pH, KH and GH), GH is probably the least important as far as your fishes health is concerned. I haven't tested my GH in ages. Here is a pretty good site on what each is and it's effects in the tank. Are you adding any chemicals (fertilizers for example) to your tank? Also, the difference between a GH of 4.2 and 8.4 isn't extremely big (not like a swimg of that much in pH). Your water would still be considered soft.

 

[IceH2O]

Yeah late last night I started looking around some sites and noticed many said unless you're breeding GH isn't very important.

 

[IceH2O]

Turns out my fish like soft acidic so as long as it stays under 8 I'm still soft, and in the good.

I should test today and see what the GH just climbed to in the 48 hrs since the change.

Before WC 8.4
24 hrs after 25% WC 4.2
48 hrs after WC between 5-5.6..about a degree in one day.

sylvia Posted Yesterday, 10:00 PM
it should not be having an effect on your fish if pH is constant. Do they look stressed?

They look fine..