KH

[Guyb93]

I’m not new to fish as such iv kept for a while now but I’m fairly new to water parameters, if that makes sense for ages I kept fish and never owned a water test kit just did %20 weekly water changes and that’s it about 6 months ago to a year I really got into my fish went from just keeping them to really learning about stock and there eco systems and there water parameters, so stopped my mid match tank of destruction slowly but surely and ended with a South American cichlid tank as my local water is acidic and soft ... but KH still after research is frankly doing my head in , I see people post there test results and have a KH of 0 , I never do so I look into it and from my understanding please correct me thts why I’m asking is that you need some level of KH in the tank to protect your PH from dropping or raising So a KH of zero is bad yeah ? Mine is around 40, but so is my tap water so if KH is ment to be zero how can I drop it

 

[seangee]

KH of 40ppm is fine for soft water fish. The hardness that we refer to is GH. With a low KH you need to do regular large water changes to keep a stable pH as KH acts as a pH buffer. I would up the water changes to 50-75% and not worry about KH.

 

[Guyb93]

KH of 40ppm is fine for soft water fish. The hardness that we refer to is GH. With a low KH you need to do regular large water changes to keep a stable pH as KH acts as a pH buffer. I would up the water changes to 50-75% and not worry about KH.

Iv been doing 40% for a while now since I have got more into my water parameters, my water is good for what fish I have my Gh is 120ish ppm KH 40 ph 6.5 NO2 0-0.5 NO3 20 I know my NO3 could be lower but my fish have a meaty diet and messy eaters and with a deep tank it’s just hard to get those small bits of food out