My Hardness Results

[fry_lover]

I have done a General Hardness and Carbonate Hardness test on all my tanks, i wondered what peeps make of the results and also how to convert this to "degree hardness"

I did each test twice

Tap Water-
GH - 200 mg/l (ppm) KH - 130 mg/l (ppm)

Malawi Tank with loads of ocean rock
GH - 210 mg/l (ppm) KH - 120 mg/l (ppm)

Mixed Cichlid tank with loads of bog wood (parrots, convicts, kribensis)
GH - 200 mg/l (ppm) KH - 110 mg/l (ppm)

Community, heavily planted
GH - 210 mg/l (ppm) KH - 130 mg/l (ppm)

according to the instruction booklet (Nutrafin) my KH is "unusually high"

my GH is "very hard"

The pH on the test kits for all tanks and tap water are somewhere between 7.5 and 8.0 and again i have done them twice, but each time when i look closer it looks as if my tap-water and my community tank have a slightly (very slightly) lower pH

according to the internet (two different sites) 200-210 mg/l General Hardness is about 12-13 degree's GH which is only "modertately hard"

although on the instructions of my Nutrafin Test Kit it says anything over 200mg/l is "very hard"

 

[fry_lover]

can anybody tell what they make of these results?

 

[Bignose]

Well firstly, 1 ppm = 0.056 German degree of hardness, or inverting that 1 German degree of hardness = 17.9 ppm. The German degrees are the ones most often meant when someone says "degree of water hardness", though there are others (French, Clark a.k.a. English, American).

But, I don't know what you are looking for in terms of "make of these results"? They all look normal to me, since they are all coming from the same tap, right? The simple truth is that while bogwood and rocks and whatnot can have an effect on the water, it is usually pretty small, and the tank water usually won't stray too far from the tap conditions. Especially with higher hardness water. The chemistry of the water is such that high hardness water doesn't like to budge too much at all.

If you are looking for explanation of the words "unusually high" versus "moderately hard", they are just words. Different people think that a certain reading has different meaning. I'm sure you can think of other examples. One right off the top of my head would be one person who thinks that driving the speed limit is fast enough, but another who thinks that they are crawling unless they are going at least 10 mph over. People are different. The absolute numbers carry the most meaning, not what one person's booklet says or another person's website.

Plus, you have to look for the hidden reasons behind it. Is Nutrafin calling it "unusually high" so that they can sell you some water softening chemical or product? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were. They term the range using distressing words so that you feel a greater urge to make the water not so unusual via one of their products.

 

[fry_lover]

Well firstly, 1 ppm = 0.056 German degree of hardness, or inverting that 1 German degree of hardness = 17.9 ppm. The German degrees are the ones most often meant when someone says "degree of water hardness", though there are others (French, Clark a.k.a. English, American).

But, I don't know what you are looking for in terms of "make of these results"? They all look normal to me, since they are all coming from the same tap, right? The simple truth is that while bogwood and rocks and whatnot can have an effect on the water, it is usually pretty small, and the tank water usually won't stray too far from the tap conditions. Especially with higher hardness water. The chemistry of the water is such that high hardness water doesn't like to budge too much at all.

If you are looking for explanation of the words "unusually high" versus "moderately hard", they are just words. Different people think that a certain reading has different meaning. I'm sure you can think of other examples. One right off the top of my head would be one person who thinks that driving the speed limit is fast enough, but another who thinks that they are crawling unless they are going at least 10 mph over. People are different. The absolute numbers carry the most meaning, not what one person's booklet says or another person's website.

Plus, you have to look for the hidden reasons behind it. Is Nutrafin calling it "unusually high" so that they can sell you some water softening chemical or product? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were. They term the range using distressing words so that you feel a greater urge to make the water not so unusual via one of their products.

thanks Big Nose (that sounds so rude to say that though LOL)

So my original calculations from internet are correct the, my GH is about 12 degree's hardness and KH is about 7 degree's hardness.

i guess i would just like to know, is my tap water "very hard" so to speak, i do get your point about it often just being a play on word, but you define my tap water in terms of hardness, an ideal level for Malawi?