Testing Carbonate Hardness

[Gunngee]

I am moving and will be on a different water supply so I thought it might be smart to test my current water hardness after adding recommended salt and chlorine remover. When i test the carbonate hardness I follow the instructions to a tee. It says after adding the reagent it should be blue but if it turns yellow continue adding one drop at a time until it turns lime green then multiply the number of drops by 10 to determine the carbonate harness. What it doesn't tell you in the instructions is what if it turns lime green right from the start? Does it mean I go 0*10? which of course is zero. Oh btw it's a freshwater aquarium.

 

[Bignose]

if it turned right from the start, then yes, your KH is between 0 and 10 ppm. You could get more accurate if you could get some distilled water you could dilute the testing agent, but knowing that it is better 0 and 10 ppm means that it is very low and that is enough to know. Knowing the exact value won't necessarily help you that much.

 

[Gunngee]

Thank you for the info. I thought that is what it meant but just wanted to make sure.