Water Chemistry Kh And Gh

pnyf

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I have some questions about the hardness of my water coming out of my tap. I was using the API hardness test and the GH turns green after 1 drop. This doesn't suprise me since the water here is very "soft" and it doesn't take much soap to wash dishes or anything.
on the other hand, the KH seems high - 9 drops to turn yellow.
Is it possible to have a low GH but a high KH? and what does this mean for my tank?
thanks for the help. Its got me a little confused.
 
Also the Ph coming out of the tap (after resting a day) is 7.8. I thought soft water went with low Ph.
 
pH or acidity is a measure of the amount of free Hydrogen ions (H+) in the water - the more Hydrogen ions, the lower the pH. When we talk about acidity, that's actually what we're talking about. It only measures Hydrogen ions, nothing else in the water. There's a number of places the Hydrogen ions can come from, but it's only the ion itself that is measured.
 
KH or Carbonate Hardness is a measure of the amount of carbonates (CO32- and HCO3-) in the water - the more Carbonates, the higher the KH.
 
GH or General Hardness is a measure of the amount of divalent metal ions (mostly Calcium Ca2+ and Magnesium Mg2+) in the water - the more Metal ions, the higher the GH.
 
Soft water is the term used to describe water that is low in GENERAL hardness, ie low in divalent metal ions.
 
I don't know enough about how this relates to tank water and fish yet, but I thought I'd at least give you some terms :)
 

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