Water chemistry question

[AJ356]

Hi, I am moving out of London UK in about six months and I have the luxury of not being tied down to any particular place in the UK. So, as every potential new home owner does (not, I presume), I am researching tap water parameters, and obviously not for the benefit of my household appliances like my kettle or washing machine

My main question for now (but please comment on the below if you can or want to), is can someone please help convert this for me to KH? I think the answer is 0.99 KH?

And also, any idea what they mean by Alkalinity (pH 4.5), because on the same page of the water supplier that I got the below screen shot from, the pH of the water is 7.72 and not 4.5 - are the water company saying that the KH of the water is 0.99 prior to them adding the pH buffer to get the pH to 7.72?

What I have noticed in my early research is that even in places with very soft water, such as German degree hardness of about 3, the pH still seems to be in region of about 7.5 to 7.7

I am not looking to move too far North, so I have only checked tap water parameters south of Nottingham.

Would you class it as a little annoying that the pH is still well above neutral, even in very soft water? I thought that if I am going to benefit from the option of soft water species of fish, I would get the benefit of an acidic pH? I'm thinking German Blue Rams for example. I don't keep fish unless I can breed them and raise fry (usually). I think water companies use a pH enhancer to stop acidic water corroding the pipework?

 

[gwand]

Alkalinity measures how well water can neutralize acids — in other words, how well it can keep the pH stable. It’s usually expressed in

• ppm (mg/L) as CaCO₃, or
• degrees of carbonate hardness (°KH).

Here’s what your number means in other units:

• 17.75 ppm ≈ 1° KH (since 1° KH = 17.86 ppm as CaCO₃).

So, your alkalinity is about 1° KH.
That’s very soft, weakly buffered water.

• pH can fluctuate easily — for example, CO₂ changes, biological activity, or added acids can swing pH sharply.
• Many freshwater fish and plants can tolerate it, but stability becomes an issue.

 

[anewbie]

great for sa fishes so buy a bunch of tetra and hastatus cory and you are set However if you want ca and lake africa fish be sure to throw in some lime stone and the kitchen sink.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

In my experience, general hardness is a much more important measure than pH. My town has very soft water around 2-3 degrees gh) with a pH of around 8 to 8.5. I've kept south American soft water species and they seem to do fine.

Some of the south Asian blackwater microrasboras haven't had long lives in my water, but they tend to be a bit tricky in general, so their early demise might be for any number of reasons. Generally, get fish that work with your hardness, don't worry about pH too much except keeping it stable, and you'll do fine.

 

[Essjay]

what they mean by Alkalinity (pH 4.5)

KH, or alkalinity, is a measure of how much acid is needed to drop the pH of a water sample to pH 4.5. My younger son used to work for a water testing company and and that's what he told me when I asked years ago.

You also need to know the hardness, GH, of the water. And the unit of measurement as UK water companies could give the level in any of a number of different units.

 

[AJ356]

KH, or alkalinity, is a measure of how much acid is needed to drop the pH of a water sample to pH 4.5. My younger son used to work for a water testing company and and that's what he told me when I asked years ago.

You also need to know the hardness, GH, of the water. And the unit of measurement as UK water companies could give the level in any of a number of different units.

That's really useful thanks

 

[AJ356]

great for sa fishes so buy a bunch of tetra and hastatus cory and you are set However if you want ca and lake africa fish be sure to throw in some lime stone and the kitchen sink.

Will this be enough as I like my central american cichlids

 

[AJ356]

And here we have one place I have got my eye on moving to. It's in Norfolk, UK, and this is the nitrate readings from their water quality report (Anglian Water)

mg/l which I believe is the same as ppm

Minimum level 33.294
Average level 37.216
Maximum level 39.038

So, on a very good day, 33 of Nitrate straight out of the tap, before your fish have even pooped in the water!

So, the fish keeper there, if they were to follow best practice and aim for a nitrate level of 20ppm or under in their aquarium, would need to probably get mechanical/chemical assistance with either an RO system or some kind of nitrate removing filtration/resin.

Plants and/or those plants that grow out of tanks are not an option for everyone I imagine.

I think with Nitrate like that out of the tap, we are looking at an actual proper bit of kit rather than these "in your aquarium" products??

I've always been a bit skeptical of all these products that promise to remove or reduce nitrate, but never tried them to be fair.

 

[gwand]

I’m on well water with a nitrate level of about 30 ppm. I had to install a nitrate filter on to the tap I use for water changes. The filter works for about a year and then needs to be replaced. The main issues with the system is you cannot run the faucet greater than 1 gallon every four minutes. I need 40 gallons a week. So it’s slow going. Also you have to hook it up to either the cold or hot faucet. So I first fill a 5 gallon bucket with cold nitrate-free water and then use a heater to bring temperature to 77F. Then I use a pump to pump the warm water into my tank. Then repeat until done. Quite cumbersome.