Sum_Fin_Fishy
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello to any/all who view this forum. I live in Altoona and wish to set up a mid-sized planted tank sometime in the spring of this year. Yesterday I bought a Freshwater Master Liquid Test Kit (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, INC.) to test my tap water right out of the tap and a sample aged 24 hrs. Now from what I've heard around the LFS, Central PA water usually has a high pH KH & GH. So it took me by surprise when I got a slightly basic (7.2) reading for pH and <20ppm for both General and Carbonate Hardness. In fact, both hardness tests were akin in appearance to putting food coloring in the 5mL of water; I saw no indication of a reaction at all. Has anyone else out there in the area had similar experience with tap water having little to no buffering or general hardness? If so, does one do best to correct this with crushed coral or something similar? I'm a bit at a loss here about this since I planned to add CO2 into the mix for the plants, but with such a low KH, I'm wondering if I'll end up with a pH somewhere around 6.0 in the end. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
