general info about GH and KH

[Tostada]

My water parameters seem really good, but I've never tested for GH and KH.

I was reading this article:

PH and General Water Conditions
Written by: Tonya Beckerdite

And it says city water is usually softer and has lower pH, but I have city water and my pH is in the upper 7's.

I don't really have big pH swings that I know of (it's not like I test pH every day), so maybe I don't have anything to worry about, but I don't add anything to my water (other than Prime and plant supplements), so I don't know my water's buffering capacity or whatever.

I was thinking of getting something like this:

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Fresh Hard/Carbon Test Kit

But I really don't know what I'd do with the results, so I guess I need to do some more reading.

Or is it something I don't need to worry about since I'm not having any problems?

 

[rich311k]

That is a good kit. The Kh will give you your buffering ability. Anything 3 or over and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[MurfQ]

I'm no expert but I think it's a good idea to test it. My first run in with the whole ph issue wasn't a pleasant one. I found my black moor dead one morning and three of my other four goldies acting extremely lethargic. I took a sample of my water to my lfs and had it tested only to be told that my ph had bottomed out and it was amazing that anything was living in my tank. Of course, they didn't tell me anything about kh and just sold me some stuff to boost the ph and told me to add it slowly over the course of the next few days to bring it up. I bought a test kit that measured from 4.5 to 7.6 or something like that and started adding the stuff in small amounts as per the instructions and testing every day. Even after two weeks of adding the stuff, my ph still wasn't high enough to register on the chart. It was then that I decided I needed better advice and went searcing on the net (didn't know about this wonderful place back then) and first learned about kh and buffering capacity. The light bulb went on and I was sure that was why I couldn't raise my ph at all. Sure enough, I bought a kh test kit and it confirmed my suspiscion that my tank water had virtually none at all. I tested my tap water and it wasn't much better. So I bought something called ph stabilizer/kh booster and slowly brought my kh up and the ph took care of itself. I now add the stuff with every water change to keep my kh up which also keeps my ph stable and a little on the alkaline side just like my goldies like it. How they ever survived the crazy ph problems i was having for no one knows how long is beyond me.

Anyhew, that's my experience with kh. Just thought I'd share.

 

[Jchillin]

I guess the premise is true. I have very soft water, almost 3<dkh. Although the ph out of the tap gets to 7.2 depending on the weather.

This is why the kh/gh must be tested. That is the only way to know if you have enough buffering capacity to maintain your ph.

MurfQ provides a nice insight of the issues that crop up when the levels are unknown.