GH, KH... Help please

[kevan07]

I purchased a GH and KH test kit because I was curious what my water hardness was since my pH is 8.4 but everyone that visits my house complains about how soft my water is.

So I tested the water and got the following results:

GH: 1-3 (I am not sure I added the first drop and the water immediatley turned green but each additional drop made the water greener.
KH: Not sure, I added 22 drops and the water just kept turning more and more royal blue.

pH: 8.4

My question is, do I have soft water or hard water?
I am wanting to keep corys, cardinal tetras, flame tetras, and possibly rummynose tetras or black skirt tetras.

Will this work with the water hardness? I am just not sure what these test are telling me...

 

[Old Scales]

Wow! Test for KH again. This time keep going to up to 40 drops. If it still hasn't turned yellow at any point before that you either have a bad test kit or something is way weird with your water. Can you get a water quality report from Sherman? I know a couple of guys that live in your area and they have pretty hard water but nothing like that.
I'm not sure what the highest tolerance for high KH water those fish have, but anything above 15 or 20 could be a problem. OS.

 

[Cynic]

I'm a bit confused how people who visit your house know how soft your water is...it's not a value for water pressure you know...

 

[mrvincent]

You can't look at water and tell it's soft... If your KH test kit doesn't turn to OJ after 20 drops, it means your KH is way too high, and your water is too hard. 20 dKH+ for 2-4 dGH° is bad new for aquariums.

Maybe you will want to use some rodi water to cut your tap water...

Bring a tap test sample to the LFS, and request a good KH, GH test. Note the results.

If your KH is >20 dKH° that would explain the high 8.4 PH.

 

[mrvincent]

If your PH is at 8.4, then make sure there's no ammonia in the tank at any moment, it will be really toxic for fishs at this PH.

 

[kevan07]

I will re-run the test later today. Everyone thinks the water is soft because when you turn on the faucit the water feels almost slimy. Then when you are trying to wash dishes when you put soap in the only way to get suds in the water is if you hand mix the soup with the water. Either it is super soft or super hard... I had very hard water where I use to live and it feels like sandpaper coming out of the faucit compared to this water. I just assumed that meant this water was soft...

Just to make sure I am doing the test right, do I invert the bottle after each drop or do I shake it? Also what is the color progession? For instance, light blue to dark blue to yellow? Just trying to get an idea of when I will know I am getting close.

Is it normal though for there to be that big of a difference in your KH and GH values?

Thanks for all the help I will post again once I re-run the test.

 

[mrvincent]

Only revert the sample is enough, KH test react super fast. Are you using API?

 

[kevan07]

Yes, API GH & KH test kit.

 

[mrvincent]

Yes, API GH & KH test kit.

After 12 drops it become innacurate. I never was able to mesure my SW tank that was at 10 dKH°... Bring a sample at the LFS, and request they test it with something else than API...

 

[Grumble69]

We've got well water that's hard with a ph around 8.2. One characteristic of hard water is that it's difficult to get sud action with soap. You can also tell ours is hard by looking at the shower head and around the kitchen sink. When the water evaporates, you can see the whitish deposits left behind.

As a frame of reference, my GH & KH is 12 & 14.

 

[mrvincent]

My water is 2 dKH° and 5 dGH°

 

[kevan07]

Retested the KH and it turned a yellowish orange color after 20 drops. Retested the GH and it is green after 2 drops. So Kh: 20 and Gh: 2

What does this mean? And what should I do?

 

[mrvincent]

THat's bad

 

[kevan07]

What I don't understand is how the two readings are so far apart. When looking at other peoples results if they have high gH then they also have high kH what is causing the one to be low and the other high? Makes no sense to me.

 

[mrvincent]

It's like if the water facility put a lot of baking soda to the tap...

Usually water facility ajust KH with carbonate calcium, if they do it with sodium bicarbonate, then this would explain this bizare readings.