bpeitzke
Aquarium Advice Activist
I tested the water hardness in our 36-gal FOWLR tank the other day, using the KH test in our Tetra kit. The procedure is to add successive drops to the test vial until the color changes from blue to yellow, and the KH value is the drop count. It said 8-10 is the desired range for a SW tank, but I got 13.
Is this a reliable indication that our tank's water is too hard, i.e. contains too much calcium carbonate? If so, would this be due to overuse of the buffer additive? I've been using "Proper pH 8.2", which claims to automatically adjust pH to 8.2 and increase KH while not adding any phosphate.
If too-hard water is a problem, what's the simplest cure? Just use bottled water from market? Or would I need to get RO water from LFS?
Our fish are thriving.
Grateful for any advice.
Bob Peitzke
Is this a reliable indication that our tank's water is too hard, i.e. contains too much calcium carbonate? If so, would this be due to overuse of the buffer additive? I've been using "Proper pH 8.2", which claims to automatically adjust pH to 8.2 and increase KH while not adding any phosphate.
If too-hard water is a problem, what's the simplest cure? Just use bottled water from market? Or would I need to get RO water from LFS?
Our fish are thriving.
Grateful for any advice.
Bob Peitzke