*This is a reupload. There was some important information that I missed. Please use specific Calcium and Magnesium test kits rather than solely relying on GH testing to determine those two values!
Geez I wasn't the first. Working on pond... Shocker right lol. . Good tip on looking at the top with bottom on white paper. I am glad I have 3 upper school maths . Lol. I use limestone rocks. Great tutorial
I have a API gh kh test kit, does degrees mean how many drops that you add to get the color change? I have well water and I had to add 21 drops for the kh and 26 drops for the gh. My ph is 7.2. I am planning a 10 gallon planted endler and neocardina shrimp tank, is my water too hard?
Yup! Number of drops = degrees of KH/GH. As for the shrimp, the water could possibly be a bit too hard. However, I believe neocaridina shrimp prefer harder water, so I think you should be fine. If you're worried, you could do a 50/50 mix of distilled water and tap water when you do any water changes
Yup! It should be way better than those little tests strips. Make sure to clean the shower head if you're taking water from there. We don't want any calcium build-up on the shower head to influence the results.
Check to make sure that the test kit is not expired. If it's not, try testing other sources of water and see if it can turn blue. If it does, then your aquarium water has a lot of KH. Otherwise, it's best to contact API or return the defected product.
Depends on a few factors, but you are generally correct. One factor is your KH value. Higher KH will make it more difficult for pH swings to happen. That being said, you could experiment with a lower BPS rate and a drop checker
It's quite difficult to notice a change. It could be the lighting of the video as well. But I digress, the better GH/KH test kit goes to Nutrafin for me.
Hi! Unfortunately my GH test seems to not be working. 23 drops in, and I’m unable to change the water color from dark orange to light-green. What could this possibly mean? My KH on the other hand, took 2 drops to turn yellow. Overall, my Ph dropped within a month, from 7.4 to a 6.0 Just tryna figure out why 😅
Make sure the test kit (the liquid) is not expired. I know some API test kits do expire, but I am unsure if the GH/KH test kit does. If it's not changing after 23 drops, you have a really high GH degree. GH is hard to notice the colour change, you can try looking down on it with a white piece of paper as a background and take "progress pictures" as you go and compare and contrast them. Here's a test you can try. Grab RO water or distilled water, add some Epsom salt or crushed coral or anything with calcium in it (I think eggshells might work as well). Put just a little bit of it in the water, so you won't be forever testing it again. If you cannot do this, you can try testing water from a friend or any other source. Your main goal is to get it to change, not to test water in a sense.
It's hard to tell. The best advice I can give is when you do your water changes, you should replace it with water that has the GH/KH that you're aiming for. Eventually, things will be how you wanted. The reason for why I would do it over a longer period of time rather than all at once is to prevent any shock to any livestock or plants due to the sudden water chemistry change.
If your goal is to decrease GH, then no. You don't need to remineralize. However, if your KH is not to your liking, there are remineralizers that only add KH and not GH.
@@TropiscapeAquatics Thanks for the quick reply. If I continue to use RO or Distilled instead of the tap water I'm guessing I would then need to add minerals as the RO or Distilled water would eventually cancel out the tap water, which would mean there would be no minerals in the water at all?
You can mix RO/DI with your tap water. You can try a 50:50 split ratio and then test for GH/KH and see if they're to your liking. If not, you can adjust the ratio. You can keep doing water changes with this water mix, and eventually it will the GH/KH levels will be the same as the mix, if that makes sense. I used to mix RO/DI with tap water in a 50:50 ratio
Sounds like KH is 0 or 1 if it turns yellow immediately
ปีที่แล้ว
. THANKS FOR SHARE! May I read for first KH ppm and subtract its value from a digital TDS value to finally make these x7.1 and 4.3 Calcium Magnesium aproximately calculation? Is it valid? Thanks to you!
No, TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. It measures the combined amount of organic and inorganic material in the water. Dissolved solids can be a combination of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, etc. You won't be able to get an accurate reading from multiplying TDS. You will unfortunately need a KH/GH test kit if you want an accurate reading.
It's hard to tell, as there's a few factors that may influence this (tap water parameters different from location to location, hardscape, aquasoil, etc.). My default method is a 50/50 combination of RO/DI and tap water. However, this may not be the best method, depending on your tap water parameters. The best way to do things is to experiment with the API 5 ml test tube. For example: - Jot down your target GH/KH - Add 2.5 ml of tap water - Add 2.5 ml of RO/DI - Test the GH or KH - If it's not your target, try a different ratio, like 1 ml tap to 4 ml RO/DI and so forth... - Once you find the right combination, that's what you should aim for when mixing tap water and RO/DI for water changes. - A 50/50 ratio or any ratio in general will work in any size, whether that would be 5 ml, 12 US Gallons, or 32 Litres, etc. (Unless tap water parameters change for any reason) - The reason for using a 5 ml test tube is that it's easier to test as it's already in the test tube, and it costs less overral. Don't remove water from your tank and then add straight RO/DI. This could be dangerous for any sensitive livestock and plants. Instead, introduce this mixture with water changes that are less than 50% (25% is better just to be safe). Think of this as drip acclimation, but for the entire tank. Overtime, the parameters should stabilize as you do your water changes. Hope that makes sense! If not, feel free to ask more questions!
Hey Tropiscape not too sure if u remember me. But can u make a video on shrimps and different types. I like the way u explain things and I feel like there aren’t enough videos online about shrimp and specific shrimp and there needs. Yes there are a lot of videos on shrimp but not a lot on the variety and the cool ones such as blue bolt and so on… also make ur self a discord server. I’ll join rq.
Hmm... I can see what I can do. Also, I do remember you! Only issue is that I'm not that knowledgable and have very limited experience when it comes to shrimp and their needs. I've kept some in the past and still have some, but the ones I currently have are just Neocaridina. I tried Caridina shrimp, such as Crystal Reds and Blue Bolts in the past, but I've never been successful with them. They're quite pricey here in Canada, so I do not have any Caridinia shrimp as of now. As for the discord, I do have one set up! Check out my community tab on my channel. A link should be in there.
The first drop is 1 degree. It's a little tough to understand if it's either 1 or 0 if it does change colour... This is probably the limitation of the test kit...
"Normal" depends on your water source. If the source of your water is also around 30, then yeah, it is normal. If there's a difference of like 10+ or something like that, then no, there's something in the tank or something that's increasing the GH...
@@yeeet000 Hmm... There's something in there that's causing it. Could be hardscape, or something in the filter that's causing it. If it's a used tank, it could be residue calcium stains.
Hey man I just bought this kit two days ago it isn’t expired when I wheat to test the KH It never turned blue like yours I added 1 drop shook waited nothing so I decided to add more drops my way I got to 7 when it turned orange and my GH never changed from orange to green and I’ve added 40 drops
If you can, get your hands on RO/DI water and add a little bit of Epsom salt (enough to at least get a reading) and then test it. Even better if you add the right amount to get a precise GH reading. This way, you can test to see if the GH drops are defective or not. Alternatively, you could test a different water source. You could also try emailing API and see what they say.
It is possible to have that kind of tap water. However, the tap water parameters will depend on your local waterways and how they treat local water. The water where I'm from can be completely different in another city 3 hours away from me. The only way to be super sure is if you can find local government documentation on tap water quality, or do multiple tests straight from the tap and see if it's consistent.
I got myself my own test kit and I think my water parameters is weird. I think 've done everything right. My KH turned yellow at around 10 But my GH turned light green at the 1st drop. My PH is around 8.2 - 8.4 which is weird because I've read that when PH and KH is high GH tend to be high as well. I want to balance it out but I am not sure what's the best method to approach it. Decreasing my PH and KH or Increasing my GH? Can't to afford RO/DI method
Which water did you test? The tap water or the tank water? If you test both and one of them is not the same, then there must be something influencing the parameters. CO2 being one of these factors. Generally, when GH is higher, pH does tend to be higher, but not always as you've just proved. Since KH is at a 10, there won't be any worry about fluctuating pH, which can be good for certain, but not all livestock. As for trying to balance it, do you really need to? Personally, I do think that GH might need some improvement, but having these results isn't inherently bad, and it's definitely possible to still grow healthy plants. There's also some livestock that do prefer higher pH water, such as Guppies. Have a look at your goals for tank and see if you can work around what you currently have instead of messing around and potentially messing something up. If you're going to do this, make sure to keep an eye on the health of your livestock and plants. However, if you do want to decrease the pH, KH, and raise GH, there are a few things you can do: - Introduce driftwood or other botanicals such as dried oak leaves or even peat moss in a filter bag. These will decrease your pH over time. Also, be careful then scavenging these items yourself from outdoors and make sure to disinfect anything you use through boiling. The only issue is that it may make your tank water look like tea, unless you use stuff like Seachem Purigen or activated carbon. If you choose to do this, go slow with the amount you add and see how it changes your water. - Use CO2. As mentioned before, CO2 will decrease pH. - Chemicals. There are chemicals that can lower or raise these values. However, this will cost money, and you will need to be consistent with every water change you do. Personally, I would stay away from using any chemicals unless you're treating RO/DI water. - RO/DI water. I know that you can't afford this method, but I'm not entirely sure if you know that you don't have to purchase an RO/DI system. Check around your local area to see if there are any water suppliers that offer RO/DI water. There's a few around me where I can fill up a 5 gallon jug for just $2 CAD. If you do go down this route, I recommend mixing half RO water with half tap water. This will help bring down any higher values (monitor your GH with this, as it will also bring that down). This will also help save money when it comes to water changes depending on the amount you are changing.
@@TropiscapeAquatics I tested both of my tap and aquarium waters and both came out as light green on the first drop so 0 -1dKH from tap. The only conclusion I found online that has similar parameters with mine that my water provided uses water softener to soften the water. To be honest, I really do not need to lower my PH and KH as I feel like they are pretty stable in my tank. The only reason wanted to lower my PH down a bit is because I am planning to add some calcium/mineral blocks inside the tank as an attempt to raise the GH, specifically I just want to add more calcium in the water, but I've gather some information that calcium increases KH and in terms PH. Since I have already high PH i am hesitant adding some calcium addetives as an attempt as I fear that the PH swings would be too much for my fish to handle and I am not sure if my 10dKH would buffer it. I only really wanted to increase my GH alone but I am unsure that having high KH would prevent that. I purchased and added some GH booster product (Calcium Sulfate and Magnesium Sulfate powders) into my dummy 20gal tank (same parameters as my main tank and tap water). My GH still wont increase even at 6x the recommended ammount (after testing with the recommended amount first). So I am just puzzled all in all, thank you for your advice.
A dKH of 10 is quite high in my eyes, so there shouldn't be any sort of wild pH swings. If your dKH was around 0 - 2 then I would worry more on the pH swings. The issue would be how high pH would end up increasing. If you're worried about pH shock, you can slowly add the GH booster and increase the dosage overtime while watching how any livestock will react. This is similar to drip acclimation in a way. GH and KH are values that measure separate things, so there shouldn't be any crossover where one may prevent the other. KH buffering comes into play when acidic water, or anything acidic in general, gets added to the water. The carbonates in the water will react with the acidic water and basically neutralize it. The higher KH you have, the more carbonate is present in the water, as KH measures the carbonate hardness. The more carbonate is in the water, the harder it is for anything acidic to affect the water and lower its pH. As for the 6x GH booster not being picked up, check to see if liquid for the test kit is not expired. Another experiment is to add water to a cup, add GH booster (doesn't have to be the 6x times again), and do another test. Doing this may make it easier when it comes to testing as you won't be using much booster, and you will only be using a small amount of volume of water. With a smaller volume of water, it is easier to influence its parameters, if that makes sense.
Thankyou for an excellent video.!......Im experienced aquarist ( tropical/goldfish) but recently had a sudden algae bloom.. turned off lites . covered the 200 lt tank etc.....after that my PH suddenly dropped to 6.4 ...( KH , nitrate and GH ok).. Used API proper PH 7.... wouldn't increase PH to 7.....KH increased to 12+... I had to carefully add API cichlid UP 8.2 to slowly bring PH up to 7 ..took 3 wks... but now cant lower the KH to 8...the algae bloom has gone but water now cloudy even with 20% w/changes...PH is now set and stable but KH too high.. tap water is oo.oo KH..... Wll small partial w/changes lower KH please??.. getting a 'bit desperate" now!!... thankyou
It should, over time. That's if there's nothing in the water that may increase KH. Alternatively, you could use RO/DI water and remineralize it to the proper water parameters. However, looking at the instructions for API Proper pH 8.2, it says that it increases KH alongside pH. While I'm no expert when it comes to cichlids, I do know that a higher KH value prevents any dramatic pH swings or prevents the pH from dropping too low, which might be beneficial to cichlids.
You can use Seachem Acid Buffer as a way to decrease KH, however, this will decrease pH as well. Furthermore, this will need to be done for every water change you do, so the cost may add up more than simply using RO water, and you need to be very precise with chemical measurements. For me, a single 5 US Gallon jug of RO water costs $2 CAD at my local water filling station. Personally, I would stay away from any chemicals, but you are free to do what you think is best for your tank.
@@poppinpills2442 That may be the best choice, however, you also have to have a look at how often you'll be using it, how much water you'll be using, your water bill, and any necessary equipment. In the long run, it would definitely be cheaper. It's like buying a new GPU for "future proofing". But just like GPU's, RO systems are definitely not cheap, well at least not here in Canada from what I've seen. For me, I've only used RO water for a 5 gallon tank, so the amount I needed wasn't too large. To save even more money, I also combined half of the RO water with tap water for a 50/50 split. I was completely fine with paying the $2 per 5 gallons.
A more accurate measurement would be 1dKH = 17.848 ppm of CaCO3. Rounding to any place would still give 17.8. However, I do see where you got 17.9 as this Wikipedia page ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKH ) does state 17.86, but the superscript mentions a citation needed. So, I would trust the 17.8 a bit more given the .edu source I listed alongside the Wikipedia source. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate_hardness (For the 17.848) users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
@@Darnss123 Thanks for the reassurance! But, if he needs a little help understanding the concepts, it's my job to also make sure that they are able to understand it since I made the video
@@TropiscapeAquatics It's simply a matter of editing. The music level, the fast camera movements, the sounds that have been added. The way numbers appear. The way informations are said quickly. I can't give you all the details of what I'm talking about, but overall, it can be confusing if you're not very focused on the words said in the video.
That's fair. This is an older video, so it may be faster than my newer ones. However, I'm always experimenting when it comes to editing, especially when it comes to retention editing. My editing style is a little unorthodox compared to other aquarium TH-camrs. I completely understand that this kind of editing will not be for everyone, just like how slower videos aren't for others
*This is a reupload. There was some important information that I missed. Please use specific Calcium and Magnesium test kits rather than solely relying on GH testing to determine those two values!
Great video!! Thanks for updating the GH info
@@ericogribeiro My pleasure! Thanks for the heads-up!
Good guide GH and KH are tricky when you're just starting!
Thank you!
Great video and nothing wrong with it. Very helpful, thank you !!
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
thanks for this video, the instructions made me feel like a freaking idiot. i was looking for a color sheet like the other tests 😅
Geez I wasn't the first.
Working on pond... Shocker right lol. .
Good tip on looking at the top with bottom on white paper.
I am glad I have 3 upper school maths . Lol.
I use limestone rocks.
Great tutorial
I watch this every time i do a test
Thankyou so much! I’m rewriting my own instuctions based on your video 😂 I’m terrible with leaflets 🤦🏼♀️😂
Happy to help!
I’m same I really don’t understand it 😂 it’s too much science for me 🤣
I have a API gh kh test kit, does degrees mean how many drops that you add to get the color change? I have well water and I had to add 21 drops for the kh and 26 drops for the gh. My ph is 7.2. I am planning a 10 gallon planted endler and neocardina shrimp tank, is my water too hard?
Yup! Number of drops = degrees of KH/GH. As for the shrimp, the water could possibly be a bit too hard. However, I believe neocaridina shrimp prefer harder water, so I think you should be fine. If you're worried, you could do a 50/50 mix of distilled water and tap water when you do any water changes
If im trying to determine the water hardness for my shower water this test should suffice right? Better than those little strips
Yup! It should be way better than those little tests strips. Make sure to clean the shower head if you're taking water from there. We don't want any calcium build-up on the shower head to influence the results.
So much detail and information amazing work and thank you 🔥
KH NEVER is blue, when I add the drops. What happen??
Check to make sure that the test kit is not expired. If it's not, try testing other sources of water and see if it can turn blue. If it does, then your aquarium water has a lot of KH. Otherwise, it's best to contact API or return the defected product.
@@TropiscapeAquatics my soil consumes all, have a problem with ph now, need to raise it for co2
Just curious, why do you need to raise pH for CO2? Is it to prevent pH from lowering too much?
@@TropiscapeAquatics my ph now is 6.4. With co2 it will be lower. Or I am wrong?
Depends on a few factors, but you are generally correct. One factor is your KH value. Higher KH will make it more difficult for pH swings to happen. That being said, you could experiment with a lower BPS rate and a drop checker
The GH test seemed very tricky, I never saw a color change (not even in this video). Do you see any green or my eyes are wrong :c?
It's quite difficult to notice a change. It could be the lighting of the video as well. But I digress, the better GH/KH test kit goes to Nutrafin for me.
Awesome video thanks 🙏
Hi! Unfortunately my GH test seems to not be working.
23 drops in, and I’m unable to change the water color from dark orange to light-green. What could this possibly mean?
My KH on the other hand, took 2 drops to turn yellow.
Overall, my Ph dropped within a month, from 7.4 to a 6.0
Just tryna figure out why 😅
Make sure the test kit (the liquid) is not expired. I know some API test kits do expire, but I am unsure if the GH/KH test kit does. If it's not changing after 23 drops, you have a really high GH degree. GH is hard to notice the colour change, you can try looking down on it with a white piece of paper as a background and take "progress pictures" as you go and compare and contrast them.
Here's a test you can try. Grab RO water or distilled water, add some Epsom salt or crushed coral or anything with calcium in it (I think eggshells might work as well). Put just a little bit of it in the water, so you won't be forever testing it again.
If you cannot do this, you can try testing water from a friend or any other source. Your main goal is to get it to change, not to test water in a sense.
How much distilled water would I add to lower my GH and KH? My numbers are way to high. 75 gallon aquarium. 25-30% weekly water changes.
It's hard to tell. The best advice I can give is when you do your water changes, you should replace it with water that has the GH/KH that you're aiming for. Eventually, things will be how you wanted. The reason for why I would do it over a longer period of time rather than all at once is to prevent any shock to any livestock or plants due to the sudden water chemistry change.
My aquarium has tap water in but my GH is 230ppm. If i add RO water or Distilled water do i still need to add minerals or not?
If your goal is to decrease GH, then no. You don't need to remineralize. However, if your KH is not to your liking, there are remineralizers that only add KH and not GH.
@@TropiscapeAquatics Thanks for the quick reply. If I continue to use RO or Distilled instead of the tap water I'm guessing I would then need to add minerals as the RO or Distilled water would eventually cancel out the tap water, which would mean there would be no minerals in the water at all?
You can mix RO/DI with your tap water. You can try a 50:50 split ratio and then test for GH/KH and see if they're to your liking. If not, you can adjust the ratio. You can keep doing water changes with this water mix, and eventually it will the GH/KH levels will be the same as the mix, if that makes sense.
I used to mix RO/DI with tap water in a 50:50 ratio
@@TropiscapeAquatics Thanks. Yeah I'll try mixing until I get the desired GH I am after.
my tank doesn't even turn the KH blue it immediately starts with a very faint yellow, but my GH changed color at 8-9
Sounds like KH is 0 or 1 if it turns yellow immediately
.
THANKS FOR SHARE!
May I read for first KH ppm and subtract its value from a digital TDS value to finally make these x7.1 and 4.3 Calcium Magnesium aproximately calculation?
Is it valid?
Thanks to you!
No, TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. It measures the combined amount of organic and inorganic material in the water. Dissolved solids can be a combination of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, etc. You won't be able to get an accurate reading from multiplying TDS. You will unfortunately need a KH/GH test kit if you want an accurate reading.
How to convert this KH test kit reading to DKH so I can use this test for reef tank rather than more expensive DKH tester.
There's no difference in how to use this test kit between freshwater and saltwater. That being said, one drop = 1 dKH.
How much RO or distilled water would you add per Liter or Gallon?
It's hard to tell, as there's a few factors that may influence this (tap water parameters different from location to location, hardscape, aquasoil, etc.). My default method is a 50/50 combination of RO/DI and tap water. However, this may not be the best method, depending on your tap water parameters. The best way to do things is to experiment with the API 5 ml test tube. For example:
- Jot down your target GH/KH
- Add 2.5 ml of tap water
- Add 2.5 ml of RO/DI
- Test the GH or KH
- If it's not your target, try a different ratio, like 1 ml tap to 4 ml RO/DI and so forth...
- Once you find the right combination, that's what you should aim for when mixing tap water and RO/DI for water changes.
- A 50/50 ratio or any ratio in general will work in any size, whether that would be 5 ml, 12 US Gallons, or 32 Litres, etc. (Unless tap water parameters change for any reason)
- The reason for using a 5 ml test tube is that it's easier to test as it's already in the test tube, and it costs less overral.
Don't remove water from your tank and then add straight RO/DI. This could be dangerous for any sensitive livestock and plants. Instead, introduce this mixture with water changes that are less than 50% (25% is better just to be safe). Think of this as drip acclimation, but for the entire tank. Overtime, the parameters should stabilize as you do your water changes.
Hope that makes sense! If not, feel free to ask more questions!
@@TropiscapeAquatics I appreciate your detail response. Thanks! 🙏🏽
Thank you for teaching me!
Glad I could help!
Hey Tropiscape not too sure if u remember me. But can u make a video on shrimps and different types. I like the way u explain things and I feel like there aren’t enough videos online about shrimp and specific shrimp and there needs. Yes there are a lot of videos on shrimp but not a lot on the variety and the cool ones such as blue bolt and so on… also make ur self a discord server. I’ll join rq.
Hmm... I can see what I can do. Also, I do remember you! Only issue is that I'm not that knowledgable and have very limited experience when it comes to shrimp and their needs. I've kept some in the past and still have some, but the ones I currently have are just Neocaridina. I tried Caridina shrimp, such as Crystal Reds and Blue Bolts in the past, but I've never been successful with them. They're quite pricey here in Canada, so I do not have any Caridinia shrimp as of now.
As for the discord, I do have one set up! Check out my community tab on my channel. A link should be in there.
Hi, do you start counting the drops only after the first drop?
The first drop is 1 degree. It's a little tough to understand if it's either 1 or 0 if it does change colour... This is probably the limitation of the test kit...
This seems like a great deal since most kits are 16 for 15 ml of each test. The API ones seem to be 37 ml
Is it normal for the gH to turn more orange afther each drop? I've put 30 drops of the gH and it never turned green only a deeper orange
"Normal" depends on your water source. If the source of your water is also around 30, then yeah, it is normal. If there's a difference of like 10+ or something like that, then no, there's something in the tank or something that's increasing the GH...
My tap just read out about 4 degrees, which doesn't make sense as to why it was going above 30 degrees out of the tank
@@yeeet000 Hmm... There's something in there that's causing it. Could be hardscape, or something in the filter that's causing it. If it's a used tank, it could be residue calcium stains.
@@TropiscapeAquatics it was a used tank but I did give the tank a deep rinse
How do you measure magnesium in a freshwater aquarium ?
You will need a dedicated Magnesium test kit. There are plenty of manufacturers that makes them.
@@TropiscapeAquatics I could only see test kits for marine tanks, are they the same ?
@@PaulC.494 I am not 100% percent sure. It would be best to ask the manufacturer themselves, as each test kit can be different.
Hey man I just bought this kit two days ago it isn’t expired when I wheat to test the KH It never turned blue like yours I added 1 drop shook waited nothing so I decided to add more drops my way I got to 7 when it turned orange and my GH never changed from orange to green and I’ve added 40 drops
If you can, get your hands on RO/DI water and add a little bit of Epsom salt (enough to at least get a reading) and then test it. Even better if you add the right amount to get a precise GH reading. This way, you can test to see if the GH drops are defective or not. Alternatively, you could test a different water source.
You could also try emailing API and see what they say.
My KH was 1 drop and GH was 3 drops from regular tapwater with prime. Does that sound right/possible?
It is possible to have that kind of tap water. However, the tap water parameters will depend on your local waterways and how they treat local water. The water where I'm from can be completely different in another city 3 hours away from me. The only way to be super sure is if you can find local government documentation on tap water quality, or do multiple tests straight from the tap and see if it's consistent.
I got myself my own test kit and I think my water parameters is weird.
I think 've done everything right.
My KH turned yellow at around 10
But my GH turned light green at the 1st drop. My PH is around 8.2 - 8.4
which is weird because I've read that when PH and KH is high GH tend to be high as well.
I want to balance it out but I am not sure what's the best method to approach it. Decreasing my PH and KH or Increasing my GH?
Can't to afford RO/DI method
Which water did you test? The tap water or the tank water? If you test both and one of them is not the same, then there must be something influencing the parameters. CO2 being one of these factors.
Generally, when GH is higher, pH does tend to be higher, but not always as you've just proved. Since KH is at a 10, there won't be any worry about fluctuating pH, which can be good for certain, but not all livestock.
As for trying to balance it, do you really need to? Personally, I do think that GH might need some improvement, but having these results isn't inherently bad, and it's definitely possible to still grow healthy plants. There's also some livestock that do prefer higher pH water, such as Guppies. Have a look at your goals for tank and see if you can work around what you currently have instead of messing around and potentially messing something up. If you're going to do this, make sure to keep an eye on the health of your livestock and plants.
However, if you do want to decrease the pH, KH, and raise GH, there are a few things you can do:
- Introduce driftwood or other botanicals such as dried oak leaves or even peat moss in a filter bag. These will decrease your pH over time. Also, be careful then scavenging these items yourself from outdoors and make sure to disinfect anything you use through boiling. The only issue is that it may make your tank water look like tea, unless you use stuff like Seachem Purigen or activated carbon. If you choose to do this, go slow with the amount you add and see how it changes your water.
- Use CO2. As mentioned before, CO2 will decrease pH.
- Chemicals. There are chemicals that can lower or raise these values. However, this will cost money, and you will need to be consistent with every water change you do. Personally, I would stay away from using any chemicals unless you're treating RO/DI water.
- RO/DI water. I know that you can't afford this method, but I'm not entirely sure if you know that you don't have to purchase an RO/DI system. Check around your local area to see if there are any water suppliers that offer RO/DI water. There's a few around me where I can fill up a 5 gallon jug for just $2 CAD. If you do go down this route, I recommend mixing half RO water with half tap water. This will help bring down any higher values (monitor your GH with this, as it will also bring that down). This will also help save money when it comes to water changes depending on the amount you are changing.
@@TropiscapeAquatics I tested both of my tap and aquarium waters and both came out as light green on the first drop so 0 -1dKH from tap. The only conclusion I found online that has similar parameters with mine that my water provided uses water softener to soften the water.
To be honest, I really do not need to lower my PH and KH as I feel like they are pretty stable in my tank. The only reason wanted to lower my PH down a bit is because I am planning to add some calcium/mineral blocks inside the tank as an attempt to raise the GH, specifically I just want to add more calcium in the water, but I've gather some information that calcium increases KH and in terms PH. Since I have already high PH i am hesitant adding some calcium addetives as an attempt as I fear that the PH swings would be too much for my fish to handle and I am not sure if my 10dKH would buffer it.
I only really wanted to increase my GH alone but I am unsure that having high KH would prevent that. I purchased and added some GH booster product (Calcium Sulfate and Magnesium Sulfate powders) into my dummy 20gal tank (same parameters as my main tank and tap water). My GH still wont increase even at 6x the recommended ammount (after testing with the recommended amount first). So I am just puzzled all in all, thank you for your advice.
A dKH of 10 is quite high in my eyes, so there shouldn't be any sort of wild pH swings. If your dKH was around 0 - 2 then I would worry more on the pH swings. The issue would be how high pH would end up increasing. If you're worried about pH shock, you can slowly add the GH booster and increase the dosage overtime while watching how any livestock will react. This is similar to drip acclimation in a way.
GH and KH are values that measure separate things, so there shouldn't be any crossover where one may prevent the other. KH buffering comes into play when acidic water, or anything acidic in general, gets added to the water. The carbonates in the water will react with the acidic water and basically neutralize it. The higher KH you have, the more carbonate is present in the water, as KH measures the carbonate hardness. The more carbonate is in the water, the harder it is for anything acidic to affect the water and lower its pH.
As for the 6x GH booster not being picked up, check to see if liquid for the test kit is not expired. Another experiment is to add water to a cup, add GH booster (doesn't have to be the 6x times again), and do another test. Doing this may make it easier when it comes to testing as you won't be using much booster, and you will only be using a small amount of volume of water. With a smaller volume of water, it is easier to influence its parameters, if that makes sense.
Thankyou for an excellent video.!......Im experienced aquarist ( tropical/goldfish) but recently had a sudden algae bloom.. turned off lites . covered the 200 lt tank etc.....after that my PH suddenly dropped to 6.4 ...( KH , nitrate and GH ok).. Used API proper PH 7.... wouldn't increase PH to 7.....KH increased to 12+... I had to carefully add API cichlid UP 8.2 to slowly bring PH up to 7 ..took 3 wks... but now cant lower the KH to 8...the algae bloom has gone but water now cloudy even with 20% w/changes...PH is now set and stable but KH too high.. tap water is oo.oo KH..... Wll small partial w/changes lower KH please??.. getting a 'bit desperate" now!!... thankyou
It should, over time. That's if there's nothing in the water that may increase KH. Alternatively, you could use RO/DI water and remineralize it to the proper water parameters. However, looking at the instructions for API Proper pH 8.2, it says that it increases KH alongside pH. While I'm no expert when it comes to cichlids, I do know that a higher KH value prevents any dramatic pH swings or prevents the pH from dropping too low, which might be beneficial to cichlids.
Thank you!
how to decrease kh without ro or rain water?
You can use Seachem Acid Buffer as a way to decrease KH, however, this will decrease pH as well. Furthermore, this will need to be done for every water change you do, so the cost may add up more than simply using RO water, and you need to be very precise with chemical measurements. For me, a single 5 US Gallon jug of RO water costs $2 CAD at my local water filling station. Personally, I would stay away from any chemicals, but you are free to do what you think is best for your tank.
@@TropiscapeAquatics thanks, your answer is very detailed, so it's better to install a reverse osmosis system if it's long term use
@@poppinpills2442 That may be the best choice, however, you also have to have a look at how often you'll be using it, how much water you'll be using, your water bill, and any necessary equipment. In the long run, it would definitely be cheaper. It's like buying a new GPU for "future proofing". But just like GPU's, RO systems are definitely not cheap, well at least not here in Canada from what I've seen.
For me, I've only used RO water for a 5 gallon tank, so the amount I needed wasn't too large. To save even more money, I also combined half of the RO water with tap water for a 50/50 split. I was completely fine with paying the $2 per 5 gallons.
Gh- Orenge to green. But i think orenge is not orenge its yellow?
It's more of an orange-yellow, a mixture of the two colors. API also uses the term 'orange-yellow' in their manual.
The color of GH is not really helpful. It's just the density of that solution drop.
I moved from Pittsburgh, Pa to Indiana, Pa and just realized the reason my neocaridinia shrimp are having problems molting. GH=2.
Oof, yeah, that'll do it... A city 2 hours away from me has completely different tap water parameters. Hope everything works out for you in the end!~
My shrimps was dieing so I tested the water, turned out my gh was 2😭
Oof
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Multiple by 17.9!
A more accurate measurement would be 1dKH = 17.848 ppm of CaCO3. Rounding to any place would still give 17.8. However, I do see where you got 17.9 as this Wikipedia page ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKH ) does state 17.86, but the superscript mentions a citation needed. So, I would trust the 17.8 a bit more given the .edu source I listed alongside the Wikipedia source.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate_hardness (For the 17.848)
users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
Your video is very confusing.
In what way is it confusing? Let me know if there are any questions you may have
@@TropiscapeAquaticsur video is not confusing my friend. Marc is simply special:)
@@Darnss123 Thanks for the reassurance! But, if he needs a little help understanding the concepts, it's my job to also make sure that they are able to understand it since I made the video
@@TropiscapeAquatics It's simply a matter of editing.
The music level, the fast camera movements, the sounds that have been added.
The way numbers appear.
The way informations are said quickly.
I can't give you all the details of what I'm talking about, but overall, it can be confusing if you're not very focused on the words said in the video.
That's fair. This is an older video, so it may be faster than my newer ones. However, I'm always experimenting when it comes to editing, especially when it comes to retention editing.
My editing style is a little unorthodox compared to other aquarium TH-camrs. I completely understand that this kind of editing will not be for everyone, just like how slower videos aren't for others