API GH test tube water should change from orange to green or from green to orange ??

[Crystal]

Got the API KH and GH testing Kit, when I test the KH (which the liquid is orange) once I put a drop in the test water, it turns BLUE, put more drops in and shake, finally after 6 drops, it turned to yellow, then I can follow the chart to see my KH of the water. However, when I test the GH (liquid in bottle is dark green) I put one drop in the test tube water, it did not change to Orange, it is just light green period, can anyone tells me if the instruction got misprint? that it should read changing from green to orange ?? OR the instruction sheet is right and that my water did not turn orange as there is no hardness in the water, it is soft water because I got a water softener ?? Lots of members has used this same kit to check their KH and GH, can somebody tells me whether the instruction is right or not ?? Thank You !

[Shaun's Discus]

You have no GH

[JamesW]

A water softener removes calcium and magnesium from your water. The API GH test detects calcium and magnesium in your water. Try it with water from your cold kitchen tap or an outdoor faucet. You will see how the test kit is supposed to work.

[Crystal]

Thank you Shaun, yes My water have no hardness, as I pour out a little bit of water from the jug of RO water, it is also light green, so is the distilled water, so there is no misprint, there is no GH period.

[Crystal]

The water softener controls all water including inside and outdoor tap, but I did went to the fish place and ask them to show me, it is supposed to turn orange first if there is any hardness in the water, he put a couple of drops in and it turns green.

[RogueDiscus]

You are missing the important information. Your water has hardness, it is just not the kind your test measures. The info you got from James is the best. Your test measures calcium and magnesium content. Your water softener removes them and trades them for sodium, but the other half of the usual chemical combination, carbonate, remains, just tied to sodium instead. It's pretty basic chemistry. So KH measures the carbonates, one side of the combination, and GH measures the other IF its calcium or magnesium. But your water softener is replacing those with sodium. So you get the KH from your house water, which is still high, but the GH from your water softener, which looks low because of no calcium, but it's still "hard" with sodium. I'm probably oversimplifying, but trying to explain.

Leave your water alone. Discus like stable conditions. I have pH 8+ well water, with hardness over 400 ppm, including calcium and whatever. Once the discus get used to it they are fine, really. When I'm breeding, I add RO water. The RO filter filters out much of the hardness, but doesn't really change the pHmuch. This is usually what folks don't get. You're removing dissolved hardness, but the chemical acid vs base ratio doesn't change much, just gets diluted. pH is that ratio.
Breeders try to get their GH down below 80 ppm or so, but they don't necessarily mess with the pH.

[Crystal]

Steve, I pour our some RO water from the jug of RO water I brought from Water Depot, it also got the same light green color on the first drop. I test the Distilled water as well, it also got the same light green on the first drop, so there is no hardness in my water as the softener had turn my tap water to soft water, except that with RO water, the KH is fine, while mine is too high.

[JamesW]

Crystal, I'd double check that the outdoor taps are also softened. Typically that much sodium will kill grass and plants pronto. Also test the GH of your cold kitchen tap. That is also typically non-softened.

[Crystal]

Hi James, thank you for your advice, but everybody in our area need a water softener as our tap water is really hard, as when we installed it, they explain to us that the hard water entered the water softener, tiny bead in the resins bed attract the hard water mineral, removing it from the water, soft water enter the home pipe. Every night, at about 2am. the salt water will go through the resin and remove the lime and other impurity and do the cleaning, and purge everything for an hour so so, such that it will be ready again the next day. We drank from the tap everywhere, in the kitchen tap, bathroom tap etc. and we use the same water to water the lawn. We never taste any salt contents at all.

[JamesW]

Sounds like we live in a similar area. It can't hurt to try. I drink water from kitchen, bathroom and have the RO system hooked up to our fridge. I can't tell the difference but my wife sure can. Your GH tester will too.

It might be only in more recent construction but if the outdoor tap or cold kitchen tap doesn't go through through the water softener it might be worth considering to do a water with some mixture of softened and untreated water to give the discus the calcium/magnesium they might benefit from.