Confuse

[not so master reefer]

hello everyone!

can someone please explain to me whats alkalinity, general hardness and total hardness. which one is conected to PH? is it possible to increase alkalinity without changing the hardness of water?i heard that if you have high alkalinity your ph will be stable.

thank you very much!

[not so master reefer]

i went to fishlore.com to check the water hardness that is suitable for convicts, it says 10° to 15° dH are they referring to GH or KH?

[Chad Hughes]

The KH is what affects Ph. The GH is a measurement of KH and all other solids in the water that create hardness. I have heard the GH can have an impact on hardness but can't say for sure.

Hope this helps!

[Eddie]

i went to fishlore.com to check the water hardness that is suitable for convicts, it says 10° to 15° dH are they referring to GH or KH?

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/khgh.html

Eddie

[calihawker]

The site Eddie's refering to is great for an education in water chemistry, just don't go down the path of "chasing the monster". The captive bred fish available today can live quite well in a wide range of conditions and the most important thing is to keep those conditions stable. Way easier If you don't need to add stuff.

Take a sample of your water, get it tested and go from there.


Steve

[not so master reefer]

thank you guys! actually, im not trying to change my water levels my ph is stable and water hardness is also fine. i have 2 convict cichlids and they are very adaptable. i just want to learn and understand how PH and water hardness works. after reading some article about water hardness. now i know understand the meaning of PH, KH and GH but still confuse on how would you increase or decrease those levels. let us say that i have a hard tap water and planning to get a discus. since discus will be happy in soft water. what is the best thing i should do to make my water soft without harming the discus in the tank?how should i prepare/perform my wc if my tap water is hard?

[Graham]

Hi There are ion exchange resins that you can use to soften water but they're not really practical for large volumes of water. The simplest way is by dilution using reverse osmosis water. This would be done in a barrel

Unless you're getting into breeding or going to keep wild fish there's no reason to adjust your water. All the domestic fish are quite happy in what ever comes out of your tap.

To answer one of your questions as to how you would increase those levels....Adding calicum chloride or carbonate and magnesium sulfate would increase the GH of the water.............adding sodium bicarbonate would increase the KH and the pH (only up to 8.4)

G

[not so master reefer]

i heard that changing your PH can stress your fish. where can i get sodium bicarbonate, calicum chloride and carbonate and magnesium sulfate?

[Graham]

Hi I'll re-interate what Steve stated above avoid ''chasing the monster'' in other words messing with water parameters can drive you and your fish nuts. Stability if the key to keeping fish. You're much better off just aging your water in a garbage can with an airstone and some de-chlor

The pH in a tank shouldn't change anymore that 0.3 over the run of a day. Larger swings, especially downwards, can be very stressfull on your fish.

calcium chloride...non salt de-icer
calcium carbonate...shells, crushed coral
sodium bicarbonate....baking soda
magnesium sulfate...epsom salts

[not so master reefer]

thanks graham! can you please give me a detailed procedure? the levels of my tap water are PH 6.0-6.4 KH 70-80ppm total hardness 115-120. what would you do if your planning to get a fish that require hard water and high PH?they said that you can use limestone or shells to raised your PH, how about the water change? how do you prepare it?if i put my tap water directly to a hard water tank it, the PH will decrease, right?so what should i do?

[Graham]

If you're referring to the convicts, I wouldn't do a thing to your water...they'll be just fine

[calihawker]

I think your water is just fine for most fish keeping purpose but fwiw here's what I do.
My water is so very very very soft, and I'm growing plants, so I have do what's called a gh booster. My formula is based on Tom Barr's which can be bought premixed here (rex calls it grumpy's)
http://www.bestaquariumregulator.com/ferts.html

or here

http://aquariumfertilizer.com/

The only difference is I also add potassium bicarbonate to raise KH as well. (I know the question "why not just use baking soda? is forthcoming. Suffice it to say I have a ton of it.)


My formula for every 150 gallon water change is
3 Tbls potassium bicarbonate (sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda is fine)
2 Tbls calcium chloride (sold as Dow Flake)
1 Tbls potassium sulfate
1/2 Tbls magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)

This brings my GH nd KH from less than one to 3-4ppm.

Here's some info from Rex's site describingwhat GH booster does to your water.

5 grams will add the following to 10 gallons of water:
25 ppm K+
39 ppm CaCO3 hardness equivalent (just over 2 dGH) (breaks out as 26.6 ppm Ca as CaCO3 and 12 pppm Mg as CaCO3)
12 ppm Mg
0.15 ppm Fe
0.07 ppm Mn
And will raise the GH just over 2dGH

HTH!!!


Steve

[not so master reefer]

yes i have convicts. im not going to make any adjustment on their water. im planning to set up a new tank and im going to put lake malawi cichlid in it which require high PH. i just want to know the safe procedure on getting high PH water from low PH water without harming fish in it.

[Graham]

The easiest thing to do with Africans is use baking soda, salt and epsom salt. It'll harden it up and take the pH to 8.4.

This should not be mixed in the tank with the fish but in a garbage bucket

G

[not so master reefer]

how would i know the right dosage of it?should i prepare my water 24 hours before the water change?

[Graham]

Yes you would prepare it before hand and use your test lits to get the parameters that you want

[not so master reefer]

thanks graham! do you also have a soft tap water?can you tell me how do you do it step by step.