- Messages
- 335
- Location
- South Carolina
I am not very good in chemistry....I even misspelled the word...lucky me we have auto correct. I have been collecting rain water to use with my dwarf tanks for about 6-8 months now.
I use a liquid test kit by API. Rain water readings are: pH reads around 6.4, KH less then 50 ppm, but the gH reads over 250ppm.
Tap water readings are pH 7.0-7.2 KH around 80ppm and HG over 240ppm.
As a test I used Seachems acid buffer and lowered all the readings except the GH that keeps showing above 240ppm.
I have two API kits, they are 4-5 years old. I used both kits to test the same water and got the same readings from all the API kits for all tests. But still I wonder if the GH test bottles are bad.
Like I said I am not good in water chemistry and how things work. I grasp soft & hard water and acid and alkaline water. My understanding is soft goes with acid water and hard goes with alkaline water. Obviously it is not always the case...why?
If anyone has the time and patience to give me a simple brief lesson I would appreciate it and what I can do to lower gh. Right now I use peat moss, but it only affects pH and kH.
Thanks
george
I use a liquid test kit by API. Rain water readings are: pH reads around 6.4, KH less then 50 ppm, but the gH reads over 250ppm.
Tap water readings are pH 7.0-7.2 KH around 80ppm and HG over 240ppm.
As a test I used Seachems acid buffer and lowered all the readings except the GH that keeps showing above 240ppm.
I have two API kits, they are 4-5 years old. I used both kits to test the same water and got the same readings from all the API kits for all tests. But still I wonder if the GH test bottles are bad.
Like I said I am not good in water chemistry and how things work. I grasp soft & hard water and acid and alkaline water. My understanding is soft goes with acid water and hard goes with alkaline water. Obviously it is not always the case...why?
If anyone has the time and patience to give me a simple brief lesson I would appreciate it and what I can do to lower gh. Right now I use peat moss, but it only affects pH and kH.
Thanks
george