Overthinking Water Chemistry?

[Weezy11]

About to begin my first foray into planted tanks after being out of the hobby for a long time. Between pH, gH and kH everyone seems to have a different opinion. Before I even start I know that my tap water has a pH in the mid to high 7s and I plan to use a fully-automatic CO2 system. Other than pH, how important are the other two to both plants and fish? And if they're important, what level should they be at and how do I adjust each if need be. I'd hate to end up in a losing battle with the water. Please set me straight on this.

[dundadundun]

sounds like your chemistry is good at this point. do yourself a favor and fill a bucket up and put an airstone running in the water for at least 3 hours and test again and post your results. they'll be accurate more than likely and your actual readings can then be discussed.

[j-gens]

your kh and gh are going to be far more important than your ph...
the ph swing caused by co2 injection does not affect fish very much

the hardness is going to be the buffering capacity of the water, If your water is too hard it will be hard to swing the ph vice versa if it is too soft. You will probably need to know the kh and gh of your water before you start to inject co2 with a controller..
but of course you can do it other ways also

[KarlTh]

pH swings don't really affect fish at all. Changes in KH and GH do.

[jpappy789]

:iagree:

[plantbrain]

+2

Regards,
Tom Barr