GH / KH problems

Pufferpoison

Pufferpoison

Like a dolls eyes
Feb 6, 2006
454
0
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Ok i bought the bottle test kits for checking GH & KH it's the test with a test tube you put .5 ml in and add the drops from a bottle. first off, my PH is 8.2, i use ProperPH8.2, to acheive this, normally my water is 7.8 out of the tap. When i ran the test the KH carb hardness took 16 drops and equals 286.4 PPM, but when i did the GH test, i added the drops the same way and the test was supposed to turn blue from the original orange, i added the full 22 drops with maxes out the test reading and still orange, i ended up going up to 50 drops (max test is 22 drops = 400ppm) and still no blue. so i doubled the drops what the test max'd out on and it still doesn't register the right GH, so i guess this is a really bad thing? what do i need to do????

P.S. this is a brackish tank with a SG of 1.010, temp 77, with one GSP
 
The pH of you tap water has nothing to do with the pH of your tank after adding marine mix. Why are you adding a buffer and what is in that buffer?

What is the substrate in the tank?
 
i'm using crushed coral as a substate. the bufffer is made from aquarium pharmaceuticals, inc and it's called proper ph8.2 it said that it's perfect for salt water, brackish, & african cichlid aquariums. doesn't give ingredients. only that it automatically sets ph at 8.2 increases carbonate hardness and does not contain phosphate.
 
You shouldn't neeed anything with crushed coral as a substrate. Mine is 7.4 out of the tap and with a coral substrate, 8.1 pH.

Most likely your pH is being buffered DOWN instead of up, so you are adding an unnecessary chemical to your tank. I suspect it's also futzing with your GH as well.

The crushed coral will stablilize your tank's KH and pH far better than any chemical additive.

Roan
 
i was kinda wondering about that but i was getting about a straight up 8 after the CC was added tested the next day, i just did a 50% water change so most of the chemical is out of the water, i'm a total water changing freak. LOL i just bought a viaaqua water pump from Drsfostersmith.com for 20 bucks and ran a hose out to the tank and put the pump in the tub with premade brackish water(heated bubbled and all), i use my python to suck it down and this pump to fill it up. i'm a pro at water changes, can do a 50% in less than 9 minutes.
 
Give a week or even two. Coral takes a long time to dissolve in higher pH than in lower pH. Mine took about a week to get to 8.1, it's probably higher now.

You won't see much of a fluctuation during water changes as long as you don't change out TOO much water :)

Actually, why not add some coral to the bottom of the change water bucket?

Roan
 
Coral or even aragonote is a bit slow for a change bucket, but as it is better to premix marine mix for some period prior to use, coral or aragonite can certainly be used in the mixing container.
 
Your gH test kit is expired. It should be green out of the bottle and turn orange once it is added to the water not orange out of the bottle. I had the same problem about a test kit I bought in January and e-mailed the company. They told me that my test kit expired over 4 years ago :mad2: I was not so pleased with the store that sold me it.
 
rrkss said:
Your gH test kit is expired. It should be green out of the bottle and turn orange once it is added to the water not orange out of the bottle. I had the same problem about a test kit I bought in January and e-mailed the company. They told me that my test kit expired over 4 years ago :mad2: I was not so pleased with the store that sold me it.
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i'm sorry to confuse you but the first drop that came out was green but soon as it hit the water it turned orange. so i think it is ok, it came from drsfostersmith.com
 
rrkss said:
Your gH test kit is expired. It should be green out of the bottle and turn orange once it is added to the water not orange out of the bottle. I had the same problem about a test kit I bought in January and e-mailed the company. They told me that my test kit expired over 4 years ago :mad2: I was not so pleased with the store that sold me it.
Click to expand...
That's easy to check with AP kits. The AP bottles have a manufacturing date on the front. My GH one says: 58A0805

The last 4 digits are the month, then year the kit was made. The shelf life is supposed to be one year from that date, so my GH expires in August of this year. It'll be gone before then.

As for the colors, mine turns orange out of the bottle as well. The drop is green, but the water turns orange immediately. When I hit the number, it's green again.

Roan
 
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