Kh levels

IceH2O

IceH2O

Bazinga
Nov 26, 2005
1,682
60
51
Rock Hill,South Carolina
Real Name
Ice
The water out of my tap,well water, has a Ph of 6..When I fill our pool in the summer I need to add calcium hardness increaser..I'm assuming,and I'll buy a test tomorrow,that my Kh will be low...Whats an acceptable range?

My tank stats will be in my signature.
 
3º or above should be just fine. Below 3º and you run the risk of some pH crashes. 5º + and you will really have sufficient buffer capacity to avoid any significant pH swing issues.
 
Thanks......I'll be checking it soon.....I'll update my water parameters sometime this afternoon/evening and let you all know how the tanks doing.Hopefully the Nitrates have dropped.
 
I've read that shells will also increase Kh....We go to the beach a lot...I probably have a ton of shells(ok exaggeration)...Should I boil some and throw them in there instead of crushed coral?
 
Ok I took the Kh/Gh test..

Unfortunatley its a strip test kit and it only measures in ppm, but here are the results:

KH 100 ppm
GH 150 ppm

the chart shows KH level needs to be 120 to be barely ideal,150 being in the middle of ideal and the GH is between soft and hard ...they show 0-25 as being very soft,75 being soft,150 as hard and 300 very hard.
Is there a site or caculation to change the ppm to degrees?

So whats the next step? I need to get the KH up and the stores I've been to today don't carry crushed coral...

I understand I could add seashells from researching some posts..But they say to use the water from your tank in a jar to see how it changes your parameters..I don't really understand that logic.The conditions aren't the same in a jar as in the tank,no bacteria,circulation,waste,food,etc..in other words its stagnant water.The results couldn't be the same..
 
I just checked my water from our well

The KH reads 85 ppm or so and the GH 60 ppm...so something naturally is raising them in the tank...I have an old,I think Apple snail,shell in the tank..could that be helping? Its definetely been breaking down over time.

Any ideas?
 
You could check for aragonite as well, I think it's slightly better at raising kH. The snail might help raise the kH, but I wouldn't think 1 snail shell would raise the kH level by a lot, but I may be mistaken.

Also, accodding to my test kit, dKH of 5=89.5 ppm, dkH of 8=143.2 ppm. So for aquariums, your hardness looks ok.
 
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