Ack! Not very good as in, "they are not accurate" or not very good as in "they are not user friendly"?nursie said:
Coulda sworn it was here that I read that they were one of the better kits. What are some of the good ones to get?
Roan
KH Test Kit Help, Please
- Thread starter Roan Art
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Coulda sworn it was here that I read that they were one of the better kits. What are some of the good ones to get?
Roan
Certainly sounds like they're not very user friendly, KH should be the easiest test to perform. O2 is a nightmare, btw, it's so touchy because it equilibrates so quickly. In marine samples we fill a bottle, running the sample tubing to the bottom, allow about 3 times the bottle's volume to flow through so that all the "top" water which would be contaminated flows over. Difficult to reproduce, then it's a three step titration, ugh. It's all done by probes now.
But I digress. The KH test is a simple titration, the colour should change and stick. If you have very high alkalinity it can be difficult because the endpoint won't be as sharp, but you should get very close to the target. This sounds like the problem that you're encountering.
If you can turn back your order now, drop the chlorine, oxygen, and iron test kits. They're complicated and unnecessary. A nitrate kit, on the other hand, is key.
But I digress. The KH test is a simple titration, the colour should change and stick. If you have very high alkalinity it can be difficult because the endpoint won't be as sharp, but you should get very close to the target. This sounds like the problem that you're encountering.
If you can turn back your order now, drop the chlorine, oxygen, and iron test kits. They're complicated and unnecessary. A nitrate kit, on the other hand, is key.
Hah! <sarcasm>This is gonna be fun stuff to do, I can tell </sarcasm>happychem said:
Actually, I'll probably be gung-ho to do the tests the first couple of times, as long is it's a learning process. Eventually I'll get annoyed with it. Hope it's not something that needs to be done all the time?
To be honest, I still think I'm not doing it correctly. If I add drops until it changes (slightly) to the end color, then the KH is 3. If I keep going until it's closest to the end color, then it's 13.
I'm going to try to put a call into Red Sea for advice.
Too late and that's fine. I wanna mess with the stuff anyhow. Call it curiousity
Nitrate tests I have in abundance and it's usually 0 for all my tanks. They all have plants.
O2 is not something that needs regular (or any) testing in a hobby tank. If you're injecting CO2 and have gone to great lengths to reduce surface distruption, then you may find O2 levels dropping if CO2 production (hence plant growth and photosynthesis) drops off. Otherwise, the surface agitation produced by the filter should provide sufficient gas exchange.
Sounds like your KH is 13. You can double check by asking your local water comission for the alkalinity of your tap water. You'll need to convert to units of ppm for comparison.
Sounds like your KH is 13. You can double check by asking your local water comission for the alkalinity of your tap water. You'll need to convert to units of ppm for comparison.
Gotcha. Call it curiousity on the O2 thenhappychem said:
As for the CO2, I'm not injecting, but want to find out why my plants do so well and based on what I find, what other, possibly harder to grow, plants I can add.That's what I thought it was, actually. I was unsure, however, because of the instructions for the kit, et al.
Do you have a formula handy for that conversion that you could share?
Thanks for all your help, happychem
Roan
Multiplying degrees by 17.8 (I think) will convert to ppm.
You can also bring a water sample into your lfs, most will be happy to do a test for you. Even if it's not the same kit, it should give you a ballpark number. In the future, Hagen/Nutrafin has a dead easy KH test based on bromothymol blue (one of the best acid/base indicators for near pH 7). It's very simple to tell the colour change from blue to yellow. I think that AP might base it on the same. Sounds like yours uses a mixture of indicators which may be the complicating factor.
I wasn't thinking of plants in the other thread (pH drops), they may be the cause of your pH drop it they're decarboxylating bicarbonate as their carbon source. In theory this should produce an equilibrium shift to replace the depleting bicarbonate and decrease pH.
You can also bring a water sample into your lfs, most will be happy to do a test for you. Even if it's not the same kit, it should give you a ballpark number. In the future, Hagen/Nutrafin has a dead easy KH test based on bromothymol blue (one of the best acid/base indicators for near pH 7). It's very simple to tell the colour change from blue to yellow. I think that AP might base it on the same. Sounds like yours uses a mixture of indicators which may be the complicating factor.
I wasn't thinking of plants in the other thread (pH drops), they may be the cause of your pH drop it they're decarboxylating bicarbonate as their carbon source. In theory this should produce an equilibrium shift to replace the depleting bicarbonate and decrease pH.
In this country (USA), 1 degree of either GH or KH is the equivalent of 17.86mg/l (or ppm, same thing for our purposes) CaCO3.
