It would be a mistake to think of me as a source of knowledge. More like a fellow traveler in a journey of discovery. Until a week ago I'd never paid any attention to the hardness in our pond. It freaks me out a little bit to think that our really soft water was trying to suck the minerals out of the fish...
First things first - none of this is as simple as you will wish it to be. There are complex molecular reactions going on that you & I can't see so we must gain a 'virtual' understanding. Another big problem: googling yields results that are contradictory and sometimes just plain wrong.
There are just a few things that are really much simpler than you'd think. Extremely low pH acids and high pH caustics are both created by just one element, hydrogen (H). Hydrogen ions, that is. Either the absence or overabundance of H ions.
And for general purposes general hardness is addressed by just two chemicals, calcium and magnesium. There are other chemicals that can cause hardness, such as strontium, but apparently calcium and magnesium are much more common.
Everything else I've come across the last coupla days is more confusing. Such as, Epsom salt increases GH by adding magnesium. Table salt (from what I've read so far!) does not increase GH.
KH is raised most commonly with plain old baking soda, but that will bump your pH upwards. Waterbug made a comment about the impossibility of raising KH and lowering pH at the same time, and I think I might be beginning to understand that but not sure.
Heck, just adding a bubbler can raise pH by driving some of the CO2 out of your water.
Although it'll take a minute, it'd probably be good to report your hardness levels as ppm rather than drops of reagent.
What's the brand of your test kit(s)? Mars, also known as API, is really common. That's what we're using. AFAIK test kits should be tossed after a coupla seasons. Sometimes they're bad right outta the box. Operator error must be considered too - are you rinsing the tubes out good? If you were testing more than one thing at a time, are you keeping the caps sorted? (I'm pretty sure I swapped caps the other day when I was testing KH & GH)
This guide seems OK
Although they want to sell you stuff, this one seems pretty straightforward
If you come across some good info, please post. I need more input. From what I've read so far, there are some fish that absolutely can't handle the hardness levels that you're reporting, but koi/goldfish aren't in those groups.
Since we're trying to raise our hardness levels, I haven't looked into softening the water.
First things first - none of this is as simple as you will wish it to be. There are complex molecular reactions going on that you & I can't see so we must gain a 'virtual' understanding. Another big problem: googling yields results that are contradictory and sometimes just plain wrong.
There are just a few things that are really much simpler than you'd think. Extremely low pH acids and high pH caustics are both created by just one element, hydrogen (H). Hydrogen ions, that is. Either the absence or overabundance of H ions.
And for general purposes general hardness is addressed by just two chemicals, calcium and magnesium. There are other chemicals that can cause hardness, such as strontium, but apparently calcium and magnesium are much more common.
Everything else I've come across the last coupla days is more confusing. Such as, Epsom salt increases GH by adding magnesium. Table salt (from what I've read so far!) does not increase GH.
KH is raised most commonly with plain old baking soda, but that will bump your pH upwards. Waterbug made a comment about the impossibility of raising KH and lowering pH at the same time, and I think I might be beginning to understand that but not sure.
Heck, just adding a bubbler can raise pH by driving some of the CO2 out of your water.
Although it'll take a minute, it'd probably be good to report your hardness levels as ppm rather than drops of reagent.
What's the brand of your test kit(s)? Mars, also known as API, is really common. That's what we're using. AFAIK test kits should be tossed after a coupla seasons. Sometimes they're bad right outta the box. Operator error must be considered too - are you rinsing the tubes out good? If you were testing more than one thing at a time, are you keeping the caps sorted? (I'm pretty sure I swapped caps the other day when I was testing KH & GH)
This guide seems OK
Although they want to sell you stuff, this one seems pretty straightforward
If you come across some good info, please post. I need more input. From what I've read so far, there are some fish that absolutely can't handle the hardness levels that you're reporting, but koi/goldfish aren't in those groups.
Since we're trying to raise our hardness levels, I haven't looked into softening the water.
I'll try anything.
