Full Version: I Need A Little Help
When it is described that a fish likes water hardness of 5.0-10.0 is that the same as the GH?
Probably is GH expressed in dh
1dh=17.9ppm
1dh=17.9ppm
Thanks...I did forget to mention that is WAS dH 5.0-10.0
There are two types of watear "hardness" that concern your goldfish. Alkalinity and General hardness. The kH (alkalinity) of the water combined with the "permanate hardness" reading of the water will give you the gH or General Hardness reading of the water. gH is really the sum of all the ions, etc. that are contained in the water.
General hardness measures ions of mostly magnesium and calcium. There are other ions that can contribute to gH, but they are usually found in insignificant amounts.
Carbonate Hardness (kH) meassures the buffering capacity of the water - its to even out the acid/base swings in a tank - keeping the pH of the tank on an even keel. I like to describe the kH of a tank like a car's shocks. If you have good shocks, as you go over bumps the car does not bounce or move much at all. If your shocks are poor or non-existant, then your car will bounce up and down and up and down as you drive along. You want good shocks - a nice kH - to keep your tank from dropping in pH (going acidic) as the nitrogen cycle produces nitric acid (nitrate).
As DataGura has stated, the test kits you are probably using measure the German Degrees of Hardness of your water. This "magical" number is 17.9 mg/L. Since mg/L is equal to ppm (parts per million) simply multiply the degrees of German Hardness times 17.9 if you prefer to work with ppm.
0 - 4 dH is 0 - 70 ppm is Very Soft
4 - 8 dH is 70 - 140 ppm is Soft
8 - 12 dH is 140 - 210 ppm is Medium HArd
12 - 18 dH is 210 - 320 ppm is Fairly Hard
18 - 30 dH is 320 - 530 is Hard
Anything higher (my well water!!!
) is EXTREMELY hard.
I think that the fish do best somewhere in the 10-12 dH range which is where I aim to put my water.....
Does that help more?
General hardness measures ions of mostly magnesium and calcium. There are other ions that can contribute to gH, but they are usually found in insignificant amounts.
Carbonate Hardness (kH) meassures the buffering capacity of the water - its to even out the acid/base swings in a tank - keeping the pH of the tank on an even keel. I like to describe the kH of a tank like a car's shocks. If you have good shocks, as you go over bumps the car does not bounce or move much at all. If your shocks are poor or non-existant, then your car will bounce up and down and up and down as you drive along. You want good shocks - a nice kH - to keep your tank from dropping in pH (going acidic) as the nitrogen cycle produces nitric acid (nitrate).
As DataGura has stated, the test kits you are probably using measure the German Degrees of Hardness of your water. This "magical" number is 17.9 mg/L. Since mg/L is equal to ppm (parts per million) simply multiply the degrees of German Hardness times 17.9 if you prefer to work with ppm.
0 - 4 dH is 0 - 70 ppm is Very Soft
4 - 8 dH is 70 - 140 ppm is Soft
8 - 12 dH is 140 - 210 ppm is Medium HArd
12 - 18 dH is 210 - 320 ppm is Fairly Hard
18 - 30 dH is 320 - 530 is Hard
Anything higher (my well water!!!
) is EXTREMELY hard. I think that the fish do best somewhere in the 10-12 dH range which is where I aim to put my water.....
Does that help more?
Thanks Daryl...yes it does help.
Sorry I didn't post back sooner..I haven't been on as much since my son started his baseball season
Sorry I didn't post back sooner..I haven't been on as much since my son started his baseball season
Thanks from me, too. I printed this thread for my goldfish info book that I keep. Maybe this one is worth pinning?
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.