Hi,
I bought the api kh kit. I did the test. The way it works is the number of drops for the water to turn yellow from blue.
My tap water registered at 7 drops which = 125.3ppm. My tank water registered at 3 drops which = 53.7ppm.
I did a 75% water change on Oct 29 which was 3 days ago. Is this normal or ok?
29 gallons running since Sept 7 (cycled since Oct 10... no more nitrIte readings)
3 small fish/gravel/2 live plants (moneywort and amazon sword)/bubblewand/uv sterilizer/penguin 350
feeding jump start once a day and spinach or peas once a day or if i am lazy salad supreme
ph 7.5/ ammon 0/ NitI 0/ NitA 10/ temp 78 to 80

I know that the optimum readings for both KH and GH for goldies is 100. I am working on that problem myself.

If your tap water is reading 125 KH and your tank water is reading only 53PPM it means that something in your tank is lowering the carbonates in the tank water. Driftwood, organic waste, carbon dioxide from plants etc can all affect the ratio of hydrogen ions in the water and therefore the overall carbonate levels in the tank at any given time. The tap water on the other hand is not exerting its buffering capacity in the same environment. The two readings will differ. The reading in the tank too may change over time as you'll see if you should test it at intervals. The KH reading from the tap is the one that tells you your source water's actual buffering capacity/total alkalinity and as long as that is over 100 you should be fine for buffering capacity in your tank. However if the tap water or tank water reads below 50 you have to worry and monitor it more closely using a permanent buffer in your tank like coral. I very much doubt your KH reading will slip below 50 in your tank with tap KH of over 100. For a clearer picture of whats going on you really need to know your tap and tank GH -if you subtract your KH from your GH you arrive at the mineral content in your water which will tell you how hard or soft your water is and this can help explain how fast the carbons can be used up.

Hey Thanks!!
I just cleaned under a semi hallow ornament and found something really disgusting. Some sort of fungus stuff ewe. Musta have been new since i move this thing and clean it ever water change. I threw the thing out. Happy water changes.

I have the API kit for KH & GH. The KH test is very easy as the water turns from blue to yellow. However to me the GH test has been extremely difficult to decipher as the yellow and the ultra lite green almost looks identical. Anybody else have this problem?

I have the kh, I did not buy the GH yet, so I don't know. Petsmart and such do not sell these kits.The only place I can get them in my area is A local fish store called Fish Paradise, or that Big Al's Place. It's on my "to do" list. Along with finding some new plants. Nice plants are so hard to find.

Went to big als and bought the kit. I agree its pretty close in color. Its says orange to green. But it's more like yellow to light green. A little difficult.

I put them up to the color cards with shades of green/yellow (like the ammonia card for API), and it's easier to tell.

Thanks Lola, Great idea!

Ok Gh is 89.5 and kh is 71.6 so my mineral content is 17.9 What does this mean?