# Tap Water tests



## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Since I now have a good range of LaMotte kits, NO3, PO4, Alkalinity, and GH (The GH kit measures Total GH and Calcium and allows you to determine Magnesium content from the other two tests), I would be more than willing to run some tap water tests for club members. I can also do rested pH and Total Disolved Solids with my pH meter so that should cover most of the things we need to test for planted tanks. 

I ran some tests for Erik after last month's meeting and we thought it may be a good idea to post each member's water quality results on the SWOAPE web site. If anyone would like to bring 3-4 ounces of Tap water to the meeting I can test your water also. 

Since we are holding the meeting at BW3's, I won't be able to run tests at the restaurant, so put your sample in a sealed container, with your name, and bring it to the meeting. I will return the containers to you at the next meeting. It is our hopes that this will help new folks out by giving them the basic water quality analysis that most new folks (and even some who are ot so new) to the hobby don't have.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

MatPat,

I'm curious what you are finding out about your tap water. Are you still using RO? Also, I wasn't aware that the GH kit contained a calcium reading. Is this standard or do you have a combination kit? If it does both then I might feel a purchase coming on.......

With all the city additives I'm interested in how the Ca, Mg, GH, and KH all play out.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

guaiac_boy said:


> MatPat,
> 
> I'm curious what you are finding out about your tap water. Are you still using RO? Also, I wasn't aware that the GH kit contained a calcium reading. Is this standard or do you have a combination kit? If it does both then I might feel a purchase coming on.......
> 
> With all the city additives I'm interested in how the Ca, Mg, GH, and KH all play out.


I'm not finding anything about about my Tap that I didn't already know  I used a LaMotte Calcium kit to figure my Ca levels prior to getting the GH kit. My GH tests about a full degree lower with my LaMotte kit than the AP kit which was a similar result between LaMotte and AP KH kits.

The GH kit does contain a separate Ca test. According to the directions you can determine Mg levels by subtracting the Ca level from the GH level. It reads in ppm so it shouldn't be too dificult to do. As far as accuracy of the Mg results, one of these days I will compare it to the info that is available in the PPS spreadsheet and see how the two compare.


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

I'll be by tomorrow


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