# GH HELP!!!



## thinkgreen (Apr 2, 2004)

i bought a gh kh test kit today 6$!

my KH was fine it was 4.

but, my GH!!! man!!! i stop trying... it was going up.. i stop at 20!!! "*20*"!!! its probably higher that that..

how could i bring my gh down?

it says here to get a water pillow softener?


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

My water is KH=6.5, GH greater than 20. The water for me is perfect for my plants. Why would you want to change yours?

Also, it seems that some of the Aquarium Pharmaceutical GH kits give this kind of erroneous reading. Are you using the AP GH kit?

Steve Pituch


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Where are you in NJ ?

To "double check" KH/GH test kit, double up on water amount and the divide final amount of drops by 2.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I wouldn't ge too concerned with GH unless your plants are showing some signs of problems. I also have the AP GH test kit and it does take a little getting used to, at times I don't notice the suttle change in color and keep adding drops till I know I'm getting into the ridiculous numbers, then I start again :roll:

Giancarlo Podio


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## thinkgreen (Apr 2, 2004)

*Jersey Water*

thx guys.

i got a water pillow softner 8) (doesnt that sound cool). didnt use it yet though. still looking if it will help or not. what do you think?

hey, jay luto. is that measurement accurate?  i knew theres always something fishy with new jerseys water. :lol:


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

A water pillow softener is just a bunch of ion exchange resin beads in a cloth bag. Put it in the tank and it will take up a bunch of calcium and magnesium and replace it with sodium. It works just like ion exchange resins in water softeners that people buy for their hot water heater, if they live in a hard water region. If they don't use a water softener, the hot water heater gets a lot of calcium and magnesium carbonate deposited on the insides of the heating coils, reducing flow through them as well as reducing heat transfer. Basically, you are exchanging Mg and Ca for Na, and to plants and fish that doesn't mean any improvement that I am aware of. Sodium bicarbonate is kind of alkaline, and too much of it is bad for fish and plants. Actually, the tap water where I live comes from wells that have water that is just like softened hard water. It is all sodium bicarbonate, with calcium and magnesium so low that I can't get any measurements with my test kits. The GH is 0, and the KH is 19. I don't like this water for my planted tanks, and so I try to collect rain water.


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