Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for your advise, my vegetables have gotten a little better. The water doesn't stink anymore either. My most recent water readings are:

pH 6.4
high pH 7.4 plus
Ammo. 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrate 80 ppm
KH 2 drops = 35.8 ppm
GH 14 drops = off the scale

can you let me know the good and bad with these numbers.

Thanks for all your help, Gil

>> pH 6.4, high pH 7.4 plus

big difference here. May be best to look at checking your pH with a meter.
6.5 to 7.5 is a good place to be anyway.

everything else looks OK but GH seems a bit unusual - sure your measurement is OK ?
Usually can go quite high since medium hardness is around 150-200 ppm.
(Hard water is 300+ppm)

KH is a bit low and confirms with acidity - you can afford to go to 100ppm quite easily.

Basically other than the GH, system seems fine. You can address the KH with some form of carbonate or bicarbonate *BUT* only if you can get a better handle on your GH, since GH is a measure of minerals in system.

Thank You, dif_preth, Members that supply info to beginners like me is greatly needed. You make this site possible. Thanks again, Gil Jones

14 drops = 250 ppm CaCO3. It would be nice to know what your top up water measures at as well. Then it would be easier to tell you what you need to supplement with...

My system sits around pH of 6.7-6.8 with similar GH/KH numbers as you. But depending on how often you add top up water, you may not need to add any additional carbonates/bicarbonates.

Also, would be useful to know how many gals/Liters of water your system has in it.

Today 10-25-16 My water readings are:

pH 7.6
HpH 7.4
Amm 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 160 ppm
KH 3 drops = 53.7
GH 8 drops = 143.2

water supply =

KH 8 drops
GH 14 drops

I'm not sure what differences mean. I thought I'd pass them along to ask for your input.

Thanks for your help, Gil

What have you changed or done to your system since the last readings?