Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I am not sure where to post this question, but basically I tested for GH and KH for the first time today, after close to 5 months since I started up my system. This is what I found and I am not sure what this means and whether I should be concerned:

GH Hardness 300 ppm
KH Alkalinity 300 ppm

Your water is very "hard". 80ppm is recommended.

Those readings mean whatever you want them to mean... and they mean different things to different people.

There has been a lot of talk here and elsewhere recently about KH and GH, and the "necessity" of monitoring and adjusting it... but if you asked many of the very experienced AP'ers out there that have been growing successfully for many years, I believe you'd find very few have ever tested their water hardness.

I've had a number of systems over the last five years, and assisted many others with the construction and/or maintenance of systems... and I tested water hardness for the very first time only a few days ago... only out of curiosity after reading a couple of threads on here that offered contradictory information to everything I'd ever read about water hardness, KH in particular, it's basis in chemistry, and it's affect on aquaponic systems.

Personally, I think it's another level of complexity that the average backyard AP'er need not worry themselves with. If your water has low KH, the pH will continually drop, you combat this with alternating additions of small amounts of Potassium bicarbonate and Calcium hydroxide. Both will increase the pH and the Potassium bicarbonate will add carbonates which increase the water KH hardness and the water's ability to buffer pH. Alternatively, you can add lumps of clean limestone in your FT or ST, which will provide Calcium carbonates, again, raising the water pH and KH... in fact Calcium carbonate should also increase the GH.

Never tested it.

General Hardness is the combination of Calcium Hardness and Magnesium Hardness. Your plants need calcium and magnesium to grow. If you had a GH of only 80ppm, that would mean you probably had 21ppm Ca and 7ppm Mg. With a GH of 300, those numbers are more like 80ppm Ca and 24ppm Mg. The ratio between Calcium and Magnesium is an estimate - you would have to test for calcium in order to know what your numbers really are.

I *wink* hate *wink* to plug my blog here... but i've got a bit of info up on General Hardness here: http://scottspridefarm.com/general-hard ... -hardness/

and KH here:
http://scottspridefarm.com/alkalinity-o ... rdness-kh/

Thanks, the links are really helpful.

Try this one instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb5oSzLXTwU

To keep my KH up I just use a small bag of seashells in my filter so I have a steady KH off 4, you don’t want or need a higher KH as that will block your potassium apparently? There is lots of info on the net, and if you don’t have the time to read it all, just watch a clip or two, its quicker!

So how are the fat goldfish going?

Just be careful with youtube videos. Like all sources of information there is often good and bad but you tube videos don't seem to get the same vetting that information does on forums. That means that for someone who doesn't know what they are doing they can get what they think is good information from a video because it sounds good but they don't have enough knowledge to assess it critically.

I use videos to look for ideas (when I have the spare data allowance) but for hard data or information forums are much better in my opinion.

Then there are us that have lots of time and the Gigabytes spare to watch all the information relevant to the subject and use that knowledge gained and are willing to share that knowledge freely, I only post links most relevant to the subject that put the best answers forward as to what I believe are the most accurate, and Sylvia has just made 4 more clips on the API test kits, I read the test kit book but it didn’t mention waiting 5 minutes for the test results on ammonia or nitrites? Unless I read it wrong?

Maybe you should make a few clips yourself Stuart? I have four already and I am getting ready to make a fifth one on my fish,

Case in point right there....


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+1

Ahaha Kat, one of the best calls ever!


Would you like some basil and Jade Perch with that latte sir?

Build thread- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21974&start=75

but with a snigger.

... ...ROFLMAO!!!

Haha, classic.