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I'm wanting to start keeping shrimp but after researching I'm finding a lot of confusion on parameters. Based on my other tanks and tap water testing my ph is 6.4, kh is 0, and Gh is 150. I cannot understand why the gh is so high when the kh is 0 my understanding is that they usually are either both low or both high. I think caridina shrimp like soft water but the gh in my tap seems way to high for them and everything else seems way to soft for neocaridina shrimp. Any ideas?

So, currently have a kh and gh of: kh, 40 ppm which is like around 2 dkh or whatever that is (so confused on that) and gh of 60 ppm which is probably 3 dkh (what is that dkh or am I saying it wrong) the minnows I am soon getting (WCMMs) need a kh and gh of around 4 to 8 dkh. Do I need crushed coral? If I do? How much? Or no. Is this a big concern? Also input on importance of this will be helpful if u can help me on any of these things thanks a lot!!

A few months back my tap water changed and I noticed the pH in a couple of my smaller tanks (2.5 and 10 gallons) kept crashing seemingly randomly. After doing some testing I discovered that my KH was extremely low, causing the pH to drop from 7.2 to almost 6 in less than a day. I have since resolved this issue with crushed coral in those tanks, however my two larger tanks (29&60 gallons) haven’t experienced this problem, which I believe to be a result of the seiryu stone I have in these tanks. My tap water comes out at 7.2 pH, 2 KH, and 2 GH. I have not tested aged tap water, but I am going to set out some to age today and will update on that. After testing the largest tank today, the parameters within it are 7.2 pH, 3 KH, and 6 GH. The substrate is a layer of gravel capped in pool filter sand and the only other hardscape is Malaysian drift wood. Filtered by 2 larger co-op sponge filters. Is it true that the seiryu stone is causing the increase, and should I do something else to buffer the KH and GH to prevent a pH crash? I’m wary to add aragonite sand or crushed coral to this tank because it houses my 3 African butterfly fish, which I know prefer more acidic and soft water. Thanks for the advice!

I currently have a high GH and low Ph. Source was identified to be my tap water. Although the GH is much higher in the aquarium (lava rocks are the only thing I can think of, contributing to it). KH was 0 and I tried wonder shells and the KH went up but did not alter the Ph. I was considering crushed coral but won't that increase the GH even more? What's the most effective method of raising the Ph without further increasing GH (or even reducing GH)?

I have nerite snails and don't want them to get mineral deficiencies. I am mainly asking because I was wanting to buy wondershells for my tank, but I don't know if I'm worrying about the snails for no reason. I read the nerite snail care article on aquarium co-op, but it doesn't say a baseline amount for this. I originally planned on also purchasing coral for KH, but I think that's mainly used for raising pH and the pH of the tap and tank water is higher than 7.0. If water parameters are needed, I'll be able to provide some tomorrow as it is quite late at the moment.

Hey All, I have a couple of questions regarding PH, KH, and GH. First, my water parameters- Coming out of my tap here in Colorado: PH ~7.6 GH ~ 150 KH ~40 From the aquarium: PH ~7.0 - 72 GH ~ 150 KH ~0 I have recently set up this newly planted 20-gallon tank. I have moved all of the plants over from my previous 10-gallon tank. It has a Fluval Stratum substrait. There are 17 fish total—10 Neon Tetras, 4 Platys, and 3 Guppies with a Narite and a Mystery Snail. I have a sponge filter and a hang-on back filter. The hang-on back is because I put crushed coral as part of the media to raise the Kh. However, perhaps because of how big the tank is or how small the filter is, I do not see any increase. Because the substrate is black I do not want to spread crushed coral and ruin the look. I do a weekly water change of ~10-15%. I believe the pH should slowly be increased from what I have read. Optimally to ~ 7.5. I do know quickly adjusting it can be harmful to the fish. My ideas: more/bigger water changes. Adding different media to the filter besides crushed coral. I do have Ph Up from API that I have been using but don't want to eternally rely on it. My questions: 1. Opinions on my target water param values? 2. Other ideas on how to raise the Kh and Ph given my constraints? Thanks!

Hopefully, some of you can put your experience to work and help me figure out what to do. I'll start off by giving you some quick background bullet points: I've kept freshwater aquariums/fish for most of my life, I'm 50. I haven't had an aquarium set-up in about 5 years and have decided to get back into it. I have a 10-gallon that I'm trying to get ready for fish, this is currently all I have room for. I live in a very small town without a fish store and I make very little money so I look for the cheapest and easiest solutions. I've never had to worry too much about water parameters in the past but they have appearently changed something with my water supply in the last 5 years. Plans: Plants: Anubias Nana, Dwarf Sagittaria, Water Wisteria Fish: Hoping to have Longfin Leopard Danios, A Chinese Hillstream Loach, and/or maybe Khuli Loaches, and/or some sort of shrimp. My set-up so far: Re-set-up on March 29, 2023 Standard 10-gallon tank with hinged glass lid HOB filter with an aquarium sponge attached to intake (have not modified this filter beyond that yet) Heater (tank tends to stay at around 78F) LED "grow" light mounted about 6-8" above tank (claims to be 2400 lumens, 6500K, and use 32 watts of power) 8.8 lbs. of Fluval Bio-Stratum plant substrate 2 Anubias Nana April 4, 2023 Added: A home-made air-powered submersed bubble filter containing a mixture of ceramic rings and crushed oyster shells (you'll understand why in my tests below), and an air pump (obviously to power the filter) Parameters and chemicals (I'm using API 5-in-1 test strips and API ammonia test strips): Baseline: Water straight from tap (no conditioner): Ammonia=~3, Nitrates=0, Nitrites= 0, GH=0, KH=0, PH=~6 Water from tap (after API water conditioner): Ammonia=0, Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=0, KH=0, PH=6.5-7 April 5, 2023 Water in aquarium: Ammonia=0, Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=30, KH=0, PH=7 April 5, 2023 Added: 1ml Fluval Gro+, 40 drops of Fritz Fishless Fuel. Ammonia tested at ~6. Added: 1/2 cup of Fritz Zyme 7 (this is the first time I've ever tried these types of products for fishless cycling) April 6, 2023: Ammonia=3-6(?), Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=60, KH=0, PH=6.5 April 7, 2023 morning: Ammonia=3-6(?), Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=60, KH=20-40(?), PH=6.5-7. Night: Ammonia=~4, Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=120, KH=60, PH=6.5. Now that my KH finally seemed to be rising and out of worry that the low KH may have killed any bacteria I re-dosed 1/2 cup of Fritz Zyme 7. April 8, 2023: Ammonia=3-4(?), Nitrates=0, Nitrites=0, GH=60, KH=40, PH=7 Summary of the problem: So as you can see my GH and especially my KH are very low and this won't do for what I'm wanting in this tank. I added the crushed oyster shells to try to raise these parameters and buffer the PH but as I said I've never had to worry about parameters much in the past so I'm completely lost on if this will work and how long it will take. Also, if I finally get the GH and KH to where I want them are they just going to crash the first time I do a water change? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions, you guys are great!

I have a 29 gallon aquarium with Eco-Complete substrate, planted with both an on-back filter as well as a sponge filter. My tank has been setup for about 1 1/2 months with weekly 25% water changes, and seems to be fairly well cycled with consistently 0 nitrites and ammonia, and nitrates maintain between 10 and 25 ppm. I use the Aquarium Coop test strips for daily testing. However, I am consistently getting low KH (40 ppm or less), pH about 6.8, and my water is hard with GH consistently between 150 and 300 ppm. I want to elevate my KH to the moderate range of 80 to 120 ppm, but I am concerned that using crushed coral will also increase the hardness even more. My plants seem to be thriving, as do the fish (after losing my 2 male guppies and 3 otos over the last few weeks. I have minimal algae. So, if I add crushed coral to elevate the KH, will this make problems for my already hard water aquarium? Or, is it best to add the coral to my filter? Thanks!

So, I'm new to the hobby but I've been researching quite a bit. I'm building a 29 gal. Sand, dragon rock, driftwood, and planted with java fern and anubias (16 plants total), as well as java moss and guppy grass. I intend to keep cherry shrimp (already have 30+ in a smaller tank), 10-12 neon tetras, 6 pygmy corys, a clown pleco, and 3-4 nerites. The tank is already cycled and planted but no livestock yet. Keeping temp at 78 and running Aquarium co-op's sponge filter. My issue has been water parameters. I started out just using tap. Out of the tap, it runs 6dKH, 8dGH, and pH 7.8-8.0. I wanted to lower my pH so I got the Buddy+ RODI kit and started doing 30% water changes every week while it was cycling. Apparently I did one too many because my pH crashed down to 6.2. I've managed to get it back up to 6.8-7.0 by doing mixed water changes with RO and tap. My concern is my kH. Current water conditions are pH 7.0, 7 dGH, and 2 dKH. (Aslo, 0 NH3, 0 nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates - adding NH4CI daily until stocked) I tried adding some sodium carbonate in the form of API's pH UP, and that got my pH up to 7 but had no affect on my KH. I'm worried about my plants and pH swings with that low of KH. Am I right to be concerned and if so what should I try differently?

How quickly does kh drop in a fish tank and what causes it to drop? I’ve been doing weekly 30-50% water changes as I’ve been cycling and want to remove the excess nitrates from the tank but before I water change I test the tank water. Usually before a water change the ph is low (6.4 - 6.6) the gh is high (12-13 dgh) and the kh is low (0-1 dkh). I’ve yet to test the water parameters after a water change, but I just tested the sink water last week. The ph was 8, the dkh was 8, and the dgh was 18 (ammonia was also .5 but that’s not relevant). I was considering adding some crushed coral to raise my kh but I was curious as to why my sink water dkh is so high yet my tank dkh is so low? I have fluval stratum in my tank and I know that lowers ph but I hadn’t heard of it affecting anything else. This also had me thinking since the sink water parameters are fairly different from my tank water parameters, would water changes stress out the fish?

Hi, I have a 10 gallon planted tank (heavily) that I started about 2 months ago. It is cycled by the “silent” plants method and doing very very well with new growth and algae that my 5 tiny horned nerite snails keep under control. They were added about 3 weeks ago and at that point I had a moderate amount of algae they’ve been cleaning up well. I have a ton of floaters (frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, red root floaters, spangles). I also have lots of Anubias, Java fern on mopani, Crypts, S. Repens, bacopa, cardinal lobelia and Hygro Siamensis 53b, and I’m trying to carpet Monte Carlo and Anacharis floating. I’m not sure if these details are important. I have a HOB filter and bubbler/diffuser My current parameters are: Ph 7.2, Kh is approx 20ppm (possibly less) Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10ppm, Gh (Hard) approx 150ppm, No ammonia I’m using Easy Green 2 times a week and Easy Iron every other day. I understand that Kh needs to be higher to prevent Ph instability and I had a little success with crushed coral in my filter. This did harden my water and raise my Gh a lot though, which is normally very soft since I use Poland Spring as my source. My towns water is toxic at this time. My question relates to me planning to add a new betta fish (I have not purchased yet) at some point hopefully soon. I use Flourite substrate which does not soften the water. I use Indian Almond Leaves in my betta tanks always and I know this will slowly soften my water but basically, what do I do to raise the Kh, without raising my Ph while also keeping my Gh lower to create nice soft acidic water for my betta? I know this is wordy but just wanted to see what you think? Thank you so much! Edit: I’m not sure if this relates but I have a substantial amount of black lava stone crushed in a mesh bag underneath the fluorite that I created an upward slope with. I don’t know if this influences anything either

I have a very basic working understanding of pH, KH and GH. However there's something I don't understand so either I've misunderstood something or there's a gap in my knowledge. So as I understand: pH is the measure of how acidic or alkaline the water is. GH is the measure of how much dissolved minerals there are. KH is the measure of how much calcium there is specifically. As KH goes up so does pH and vice versa right? And as biological processes happen (bacteria and plant growth etc) calcium gets used up and therefore the pH and KH goes down right? So here is my confusion, it's often recommended to add sources of calcium such as crushed coral, aragonite sand, wonder shells etc to either the substrate or the filter or wherever. My understanding is this is to act as a buffer to stop the pH/KH getting too low and to make sure the plants and creatures that need calcium have it right? But what then stops this just making the pH too high? As far as I can tell people just add it in without worrying about dosing amounts etc, they just use for example crushed coral as the substrate right? Not weighing it out or anything. I have really hard tap water (like 8.4ish) but it seems to lower fairly rapidly in my tank (lots of plants, wood, algae, aquarium soil) and seems to settle to around 7.2 which I like as it's fairly neutral and most fish seem to do alright in this. I try and do small water changes to keep it stable but say I go away for a few weeks and I want to stop the pH crashing I would need to add a buffer right? But then wouldn't this just make my water too high a pH, at least until the plants etc bring it down again? Or is it like the calcium only dissolves into the water when the pH starts to drop thus keeping it from getting too high? Feel like there's a piece of the puzzle I'm missing here.

I'm having problems. Brief history: This 10g used to home a betta at 75 F, pH 7.2, KH 40. The water always came from the tap. After he died, I tore down the tank. Bleached. Rinsed. Sun dried. Now I'm putting in a new substrate of baked clay (safe t sorb), with a little bit of laterite. Two small dragon stones. Water came from the garden hose. After a few days of getting rid of the finer particles of the clay, I added prime and a few hours later, I tested the water. 70 F. KH 0, pH 6, and there was about 0.5ppm ammonia, 5-10ppm nitrates. I did a water change, removing water down to the substrate level. Replaced with tap water. Ammonia is just a fraction above 0 (small tint of green that is lighter than the chart). Nitrates 5-10ppm. pH 7.2. KH 40. A couple of hours later, pH dropping. An hour after that, pH still dropping, now around 6.5. KH is still 40. What could be altering the pH? pH out of the tap is 7.2, but I haven't done a test after a few hours of sitting. The substrate shouldn't do this. The stones shouldn't. I wouldn't think laterite would. Could the water supply have changed that much? The nitrates are present in the tap as well at the same levels. That wasn't the case back in February when I was setting up the tank for the betta. I was getting 0 nitrates at the beginning. Why would KH be 0 in one test and back to 40 the next? Faulty test, or can KH be altered? Any suggestions? I'm not sure I can cycle the tank with the pH that low.

I recently noticed in my 29 gal planted tank the PH was dropping from 7 to 6.4 and my KH was dropping from 80 to 40 in 7-10 days. The prior month it had been fairly stable with PH of 7.2-7.0 and KH of 80 (climbed to 120 when I was on vacation & no water change). NO2 is 0, NO3 is 25-50, GH is 300. Tap water is 300 GH, 7.2 PH and 80 KH. The fish don't seem to be in stress but I was confused as to why all of a sudden this was happening. I have been keeping a spreadsheet of various aquarium activities by date since I started the tank in May. Looking back it seems my PH and KH have been dropping since I started feeding a home made 'snello' for my snails and shrimp. I generally feed the "snello" once a week after a water change with the exception of last week where I made a mistake and feed twice (PH hit 6.4, KH 40). This jello mixture has quite a bit of Calcium Carbonate in it which I am assuming is lowering the KH. I am thinking I will change the feeding schedule to be two days before the gravel vacume/water change to limit the time the remnants are in the tank. That make sense or am I still missing the culprit?

Ive got a Taiwan bee tank wich requires a 4 to 6 degrees GH and a zero KH. So I use Salty shrimp GH booster with my RODI but I feel like my Amano and Snails are lacking calcium for their shells. Any advice. Does adding wondershells raise GH without KH?

My new co-op test strips show my KH as only 40, in both my main tank almost no water changes) and the QT tank daily water changes 25% and in a jug of Primed tapwater that is @ 12 hours old. This is puzzling to me because I'm used to API strips saying my KH is high--my memory says it was usually 180 and the only photo I found showed at least 120 if not 180. I guess I'll have to buy another set of API strips and compare them side by side to know for sure, but if it is really only KH 40, should I do anything to change it? Then..... I tried to look at the city water quality report for answers, but it doesn't list KH in any form I recognize. And to add to my confusion, its values for GH seem at odds with everything I know about my water. I live in a limestone region with hard water as identifiably by looking at glasses, coffee pots, fish tank water lines, etc. My GH has always been the highest color on API and on Co-Op test strips, but according to the city report GH in ppm (as CaCO3) averages only 128. According to another site (that sells water softeners!), my city averages 218ppm. Basically I want to know if my water dangerously low in KH, whether it is hard enough for livebearers to breed and whether it has enough calcium in it for my mystery snail. Per the city water report calcium is 46ppm. Any explanations/feedback welcome. And in case it matters, the rest of my parameters are: Nitrate: 10 Nitrite: 0 pH: 7.2

We have a 40g planted tank that has been up for a month. Currently, it has 1 mystery snail, 1 amano shrimp, and 4 neocaridina shrimp. We also have a rice sized pea puffer who is in the quarantine tank, since I wanted to dose it for parasites. Puffer is going in his own tank (that has yet to be set up). The water parameters are as follows: pH: 7.5 gH: 300ish? (co op test strip) kH: 40ppm (2.25~dkH) (both coop strip and API kH test) nitrates: 5ppm (might be due to fertilizer) nitrites: 0 ammonia: 0 According to the water company: gH: 289 TDS: 410 pH: 7.8 We have cast iron pipes and get water mostly from surface water and ground water (from what I can research, but Ohio makes it REALLY hard to find information about your specific water source when you live in an apartment). I noticed over the past several weeks, that the pH drops an entire point with nothing in the tank but plants over the course of a week and from my research, it seems all fish but especially inverts are sensitive to pH fluctuations, but many also need higher kH than I have. I read mixed reporting about using baking soda to raise kH (as it is claimed it doesn't raise pH). I attempted to raise the kH of my tank (before adding the shrimp) to 6dkH, but it most certainly rose the pH of my tank to 7.8. I did a 75% water change to get the parameters back to normal. The stock we have has been here for 8 days. From the initial stocking we have lost 1 amano shrimp and a bamboo shrimp. After the 1st amano died, we haven't seen the second, however I haven't had any ammonia spikes so I have chosen to closely monitor the water rather than stress out the shrimp looking for the amano. Should I be concerned about the lack of kH? Is there something I can do to help stabilize my kH and pH without making it higher than it already is? I have been doing water changes every few days because the pH drops. What pH stabilizer would you recommend? To note, the pea puffer in quarantine has no live plants, substrate. etc in order to facilitate cleaning and making sure not to complicate things further (for me, the new fish keeper). This pH flux doesn't happen, nor does the kH deplete quickly. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

I'm just figuring out GH & KH and could use some direction. With the API Test Kit I have a KH of 5 and GH of 25. Which, if I'm right, means I have super hard water. What does that mean for keeping fish? I believe it means shrimp are out of the question. I have fish now that are fine, but going forward do I need to adjust it at all? Use distilled or RO water? How would either of those affect my KG? How would a water softener (for the whole house) affect fish keeping? Generally, what do I need to know or do any this high GH? TIA

Dear community, I have a fluval flex 123 litre tank which has been running for around 18 months now. It is fully planted with a fairly large piece of mopani. All the fish are happy in a soft acidic environment so i was not too concerned with PH of 6.4 a few weeks back. This tank is beautifully over filtered as standard & i have a seperate internal UV filter with venturi running as well The tank gets a 25% water change fortnightly, the gravel is vacuumed as best as possible. all the fish are healthy & happy. I was running 50/50 RO/Tap but on noticing low KH started leaving the RO out & just using tap. Here in Norfolk UK the tap water is liquid rock, super hard. I thought that maybe the trumpet snails were stripping carbonates out? I am having real problems with KH & PH. The KH is 0 & the PH is around 6.0. I have tried adding seachem equilibrium to get the KH up but i think i could add tubs full & get nowhere. I did a tap only 50% water chage which brought the KH & PH up to nicer levels but within a few days both were back to low levels with KH at 0. I am concerned with no KH the PH can swing wildly but thankfully all fish are healthy & not stressed. At this point i am considering the only solution being to strip the tank down, throw away the substrate which is 2.5 inches of aquasoil topped with a half inch of gravel. Thus getting rid of the snails. I can’t think of another way but am reluctant due to the beautiful mature swords & lotus. So here i am reaching out to you guys for help, all suggestions will be gratefully received. I’m sure i have left out some technical details that may be required for a reasoned response so please ask anything. I would rather avoid having to add vast quantities of chemical. Many thanks for reading this post.

My tap water is soft. 30 TDS. 1st photo Tap that sat overnight. 2nd My regular tanks that have Driftwood and/or catappa leaves 3rd My Shrimp tank after adding Baking soda to raise Kh back up. Wood and catappa I was given 2 nerite snails. I'd like to add a few snails and leaf litter to a couple tanks. In my shrimp tank I also use Aqueon Shrimp Essentials for minerals and have success w/molt and babies . I'm concerned that about Ph craziness and how I can at least maintain a Ph of 6.8. Is Seachem Equilibrium something I should consider or other additives ? I know its not good to chase parameters but these are rather low. It's been great for breeding my cory metae and bristlenose but w/wood and leaves I worry it will get too low.

I have been setting up my first tank in about 10-12 years. I have a question or three about water hardness. These are the numbers in question. PH=7.4 not very concerned about that. GH= 3 or 3 drops with ATI test. KH= 3or 3 drops on same ATI test. I would consider this fairly soft. My main concern is the buffering ability of KH. That and a lot of fish/shrimp say they need harder water. I have 2 questions. 1. should I try to raise the hardness of my water? I have read that crushed coral can raise it nice and slow. I like slow. 2. if I do raise it, how do I go about keeping it from crashing when I do water changes? Thanks in advance for any advice, and yes I tried the search function. I am terrible at searching.

I need to buffer my water for some fish I am getting from an aquarium shop local. I was told to use crushed coral or aragonite sand. But I only have african cichlid sand on hand. I assume it does the same thing, caribsea african cichlid mix white sand. It buffers KH and Ph. But I also have to buffer the Gh. Hmm

I am using the API GH&KH test kit and simply do not understand it. I followed directions exactly but with GH the water in the test tube was never orange but it did change to green with added drops...how green should it be to determine the level? hint of green, really green, etc.? Similar with KH water was never blue but did change to yellow but again, how yellow should it be? Now what? GH took ~6 drops, KH took ~9 drops, how does that translate on the chart? The Master Test Kit is so much easier to work with. TIA

So, I'm new to fishkeeping -- I started in February and cycled for a few weeks before adding 6 neon tetras (which are all doing great) to my 10 gallon tank. It has a few plants (anubias, a few stems, and some dwarf sagg that is starting to carpet) and gravel substrate (no driftwood). I attached the anubias to a small rock I found (and boiled). I think it is quartz or an agate and it didn't seem to change the water parameters for the first two months. However, in the last few weeks I've developed some weird problems: 1) I have low PH (6.3-6.6) even though my tap water is 7.0. I can't raise it above 6.6, which is frustrating because I'd like to add guppies or other fish that might need a neutral PH. 2) My tank has developed very high GH (the very purple square on the aquarium co-op test strips) even though my tap water is VERY soft (nothing registers on the test strips). I've confirmed these parameters with 3 brands of test strips, and have confirmed the PH readings with the strips and liquid test kit. Also, GH is very high while KH is low (it barely shows up on the test strips) The only things I add to the water are Seachem Prime, a variety of fish foods, Easy Green (per instructions), and a few Aquarium Co-op root tabs (when I started). I added 0.7 pounds of crushed coral to the substrate when I began and ran a small bag of it in my filter for a week several weeks ago -- still, the PH stayed at 6.6. I'll admit there are reasons for acids in there -- I let the tank get dirty for the first 1-2 months thinking it would fertilize the plants (not realizing that 4-5 small plants don't need all that fertilizer). That said, I've changed my ways and after some major (60-80%) water changes and cleaning I'm gravel-vacing now. I've always done a ton of water changes on this tank to keep the nitrates down to 20-40 (sometimes 3 or more 30% water changes a week). I'm so confused because it seems like low PH is usually associated with low hardness. My PH is low but GH has been very high for a few weeks now and KH is relatively low (barely registers on the test strips). What could be going on? How can lower the GH and raise the PH? Thanks!

Hello everyone, I’m getting some new guppies and cherry shrimp in. The tank I’m planning on putting them in is a 29g which has been up and running for over 2 years and seems to be cycled. I tested the water today, PH was 8.2 ,no ammonia or nitrite, and 10ppm nitrate with a GH of over 215.8ppm and a KH of 196.9ppm. I tested the KH and GH straight out of the tap and had the same readings. Is this too much hardness and too high of a ph in the water that would be harmful to the guppies and cherry shrimp???