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GH question/Clarification


Jcrizzo12
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Just wanting to get some insight here, I have freshly cycled 29 gallon heavily planted tank and recently began testing GH and KH due to some issues with newly introduced Cardinal Tetras.

Kh is around 4 degrees but testing GH from the tank is around 22 degrees which I believe is very hard category. I live in the Chicagoland area and testing GH straight from the tap gives me around 13 degree hardness.

This being the case, starting to think Cardinals are not a good idea based on my parameters even with every other area (AM, Nitrites, etc) being well within reasonable ranges, and no option to introduce a RO system in my current place. But nonetheless, does dosing aquarium fertilizer increase the GH of water? Just wondering why there is a difference between tap and my tank generally. Sorry if this is a noobish question lol 

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It will only increase GH if it contains Calcium or Magnesium or a combination of both.

The difference in your tank could be from rocks or the substrate, or any other non inert item you've placed in the tank that would dissolve minerals into the water column.

I agree, 22dKH is too high for soft water fish long term.

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I do have some extra rock in there I can certainly remove while the tank isn't stocked very much right now, as for the gravel i will take a look and see if the brand I used changes chemistry or is  Calcerous. Thank you for the response

In the long run if I feel I really want to try and get this softer, would keeping some distilled water around to mix in with water changes perhaps be a decent enough idea? 

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On 9/27/2021 at 11:21 AM, Jcrizzo12 said:

I do have some extra rock in there I can certainly remove while the tank isn't stocked very much right now, as for the gravel i will take a look and see if the brand I used changes chemistry or is  Calcerous. Thank you for the response

In the long run if I feel I really want to try and get this softer, would keeping some distilled water around to mix in with water changes perhaps be a decent enough idea? 

It would. You will just have to work how much to mix.

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