GH in tap water suddenly plummeted

[laritheloud]

So I measure my tank parameters pretty regularly, and since spring my tap water has been consistently GH 10 / KH 10 with a high PH around 8.0 to 8.2. I've been using test strips and noticing the GH dropping on test strips pretty quickly over the past month or so, and I went and pulled out my liquid titers and discovered my water's all the way down to 3 dGH! My kH is still high (9 to 10) so the pH is still on the high side, but my mind is kind of blown that the hardness of my local water has dropped so drastically. All of my fish seem to be okay as PWC ensured a gradual acclimation, but should I be doing anything to add minerals to my water for inverts? I keep neocaridina, amano shrimp, and all kinds of snails. Does the high kH help compensate?

Edited October 24, 2021 by laritheloud

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

If the kH is still up that’s the part your snails and inverts need - the calcium. I’d contact the water board and see if they’ve done something to treat the water this fall. A lot of municipalities do things to the water by season. 

[laritheloud]

On 10/24/2021 at 11:08 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

If the kH is still up that’s the part your snails and inverts need - the calcium. I’d contact the water board and see if they’ve done something to treat the water this fall. A lot of municipalities do things to the water by season. 

I'll see if I can get in touch with someone. Meanwhile, I'll keep testing and see how this pans out. Can't believe the difference in hardness!

[laritheloud]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 ahhhh, my husband just reminded me that we have four wells we draw from (strictly ground water in NJ) and one of them is high in sodium due to salt water intrusion from the Delaware Bay. I'm thinking we switched over to that well for the season and it's softened our water temporarily.

[Hobbit]

On 10/24/2021 at 11:08 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

If the kH is still up that’s the part your snails and inverts need - the calcium.

Ope, actually KH is carbonate hardness, also called buffer. GH is general hardness, and the GH tests measure calcium + magnesium. (though other minerals could contribute to hardness, too!) So you do want to watch out for your snails.

High KH can actually make it harder for crushed coral or cuttlebone to dissolve into your water, so it can work against you in some ways. But if you’re adding something like Salty Shrimp or calcium carbonate powder, they won’t be affected by your high KH.

You can also supplement calcium in their food rather than trying to get it into the water. Perhaps try your hand at making some snello!

[laritheloud]

On 10/24/2021 at 11:56 PM, Hobbit said:

Ope, actually KH is carbonate hardness, also called buffer. GH is general hardness, and the GH tests measure calcium + magnesium. (though other minerals could contribute to hardness, too!) So you do want to watch out for your snails.

High KH can actually make it harder for crushed coral or cuttlebone to dissolve into your water, so it can work against you in some ways. But if you’re adding something like Salty Shrimp or calcium carbonate powder, they won’t be affected by your high KH.

You can also supplement calcium in their food rather than trying to get it into the water. Perhaps try your hand at making some snello!

I do feed calcium-enriched invert food along with veggies. Hooboy, I'm going to have anxiety about this! Should I buy salty shrimp? I assumed since my water is usually hard I didn't have to worry about this, but with that gradual GH decline in my tanks and with finally re-measuring my tap, I'm seeing I'm down all the way to 2-3 degrees and panicking!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbityou’re absolutely right. I’ve had a bad night. I need to get off the forum for a little while. @laritheloudexcuse my post. 

[Hobbit]

No you’re fine @Beardedbillygoat1975! It happens to all of us and you sure did have a bad night. Just saw your tank journal. 😞

@laritheloud if you’re feeding them calcium rich foods, you may be totally fine. My snails survived with perfect-looking shells over the summer in tubs that basically had 0 GH and 0 KH. Not on purpose—I had probably three cups of crushed oyster shell in each tub, plus I added wonder shell several times. And honestly I wasn’t feeding them anything special. I wasn’t feeding them directly at all. 😄 

Granted, those are just ramshorns, and they’re pretty tough little things. Shrimp or fancy snails might be a different story.

Maybe grab some wonder shells, but no need to stress. 🙂 (I don’t think. 😅)

[laritheloud]

I'll try, @Hobbit! I do have clinical OCD so change and uncontrollable circumstances do a number on me. I bought a whole mess of wonder shells and I'll drop them in my tanks according to ACO guidelines. I'll keep an eye on tap parameters, too, and just discontinue the wondershells when the source well changes again.

Also @Beardedbillygoat1975 I'm so sorry about your disasters. 😞 Take it easy!

Edited October 25, 2021 by laritheloud

[laritheloud]

Investigated further and discovered that of the four wells in town, two draw from the same aquifer, and the other two from two different aquifers. The two from the same aquifer are extremely low in calcium. The other two are high to moderately high in calcium. All four are equally high in alkalinity.

Guess I'll just have to anticipate occasional fluctuations in GH... Wonder shells it is!

[Hobbit]

On 10/25/2021 at 12:20 AM, laritheloud said:

I do have clinical OCD so change and uncontrollable circumstances do a number on me.

That’s very fair. Due to my limited physical circumstances I’ve had to swing in the opposite direction. Sometime’s this forum’s a good kick in the pants—“No you actually do need to try to control that!” 😄 I hope reading about my fishkeeping style doesn’t stress you out too much! 

[laritheloud]

It's totally fine, @Hobbit! I try to step back when something gets to me too much. I'm much better than I was when I was diagnosed properly a few years ago. 😉 Thank you for asking!

[Patrick_G]

@laritheloud, I can empathize, I was having trouble with Cherry shrimp so I added some wonder shell to their tank according to the directions on the package. GH went from 1-30 overnight! Needless to say it didn’t help my shrimp keeping journey. 

[Mmiller2001]

I would think if you are feeding with a calcium supplement, that you are fine. That said, this sounds like a great opportunity to go ahead and invest in an RO system so that you can build water to perfect numbers<evil genius laugh>. 

[laritheloud]

On 10/25/2021 at 12:46 PM, Patrick_G said:

@laritheloud, I can empathize, I was having trouble with Cherry shrimp so I added some wonder shell to their tank according to the directions on the package. GH went from 1-30 overnight! Needless to say it didn’t help my shrimp keeping journey. 

Oh no!!! I was planning on just ... under-shooting their numbers and adding a small shell, ignoring the package directions. It sounds like so much to add the full dose! Maybe I should start with trying to break a small one in half?

On 10/25/2021 at 12:53 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

I would think if you are feeding with a calcium supplement, that you are fine. That said, this sounds like a great opportunity to go ahead and invest in an RO system so that you can build water to perfect numbers<evil genius laugh>. 

Time to fling more money into the drain 😆 I'll see if I can make do for now, but wow, what an intense shift from 300 ppm gH down to about 30! No wonder my soap's been so sudsy!

[laritheloud]

Ok, all my tanks were down to 3-4 GH. Tap is reading at 0-1 GH. Got my wonder shells so I put a small amount in my tanks. I added one 2/5 ounce shell to the 55 gallon, 1 extra small shell to my 29 gallon, and 1/2 extra small shell in the 10 gallon tanks. I'll take readings throughout the week and see what happens. I wanted to start conservative!

Edited October 26, 2021 by laritheloud