Aquarium Co-Op Test Strips. Lost, please help????

[Soulman15]

Does anyone have an idea of how you would read this GM Hardness test?  All the colors are so dark on the container but my tests are much lighter.  Not sure how to read this.  any ideas 

 

[jwcarlson]

I *think* that's what mine look like and it's off scale high.

[Macready]

I have this same issue. GH is really hard to read. 
 

I test occasionally with the API liquid GH test so I just use that, but I’d like to understand the strip reading for GH more

[reefhugger]

I read mine as 300 too thinking the scale goes from blue to purple, and it defiantly  purple.  I'm not sure if the logic holds and will be interested in other opinions.

[nabokovfan87]

I've ended up switching to a liquid GH and KH kit to verify things long term as I had struggled to interpret results.

[Tanked]

On 11/15/2023 at 3:27 PM, Soulman15 said:

Does anyone have an idea of how you would read this GM Hardness test?  All the colors are so dark on the container but my tests are much lighter.  Not sure how to read this.  any ideas 

 

I think hard water aquarists will ask this question forever.  

Many of us interpret that as off the scale or 300+.  I was curious as to why my readings never changed, and just how far off the scale my GH really was.  I bought the liquid GH/KH test kit in July.   

The test strips indicated GH=300+, and the KH=40-60.

Liquid tests indicated GH= 250, and KH= 54 .  Close enough!

[Maximus]

I had the same issue with identifying high values. We have very soft water here and I've always seen it as a solid blue, but once I started using harder water for guppies I got this same purple shade. I bought the liquid tests and it measured well above the range of the strip's chart.


That being said, I don't really use the liquid tests much because they take quite a while to perform. The strips are fine, it's just not very obvious at first. If you need a more precise measurement I'd use the liquid tests.

Tap water left, guppy tank right.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Maximus

[Galabar]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:40 AM, Maximus said:

I had the same issue with identifying high values. We have very soft water here and I've always seen it as a solid blue, but once I started using harder water for guppies I got this same purple shade. I bought the liquid tests and it measured well above the range of the strip's chart.


That being said, I don't really use the liquid tests much because they take quite a while to perform. The strips are fine, it's just not very obvious at first. If you need a more precise measurement I'd use the liquid tests.

Tap water left, guppy tank right.

What do you add for the GH?  Also, did you ever consider raising KH?

[Maximus]

On 11/17/2023 at 6:42 PM, Galabar said:

What do you add for the GH?  Also, did you ever consider raising KH?

Yeah, I had added too much crushed coral recently and started this tank up with a smaller amount