Is this test strip inaccurate???

[clownbaby]

I won't beat around the bush. I am a total newbie with fishkeeping. 

My tank is 30 gallons, and has been cycling for nearly two months. My city's tap water does not use chloramine, only chlorine, so I let my water process for two weeks with an airstone to remove chlorine. I did not use a dechlorinator or any water treatments at all. 

My substrate is clay, organic soil, leaf litter, peat moss, and lava rock. On top of that is sand and pebbles. My tank has a piece of driftwood and several red alder branches. I have an amazon sword plant and ludwigia ovalis - no other plants. My tank uses a sponge filter. 

I have tested my water straight from the tap, here were the results:

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

chlorine 1.2

total alkalinity 120ppm

dKH 12

dGH 4

pH ~7.8

Then, I tested my water from my tank. I had been going to my local big-brand pet store to have my water tested, as I hadn't owned test strips yet. However today I received my strips (after three weeks of shipping and delays)!

Here were the results of my tank water:

nitrite 0

nitrate ~5

chlorine 0

total alkalinity 80ppm 

dGH 5.5

dKH 14

pH 7.8

 

So basically, my water seems overall pretty hard. However, the GH seems weird to me. While I know they don't determine each other, pH, GH and KH typically go hand-in-hand. My kH is high, but my gH is relatively 'neutral' and middle-of-the-line. Is this normal? Are my test strips accurate?? 

I haven't done much other than feed my mystery snail homemade snello and crushed eggshells for calcium, could this really have raised my dKH and dGH to that noticeable extent? How did my alkalinity decrease so much?? 
I am a total newbie, please explain things! I do understand science-y things but you're also welcome to dumb it down too... thanks everyone!

 

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/24/2024 at 8:13 PM, clownbaby said:

I won't beat around the bush. I am a total newbie with fishkeeping. 

My tank is 30 gallons, and has been cycling for nearly two months. My city's tap water does not use chloramine, only chlorine, so I let my water process for two weeks with an airstone to remove chlorine. I did not use a dechlorinator or any water treatments at all. 

My substrate is clay, organic soil, leaf litter, peat moss, and lava rock. On top of that is sand and pebbles. My tank has a piece of driftwood and several red alder branches. I have an amazon sword plant and ludwigia ovalis - no other plants. My tank uses a sponge filter. 

I have tested my water straight from the tap, here were the results:

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

chlorine 1.2

total alkalinity 120ppm

dKH 12

dGH 4

pH ~7.8

Then, I tested my water from my tank. I had been going to my local big-brand pet store to have my water tested, as I hadn't owned test strips yet. However today I received my strips (after three weeks of shipping and delays)!

Here were the results of my tank water:

nitrite 0

nitrate ~5

chlorine 0

total alkalinity 80ppm 

dGH 5.5

dKH 14

pH 7.8

 

So basically, my water seems overall pretty hard. However, the GH seems weird to me. While I know they don't determine each other, pH, GH and KH typically go hand-in-hand. My kH is high, but my gH is relatively 'neutral' and middle-of-the-line. Is this normal? Are my test strips accurate?? 

I haven't done much other than feed my mystery snail homemade snello and crushed eggshells for calcium, could this really have raised my dKH and dGH to that noticeable extent? How did my alkalinity decrease so much?? 
I am a total newbie, please explain things! I do understand science-y things but you're also welcome to dumb it down too... thanks everyone!

 

 

While the eggshells and all could raise the GH, you also have to consider that, when water evaporates, the water leaves but everything dissolved in it, like calcium and magnesium, stay behind. So then you top off the tank with more water with those minerals in it (among other things) and the concentrations of those minerals raises over time.

This doesnt happen if you top off with RO or distilled water, or if the minerals are otherwise being exported by plant or animal take (the calcium used to grow your snail's shell is no longer in the water column).

So to answer your question, yes, the raise in GH and KH don't seem so high as to make me question your test strips. But don't take my word for it, or the strips; take another sample back to the store and see what they find.

[Tony s]

On 3/24/2024 at 8:13 PM, clownbaby said:

My kH is high, but my gH is relatively 'neutral' and middle-of-the-line. Is this normal? Are my test strips accurate

Probably. Gh is a measure of calcium and magnesium. Kh is a measure of the carbonates in the water. Calcium carbonate is usually the form of calcium. But it doesn’t have to be. There are other ways to add carbonates not adding calcium. So the numbers can be uncoupled from each other 

[doktor zhivago]

Test strips in general give you a rough idea of what's going on. I find them to not really be that useful if you're looking for exact numbers. Exact numbers on hardness/alkalinity don't really matter that much tho as what you're looking for is changes in that number because that can be an indicator of ph issues for example. 

 

Alkalinity is gonna get 'used up' (it's way more complicated and the chemistry is basically sorcery) as it buffers against acidity. The source of the acidity in your tank would probably be the tannins from the wood and all the organics in your substrate . Water changes will restore the alkalinity with new minerals.