What do my kH and gH numbers mean?

[Harpsandfish]

I have a 20g planted community; it is pretty well planted and is stocked with 2 honey gouramis, 6 lamb chop rasboras, 10 green neon tetra, 1 reticulated hillstream, bunch of snails, a few Amanos and around 6 cherry shrimp. I have some wonder shell in the tank, and run a HOB plus an air stone. Today the water numbers were pH 7.6, 0 ammonia and nitrite and 10 nitrate. I tested gH and kH for the first time today and I am confused about the results, based on the instructions with the API test kit for those. It seems to show 2 for kH and 214.8 for gH.  Does that sound right?

Thanks for the help!

[CT_]

I assume the 214.8 for gH means it too 12 drops and the 2 for kH is also two drops.  IIRC both those kits are 1 degree [hadress/carbonate] per drop.  You can look up what each of those parameters means to your fish in terms of ideal ranges but other than that they are just numbers.  You need to ask a question of those numbers before they can be interpreted.  I think they do sound like plausible tap water numbers if that is what you're asking.

[Harpsandfish]

@CT_Yes - it was 2 drops and 12 drops. We do have pretty soft water here (Puget Sound area). Do you know of a good resource for interpreting the numbers just in general?

Thanks.

[CT_]

Oh wow mine is 3kh 3gh here in new castle/east renton highlands.  I believe a gh of 12 puts you in the hard water category.  Maybe you have something in your tank adding hardness?  I've heard people say that kh buffers ph and you should have something like 4 or 5 but I don't know how important that really is. 

[Kat_Rigel]

2 hours ago, CT_ said:

Maybe you have something in your tank adding hardness? 

It's the Wonder Shell. I know the product has tons and tons of fans, but I hate them. They really threw off my pH and gH numbers when I added one. PH dropped,, gH skyrocketed,, kH fell. To be fair, perhaps I used a shell that was too big for the tank? I dunno, I just had all manner of issues with water parameters a few days after adding it. I much prefer crushed coral because it adds both kH and gH in a more balanced manner.

[CT_]

Ah.  with 3/3 tap water I looked up my guppies and shrimp and depending on the website the "minimum" GH was 6-8ish so I added seachem equilibrium until i got up to GH6 (turned out to be 0.5g/gallon, yeah mixed units but my bucket has gallons and my weight scale has grams).  That was little enough that it didn't put anything else out of wack. 

 

I thought about the wondershell but i wanted potassium for my plants (which is a big part of equilibrium) and I'm a control freak and can't control how much a shell adds.

[Harpsandfish]

I had just finally realized it must be the shell when I read this. I’m sure that’s it, and I wish I had measured before I put it in, to compare. The packaging for them is very unclear about how to use them as far as the size/dosing. I had two small ones in as recommended and I have removed them. I will keep an eye on on parameters and learn more and then decide what to do. Fortunately, all my fish and shrimp seem just fine. 
Thanks again for the comments - this forum is wonderful.