Help with my ph, gh, and kh.

[GregDiehl]

I am trying to get my tanks water conditions appropriate for a juvenile silver arowana. It is a 55 gallon aquarium and I know that is too small for it when it gets bigger. All the tests I have been doing are with API test kits. My ph is showing at 7.6 but that is the max for this test kit so it might be higher. My kh is coming out to 11 degrees and I stopped testing the gh after 22 degrees and it still hadn't changed at that level.
I also tested the tap water in my house to see how it compared. The pH level was the same story as my tank, might be higher than 7.6 but the kh was 17 degrees and the gh came out at 0 or 1 degree. Which doesn't even seem possible to me. From what I've read silver arowanas like ph from 6.0-7.0 and kh and gh both at a max of 8 and prefer lower. Does anyone have any tips for me to get my water within these parameters?

 

[axs377]

Not cheap but look into a ro/di water filter. Or you could run some pete moss in the filter....

 

[jordanroda]

You'll be fine, most Slivers are farm raised...just don't use carbon...

 

[axs377]

Very true. Unless a fish is wc or f1, probably not a huge need to worry about replicating its natural environment as far as ph

 

[FMA4ME]

Anyone have anything to post that explains this stuff?? Most of this is way over my head, especially gh and kh :/

 

[GregDiehl]

Anyone have anything to post that explains this stuff?? Most of this is way over my head, especially gh and kh :/

Kh is carbonate hardness and gh is general hardness. They are measures of how much minerals and things like that are in the water, I think.

 

[duanes]

Because you said this is over your head, a little background.
kh is carbonate hardness (dissolved calcium in the water)
gh are the other water components that also contribute to hardness such as magnesium.
These 2 parameters contribute to the buffering capacity of your water, in other words, when fish pee (and all freshwater fish are constantly urinating) the kh and gh help to neutralize the fish pee, and other metabolism byproducts.
It is much more important to keep your water parameters constant with frequent partial water changes, than to try and battle the components of your tap water (unless you get an RO unit). Commercial water softeners simply replace the calcium with sodium, that kind of softening is to help soap suds, not right for fish.
Where I live many people keep arowanas in our tap water, and it is very similar to yours, Total hardness 250 ppm, 80%calcium, 20% magnesium, pH 7.8.
As long as you maintain high water quality, your arowana should do fine.

 

[FMA4ME]

Kh is carbonate hardness and gh is general hardness. They are measures of how much minerals and things like that are in the water, I think.

Because you said this is over your head, a little background.
kh is carbonate hardness (dissolved calcium in the water)
gh are the other water components that also contribute to hardness such as magnesium.
These 2 parameters contribute to the buffering capacity of your water, in other words, when fish pee (and all freshwater fish are constantly urinating) the kh and gh help to neutralize the fish pee, and other metabolism byproducts.
It is much more important to keep your water parameters constant with frequent partial water changes, than to try and battle the components of your tap water (unless you get an RO unit). Commercial water softeners simply replace the calcium with sodium, that kind of softening is to help soap suds, not right for fish.
Where I live many people keep arowanas in our tap water, and it is very similar to yours, Total hardness 250 ppm, 80%calcium, 20% magnesium, pH 7.8.
As long as you maintain high water quality, your arowana should do fine.

Thank you guys, this is helpful, I will continue to read on this
Anything on degrees vs ppm?

 

[duanes]

http://www.dulcosoft.com/industrial...on-table-for-water-hardness-units-of-measure/

 

[FMA4ME]

Wow, not something you learn over night, thanks