Best Way to Adjust KH/GH?

[CrystaliZed]

Hello MFK...

I am a bit new to this KH & GH ordeal but I got a test kit for it to add to the pH, Nitrate, Nitrite & Ammonia kit I have and when I did the testing, my KH came in a bit low and my GH came in VERY high...

I'm guessing 'normal' range for my fish (tropical fish - Balas & a Cat in the 180 and a Vieja Zonata Cichlid in the 55) is around 50-100 ppm for all of them according to the reading... this averaged out between 3-5 drops for the 5 ml of water for both tests.

My KH only took 2 drops before it turned from blue water to yellow as stated... being a bit low... around 35-40 ppm

My GH took over 12 drops to get it from orange to green & after 12 drops still had NOT turned green but that was all the higher the chart read... reading way over 250 ppm

The test was saying adjusting GH to bring it a bit higher use a H20 Softner Pillow - which I'm wondering what it is?...

Also, to bring down the very high KH, said to use a proper pH Buffer. Right now I've used Marine Buffer to help bring the pH up, as sometimes it drops to 6.8 or so, but has been pretty good at sitting right around 7.0. If my pH is right on, then why is my KH reading really high and how would I adjust this?

 

[KaiserSousay]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/water_chemistry.php

I really had no answer of my own.
Just liked looking at your avatar.

 

[Andrewtfw]

Kh can be raised using baking soda. Anything that raises Kh will also impact Ph so be careful in how much you use. For this reason, Seachem makes alkaline buffer and acid buffer. Both are phosphate free.

As for Gh, the only solutions are to either cut your tap water by mixing RO/DI water or to add a water softening pillow to your filter.

 

[CrystaliZed]

Thanks guys...

I was seeing online that using baking soda is unstable... would it be better to use a Buffer instead? If so, do you know of anything I could look into?

I'll also look into that pillow for the GH as that seemed to have been through the roof when I tested it.