Need a little help

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

I bought the jbl pro freshwater test kit,which tests lots of different “elements”,but I’ve already hit a snag.
To test kH it says to add the reagent 1 drop at a time until the colour of the test sample changes from blue to orange/yellow.
I’m testing my source water to begin with,but after the first drop it doesn’t turn blue,it is clear.
Question is,should I keep adding drop by drop til the water turns slightly orange/yellow?
Should I keep adding drop by drop til it turns the same orange/yellow colour strength as the reagent is straight from the bottle.
Each drop represents one German dh.
Thanks to the water NOT turning blue I’m not sure.
Thanks in advance if anyone has an idea what’s going on.

xxBarneyxx · Nov 22, 2021

Don't know if this helps. In the video it kind of looks clear for the first couple of drops then turns orange/blue as they mix it and add more drops.

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

xxBarneyxx said:
Don't know if this helps. In the video it kind of looks clear for the first couple of drops then turns orange/blue as they mix it and add more drops.

Thanks barney.
I was expecting it to be blue straight after the first drop.I added 5 drops and it just turned the water slightly yellow,seeming to miss the blue part altogether.I will try again.
Thanks again.
P.s barney is my dogs name

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Ok I redone the test.There is no blue colour.I’m basically adding the reagent one drop at a time and the test water turns a little more yellow/orange with each drop.The water turns faint yellowish after 3 drops and the same colour as the reagent after 15 drops.
I’m totally lost,as it says to count the drops till the water turns orange/yellow which can be anywhere between 3 drops and 15 drops,depending on how orange/yellow it’s supposed to be,with each drop being 1 degree of German carbonate hardness.
So according to the test the carbonate hardness is between 3 and 15.
Do those numbers make any sense?
Would I be correct in thinking my water is so soft it isn’t registering kh at all,since there’s no blue colour?
I’m going to test potassium,magnesium and iron levels and I expect the same,no readings.

Essjay · Nov 22, 2021

I'm not familiar with the JBL tester, but with the API KH tester if that goes straight to the end point colour it means a reading of just about zero. The JBL tester may be the same.

Have you tested for GH?

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Essjay said:
I'm not familiar with the JBL tester, but with the API KH tester if that goes straight to the end point colour it means a reading of just about zero. The JBL tester may be the same.

Have you tested for GH?

Cheers for the reply essjay.

Yes I’ve tested the gh and with similar results.
I am almost done.I will put up my readings shortly

Essjay · Nov 22, 2021

I notice you are in Scotland - most of that country has soft water with some regions being very soft. You can check with Scottish Water's website to see what they say your hardness is, though I don't think they give KH (which they would call alkalinity if they did).

Scottish Water don't make it easy.
Load this page

Water Quality Search - Scottish Water

Water Quality Search

www.scottishwater.co.uk

Then enter your postcode in the box. Look for 'site name' which is your supply zone name. Then click/tap on 'water hardness data' and download the pdf for 'water hardness data 2019'. Look down the zone column to find your zone and make a note of the numbers in two columns - hardness as mg/l CaCO3 and German degrees.

Once you've managed to wade through all that, post the two numbers here

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Essjay said:
I notice you are in Scotland - most of that country has soft water with some regions being very soft. You can check with Scottish Water's website to see what they say your hardness is, though I don't think they give KH (which they would call alkalinity if they did).

Scottish Water don't make it easy.
Load this page

Water Quality Search - Scottish Water

Water Quality Search

www.scottishwater.co.uk

Then enter your postcode in the box. Look for 'site name' which is your supply zone name. Then click/tap on 'water hardness data' and download the pdf for 'water hardness data 2019'. Look down the zone column to find your zone and make a note of the numbers in two columns - hardness as mg/l CaCO3 and German degrees.

Once you've managed to wade through all that, post the two numbers here

That’s great essjay,I will take a look.I have been on the site,but I didn’t dig deep.
I have done all the tests within the jbl kit and I will post the results soon,after a munch ha.

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

That’s a great sight essjay.I now realise that I hadn’t put the post code in correctly the last time I looked at this site.I had to use capitals haha,unbelievable.

Anyway here are the results for my area (north lanarkshire) site name DAER A

Calcium mg cal/l 11.56
Magnesium mg/l. 1.00
Hardness mg/l. 33.01
Clark degrees. 2.31
French degrees. 3.30
German degrees. 1.85
Hardness level. Soft.

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Ok so the jbl test results of my source water.

FE. 0.02 lowest in colour chart
PO4 phosphate. 1.2 second highest in colour chart
CU copper. 0.05. lowest in colour chart
SIO2 silicone dioxide. 2.0–3.0 high in colour chart
NH4 ammonium. 0.05. lowest in colour chart
NO2 nitrogen dioxide. lowest in colour chart
PH. 6.5
NO3 nitrate. 1. lowest in colour chart
The lowest are probably zero.

The kh and gh I can’t really work out with the test.

The test water started clear obviously,and when I began adding the drops from the dropper bottle it began to turn yellow orange without the blue stage,meaning there was no starting point to count the drops unless I counted the drops it took to get test water from clear to orange,the colour of the liquid in the dropper bottle.
It took 15 drops from the GH bottle and 25 drops from the KH bottle.
The instructions are in the photos above,but I’m useless with numbers.

I did the nitrate test with tank water(photo above)just to be sure the test was

I will test my tank water tomorrow,as that’s the third day since I performed an 80% water change.I can then see how things have changed and hopefully work things out from there.
I really want to get my plants in order and all I have is anubias,African fern,echinodous ozelot (could be wrong spelling),and last but not least,moss.

Essjay · Nov 22, 2021

Going back to Scottish Water for a moment, they give your hardness as 33 ppm (this is the same as mg/l CaCO3) and 1.85 dH (which is another name for German degrees). Fish profiles use the terms ppm and dH. Your GH tester should change colour at 1.85 drops, so starting to turn by 1 drop and definitely changed by 2 drops. Your KH is probably very low to almost zero as well.

Looking at the instructions you posted, JBL works the same way as API. If the colour goes to the end colour at the first drop (ie GH goes green straight away, no red; and KH goes yellow orange straight away, no blue) it means your GH and KH are less than 1. Since the water company's table is 2 years old, your water may have become softer since they published that table - my GH has gone up a couple of degrees over the last few years.
But it doesn't really matter if the GH is under 1 or 1.85 dH, it is very soft and that's all you really need to know. It means you should keep fish which need soft water and avoid any hard water fish - and also any 'middling' hardness fish as well.

KH is less important as it affects fish indirectly by stabilising pH. With very low KH there is a risk that it could all get used up and with nothing left to stabilise it, the pH could fall. But your pH is already low at 6.5 so it is unlikely to drop much further.
Before I forget to ask - when you tested pH was that tank water or tap water? If it was tap water, you need to test a sample that's freshly run and some that's been allowed to stand over night. They may well be different and it's good to know both of them.

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Essjay said:
Going back to Scottish Water for a moment, they give your hardness as 33 ppm (this is the same as mg/l CaCO3) and 1.85 dH (which is another name for German degrees). Fish profiles use the terms ppm and dH. Your GH tester should change colour at 1.85 drops, so starting to turn by 1 drop and definitely changed by 2 drops. Your KH is probably very low to almost zero as well.

Looking at the instructions you posted, JBL works the same way as API. If the colour goes to the end colour at the first drop (ie GH goes green straight away, no red; and KH goes yellow orange straight away, no blue) it means your GH and KH are less than 1. Since the water company's table is 2 years old, your water may have become softer since they published that table - my GH has gone up a couple of degrees over the last few years.
But it doesn't really matter if the GH is under 1 or 1.85 dH, it is very soft and that's all you really need to know. It means you should keep fish which need soft water and avoid any hard water fish - and also any 'middling' hardness fish as well.

KH is less important as it affects fish indirectly by stabilising pH. With very low KH there is a risk that it could all get used up and with nothing left to stabilise it, the pH could fall. But your pH is already low at 6.5 so it is unlikely to drop much further.
Before I forget to ask - when you tested pH was that tank water or tap water? If it was tap water, you need to test a sample that's freshly run and some that's been allowed to stand over night. They may well be different and it's good to know both of them.

Thanks for explaining things in an easy to understand way essjay.
The pH test was done with fresh run tap water.I can tell you that the pH of the fish tank is lower than 6.5,but hard to say.I think I will go and do a pH test now,with the API test kit and post the result

.

Fishfinder1973 · Nov 22, 2021

Fishfinder1973 said:
Thanks for explaining things in an easy to understand way essjay.
The pH test was done with fresh run tap water.I can tell you that the pH of the fish tank is lower than 6.5,but hard to say.I think I will go and do a pH test now,with the API test kit and post the result.

Rock bottom with the API test kit,quite baffling,but the jbl kit has a pH 3–10 test bottle,one of the reasons I bought it.I think it’s time to use it to see how low my pH is.I last done a water change on Saturday,80%.

Essjay · Nov 22, 2021

If the JBL tester goes lower than 6.0. use that one

FishHobby99 · Nov 22, 2021

Fishfinder1973 said:
I bought the jbl pro freshwater test kit,which tests lots of different “elements”,but I’ve already hit a snag.
To test kH it says to add the reagent 1 drop at a time until the colour of the test sample changes from blue to orange/yellow.
I’m testing my source water to begin with,but after the first drop it doesn’t turn blue,it is clear.
Question is,should I keep adding drop by drop til the water turns slightly orange/yellow?
Should I keep adding drop by drop til it turns the same orange/yellow colour strength as the reagent is straight from the bottle.
Each drop represents one German dh.
Thanks to the water NOT turning blue I’m not sure.
Thanks in advance if anyone has an idea what’s going on.

I used a different test kit, API, but went to YouTube for instructions

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