Api Kh & Gh Test Kit Questions

[stubedoo]

I just bought the GH & KH API test kit, and found something a little odd.

In the instructions it says to test the KH you watch for the blue to turn yellow, and for the GH you watch for the orange to turn green. But my GH bottle starts off blue, and the KH bottle orange, which makes me think the labels on the bottles are the wrong way round. If anyone has this kit and could confirm this that would be great.

I have found my water to take 1 drop to turn the blue to yellow, yet despite adding 15 drops of the orange it doesn't turn green (the chart only goes up to 12 drops). So Assuming the labels are the wrong way round, that means I have an incredibly low KH, and an off the scale high GH. Does this sound right and if so what does it mean?

(By the way the reason I am testing is because I have a problem with a low pH in my fishless cycle... see link in signature for details.)

 

[OldMan47]

My KH test is as it says in the instructions. It starts with a blue color and turns to yellow. The drop of indicator looks yellow when it is first put in the bottle but turns blue when mixed in. The bottle color goes back to yellow when you reach the terminal point. The GH also matches the directions sheet. It starts out orange when the first drop is mixed and becomes a muddy green color as you add more drops and mix well. If you have a blue that goes immediately to yellow, the very low KH. If your GH starts at orange and never goes to green, you have a high GH.
The end result is you have water that everyone in town knows is very hard but you have no carbonate buffer capacity in the water and pH will fall right out the bottom on you. It does sound like the labels may have been reversed.

 

[rdd1952]

And that isn't the norm. Usually, if one is high (or low), all are high (or low). Both of mine are so low, as soon as I add the first drop, they both change to the finished color, basically meaning my GH & KH are 0. But with city water, that's pretty normal. They try to keep the hardness down to make the water taste better.

 

[stubedoo]

Thanks for your help both of you. I've got my head round it now. The fact that the KH test wasn't going blue first got me all confused.

It looks like my water has very low KH, and low GH.

 

[samaka]

Intersting !!! Because It looks like there is something probably not right here ....
I have just bought the API GH/KH Testing Solution, and the intersting thig is:

In the KH solution bottle instructions it says that : Put the required number of test solution drops that turns the water color into Bright Yellow. ok....Well, the Solution itself comes in a yellowish / light orange color from the begining !!!, so from the first drop it makes the water color yellow right away !!!

 

[lotsabob]

This test kit is a little confusing! First attempt.

The KH comes out of the bottle an orangey colour (in my test tube of tank water, it doesn't turn blue)
The GH comes out of the bottle a dark green shade. It took 8 drops for my test tube to go from orange to green.

My question: the KH indicator didn't go blue at all, so I see that as 1dKH reading - one drop. The instructions say to add enough drops to make the water 'bright yellow', but of course with only one drop, that's not much indicator - my yellow is very feint, but definitely not blue. Surely I shouldn't be adding, to get a 'brighter' yellow shade?

My results then - KH = 1 / GH = 8. Sound reasonable?

What fun. I'll have to perform this one slowly every time, I think. First attempt I managed to look for the KH colour change results whilst adding the GH solution. Muppet.