Carbon Hardness And Soft Water?

[Bella]

I am in the process of finding out what went wrong with a product in my water. P Clear Particule killed two fish and i had to resuce the rest out of the water and put in a different tank and drain the tank.. I didn't think anyone would make it.

I test my water for Nitrite Nitrate and ammonia and ph.... I live in northeren ontario.. most people don't even condition their fish water because our water is soft and very clean.. I do with a product called stress coat + fish and tap water conditioner.. works great been using it for a year.

My question is .... Would there be a lot of carbon hardness in soft water?

I'm going to get the water tested next week but I'm trying to find why all the fish had a bad reaction to P Clear by hagan / nutrafin. I know i didn't overdose.

 

[Bignose]

The term you are looking for is "carbonate hardness". "Carbon hardness" doesn't mean anything.

Carbonate hardness, often abbreviated KH from the German word for carbonate, is a measure of a water's ability to retain a constant pH, also called the alkalinity or acidity of the water. This is because KH measures to what extent all the minerals in the water is equal to water amount of a set concentration of carbonate. I.e. your water will contain all sorts of minerals typically -- carbonate, calcium, magnesium, etc. If you wanted to use an acid to neutralize them all, the KH will tell you exactly how much acid would be needed.

The measure of all the different minerals in the water is general hardness, often abbreviated GH.

While normally a high GH would mean a high KH, and a low GH would mean a low KH, it isn't a necessity. There can be waters with high GH and low KH and vice versa.

What you want to know are the results from both a GH and KH test.

 

[Bella]

Thank you very much. I understand a bit more. I always thought because our water is soft there was nothing to test other then nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and ph.. ph is always at 6.8

I am going to get the water tested this week for KH and GH. The fish stores here do not test people's water for them. So I'll bring it into where i am bringing the product to get tested as well.

The product is missing the LOT number.. but i called the store i purchased it from and all the bottles in the store also do not have a lot number on them... the company sent me an e-mail stating they cant do much with out that number.... well.. I sent them pic's of the bottles



The company keeps having french agents call me back... I don't speak french... and they don't speak english.. very frusterating. When you call them back and choose the option for english.. you still get a french speaking agent. no english at all.

 

[waterdrop]

Bignose,

Is it your opinion that carbonate hardness (KH) and total alkalinity are interchangeable terms, or is there a difference?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bignose]

Bignose,

Is it your opinion that carbonate hardness (KH) and total alkalinity are interchangeable terms, or is there a difference?

~~waterdrop~~

The is a difference only in a semantic way. The concepts are very intertwined. The concept of alkalinity (and acidity is a direct synonym to alkalinity) is the ability or property of water to resist changes in pH. The KH is a measure of that ability. So, you can't quite replace them.

An apt analogy would be temperature and hotness. The hotness of an item is it ability to contain and give off heat. The temperature is a measure of the hotness of that item. They are very related, but not directly interchangable.