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Hardness - words vs numbers
- Thread starter Essjay
- Start date
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OP
I have found a list of water companies in England and Wales on ofwat and looked at the websites of the 18 larger water companies.
The only companies which define their bands are:
The same as the first post in the thread - Yorkshire Water, South West Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent Water
Southern Water and Portsmouth Water have fewer bands than the first set of companies so they make their water sound even harder.
Thames Water use just soft, medium and hard.
But interestingly there were only two companies which did not give numbers - Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water (same company) and Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru, sorry I don't know how to put the ^ over the w).
SES Water's website was greyed out so I couldn't find anything on there.
All the other companies give hardness in numbers, though some do make it harder to find than others.
Edited to add Severn Trent to the list.
The only companies which define their bands are:
The same as the first post in the thread - Yorkshire Water, South West Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent Water
Southern Water and Portsmouth Water have fewer bands than the first set of companies so they make their water sound even harder.
Thames Water use just soft, medium and hard.
But interestingly there were only two companies which did not give numbers - Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water (same company) and Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru, sorry I don't know how to put the ^ over the w).
SES Water's website was greyed out so I couldn't find anything on there.
All the other companies give hardness in numbers, though some do make it harder to find than others.
Edited to add Severn Trent to the list.
Last edited:
No - but I guess it doesn't matter because they give numbers and units. Easy enough to use - I did not have to login and only supplied a postcode. It did ask for a number but I just left it at 1
OP
OP
OP
OP
It looks like it's just us unfortunates in Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water and Welsh Water who can't get a number
But it does show why members with other water companies should make sure they look for a number.
OP
OP
An update - Northumbrian water and Essex & Suffolk Water (which are the same company) now give hardness in numbers on their websites. Welsh Water is now the only water company in the UK which doesn't.
I did find a map on Anglian Water's website which is interesting, though the scale isn't large enough to be terribly accurate.
www.anglianwater.co.uk
I did find a map on Anglian Water's website which is interesting, though the scale isn't large enough to be terribly accurate.
Hard water in our region: Your questions answered | Anglian Water Services
We often get questions about limescale in water so we wanted to explain what it is, why it’s there and why it’s really difficult for us to reduce it in our supplies. Our Head of Water Quality, Clair Dunn, explains in this blog post.
www.anglianwater.co.uk
ClownLurch
Fish Gatherer
Just checked my old hoods water up there. It’s 17dh. It’s 19dh down here. Looks like the fish can come with us if we retire back there.
I was hoping it’d be massively different tbh. I think it gets softer further up towards Scotland.
I was hoping it’d be massively different tbh. I think it gets softer further up towards Scotland.
OP
OP
I now know mine is 100 ppm and 5.7 dH
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
There are just under 18 ppm (actually 17.8) per dg of hardness. Hobby kits tend to use the add a drop system where you add drops 1 at a time until the solution changes color and the number of drops = the number of dg.
I stopped using the GH kit years ago and replaced it with conductivity/TDS. I use TDS because this will give me a ppm reading and conductivity is expressed in microsiemens. I have a better feel for the ppm of TDS. However, TDS are calculated by testing for conductivity and then a fixed formula is used to convert this into the PPM of TDS. I still may measure KH (Temporary Hardness) which is basically carbonates and bicarbonates because the bacteria use these as an inorganic carbon source. And when I run my bio-farm I need to be sure the KH doesn't get used up.
It is important to understand this about converting dg and ppm. The latter is more accurate than the drop-by-drop method. The degrees change every 18 ppm. So, in theory, if you test water that is 19-35 ppm it will tell you this is all 2 dg. I am sure the hobby kits are not quite that accurate, however, it helps to understand the results a bit better. This is more important when working at the softer end of the dg/ppm spectrum - 1 to 3 dg than at levels that are much harder.
The nice thing about TDS and ppm is that a decent digital tester is not a budget breaking piece of equipment. I use the HM Digital TDS-3 Handheld TDS Meter. My first one cost me about $24, the second was half that. I see them available online from Amazon UK here https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000VTQM70/?tag=
I stopped using the GH kit years ago and replaced it with conductivity/TDS. I use TDS because this will give me a ppm reading and conductivity is expressed in microsiemens. I have a better feel for the ppm of TDS. However, TDS are calculated by testing for conductivity and then a fixed formula is used to convert this into the PPM of TDS. I still may measure KH (Temporary Hardness) which is basically carbonates and bicarbonates because the bacteria use these as an inorganic carbon source. And when I run my bio-farm I need to be sure the KH doesn't get used up.
It is important to understand this about converting dg and ppm. The latter is more accurate than the drop-by-drop method. The degrees change every 18 ppm. So, in theory, if you test water that is 19-35 ppm it will tell you this is all 2 dg. I am sure the hobby kits are not quite that accurate, however, it helps to understand the results a bit better. This is more important when working at the softer end of the dg/ppm spectrum - 1 to 3 dg than at levels that are much harder.
The nice thing about TDS and ppm is that a decent digital tester is not a budget breaking piece of equipment. I use the HM Digital TDS-3 Handheld TDS Meter. My first one cost me about $24, the second was half that. I see them available online from Amazon UK here https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000VTQM70/?tag=
from https://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-chem.html#reference
Herpin Man
Fish Crazy
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My water is 16-17 grains per gallon, according to the website. I’m not sure how that relates to this table.
OP
OP
Grains per gallon is in the calculator on the forum, listed as "US hardness"
It's almost the same as dH, your 16 to 17 converting to 15.4 to 16.3 dH. So close that you can regard grains per gallon as being the same as dH.
The table is mainly for UK members as most of our water companies list hardness as words first, then numbers. Until a couple of weeks ago mine only used words. But the words they use are not the same as we, as fish keepers, would use for many numbers and they can be misleading. As an example, when a water company says "slightly hard" this has led people into choosing hard water fish. In reality slightly hard means 5.6 to 8.4 so they actually need to look at soft water fish.
My water company says my water is slightly hard but they now they give the number I know it is 5.7 dH, or soft water.
It's almost the same as dH, your 16 to 17 converting to 15.4 to 16.3 dH. So close that you can regard grains per gallon as being the same as dH.
The table is mainly for UK members as most of our water companies list hardness as words first, then numbers. Until a couple of weeks ago mine only used words. But the words they use are not the same as we, as fish keepers, would use for many numbers and they can be misleading. As an example, when a water company says "slightly hard" this has led people into choosing hard water fish. In reality slightly hard means 5.6 to 8.4 so they actually need to look at soft water fish.
My water company says my water is slightly hard but they now they give the number I know it is 5.7 dH, or soft water.
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