How Can I Get My Water To Sit On Neutral

[Better is Betta]

I did the test for the GH and the KH and here is the pic

One drop and the colour showed straight away on both tests. I put 2 drops in so that when I took the pic it would show up in the photo. I kept adding drops to see if any thing would change but it didn't. All it did was become intense in colour. No change from yellow to green or green to yellow.

 

[Essjay]

If the GH and KH are above zero, the first drop will turn GH very pale orange and KH will turn very pale blue. The colour will get stronger with each drop till it changes (GH orange to green; KH blue to yellow).
From the pic above, it looks like your GH is green and your KH is yellow - that's after 2 drops, and they are same colour as the first drop? The colours are always very pale until you've added quite a few drops.

Just to check they haven't changed things since I bought my API testers - does the liquid in the bottles look a sort of olive green for GH and orangey yellow for KH? And the first drops turn the water a washed out version of the colour of the bottles?
Did you give the bottles a good shake? I know it doesn't say to, but I always do.


If that's what happened, you have very very soft water (GH is zero) and no buffering capacity (KH is zero). Does your shower ever get limescale on it? If you really do have zero GH, there should be no limescale.


The thing I'm a bit confused about is that if your KH is zero, it should be very easy to drop your pH with chemicals; there is no buffer to bring it back up like you said in your first post. In fact it should be so easy to drop your pH that you are in danger of a pH crash - that means the pH dropping a long way very quickly, which isn't good for fish.



Could I ask you to try something? Add a tiny bit of baking soda to a tube of water, shake till it's dissolved then do a KH test. Baking soda contains carbonate, and that's what the KH test measures. That should make the colour go blue with the first drop so it will check the tester is working right.



Assuming that the tests are right, and both GH and KH are zero, you are in an unusual situation - very soft alkaline water. You would be safer keeping fish that like soft water, even if they prefer acid water, rather than fish that like hard water. It is easier for fish to cope with the 'wrong' pH than it is for them to cope with the 'wrong' hardness.

I think

Does anyone have any different suggestions?

 

[Better is Betta]

If the GH and KH are above zero, the first drop will turn GH very pale orange and KH will turn very pale blue. The colour will get stronger with each drop till it changes (GH orange to green; KH blue to yellow).
From the pic above, it looks like your GH is green and your KH is yellow - that's after 2 drops, and they are same colour as the first drop? The colours are always very pale until you've added quite a few drops.

Just to check they haven't changed things since I bought my API testers - does the liquid in the bottles look a sort of olive green for GH and orangey yellow for KH? And the first drops turn the water a washed out version of the colour of the bottles?
Did you give the bottles a good shake? I know it doesn't say to, but I always do.


If that's what happened, you have very very soft water (GH is zero) and no buffering capacity (KH is zero). Does your shower ever get limescale on it? If you really do have zero GH, there should be no limescale.


The thing I'm a bit confused about is that if your KH is zero, it should be very easy to drop your pH with chemicals; there is no buffer to bring it back up like you said in your first post. In fact it should be so easy to drop your pH that you are in danger of a pH crash - that means the pH dropping a long way very quickly, which isn't good for fish.



Could I ask you to try something? Add a tiny bit of baking soda to a tube of water, shake till it's dissolved then do a KH test. Baking soda contains carbonate, and that's what the KH test measures. That should make the colour go blue with the first drop so it will check the tester is working right.



Assuming that the tests are right, and both GH and KH are zero, you are in an unusual situation - very soft alkaline water. You would be safer keeping fish that like soft water, even if they prefer acid water, rather than fish that like hard water. It is easier for fish to cope with the 'wrong' pH than it is for them to cope with the 'wrong' hardness.

I think

Does anyone have any different suggestions?

Yes 1st drop instant colour yellow on the KH and only intensified when more was added and the same with the GH....turned green on first drop.
Yes the colours in the testing bottles are the same as you described no changes there. Yes I did shake the bottles.....hard. Yes I do get lime scale on my bathroom walls and glass screen.
To make sure I wasn't going around the twist I tested the tap water again this morning and its the same result. So I decided to test 2 tanks.

tank one. is the one in my first post and it houses 1 betta and a couple of cherry shrimps but maybe not, because I think he may have ate them.

GH one drop instant green
KH one drop blue another drop instant yellow....and I tested the ph as well and its very very high

So whats the prognosis with that tank and is he ok being in that type of water?

Tank two. is a 2ft with 6 corys and a couple of cherries

GH 4 drops to change the colour which is 71.6 is that right? Indicating that I have very soft to soft water?
KH 1 drop instant yellow. I did a ph test and its not bad, sitting on 7.4

I hope that makes sense and is the water suitable for my corys.

What baffels me is.......if I get a build up of lime scale in my bathroom then I must have calcium in my tap water......unless its soap scum maybe

no I'm pretty sure its lime scale
I checked the expirey date on the bottles and its good till 2017

 

[Better is Betta]

If the GH and KH are above zero, the first drop will turn GH very pale orange and KH will turn very pale blue. The colour will get stronger with each drop till it changes (GH orange to green; KH blue to yellow).
From the pic above, it looks like your GH is green and your KH is yellow - that's after 2 drops, and they are same colour as the first drop? The colours are always very pale until you've added quite a few drops.

Just to check they haven't changed things since I bought my API testers - does the liquid in the bottles look a sort of olive green for GH and orangey yellow for KH? And the first drops turn the water a washed out version of the colour of the bottles?
Did you give the bottles a good shake? I know it doesn't say to, but I always do.


If that's what happened, you have very very soft water (GH is zero) and no buffering capacity (KH is zero). Does your shower ever get limescale on it? If you really do have zero GH, there should be no limescale.


The thing I'm a bit confused about is that if your KH is zero, it should be very easy to drop your pH with chemicals; there is no buffer to bring it back up like you said in your first post. In fact it should be so easy to drop your pH that you are in danger of a pH crash - that means the pH dropping a long way very quickly, which isn't good for fish.



Could I ask you to try something? Add a tiny bit of baking soda to a tube of water, shake till it's dissolved then do a KH test. Baking soda contains carbonate, and that's what the KH test measures. That should make the colour go blue with the first drop so it will check the tester is working right.



Assuming that the tests are right, and both GH and KH are zero, you are in an unusual situation - very soft alkaline water. You would be safer keeping fish that like soft water, even if they prefer acid water, rather than fish that like hard water. It is easier for fish to cope with the 'wrong' pH than it is for them to cope with the 'wrong' hardness.

I think

Does anyone have any different suggestions?

Yes 1st drop instant colour yellow on the KH and only intensified when more was added and the same with the GH....turned green on first drop.
Yes the colours in the testing bottles are the same as you described no changes there. Yes I did shake the bottles.....hard. Yes I do get lime scale on my bathroom walls and glass screen.
To make sure I wasn't going around the twist I tested the tap water again this morning and its the same result. So I decided to test 2 tanks.

tank one. is the one in my first post and it houses 1 betta and a couple of cherry shrimps but maybe not, because I think he may have ate them.

GH one drop instant green
KH one drop blue another drop instant yellow....and I tested the ph as well and its very very high

So whats the prognosis with that tank and is he ok being in that type of water?

Tank two. is a 2ft with 6 corys and a couple of cherries

GH 4 drops to change the colour which is 71.6 is that right? Indicating that I have very soft to soft water?
KH 1 drop instant yellow. I did a ph test and its not bad, sitting on 7.4

I hope that makes sense and is the water suitable for my corys.

What baffels me is.......if I get a build up of lime scale in my bathroom then I must have calcium in my tap water......unless its soap scum maybe

no I'm pretty sure its lime scale
I checked the expirey date on the bottles and its good till 2017

I forgot to mention too that I did put bicarb in the tester and the KH drops turned it blue, so its working ok.

So keeping guppies is a no no. bettas should be ok? I do have issues with them. Corys should be ok and the tetras? Can I try getting some calcium carbonate to raise the GH/KH together or too risky? I would like to keep a guppy population and I have lost some. My friend sent them to me and she said they had adapted to soft water conditions.....probably why I still have some left.