Get 2 buckets of tap water. Take some of the gravel from the aquarium and put it in one bucket of tap water. Leave the other bucket of water without anything in it.
Check the pH of the water before you add gravel and again 24 hours later. And test it 1 week later. See if there is a difference in pH between the bucket of water with gravel vs the bucket of water without gravel. If there is a difference, the gravel is affecting the pH.
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If you contact your water company by telephone or website, they should be able to tell you what the pH, GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) is meant to be. They should tell you what it is measured in too (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
Check the pH of the water before you add gravel and again 24 hours later. And test it 1 week later. See if there is a difference in pH between the bucket of water with gravel vs the bucket of water without gravel. If there is a difference, the gravel is affecting the pH.
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If you contact your water company by telephone or website, they should be able to tell you what the pH, GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) is meant to be. They should tell you what it is measured in too (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
