*How often do you measure ph/GH/KH, and why?* Also, if you missed the story of when I had a pH-related disaster, check it out: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p7KPf9GatKeyd2g.html

Yeah, soft water species are definitely hit-or-miss in my area. If my tap water got any harder I could use it to repave my driveway. I'll usually just stay away from soft water species, or at least look for some that were locally bred.

Wonderful, practical advice as always, Irene! Your previous GH/KH video inspired me to finally check my tap water (similar CO water) after years of unsuccessfully trying to keep livebearers. Realizing that my tap GH/KH were super low (2 degrees each), I started regularly dosing one of my tanks with Equilibrium and now have a thriving guppy breeding tank that has been super successful for 2 years. All my other tank house fish that I’ve picked to tolerate my super soft, neutral pH water, but you helped me successfully keep my beloved guppies :)

I love south american fish, all my fish and plants are from there. My tap water has a PH of 8, but I use Discus Buffer from Seachem. Even though it has Discus on it's name, it is not expensive. I lowered my PH from 8 to 5.2 in 3 days, and since then it is completly stable even after 60% water changes. I'm using it on 20Gallon tank for over a year.

I used to test all the time but it was so high I needed a ladder to check it. So I did what you said, I switched to African cichlids and they did great. Just want you to know, I love your video's.

I always think this topic is so interesting. I work at a pet store and often the first thing people focus on or hear from other stores is that their pH is X or Y, and they focus on that, but I always feel that, especially for new people nitrogen/nitrates are the most important to test for.

In a marine tank, I check these values often: as Saltwater should not swing wildly and the carbonate hardness is critical to corals and calcareous organisms. pH and KH are near daily tests. In freshwater, I check these often when establishing a tank. But once established, these are values I do a sanity check on only every month or two. Because, as you pointed out, most freshwater species have a wider tolerance to swings. Though it's more critical for organisms like snails and shrimps than most fish. But even with shrimp and snails, I only check an established freshwater system every month or so. It's also important to check your source water. If the source is a well or municipal water that is close to what you're keeping, it's less likely to throw the tank parameters. If it's a night-and-day difference, checking these values can and should be part of water changes. Same for if your source water is RO or RO/DI as you'll be diluting the tank (you'll likely need an additive to remineralize it). But, those patterns should be picked up and realized during establishment, and again become less critical on a well established freshwater system as you can predict the pattern. If you've never bothered to check these three, you're playing roulette. You'll be fine, up until you are no longer fine. And you'll have no idea what happened. You could have had a pH crash, or perhaps your invertebrates just started dyeing off due to a lack of carbonate hardness. You'll will have no idea, if you don't understand these values and have never tested for them. For that reason: Good video! And generalized comments are great, so long as you annotate it, or highlight it the way you did. You have a broad audience of beginners, they don't need the college or post-graduate level explanation unless they're interested. Simplifying it is perfectly fine, and a good choice. So long as there's an understanding: this is for the majority of cases, their are and will be outliers when discussing it at a broad level. In that smaller group of tanks and hobbyists, the college level understanding is helpful and useful, and is where hobbyist's like myself thrive in nerd-ing out on the nuance. But I like how you annotated your target audience and intent.

My ph is 8, kh is 2 and gh 13 (nebraska has really hard water ) this video made me feel better. I have had my tank for seven months . all my green neon tetra (inspired by your video) cpd, and chili rasbora seem to be happy . cherry shrimp and amano seem happy as well

Chasing numbers can get you in trouble. I agree, match your fish to your water. Much better luck.

Thank you for explaining this so well. I’ve found it’s easier to keep fish that fit my water then change the water to fit the fish.

Great video. Thank you for the common sense explanation of these three water parameters. These can be confusing and hard to determine what is important to worry about depending on who you are listening to.

RO/DI is much easier than you make it sound. They have kits that hook up to a standard faucet nowadays. Great video!

THANK YOU this got too confusing. You broke it down very well and now I feel much more confident in fish

Great overview of the 3 parameters Irene, thanks. I was struggling with my GH and KH taking a nose dive, and killing everything apart from my angelfish. So I've had to gradually bring the GH and KH back up to where it's supposed to be and restock the tank. The out of whack water was due to the water source, I wish I would have billed them for the cost of my fish 🤦🏽‍♂️

Thank you for the great, simple, no-nonsense information!

Very good video. I've watched your other video on this topic 3 times in the past. Thank you, your aquarium looks beautiful! I am moving my goldfish from a ph of 8 gh 180 to water ph 7.3 GH 3. I am very nervous about the move. I will take your advice-

That's really an eye opening on this 3 perimeters. I don't usually measure the 3 and just let things work by themselves. And I have the privilege to have access to RO water since my country uses RO technology to supply drinkable water to us. Only concern is the high amount of chlorine in it.

Just starting the fish keeping hobby and your videos are super informative!

I read that Fluval compressed Peat works really well to reduce PH,GH and KH. It also releases Tannins

good to see you back irene missed you

Thanks for your wisdom I’m just starting 🤓

Having this knowledge goes a long way. I have a pea puffer tank and found Cyanobacteria a constant problem if I kept the flow comfortable for the fish. Plus it’s a species only tank so nobody turning substrate or eating leftovers. So I transitioned it slowly to a black water tank wondering if lower ph would help and it truly has. Then mystery snails bred too much in another tank so I increased calcium. Understanding the basics on ph and kh helped a lot in achieving this. I have a water softener system but I turn it off on water change day except for the pea puffer tank.

Perfect timing because I just received my strips from aquarium co op!

I may be biased because I’m also a saltwater enthusiast, but RODI is really not hard. In fact, you don’t need the deionization part for freshwater fish. I regularly use RO water and mix it with some of my tap (mineral rich) to get it where I want it. Just test how much tap you need to add to get to desired levels and write that down to keep things consistent. Otherwise, I would say keep fish that prefer your water’s parameters (as you mention). Good video though, provided a good basic (no pun intended) understanding.

Already liked at the start, commenting at the end :)

Pet stores in my area always tell me that PH is the one to look at. But in my area GH/KH is basically zero in the water while PH is still high (I live not too far from aquarium coop). So I was told that because my PH was 7.6-7.8 that was fine for livebearers. They often recommend PH liquids to adjust the PH, but I found adding minerals to adjust GH/KH was much better.

I can't wait til we start our tank!!!! I have been taking notes and I'm ready 🙆🏾‍♀️

Great video as usual, love your down to earth tone making complicated topics accessible. In multiple videos you often show charts (with the green headers) that display different nutrients or chemical recommend levels in aquariums. Do you have all of these charts collected in a pdf cheat sheet? Id love to be able to print a version and keep it handy in my aquarium stand when things go wrong. Thanks, keep the videos coming! 👍

Love, Love, Love this video. Thank you so much, you made it so easy to understand.

Did you get shrimp? I see several clips of bee shrimp here. My sister raises the black and white ones and I’m giving it a go. It’s either beginners luck or they aren’t as hard as I thought they’d be. Babies are everywhere. They are so cute.

Hi there, I really hope you get this question… When using the botanical/almond leaves method, does ph go back up as they fully break down ? Also, do botanicals break down quickly?

I have the opposite problem, my water is too soft and my pH is low straight from the tap (6.4). The GH & KH API test confirmed what I suspected because of my pH swings in my tank. I had to do daily 50% changes because my pH would drop to 6 in the morning (heavy planted tank with driftwood). I'm new to the hobby so I was looking for ways to gently raise the pH and avoid swings. My betta and harlequin rasboras weren't too happy with the low pH. I'll slowly introduce crushed corals in my filters to see how it goes. I've noticed my floating plants suffer as their roots were burned. I have a 15G so I will start very slow with the crushed coral.

I've had great results using buffers to reduce my tap water pH from around 9 to 7.5. I add the buffers with water changes. The great thing about using buffers is that the pH is really stable.

Thank you, Irene. I learned a lot from you today.

Great quality video as always! Thank you 😊

My GH levels are off the charts. Its hard to introduce new fish even those that I thought would do well in this water. I found if you acclimated your new fish in a separate tank for a long time like a week your new fish live longer. Still experimenting. I hope find my answers so I get to enjoy my hobby even more.

Hi, nice video. Thanks for the information. I have a question regarding reverse osmosis water. Do I need to add minerals to the water if I am using reverse osmosis water for my tank?

My work place makes RODI water. Been thinking about using some for my tanks

❤I love learning for you.

Great informative video. Thank you

I've keeping a couple of tanks now for about 6 months and have done tons of research and pretty confident with most aspects except... I want to start a RAM tank and they require low ph levels. I'm using RO water and have a ph of about 6.2 which is great but since it's RO water there's no KH level, how do I raise the KH to keep my ph level stable and not raise my ph at the sametime. I've used ph/kh up but I don't want the ph to go up.

I have a ph of 8.4 and I have angelfish who are breeding as well as kuhli loaches and Pygmy corys. All of these fish came from tanks with a ph under 6 and are doing great in my ph. I had to add a ton of Indian almond leaves to get my ph down to 7 and then through doing daily 10% water changes I had my ph back up to 8.4 within a week. But yeah, everyone is doing great. Pygmy Corys and angels are breeding and the kuhli loaches are too young to breed but super active

My tap water pH is low (6.6), I have no KH and only a little bit of GH. I have a planted 15 gallon with fluval stratum and some driftwood. I didn't know this substrate would lower my pH values. It's my first tank. My pH drops to 6 (the lowest the API master kit can read) during the night and I can't keep it up higher than 6.6. I was trying to keep everything in check by doing emergency daily water changes but it's taking a toll. I think this hinders the good bacteria cycling process. I added a little bit of crushed coral in a media bag (about a tablespoon) but that didn't yet do anything after 3 days. Now, I mix Seachem Alkaline Buffer with Seachem Equilibrum in a 5g bucket (with prime) to prepare my water when doing water changes. I make sure the parameters are where they should be (pH 7.4 3° KH / 6° GH) and do very small water changes so I don't shock my fish. I'm thinking it'll take a while before I see any changes from the coral. All I want is a stable 6.5-7 pH so that it stops dropping to 6.

Wow, thank you so much!

Hi Irene, hope you are all good. Big fan of you , from south America , Perú 👍🏻😉 . Quick question, what material is that thing you use in your betta tank to separate the heater? Kinda like a internal sump you built there? Would that be polycarbonate? Thanks in advance

I have hard water and I'm constantly struggling to keep ph down. Over time, plant and animal waste decomposition building up a soil layer can lower ph, but heavily planted tanks can cause ph to fluctuate; Photosynthesis removes co2 from the water column causing ph to spike in the middle of the photo period, even if you have moderately high kh. Injecting co2 can be helpful (though if you inject too much with little alkalinity your ph will crash), was well as surface agitation to regulate levels of various dissolved gasses. Even though I have lots of plants, I still have standard filters not just to collect debris but also because although the nitrifying bacteria compete with plants for ammonia, nitrification decreases ph while photosynthesis increases it. I don't know if it sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but I'm still testing my water and trying to find the best way to work this out...

do the same thing apply to outdoor ponds? i adopted koi at my work place

hi always great videos, can i ask what fish was that at the end the ones with the yellow fins and lower jaw,

Do you have tips on how to calculate seachem equilibrium dosage? I follow the dosage recommended on the back, end up having different GH readings in a empty tank w just water

Awesome work

Can somebody help me? My betta fish is lying on its side in the bottom of the tank, earlier it was on the surface of the tank, I’m not sure what to do

It seems high kh will increase ph. So throw some dead leaves in if both start going higher.

Are betta ok in high PH, GH and KH water?

What about the NO2 and NO3?

what were those fish next to the algae eaters at 1:24 ?

You seem like a very nice person 💙

Yes! i needed this

So I got an api Kh/Gh test kit. When I test the kh the 1st drop doesn't turn blue, I have to look through the tube to see light yellow. Im guessing that means my Kh is too low, right? Also when I test for Gh it immediately turns green. Im keeping neons, guppies, snails, and an albino bristle nose pleco in a 55 gal. ph-6.8-7.0, Should I take steps to raise my kh?

Not sure where you get tap water with high pH as my tap water is the opposite. pH is lower than 6 straight out of tap or filter.

I just checked the price of a rodi system, a lot less expensive than I thought it would be.

Hi I've been watching a bunch of your videos because I'm getting a betta fish soon I've got a 10 gallon tank and I'm not sure if i want to get some corydoras and tetras in there aswell or keep it alone does anyone know what i should do??

What are those fish at minute 1:00 please?

What is responsible for white scale formation on aquarium glass ? Is it KH or GH ?

Does anyone know if tannins in the water will affect the high pH reading since the water is then brownish?

Hi! at 6:54 when you showed your test strip, what would you say your (GH) PPM is? Mine is a similar color ( a little darker) but it doesn't really match the color chart. Thank you!

I miss you!!! I hope you're doing well :)

im on fixed income can i do plants in a plastic tank?/beta fish?

Been keeping fish for ages now, and didn't even know what they ment lol!

is the degree conversion from PPM using German degrees?

Anyone know which livebearer is shown at at 7:29?

Our water never changes in pH and KH/GH are always high so we never test those unless we are experimenting.

My Gh remains around 21-22dGh (across three tanks) but my kh is around 4-6Dkh. Plants are a pain to keep but I’m slowly buying test kits and reasearching. Any recommendations?

I had multitest 6in1 strips and they showed that my parameters were just fine (No nitrite, low nitrate, KH ~8, pH ~6.8) Tested weekly and kept track in a spreadsheet. I was happy with what I saw, but then all my fish started to die.. first one a week, then eventually several per day. No indication according to the strips. I bought a JBL Testlab kit, and found out that my nitrites were off the scale (4-6 ppm), pH was >8, KH was 3. So, THAT's why they died. After some weeks of testing, water changes, added pH buffers and water conditioners, I have it under control. All my shrimp died and half of my fish stock :( So, test strips? I didn't have the best experience with that.

What's the relationship between TDS and all that you talked about? If I can measure TDS and pH, can I come to some more conclusions based on that?

Of is actually not to bad getting aquarium water were You want or need it to be.

0:49 what fish is that

Generally, grocery stores have ro water on tap.

I use rainwater from tanks….. do you know if this ok?❤️🇦🇺

Cool info

I've been considering not vaccuming up the mulm in my tank. I always thought it impacted my tanks' water quality badly, but I was doing another search recently, and I couldn't find proof of that. I've had a lot of trouble trying to keep my sand clean. I'm at the point that I don't want to do that and let some mulm accumulate and have a more bioactive tank with the plants in it already. Do you have any thoughts on mulm?

My nitrate is 40 and my nitrite is 1 is this ok ?

A suggested topic... Buffering our water. The why, hows, and what fors.

I have very high ph and very hard water, 8.5-9.0 ph, 180ppm gh and 180 Ppm kh.

Beautiful chocolate gouramis

Is 1,000 ppm okay?

If my water was any harder, it could stand up on its own. In my area, people either have well water or city water. The local fish stores will ask about your water and make recommendations based on that. For plants, I've figured out what grows and what doesn't. I only buy what grows. My tank has crypts, anubias, water sprite, (Vals work too), floating plants, and a random buce.

Why aren’t you treating your tap water with a de- chloronator prior to placing it in your aquarium?

Highly disagree on the RODI subject. I believe it should be a requirement for keeping fish to use rodi and only rodi unless you are on filtered rain/well water or something with nothing bad filtering it. 1 it kills any chance of pollutants going into tank from tap, and 2 its a blank slate to make the water from your fish's evolved native environment. Also it is a lot easier then battling tap water to lower or raise ph long term. Things like Seachem Equilibrium, seachem alkaline buffer, and seachem acid buffer make making rodi water simple math on the freshwater side. On the saltwater side its even easier to use rodi all you need is a salt mix that's it. If fear of using rodi is the only thing keeping you from saltwater you really need to get a brs rodi filter and learn its not hard and it will open both sides of the hobby to you. I think you would really like pico and nano reefing with colorful shrimp and hermits from what ive seen of your small planted setups.

Our water company says that our water ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 ppm. It tastes awful! What fish will work in our water? I hope it's not just guppies and expensive African cyclids. Maybe this is why no one sells fish in this city?

👍❤👍

You say "3 degrees" but my test strips go by digits in tenths, like 40 - 80 in KH and 50 to 100 GH for example. Oy vey!!! I am so confused.

pH = potential hydrogen Don't know why it's potential as its always there even when neutral.

I wouldn’t recommend beginners to use RODI water.

Ugh why did you recommend that Petsmart Aquatic Substrate! Terrible! A bunch of it floats to the top in little balls and pools! Ugh! 👎

Your fish tank is so dirty