water chemistry basics:what you need to know

[catfishmike]

with all of the talk about ph,hardness,trace elements etc...
i thought it might be nice to put some general info into a sticky(ya i know this is kinda late)if you see something that i have mistranslated,let me know.i would like to make this as accurate as possible without plagerizing the materials i have sourced this info from.
most of this info is paraphrased from an article in the dec.2003 issue of tropical fish hobbist.see if you had a subscription you'd know this already here goes:

ph:a measurement of how acid or alkaline water is.
when the hydrogen ion content of water is greater than the content of hydroxyl,this brings the water towards acidic on the ph scale
when there is a greater concentration of hydroxyl ions this causes the ph to rise on the alkaline side of the ph scale.
the measurement of ph is logarithmic,meaning that each progression on the scale is tenfold the previous number.e.g.water with a ph of 8.0 has ten times hydroxyl concentraion of water with a ph of 7.0
while water with a ph of 5.0 would be ten times as acidic as water with a ph of 6.0 and one hundred times as acidic as water with a ph of 7.0

kh:carbonate hardness,the measure of carbonate and bicarbonate ions dissolved in water.carbonate hardness,helps to stabilize the ph of water.
water with a low concentration of carbonate hardness(50ppm or less) will tend to result in acidic conditions.
water with greater concentrations(200ppm or greater) result in basic or alkaline conditions.

gh:general hardness,the measure of calcium and magnesium ion concentraions dissolved in water.water with concentrations of 200 ppm of gh is considered "hard"
while water with less than 50-100 ppm is considered "soft"

sources cited
tropical fish hobbist dec 2003
water chemistry,bob fenner

aquarium pharmaceuticals
frehwater mater test kit 2000

edit:everyone is welcome to contribute.the better this is the more info we can share with new members

[Somonas]

nice
I think the Number 1 Thing of Importance that ppl forget is not to change your PH/KH/GH unless you absolutely have to!.

[Cichlid-Man]

I agree. Very nice Mike.

I've never even used my KH/GH test kits

[blueturq]

you need to worry about KH/GH

this is a good article catfishmike !!

[RootBeerFan]

Really great info-I was never sure what gH and kH were used for. What type of fish are sensitive to them? Angels maybe?

[Jaybug]

I have very soft water, and anyone living on the west side of the cascades will more than likely have soft water. So I am curious as to what to look for in a softness buffer. I had a jar of stuff, but have no idea what was in it. I guess as it is not for human consumption, there is no federal requirement to inform the buyer. I ask this, because if buffers are like vitamins, some just will not do the job they are touted as doing. Should I do tests as with calcium pills? Put pill in vinegar and see if it dissolves in 1/2 hour? If it does, it is a good pill.

[TaffyFish]

This is a tough subject to get across to newbies because it's chemistry! I mean, I'm sure a lot of people will stop reading as soon as they come across "hydrogen ions" and "concentration of hydroxyl ions"......I think you need to get it into plain English for it to work on MFT, otherwise you might as well just post a link to many other perfectly good articles which assume something about the reader.
Why not base the sticky on a series of FAQ's? The same sort of questions keep coming up so might this approach work best?

What's the ideal pH for my fish?
Should I change my pH?
Why does my pH change?
Why is pH stability important?
What's the difference between KH and GH?
What does buffering mean?
Should I make my water harder or softer?
Why is making water harder easier than making it softer?
Should I use bottled mineral water or water from a softener?

[wayne]

Jaybug you are overly suspicious. If you are trying to raise kH, gH and/or pH the commercial buffers are just fine as they are fancy branded pots of common chemicals like epsom salts in a slightly more user friendly packet. You add the stuff , it dissolves and the increaed ion content gives the desired result. All brands should work.
pH reduction potions are all b**l though.

Root beer fan - most acid water fish are equally sensitive or more so to hard water conditions. Soft water and acid go hand in hand in most natural enviroments.

Taffyfish - I'm pretty certain there's a bottom level of 'nonscience' you can go to here before you have to invent phrases to describe phenomona, and we're pretty much there. Of your questions there are only 3 that have a straight answer.

[TaffyFish]

.... and that's exactly why the same topic keeps coming up time and time again. There's a difference between making information available and making it appear relevant to many. No offense intended to catfishmike or the average mft reader, but if you don't use the KISS approach, it'll go way above the heads of most people you're trying to help.

It takes skill to get these things across in plain language, that's why teachers are so undervalued.

This link was posted on another thread here, this guy can reach an audience:-

http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/salt.shtml



__________________

[catfishmike]

well taffy,you may just be right.i don't expect everyone to be able to jump right in and pick up chemistry as if they where still in school,i know i sure don't.i basicly put those definitions up as a basic,in hopes that it will grow and become comprehensive.on the other end of the spectrum,i am a firm beliver in self education,and i'm not about to hold someone's hand through chemistry course for their benifit.also i put it that way as to not mislead anyone by trying to "dumb it down" and leaving the reader feeling empowered with half baked knowledge.i'd rather them leave confued about the truth than thinking they know something and have it all wrong.but your absolutly right,perhaps someone will give us a laymans look at it,and put it into perspective.