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Section 1. TROUBLE SHOOTING
HOW DO I SOFTEN MY WATER?
This section covers reducing PH, KH and GH.
The harness of the water is made up of three key areas (as we explained
in the 'chemical make up of water' section) PH, KH and GH. All of
these work together to give a resulting hardness, it is therefore
important to work on all three when it comes to softening the water.
A serious tip when it comes to doing any alterations that will
affect the PH (whether it be up or down) is to do the changes without
any fish present when ever possible. Fish suffer severe stress when
the PH is changed. If fish are still present when you need to alter
the PH then it must be done on a very gradual basis, the stress
to the fish from shifting the PH more than 0.2 in any one action
can be devastating.
As we have mentioned earlier the PH is closely linked in with the
KH value. So in order to lower the PH you must also reduce the KH
to a level so that it doesn't push the PH back up after you have
reduced it. We have found from our own experience that the magic
level is a KH of 2, any higher and it will push the PH back up,
2 and lower will leave the PH where you put it. There are many commercial
PH reducing products available, but they will only work effectively
if the KH level is 2 or less.
The need to reduce the PH on it's own is not a common requirement;
it is more often the case that two or all three of the key elements
associated with water hardness are needing to be reduced. We will
approach 'softening the water' by explaining how to reduce all three
and then as you will see later we can always bring the PH, KH or
GH levels back up on their own. The best way to soften water is
to mix it with De-ionized or Reverse Osmosis (R/O) water. This is
water that has had the GH and KH stripped out of it, and as a result,
has an acidic PH value. When this is mixed with hard water it effectively
'waters down' the hardness and will reduce all three readings and
so soften the water. The more of this R/O water you add the softer
the water will become. There is no specific rule as to how much
you add to get a certain value as so much depends on how hard your
original water is and how soft you want to make it.
The only way to get the answers to these questions is to test
the water as you mix different amounts together, always record your
readings & amounts as you go along so that you can use them
for future reference.
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