Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: ID2 on July 30, 2018, 03:23:19 PM

Title: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: ID2 on July 30, 2018, 03:23:19 PM
Hi All

I'm researching some fish, currently Sterba's cory and on Seriously Fish it says they need a water hardness of 1-15 degrees H.  What does the H stand for?  I have looked on the website for my local water board and its not clear what type of measurement this is.  Water hardness and all this type of stuff isn't my forte so the info might be there but I don't understand it lol.

TIA  :)
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: Sue on July 30, 2018, 03:39:24 PM
Water hardness can be confusing  :)

There are more different units used to measure hardness than anything else I can think of. Water companies can use any of half a dozen units, but fishkeeping uses just 2. Some fish profiles use one, some use the other, and even Seriously Fish profiles don't all use the same one.
But it is easy to covert any unit into any other - there are hardness calculators on line which can do this for you.

The other thing to understand is that some units have more than one name. So mg/l CaCO3 is the same as ppm. Degrees hardness and dH and degrees H are all ways of saying the same thing, and they are the same as German degrees.



If you have found the hardness section on your water company's site, copy and past what it says and we'll tell you which numbers you need  :)
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: ID2 on July 30, 2018, 09:45:08 PM
CaCO3 mg/l Water Hardness - 130
Ca mg/l - 52
Degrees Clarke - 9.10
Degrees French - 13.00
Degrees German - 7.28

'Slightly Hard'

Is that what you mean?

Thanks for your help  :)
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: fcmf on July 30, 2018, 09:59:55 PM
That's good news as far as the sterbai cories are concerned. Your 7.28 German degrees is right in the middle of the 1-15 dH range (ie German degrees hardness) required by sterbai cories.  :cheers:
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: Littlefish on July 30, 2018, 10:02:45 PM
Degrees German are commonly used. Your water of 7.28dH is fine for the sterbai cory, which require 1-15dH according to SF.
Your figure of 130mg/l also equates to 130ppm (the other unit used on SF), as Sue mentioned in her previous message.
It is better to use those two units, and completely ignore where your water company says "slightly hard".
 :)
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: ID2 on July 30, 2018, 10:08:54 PM
Thanks all :) very helpful!
Title: Re: Water Hardness Measurements Help Please :)
Post by: Sue on July 31, 2018, 09:44:14 AM
The others have beaten me to it  ;D

You just need to make a note of 2 of those numbers for comparing to fish profiles:
130 ppm
7.28 dH/degrees/degrees H