What is water "Hardness" for fish tanks?

pleccy

New member
Jason P is spot on. Hardness will also affect the pH. For example if the hardness (either in dH or KH degrees) is low then this will also mean that the pH will be low.
 
Hardness refers to the number on the pH scale if the water is hard then it means its above 7 on the pH scale and if the water is soft its under 7 on the pH scale under 7 is the acidity measure and above 7 is the alkalinity measurement!

hope i helped!
 
hi, i am only asking this as soon i will be setting up a new tropical fish tank (my first one) and everywhere i go to read up about a fish's profile it had something saying:
Hardness: Soft to hard (dH: 5.0 - 19.0) - Extract Badman's Fish Profiles - Oscar

But what does it mean??
 
dH stands for degrees of Hardness.

There are two types of hardness. GH and KH.

GH is general hardness. It's the measurement of dissolved calcium and magnesium ions in the water.

KH is the carbonate hardness. It's the measurement of dissolved carbonates in the water. (Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, etc)

There are test kits that measure both. Typically they work by adding drops into a test sample of specific size until the water turns a specific color. The number of drops equals the dH.
 
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