# GH and KH for planted tank?



## Khai (Mar 30, 2012)

So I almost have everything to setup my planted tank. It's going to be a 10 gallon, med-high light, EI dosing with dry ferts, and excel. Planning to get cherry shrimps in the future as well. Theres only one question left before I feel confident I have everything I need before I start.

My question is do I need to increase the GH and KH? I live in vancouver, so I think our water is low in those. If so, what's a good level GH and KH for cherry shrimps and a planted tank and how do I keep the levels stable. Also, do I need to add GH and KH boosters after every water change to keep it at constant levels?

Any good, cheap products that work if I need to use it?

Thanks!


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## rdale2 (Nov 16, 2011)

I live downtown and my GH and KH from the tap is 2-3 degrees, so quite low (I think the min. recommended is 5). I usually add a bit of Seachem Equilibrium after water changes to bring it up to at least 5-7. I also add some baking soda to raise the KH. Check out Rex's Planted Tank Guide (google it) to see ideal water parameters. It's my understanding that there is quite a large acceptable range for GH/KH, but it is still pretty low coming from the tap in Vancouver.


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## alexbn024 (Mar 9, 2012)

Its been a while since I lived in Vancouver, if I am not mistaken it is in the range of 0.25-0.75 degrees of KH and GH with pH close to neutral, so it is very soft. Here, on the island, it is ~ 1 degrees of KH and GH. It would be a good idea to invest into test kit (API for instance) and KH/GH kit. This will give you some data that you need to work with. I am only few month in the planted/shrimp tank hobby, here is what I learned.

Something obvious, depending on the substrate you are planing to use, your KH/GH and pH might be affected. For instance, ADA Amazonia will probably get your pH to ~ 6.6 (not sure about KH/GH, probably will not affect it). Crushed coral and some types of gravel will raise your KH/GH and pH (hard to control here). For the shrimps, as far as I understand, GH and TDS(total dissolved solids) is more important, you can use Mosura minerals Plus(Patrick from Canadianaquatics has them) or Excel Equilibrium (JL Aquatics). If you get GH to ~ 4-5 and TDS to ~150, you should be fine.

With plants it is hard to say, based on water that your shrimps like, you can select many plant species. What matters is the CO2 which stays the same regardless of KH value as long as there's some KH. If your plants require CO2, I guess Excel will take care of it (I am using CO2 injection and can't comment on Excel). Here is good resource for shrimp keeping.

Maybe somebody will add more


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Khai said:


> So I almost have everything to setup my planted tank. It's going to be a 10 gallon, med-high light, EI dosing with dry ferts, and excel. Planning to get cherry shrimps in the future as well. Theres only one question left before I feel confident I have everything I need before I start.
> 
> My question is do I need to increase the GH and KH? I live in vancouver, so I think our water is low in those. If so, what's a good level GH and KH for cherry shrimps and a planted tank and how do I keep the levels stable. Also, do I need to add GH and KH boosters after every water change to keep it at constant levels?
> 
> ...


If you're dosing EI, part of the regiment is a GH booster to add Mg/Ca. Or do you mean you're just dosing NPK?


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## Khai (Mar 30, 2012)

2wheelsx2 said:


> If you're dosing EI, part of the regiment is a GH booster to add Mg/Ca. Or do you mean you're just dosing NPK?


Ah, I meant I only have the macro and micro ferts. Did not know GH boosting was part of the regimen. Guess I need to add more stuff to my list before I set everything up.

So is Equilibrium and baking soda okay for increasing GH and KH then? The baking soda won't have much effect on the pH will it? I want to try to keep the pH at ~6.8-7.2


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## miyabi-aqua (May 20, 2011)

Khai said:


> Ah, I meant I only have the macro and micro ferts. Did not know GH boosting was part of the regimen. Guess I need to add more stuff to my list before I set everything up.
> 
> So is Equilibrium and baking soda okay for increasing GH and KH then? The baking soda won't have much effect on the pH will it? I want to try to keep the pH at ~6.8-7.2


Baking soda will have adverse effect on kH and pH but will not increase gH. You want to bring down your pH to 6.5 by injecting CO2 while maintaining gH and kH at 3. You add Calcium Carbonate (SeaChem Equilibrium) and baking soda to bring up the gH and kH. This will bring up your pH...but by injecting CO2, your pH will start to go down but will not crash because of the carbonate (from baking soda). pH should stabilize at 6.5.


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