Let's Talk About Low KH But High pH 

Thanks, Dan Really appreciate the clarity of your explanation.

I've been having troubles understanding the ph but this explanation helps a lot and moves me closer to understanding it.

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Got something to chew on now. Thanks for giving such a broad overview. You have just saved me from banging my head on my keyboard for MORE hours doing ONE very specific Google search! 99.9% failure rate there! 2HR Aquarist & you have been the only real help in hundreds of results: low KH high pH very high GH. my tank transforms low KH neutral pH low GH (filtered) tap water. Lightly stocked well planted mostly rhizome plants. 330 litres/87gallons total including sump. 2 inch bed pebble sand yellow clay. Well established& fish are happy but plants have lost vigor. I haven't used much fert up till now. Anyone wanting to add their experience, much appreciated.

Thank you. This was really helpful. I have a PH of 8.2 and a KH of 3. I think you're right about the plants pulling the Co2 and nitrite out of the water. I'm going to do a small water change to try and help. My PH has not been stable and I've been trying to sort this out for a while.

Wow, thank you so much Dan! This makes complete sense, my kH did drop to 0 in my tank when I went negligent on water changes, and pH dropped to about 7.4 or 7.6. I think my plants were able to consume the CO2 from the fish, before it acidified the water too much. This video reinforced how important it is in my case to stay on top of water changes especially with my water chemistry. No more excuses for me :) I appreciate you making such a well thought out video to answer this, it really helps.

thank you, I've been trying to understand how I need to tweak my tap water for starting a planted tank and this helped a lot!

This was a great answer Makes perfect sense to me!! I have had this exact issue PH around 6.5 out of the tap (Well water) KH 2or3 GH 3or4 PH Will rise to around 8.5 once it starts gassing out the CO2... But then will drop again given some time running through my systems.... Been a tricky water to use - large water changes are out of the question!!! They absolutely shift enough up then down to kill fish.. Sorted the initial rise out by gassing out the water pre water change... And crushed coral in my systems sump- to be able to add buffing power once the PH drops below 7.... That's still a 1.5 drop in PH but it's gradual.... and with smaller regular water changes manageable😅 But this took ages to figure out!!! Most info I could find wasn't actually dealing with this - it was piecing it together This video was the best info I found!!! Wish I found it sooner!!!

New fish owner here! That helped a little thank you. My kh is 40ppm it said low and my pH is neutral range with 3 platys .I do 1 to 2 small water changes a week in a 10 gallon tank

Spot on Dan!

Excellent presentation.

Have this situation, and have spent some time trying to understand. It’s all about the search term. LOL Legit explanation, and totally supported by other tidbits I found, as well as my own experience. Thank you! Subscribe!

I believe u explained it pretty well, the fish pull trace elements out of the water witch lowers kh/gh and put out ammonia/co2 both of those will lower ph so either water changes or adding a buffer to match or higher the kh/gh to the amount of ammonia being put into the tank, so things like plants, drift wood, crushed coral things that can help act as a buffer. It still a weird situation need to know if the ph is stable in that tank cause it shouldn’t be but if it is I would like to see the setup

Thank you for this video! Subscribed

Thank you..my problem with well water

Thanks for making this video. I am always confused about these water measures. Recently, I set up a 125g using my hard tap water (well water) mixed with collected rainwater from my outdoor tanks. I also have a home softener system (salt) but did not use that water. I have an RO system as well, but it only outputs a few gallons a day and isn't useful for my tanks. So I decided to use rainwater, assuming it would be soft, pure water. Well the rainwater pH is actually very high at >7.6 but the KH is low. Hence how I came across this video. Low KH scares me because I have experienced huge pH drops, although it didn't seem to have any affect on the fish. After mixing with tap, the pH is still at >7.6 and the KH is now very high (11 drops). I am using the API master test kit to measure. My question is: What do we consider "soft" water? Low pH, low KH, or low GH? Or all three?

Seems to make sense.

Greeting from indonesia

Bravo!

I have problems with rising ph with a stable 4 dkh. Heavily planted tank. Understocked 60 gallons. Would adding liquid carbon daily help keep my ph from creeping up?

Would you mind telling us exactly what you use to test your water perameters? I've just lost my fish and I am seriously doubting the reliability and precision of the API drop test kit I have. What do you use that is the most reliable for accurate but also precise readings? Is there a company you can reccommend that you trust? I'm looking into electronic water testers but I am unsure which one to invest my money in.

So I have the exact parameters in my tap, kinda. pH 7.6, GH 3, KH 3. If I buffer the GH higher to about a GH of 10, would I be ok with the pH and KH for central american cichlids?

Could my kh drop if one of my sponge filter’s air stone runs out? I was clearly the two I had out and one of the air stones were basically gone

In how much time will the ph change from 7.5 to 6.5, in a fully planted aquarium, with no fish.

I have a pH of 7.4 & KH of 4 (now 3). What's the solution? I've just added soil substrate to my tank & sand. Should I get driftwood?

Co2 and add oxiden is too very inporten. Hi bubble hi ph. Hi co2 lov ph

I'm the opposite. I've a massive kh and a really low pH.

❤👌

This is a great explanation, in layman's terms, for items such as (pH, acids, bases, alkalinity, buffering capacity, nitrates). I see a lot of information on the internet that unknowingly intermingles these words, ultimately only further confusing the viewer eader. Really glad to see this presentation on the subject. However, I will say that I am still slightly confused on the nitrate issue, in one way. Being that nitrate is a "conjugate" base of nitric acid. My understanding is the the nitric acid either accepts a negatively charged ion or gives up a positively charged ion, respectively. So will that, in itself, alter the pH? Am in agreement with you on nitrates & their overall affect on fish. Good video. 📊📉📈📉📊 👍📺😎