kh and gh

[lpiasente]

Well you all know I am nervous so I just wanted to check a couple of things. The gh and kh really throws me know matter how much I read I have the aquarium pharmaceuticals tests kit. Kh doesn't give a colour change so I read that as fine for discus but the gh I had to add 12 drops before color change which I read as too high. Will I need to lower it and if yes how? Please forgive me for sounding silly but this is the easiest way for me to get it. :oops:

[lpiasente]

Sometimes you can read so much information that it all ends up in a scramble when you need it most. :oops:. This morning I woke up to neons and cardinals floating around the tank looking almost dead and discus not happy. Well can you imagine :( :( :( . I tested ph and a massive ph drop. It is all fixed for now and neons cardinals and discus are looking good. Here is my plan. Again just checking if it is the right thing to do. The kh out of the tap is 2 drops and the gh is 12 . I already age my water but if I add shell grit to up the kh and the sera peat to lower the gh. Can I just add the sera peat in a stocking or does it have to go into a filter? Then do I need to add both peat and shell grit to the canister or tank? And then is this the right thing to to? :roll: . Sorry I just want to get it right this time.

[zar]

Nothing will bring your gh down effectively except an RO Unit. You can get an ion exchange filter, but that works only to a certain extent, I used some water softenting ion exchange stuff and it only brought my gh down from 7 to a 5 not less.
If you don't want to breed, it probably won't be a problem. It's not optimal but I've read of people keeping discuss successfully at even higher gh, and ph of 8. Not sure about cardinals and high gh and ph..they're pretty soft :-D
Collecting rain water might be your cheapest option.