# Help with understanding water quality report



## AAB (24 Jun 2012)

Below is the water quality report for my area from my water company's website.  Can somebody please help me interpret these in plain english? (or point in the right direction where I can do it myself).  The main things I am interested in is what is my tds, kh and gh. 

Calcium 23.1250 mg Ca/l
Magnesium 1.8450 mg Mg/l
Residual chlorine - free 0.16 mg/l Cl2
Residual chlorine - total 0.23 mg/l Cl2
Coliforms 0 no/100ml
E-coli 0 no/100ml
Aluminium 30.404 µg Al/l
Colour 1.26 mg/l Pt/Co Scale
Conductivity 166.15 µS/cm
Fluoride 0.048 mg F/l
pH (Hydrogen Ion Conc.) 7.69 pH Units
Iron 9.31 µg Fe/l
Manganese 2.12 µg Mn/l
Nitrate 2.3710 mg NO3/l
Nitrite 0.0118 mg NO2/l
Sodium 7.87 mg Na/l
Turbidity 0.137 NTU
Copper 0.0056 mg Cu/l
Lead 0.233 µg Pb/l


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## ceg4048 (24 Jun 2012)

Hello,
        Well it says right there in the middle of the list that your waters conductivity is 166 microsiemens per centimeter. So just use the approximate conversion equation (TDS)ppm = Conductivity x 0.67 at 25 decgrees.C. So according to your numbers your TDS on average will be about 111ppm. This is not super accurate by any means, but it should be good enough for our purposes.

Cheers,


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## AAB (24 Jun 2012)

Thanks ceg, I thought it will be somewhere in these numbers but did not knew what to look for and how to convert it, so thanks for clarifying that for me. 

What about gh and kh?


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## ceg4048 (24 Jun 2012)

Well, there is no information in that list about the KH (or really it's the alkalinity). You might have missed something on the original dataset. Normally, the alkalinity will be shown in terms of Carbonate CaCO3 or bicarbonte HCO3.

Anyway, the data for General hardness is listed right at the top. For our purposes, by definition, general hardness is a measure of the Calcium and Magnesium. Normally this is reported as equivalent concentration of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) but in this report it looks like they just gave the direct Calcium and Magnesium concentration. 

I'll ignore the Mg because it's so low. Calcium is 40% by weight of CaCO3 so this means you have the equivalent of 23.125/0.4 = 57.81 ppm CaCO3
The conversion from ppm CaCO3 to German degrees is roughly: ppm CaCO3/17.84
So your GH is around 57.81/17.84 = 3.2 dGH

So, there you have it. You water is fairly soft but is low in nutrients such as Nitrate, Iron and Magnesium. So you need to pay attention to your nutrient dosing especially if you intend to use CO2. The KH for this type of water will typically be low also. I really wouldn't do anything special or make any adjustments. People in London kill for this kind of water. Dwarf chiclids and discus will do well in this. Doing laundry and taking a bathy must also be a real pleasure. I'll bet it tastes good too.  

Cheers,


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## AAB (24 Jun 2012)

Ceg thanks again for your detailed expalination.  Above are the only readings I have found on water company's site, but knowing that my gh is roughly 3.2 will do for now.  My main concern was regarding my shrimp tank (crs and rcs) that I have recently set up. I have read that crs do well in gh 4-6 but I had no idea what my readings were.  I can now use the the shrimp mineral supplement that I got with my tank which is suppose to increase the gh.  Nutrient dosing wise, I use 'tnc complete' in both my setups (60l with CO2 injection and 30l fluval ebi with excel).

And yes my yorkshire water tastes great!

Thanks again mate - appreciate your help.


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## leemonk (25 Jun 2012)

Mind if i just jump in on the end of this? This is my brief report:

Hi,

Rather than starting a new thread, I hope you don't mind if I hijack a little.

This is the minor detail report from my area of Thames Water:


Water supply zone 	Total hardness (various measurements)
mgl CaCO3 (ppm) 	250.5
Degrees Clarke 	        17.5
Degrees German(DH) 14.0	
Degrees French 	        25.1
Detergent rating 	HARD
Fluoride(ppm)            0.125


There is a far far more detailed one that would require a few page of forums !!

Am I right in just taking away from this that my water is Hard? I know that anyways, but is there anything else here that is useful? (or is this information useless).

Regards


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (25 Jun 2012)

leemonk said:
			
		

> Mind if i just jump in on the end of this? This is my brief report:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> ...




It means get an RO Filter


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## ceg4048 (25 Jun 2012)

leemonk said:
			
		

> ...Am I right in just taking away from this that my water is Hard? I know that anyways, but is there anything else here that is useful? (or is this information useless)...


Hi, 
   Yes, as Nathaniel noted, the water is hard. Any values above 8 German degrees is considered hard, but so what? As I mentioned to the OP, it's great if you have low TDS water coming from tap but if not, just get on with it. It's really not going to make much difference to your plants (with the exception of a very few species) and there's no problem keeping your fish unless you want to breed soft water species.

Cheers,


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## leemonk (25 Jun 2012)

thanks chaps.


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## rebel (17 Mar 2016)

leemonk said:


> Mind if i just jump in on the end of this? This is my brief report:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> ...


The kH value would have more influence on plants than the gH value IMHO.

You can reduce kH If you wanted by adding HCL or vinegar....


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