Water hardness according to Amano

azappetti

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Hola:
All Amano aquariums have a TH of 20 mg/liter. Is not the water very soft?
GH and TH are the same? There are tests for KH and GH. Is the GH test the same as TH?
My problem is that I have tap water with 200 mg/liter of total hardness.
Saludos y muchas gracias
 

Allwissend

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For most of the cases dealing with aquariums total hardness= general hardness = permanent hardness

While hard, at 200mg/l CaCo3 equivalent I would not worry about this. Most plants grow well in such waters, provided other factors are present of course

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
 

Allwissend

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So, why does Amano use softer water?
I think in part because that's what he had access to. Later, Ada AS would all reduce the GH and KH resulting in softer water.

Plenty of people on this forum and in Europe have access to much harder water and manage to grow most types of plants without difficulty. At least not from water hardness...
 

VaughnH

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I don't think Aquasoil reduces GH, or, at least I haven't heard about it if it does. I do think it reduces KH. Plants need calcium and magnesium, the components of GH, so a substrate that reduces GH would not be better than one that doesn't. When we refer to water being too hard for certain plants, aren't we referring to KH and not GH? The EI dosing method even includes adding GH booster, making me think that there is a broad range of GH that is good for plants.
 

azappetti

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The test that commercializes ADA is for TH and not GH or KH.
They are not interested in KH.
Method EI adds Mg, but only 10 ppm per week. In soft water (20 mg/l), this dose would not raise the TH
 

Allwissend

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Hi @azappetti,

Could I ask you what you understand by TH ?

Because for me, TH stands for Total Hardness which is mainly GH, as reported by the common kits. Or at least the molar concentrations of all multivalent cations in water, so Ca, Mg, Fe, Ba, Mn. But most of the number will be given by Ca and Mg cations. As such Mg addition will increase TH. If we are speaking in °dGH , 10mg/L Mg will increase GH/TH by 2.32°dGH.
 

azappetti

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Yes, you are right. This would raise the hardness by 41.4 mg/l. If we start with TH = 20 mg/l, the hardness would increase by more than 200%!
So, what are the concentrations of ADA fertilizers?
 

Allwissend

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So, what are the concentrations of ADA fertilizers?

Well that is the reason why you pay hundreds of times more for their bottles, because they know the secret to plant life, they discovered what nobody knows. And they keep it a secret. They know what major and minor nutrients are needed by plants. Nobody else has access to plant science....

Wait, they do ? It is is common knowledge ? Oh, well... still many folks pay up.

In all seriousness now, Ada mix of ingredients is considered a "trade secret" and not publicly available. Nevertheless, it is not hard or illegal to measure what it adds to the water. Tom Barr had this analysis published in one of the newsletters. If you are a subscriber I think you have access to them. If not.. subscribe and support the website or google.
 

azappetti

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I read Tom Barr's article. ADA fertilizers do not add Mg or Ca! If this is correct, ADA fertilizers would not increase the hardness.