dKH and dGh Confused

[Carlos]

I have always been confused with the following,

Alkalinity is equal to general hardness? And to fish and plants how
important is general hardness?
When people talk about buffering capacity they are talking about dKH, right?
When people talk about not having enough buffering capacity or too much
buffering, they are talking about carbonate hardness, dKH?
When a PH up or PH down kit bounces and gets to the same reading after a few
days, is this too much buffering capacity?

Please advise.


thanks.

[NetMax]

"Carlos" > wrote in message
...
> I have always been confused with the following,
>
> Alkalinity is equal to general hardness?

Nope, General Hardness is gH, and Karbonate Hardness is kH (maybe it was
German spelling or something, but that's how I remember it).

And to fish and plants how
> important is general hardness?

Relatively important. Extremes will stress the fish and kill the plants.
Some fish like extremes and take some time to adapt (if they can adapt)
to the wrong gH. Spawning may be very difficult, if not impossible at
the extreme wrong gH.

> When people talk about buffering capacity they are talking about dKH,
right?

Yup, buffering capacity = alkalinity = carbonate hardness = kH in ppm or
mg/l or divide by 17.9 to get dkH (degrees tend to be standard aquaria
units).

> When people talk about not having enough buffering capacity or too much
> buffering, they are talking about carbonate hardness, dKH?

Yup

> When a PH up or PH down kit bounces and gets to the same reading after
a few
> days, is this too much buffering capacity?

Yup

NetMax

> Please advise.
>
>
> thanks.
>
>