Re: Grains per gallon hardness reading?

[Charles]

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:26:23 -0500, "Lady Two-Fish"
> wrote:

>Hi,
> Can anyone tell me how to translate Grains Per Gallon of water hardness to ppm or GH?
>
> My water company says that our water is soft,which I agree with,but when asked for an actual
>number,the lady gave me 7.72 Grains Per Gallon,which is listed as hard on the web pages I've read.
>
> I'm used to ppm or gh readings and want to be able to convert her number to something more familiar
>to me, it just doesn't sound accurate for our current water supply.
>
>Any help would be appreciated,
>
>Lady Two-Fish


My water company equates 30 grains per gallon to 507 ppm..

some info here:

http://www.waterdrs.com/hardwater.htm


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

[Buzzard Face]

"Charles" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:26:23 -0500, "Lady Two-Fish"
> > wrote:
>
> >Hi,
> > Can anyone tell me how to translate Grains Per Gallon of water hardness
to ppm or GH?
> >
> > My water company says that our water is soft,which I agree with,but when
asked for an actual
> >number,the lady gave me 7.72 Grains Per Gallon,which is listed as hard on
the web pages I've read.
> >
> > I'm used to ppm or gh readings and want to be able to convert her number
to something more familiar
> >to me, it just doesn't sound accurate for our current water supply.
> >
> >Any help would be appreciated,
> >
> >Lady Two-Fish
>
>
> My water company equates 30 grains per gallon to 507 ppm..
>
> some info here:
>
> http://www.waterdrs.com/hardwater.htm
>
>
> --
>
> - Charles
> -
> -does not play well with others


Learn something new everyday. So each grain = 16.9 ppm (507ppm / 30 grains)
17.9 ppm equates to 33 Microsiemens or 1 dH.

7.72 grains * 16.9 = 130.468 ppm = (130.468/17.9) = 7.288 dH.

I'd say that's fairly soft water.

Buzz

[Charles]

>
>Learn something new everyday. So each grain = 16.9 ppm (507ppm / 30 grains)
>17.9 ppm equates to 33 Microsiemens or 1 dH.
>
>7.72 grains * 16.9 = 130.468 ppm = (130.468/17.9) = 7.288 dH.
>
>I'd say that's fairly soft water.
>
> Buzz
>
>
>
Sorta, kinda.

The 16.9 is a bit suspect, the city may have rounded off the numbers.
I have seen the number 17.1 used for this conversion.

The microsiemens is an approximation, it is measuring conductivity,
not the particular chemicals causing the conductivity.

Hardness used no mean how much calcium and magnesium was in the water.
If you added table salt the conductivity, the microsiemens, would go
u-p but the Ca/Mg hardness would stay the same.

Hardness of 130 ppm is considered hard by the water industry.

http://wilkes.edu/~eqc/hard1.htm

It would be very soft compared to what I have for tap water.
--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

[NetMax]

"Lady Two-Fish" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the responses and help, I wish I had you guys math skills...
>
> My own tests indicate a GH level of the water -directly from the tap-
at below 3,almost unreadable.
> The water has almost no buffer on its own so the PH has to be
constantly monitored or it crashes
> down below the minimum reading of my test kit,it's a struggle to keep
it hovering around 6.5 (PH)
> plus there's absolutely no hard water deposits anywhere,not even a
dusting and I've lived here for
> 11 years (tank and fish are 2 1/2 years old) so I'm stumped.
>
> I'm wondering if they're using some sort of water softener and the
reading is taken *before*
> treatment or they used to draw on a harder water source at some point
and haven't changed their
> records,the lady I talked to couldn't even tell me the PH and had no
clue whether or not they soften
> the water.
>
> I have a 35 gallon high tank with only two angels, more fish than that
made it too unstable to
> maintain even with twice weekly 40-50% water changes.The angels are
fine and have never been sick
> but I want to start another tank anyway and work on buffering it with
marble chips or coral before
> adding fish, I'm going crazy with just two fish here and want more
variety and challenge....try
> going to an aquarium club meeting with only two angelfish to talk
about,humiliating,lol.
>
> I'll probably just go by my own readings and set up the new tank
slowely,fishless cycling and
> buffering to boost the hardness to a decent level for a few weeks and
see what happens, something
> just isn't adding up right with their readings.
>
>
> (Funny thing is that years ago when I lived in a hard water area and
had several tanks of fish that
> required hard water, I used to wish for soft water like this so I could
keep angelfish successfully,
> thinking it would be easy to maintain, but I guess the old adage is
true ... "Be careful what you
> wish for,you may get it...." :)
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Lady Two-Fish

FWIW, the strategy I use for weakly buffered water is as follows
1) big tanks : a larger volume of water changes pH more slowly, making it
easier to correct and less stress on the fish.
2) low fish load : more food = more waste = more acidification
3) fine minerals : coral, aragonite substrate and/or filters filled with
coarser minerals (chunks of coral, aragonite, marble, limestone etc)
4) rockwork : coral, marble, limestone, tufa stone, petrified wood etc.
5) minimal vegetation : their overall effect might be neutral (plants
remove nitrogen products which have acidification potential, but they
also remove minerals from the water for cell construction), but I'm
aiming for stability, so I keep to a modest amount of plants, usually
thicker type plants where broken rotting material can be easily removed
from the system.
6) minimal driftwood : natural wood reduces hardness and adds tannic
acid, so I only use a small amount of wood (proportionally to the water
and fish-load) or I use artificial wood.
7) less substrate : less area to collect detritus which acidifies the
water, easier to gravel vacuum.

Someone wrote that peat has a stabilizing effect on low pH, so when I
have a chance, I'm going to research this. They might have been mistaken
or confused, but it would be interesting if the pH could be stabilized in
the low to mid 6s.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[NetMax]

"The Outcaste" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:26:23 -0500, "Lady Two-Fish"
> > bubbled forth the following:
>
> >Hi,
> > Can anyone tell me how to translate Grains Per Gallon of water
hardness to ppm or GH?
> >
> > My water company says that our water is soft,which I agree with,but
when asked for an actual
> >number,the lady gave me 7.72 Grains Per Gallon,which is listed as hard
on the web pages I've read.
> >
> > I'm used to ppm or gh readings and want to be able to convert her
number to something more familiar
> >to me, it just doesn't sound accurate for our current water supply.
> >
> >Any help would be appreciated,
> >
> >Lady Two-Fish
>
> This site has a list of conversions to/from grains, ppm, and Clark,
> French, and German Degrees:
> http://www.wiktel.com/standards/hardnes.htm
>
> So the math works out as 7.72 grains = 132.012 ppm or 7.369 German dgH
>
> HTH
>
> Jerry

Thanks Jerry *bookmarked*. I thought grains were about the same as
degrees, but without a conversion site for it, I kept my mouth closed.
--
www.NetMax.tk