Cape Town Water Parameters

Hey all

In preparing for my new aquarium I've been investigating some of the water sources around Cape Town in terms of their water parameters.

In my other hobby life of brewing beer it was necessary to use spring water to get the best results. There were two sources which I used - Newlands Spring and Bradwell Spring Vredehoek. With beer, the softer the water the better so Newlands Spring water made the best beer.

Here are the water parameters that I found:

Newlands Spring:
pH: +-5.5
GH: 0-3
KH: ~0

Bradwell Spring:
pH: +-6.0
GH: 4-7
KH: 0-3

Tap (standing for 90 minutes or so):
pH: +- 7.0
GH: 4-7
KH: 3-6

Tested using a Sera pH test kit and the JBL Easy strips which came with my aquarium. I have my doubts about the pH values of the test strips - as they all reflected <=6.4

Definitely keen to hear from the rest of the community on their findings in CT, and thoughts on what are the best test kits to use for measuring across these key values?

Peace

 

Definitely share those doubts - I find that you have to watch for reactions between the test patches as well.
The pH and multi-measurement pens don't seem too bad in terms of prices but then they don't measure KH. It seems that if you want something that can measure KH as well then you have to fork out proper money and get a specific meter for that.

 

Thanks [mention]A new day [/mention]

Super useful to know - my plan was to pick up some liquid tests over the coming week. Which do you use?

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/...in-tanks-due-to-aquasoils-softwater-a-concern

I actually found that link quite interesting Ito of buffering and dealing with pH swings.

My plan is to use a 50/50 mix of water from Bradwell spring and tap with 30% weekly water changes. So we’ll see how it pans out.


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I'm experiencing the same in the Northern suburbs.