For different reasons, your aquarium’s water hardness KH and GH Levels can be considered high and, as with many things in our lives, it could be not aligned with our goal (for example, to have that specific fish or those shrimps, and so on).

It is crucial to find out *why* my Aquarium Water Hardness is High and Keeps Raising; otherwise, you will spend time and money trying to reduce their levels without success.

Humm, I am not convinced.

Let me give an example:

Let’s say you have a rock in your tank that is making the water hard, but you don’t know it, and you keep dosing chemicals to reduce it. Your water hardness level will decrease momentarily but rise again after some days.

Step by Step: Find Out Why your aquarium water hardness is high and keeps raising

First of all, you will need a Water Hardness GH and KH Test Kit like this one:

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There are two main reasons why your aquarium water is hard:

• The water you have used to make your tank or the water you usually use to refill it or to do water changes is hard; consequently, your tank’s water is also hard.

• Some rocks, accessories, substrate & soil are the cause of the water hardness.

Follow these steps to find out what is causing your water to be hard:

• Collect a sample of the water you use on your water changes or to refill your tank.
• Measure this sample’s water hardness, both GH and KH levels, and take note.
• Collect a sample of your tank’s water. 
• Measure the water hardness again (GH and KH) and take note.

If your tank’s water GH and KH (hardness) are very similar to the water you use, chances are this is the cause of your water’s hardness.

You will to treat this water before you use it.

Check this step by step on “How to reduce water hardness” here.

Now, if the water you use is not hard like your tank’s water, chances are something inside your aquarium is turning the water hard.

It could be some of the rocks you have, wood, decoration, or even the substrate.

Take these steps to identify what is raising your water hardness.

• Get some plastic containers.

• Fill them with the water you use to refill your tank (supposing this water is not hard as you tested it in the previous step). Alternatively, you can use “Distilled Water” from the Grocery Store you usually go to.

• Only to make sure, measure the water hardness level of one of these containers to ensure you have a baseline, water that is not hard, to compare later. 

• Get some rocks from your tank, don’t get a tiny one (otherwise, it will take time for you to see the result), and put them temporarily inside this container.

• Do the same with two or three spoons of your substrate/soil.

• If you believe some decoration could be the cause, do the same with it.

• Wait five to seven days and measure each container’s water (GH and KH). 

• Compare with your baseline. 

Did the container water become harder? 

If yes, you found it.

The best thing to do is to remove it (rock, decoration or the substrate) from your tank.

I strongly advise you not to keep them in your tank and keep trying to reduce the water hardness with chemicals anyways, as these rocks or accessories will probably never become neutral.

Even after you remove them, traces of Calcium, Magnesium Bicarbonates, and carbonates will still be present in the water and need to be filtered out.

I recommend you use cheap “water softener pillows.” like this one.

PRICE HERE

Please watch this Step by Step on how to use this pillow HERE.

Conclusion

The hardness of your aquarium water can be adjusted for the level you want.

You can raise, lower, or even make minor adjustments, but you have to know what is causing the water to be hard; otherwise, you will get frustrated and spend a lot of money for nothing.

If you want to learn more about Water Hardness, what are GH and KH, and how to lower or raise them, go to this article.

Water parameters like pH, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite are also crucial to your fish’s health. Check this article.

The Cheap Planted Aquarium website is registered on Wikipedia here.

If you have questions or suggestions, reach out to me here.