Lonely clown loach

[chefkeith]

hardness is the gH
alkalinity is the kH

gH is a measure of Calcium and Magnesium.
kH is a measure of all the carbonates and bicarbonates in the water.

The risk part is a big question. I'm going to bail and get my turkey day stuff in a few minutes, so this will be very brief.

as for risk it depends on the size of the ions and the amount of ions that are being exchanged.

TDS meters only measure the conductive ions in the water.

I'll try to get back to this question in a few hours.

[chefkeith]

Here are some good articles to get started-

Osmosic shock-
http://www.msnusers.com/LyreTailsAquarium/osmosis.msnw

TDS -
http://www.msnusers.com/LyreTailsAquari ... olids.msnw

GH and KH-
http://www.msnusers.com/LyreTailsAquari ... ingph.msnw
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/w ... line.shtml
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/hard-slu.html

pH-
http://www.msnusers.com/LyreTailsAquari ... page5.msnw

oxygen and ammonia-
http://www.msnusers.com/LyreTailsAquari ... acity.msnw
http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~piwc/w3-r ... a/nh3.html

[slick666]

Wow, these were a great resource. took mcoupledays to read them all. Thanks