dutchy101 I have just cracked open the API drop test kit. Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question, but I presume I’m supposed to be looking at GH as opposed to KH?

Using the GH test kit, one drop turned the water in the tube green. If I understand correctly, with this testing kit, for boiler safe water I need to get to having to put 3 drops into the water in order to bring it to 53.7 or thereabouts (stage 3) on the conversion chart?

What would be the best way to harden the water? should I mix with some more tap water or should I be using something else?

Does the alkalinity take care of itself with the GH test, or do I need to do something else as well?

Apologies for the questions, just want to make sure I’ve got this right before putting in into a brand new Minima haha

  • Test both the GH — hardness and KH — Alkalinity
  • Please take 20 ml water for each test
  • 1 drop at a time, shake and proceed further. You stop when you get green for GH and yellow for KH
  • Multiply the number of drops using the table
  • Divide the result by 4 to get the 5 ml reading.
  • The result will be X mg/l
  • Plug that on Rob’s excel and post it here.
  • For alkalinity, you need at least 40 mg/l, which you can get by adding 50 mg/l of sodium bicarbonate.

      LMSC For alkalinity, you need at least 40 mg/l, which you can get by adding 50 mg/l of sodium bicarbonate.

      It’s 67mg/l Sodium bicarb for 40mg/l alkalinity but unless you’ve got lab scales you’ll probably need to make a concentrate instead.

      dutchy101 I have just cracked open the API drop test kit. Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question, but I presume I’m supposed to be looking at GH as opposed to KH?

      Ideally, control the KH for alkalinity and the zero water jug should keep GH down. You can mix with tap water or add potassium/sodium bicarb….or both if you want. Test for both. If you can’t fit 20ml in the test tube just use an espresso cup.

      • LMSC replied to this.

            Thanks guys. The test tubes provided are 5ml so will find a different vessel for the tests.

            Out of interest, do those with RO units do this test every time you make up a batch of water or do you just trust the RO to be consistent and work to the formula you’ve worked out?

            • LMSC replied to this.

              Rob1 It’s 67mg/l Sodium bicarb for 40mg/l alkalinity but unless you’ve got lab scales you’ll probably need to make a concentrate instead.

              Thx mate. Bizzare, the excel on my local disk shows 50 mg/l.

              Not sure what happened. I will grab another copy.

              • Rob1 replied to this.

                  dutchy101

                  dutchy101 Out of interest, do those with RO units do this test every time you make up a batch of water or do you just trust the RO to be consistent and work to the formula you’ve worked out?

                  No. I test the water from RO unit when I flush out every 4-5 weeks. It’s too much of a faff otherwise.😊

                      LMSC Thx mate. Bizzare, the excel on my local disk shows 50 mg/l.

                      The excel is correct on the screenshot, you’re just not looking at the right thing. The remineralisation page will show the correct amount of Sodium bicarb (or anything else) to add to get the desired alkalinity.

                      • LMSC replied to this.

                          I have a built in tds meter on my output

                          Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                          • LMSC replied to this.

                            Rob1 Oh I see. I will check the other sheet.

                            Cuprajake Please share if you can. I am not sure if it can be inserted into Rob’s excel.

                            Thx

                                Did anyone get to the bottom of is it better to add Potassium Bicarbonate or Sodium Bicarbonate to Ashbeck?

                                If so how much was needed to be added to a 5 litre bottle. I have attempted to use the linked spread sheet but I am just not getting it!

                                LMSC Test both the GH — hardness and KH — Alkalinity
                                Please take 20 ml water for each test
                                1 drop at a time, shake and proceed further. You stop when you get green for GH and yellow for KH
                                Multiply the number of drops using the table
                                Divide the result by 4 to get the 5 ml reading.
                                The result will be X mg/l
                                Plug that on Rob’s excel and post it here.
                                For alkalinity, you need at least 40 mg/l, which you can get by adding 50 mg/l of sodium bicarbonate.

                                OK, so I’ve just taken two 20ml samples. For hardness (GH) the water started to turn a very weak green after 1 drop and then a bit stronger after the 2nd and gets to a more solid green at about 4 drops. The same was true for the KH test to turn the water yellow but perhaps 5 drops to get to the more solid yellow.

                                Looking at the chart, the ppm level for 4 drops is 71.6, so if I’ve understood when you say “multiply the number of drops using the table” correctly, I should multiply that by 4 and then divide this again by 4 to give me the 5ml reading, which would be 71.6 for hardness?

                                Using the same method and 5 drops of the KH solution is 89.5 × 5 drops = 447 divided by 4 = 111.8 alkalinity

                                I’ve plugged these into the relevant section of the table.

                                  I think the table is giving you the 4 drop measure at 71.6, which should be divided by 4 to get the 5ml result.

                                  Cool - this makes sense. I wasn’t sure about the multiplying stage (I guess not all kits have charts, but might give a formula to work out instead. The table now looks like this:

                                  So this is the state of the zero water in terms of hardness and alkalinity. I now need to work out what I need to add in terms of remineralising to bring it to boiler safe levels.

                                  • Rob1 replied to this.

                                    dutchy101

                                    It is much lower than that. The moment the colour of the water changes is the moment you stop adding drops. So you stop at 1 drop for each test. You need to increase the sample size again to get a precise reading but it’s pretty safe to say it’s below 5mg/l for both, so essentially zero.

                                      Ok thanks that’s useful to know. Wasn’t sure how much of a colour change I should have been anticipating to determine when to stop adding drops.

                                      Will maybe try a 40ml sample next

                                      OK, so taking 40ml samples this time.

                                      GH test started to turn green after 2 drops, so this would be 35.8 / 8 = 4.475

                                      KH test started to turn yellow after 3 drops, so 53.7 / 8 = 6.7

                                      I’ve plugged those into the table:

                                      I think at this stage, I need to focus on remineralising and then retesting when done.

                                      I’ve used the desired hardness and alkalinity from the example sheet of 40 alkalinity and 30 hardness which suggests I need to 48.8mg per litre of sodium bicarbonate and 7mg/l of magnesium. I’m thinking making up a 100ml solution using 2.44g of sodium bicarbonate and 350mg of magnesium and then putting 10ml of this into each 5l bottle I filter through the Zero.

                                      Then do another sample test using the 5ml tubes?

                                      Next stupid question: Is there any particular type of magnesium I should be using? I have magnesium citrate capsules in the house that I can open and take the powder from if that is OK to use?

                                      • Rob1 replied to this.

                                        dutchy101

                                        Right, firstly that doesn’t show you need 48.8mg Sodium Bicarb, it shows you need 48.8mg/l Bicarbonate.

                                        The table below that shows how much sodium bicarb (or another source of bicarbonates to add).

                                        E.G The Molar mass of Sodium Bicarb = Molar mass of Sodum + Molar mass of Bicarbonate (1 of each)…..the molar masses are listed on the spreadsheet.

                                        The amount of bicarbonate you want to add is = to the bicarbonate required for alkalinity. The amount of sodium you get will be automatically calculated to the right hand side of the table based on this.

                                        Underneath you define whether or not you’re making a concentrate. Since you’re not you follow the instructions for that, from memory you change “the amount of concentrate to use” under “ml” to 1, “to be added to” to 0 the “amount of concentrate to make” to whatever quantity of water you are remineralising directly. This makes the dilution cell read “1” which is to say no dilution is taking place and you then define the quantity of water you’re dealing with….if you want to break the spreadsheet for future use you can just edit the red dilution cell to 1.

                                        So the amount of Sodium bicarb you need to add is defined by the bicarbonate you need to add to get the alkalinity with the addition of the sodium you will also add by default to get that alkalinity.

                                        Use the same process for whatever other source of Bicarb you might use and whatever source of hardness you use, as you’ve decided you want to add hardness. You have many sources of Mesgnesium to choose from, most people go for Sulfate or chloride but I don’t like either and wouldn’t want chloride in steel boilers.

                                          Thanks @Rob1 - I’ll take another look. Trying to run before I can walk there I think lol.

                                          Minima coming on Tuesday - if I’ve not got my head around this by then I’ll do this, or try mixing some tap water with pure water to get to the right level.

                                          MWJB Ashbeck is about 20mg/l alkalinity, you want 40-50mg/l. Let’s call it 45mg/l for arguments sake.

                                          Sodium bicarbonate added to water gives a result of about 60% as alkalinity.

                                          So divide 25 (20mg/l you already have, plus what you need to hit 45mg/l) by 60 and you get 40mg/l of sodium bicarbonate, multiply this by 5l and you add 200mg to 5l of Ashbeck. Use 0.01g scales to measure this out.

                                            Ah, sorry having re-read what you wrote you are making a concentrate so it’s 10ml to be added to 4990ml….with 100ml of concentrate to make.

                                            RE Magnesium Citrate. Not sure. Some people say Calcium citrate tastes bad, others report nothing bad about the taste but rapid bacterial growth in water promoted by citrates. Citrates will contribute to alkalinity too, so that needs to be calculated at least. You could try it, just depends on whether or not the Magnesium citrate capsules contain only Magnesium citrate or if they also contain preservatives or other things. You need to know the form the Magnesium Citrate takes too e.g if it is trimagnesium citrate or magnesium citrate…or maybe something else.

                                            All this technical stuff has completely baffled me, I have done a drop test but now need someone to interpret the answers.

                                            Could someone please tell me which one has the least scaling potential in the two tests,

                                            My tap water KH 17.9 and GH 53.7, or Ashbeck/Volvic mix KH 53.7 and GH 71.6

                                            Ian

                                            • Rob1 replied to this.