Hi from Spain

[Ghost Gum]

Haha! The air in it makes it looks like Milk of Magnesia.

By all means test it when it clears, but keep it for at least 24 hours (I would say 48 is better but your ambient temperature is probably somewhat warmer than it is here!). The 24/48-hour test will reflect much better what it'll be, pH-wise at least, when it's in your aquarium. Your immediate 'when-clear' test will inform what may happen straight away in your tank if you do a very large water-change at some point.

OK, sounds logical to me so I will do a immediate test then let it sit.

Greetings & welcome to

@Ghost Gum have you tried running the tap for a minute or so before filling your beaker?

Thanks for the welcome.
Yeah I let that run for a bit it was fine at first then went cloudy but it's a tap we rarely use so probably just clearing the pipes.
It runs clear in the kitchen though so am going to use that one.
But I do know the water here is iffy, we don't drink it unless it's run through a Brita filter first and even the bottled is preferred so I think the gH and kH tests will be interesting.

[Martinspuddle]

Haha! The air in it makes it looks like Milk of Magnesia.

By all means test it when it clears, but keep it for at least 24 hours (I would say 48 is better but your ambient temperature is probably somewhat warmer than it is here!). The 24/48-hour test will reflect much better what it'll be, pH-wise at least, when it's in your aquarium. Your immediate 'when-clear' test will inform what may happen straight away in your tank if you do a very large water-change at some point.

OK, sounds logical to me so I will do a immediate test then let it sit.

Greetings & welcome to

@Ghost Gum have you tried running the tap for a minute or so before filling your beaker?

Thanks for the welcome.
Yeah I let that run for a bit it was fine at first then went cloudy but it's a tap we rarely use so probably just clearing the pipes.
It runs clear in the kitchen though so am going to use that one.
But I do know the water here is iffy, we don't drink it unless it's run through a Brita filter first and even the bottled is preferred so I think the gH and kH tests will be interesting.

Our water here in diseased ridden county of Kent (S.E. England) comes though chalky soil, so not only is our water very hard, but sometimes you get a glass of milky water.

I found on Wikipedia it says; Alicante page, Soils.
The soils are mainly dark lime bearing soils on subsoils of sedimentary rock. By the Vinalopó banks, they are quite loose and sandy with almost no organic material present.

Be interesting to see your water test results, may not be as bad as you think.

[Ghost Gum]

Be interesting to see your water test results, may not be as bad as you think.

Well, not sure if I should start a new thread for this or not but results are in and .....

Ph 7.8-9
Kh took 9 drops so what is that around 150-160 ppm
Gh a staggering 55 drops, 916 ppm

Wish I could find my digital tds reader but that does match up close to the tests I made with that when we decided not to drink the tap water.
Presumably I'll have to bring that down which I'll work on but would I be OK to start the cycle and add ammonia now?

[Vale!]

Good grief! That must be a new GH record for municipal tapwater results posted on a forum!

I can't immediately see why that should interfere with a cycle. If you were eventually (i.e. late into, or soon after the cycle) reduce the GH/KH by a prodigious amount, there would probably be some adjustment of the ammonia- and nitrite-munching colonies ; but you may well not notice that. When the tank is stocked and settled, the assembly of munchers is likely to be rather different from that which your cycle generated - that happens in many aquariums anyway, and (as far as I'm aware) isn't picked up by keepers' routine tests.

If I have any more thoughts on cycling in a high-conductivity environment (that's how I think of GH etc!) I'll pop back.

[Ghost Gum]

OK thanks for the info, unless anyone thinks not to I'll start the cycle a bit later today then.

Yeah I kind of new our water was pretty bad, we always planned on installing a softener and r/o unit but never got around to it. Maybe I can find something simple that doesn't require a plumbers degree to install.

[Vale!]

If/when you reconsider the water softener/RO route, do remember to forget about the water softener bit if it's an ion-exchange type (where you add salt)! While it would reduce GH, it wouldn't reduce the overall 'ionic strength' (or conductivity) of the incoming water very much, if at all, because it will simply exchange calcium/magnesium ions for sodium ones.

[Vale!]

... that doesn't require a plumbers degree to install.

My RO kit is attached to my garden tap. It gets brought inside only if the temperature seems likely to dip towards -2C (or 0C if it's not actually operating). I guess you wouldn't have that problem!

[Ghost Gum]

If/when you reconsider the water softener/RO route, do remember to forget about the water softener bit if it's an ion-exchange type (where you add salt)! While it would reduce GH, it wouldn't reduce the overall 'ionic strength' (or conductivity) of the incoming water very much, if at all, because it will simply exchange calcium/magnesium ions for sodium ones.

The salt ones seem to be the only type people use around here, part of the reason we didn't get one is that I have bonsai(nothing special) and over time the salt build up would kill the trees, that said the ph and hardness of the tap water as is needs to be countered too for some species with something like an acid fertilizer.
There is always something making life difficult.

... that doesn't require a plumbers degree to install.

My RO kit is attached to my garden tap. It gets brought inside only if the temperature seems likely to dip towards -2C (or 0C if it's not actually operating). I guess you wouldn't have that problem!

That would suit me fine although I think we'd benefit more from having it connected in the kitchen, I don't know really, definitely should look into it one way or another.
Actually last night it got down to 0.5c here, doesn't happen often though, maybe 3 or 4 nights a winter.

[Mito]

I've got a Genius RO system which I don't use. It has a pressure pump in case the mains water pressure is low. It's had very little use. If you're interested PM me.

[Martinspuddle]

Gh a staggering 55 drops, 916 ppm

OK, might be a little issue....