Is my GH Test Kit broken?

[Naganoth]

Hi,

I am a real newbie to the hobby.

I was trying to do my first measure of the GH using a test kit made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Inc. The instructions say to drop it into the testtube and shake it. After x number of drops, the water color will change from Orange to Green and that's the reading.

I dropped and dropped and dropped until I dropped 80 drops and the water is still Orange.

Is my test kit broken or have I made a very newbie mistake somewhere?

Note that this test kit comes with a KH test as well and that one seems normal. I got a reading of 200 ppm (11 drops) with it.

Any info would be much appreciated.

[FuEl]

Since when was kH measured in ppm?

[Naganoth]

Hmm.. well here's the quote from the little instruction pamplet:

"Each drop is equal to 1 degree dKH or 17.9 ppm KH (see chart)."

And then on the chart, it says:

"6 degree - 11 degree (100-200ppm) Most tropical fish ... blah blah"

So I presumed that its ppm?

[FuEl]

Hmm..oic..I'm not familiar with the usage of ppm for kH. So far the test kits I have used only use the units milliequivalents per liter(mEq/l) or in dKH. Anyway...if you could ask someone with more reliable test kits (Salifert, mini labour, etc)to test the results of your test kit with theirs it would be best so that you can be sure you are getting the right readings.