Does water conditioner help gh and kh?

I went to my local lfs to return a fish. Part of their policy is for you to bring in a sample of your water when returning the fish. I do use the api master test kit. When the store associate tested my water (with a strip test), I was told my gh and kh was very high. I understand these have to do with the hardness of the water. I do live in Texas, where we have hard water. The associate tried selling me a water conditioner to lower the gh and kh. I respectfully declined since I already use Prime. Currently using a different water conditioner called ultimate, but will be returning to Prime once that is gone. I then asked the associate if I just add more of the water conditioner I have at home would that help? Associate said yes. I have an api gh&kh tester sitting in my cart on Amazon. Before I hit the purchase button I wanted to ask a few questions to see if there is anything else needed. First, does water conditioner really help kh and gh?

There are products that claim to fix hardness in fish tanks, do they work? And if so which works the best?

Are there any natural things that can be added to help hardness?

Are there any other fish keepers who have hard water in their area? Do your fish seem ok without intervention?

 

I went to my local lfs to return a fish. Part of their policy is for you to bring in a sample of your water when returning the fish. I do use the api master test kit. When the store associate tested my water (with a strip test), I was told my gh and kh was very high. I understand these have to do with the hardness of the water. I do live in Texas, where we have hard water. The associate tried selling me a water conditioner to lower the gh and kh. I respectfully declined since I already use Prime. Currently using a different water conditioner called ultimate, but will be returning to Prime once that is gone. I then asked the associate if I just add more of the water conditioner I have at home would that help? Associate said yes. I have an api gh&kh tester sitting in my cart on Amazon. Before I hit the purchase button I wanted to ask a few questions to see if there is anything else needed. First, does water conditioner really help kh and gh?

There are products that claim to fix hardness in fish tanks, do they work? And if so which works the best?

Are there any natural things that can be added to help hardness?

Are there any other fish keepers who have hard water in their area? Do your fish seem ok without intervention?

In short, water conditioner won’t touch ph, gh or kh. Not sure what they were trying to sell you but there are various other products available to tinker with water parameters - not really recommended though unless absolutely needed and used very carefully.

 

I really don't think water conditioners affect pH/gh/kh. I am glad you didn't follow their recommendation to buy something to "fix" a more than likely non-existent problem. In most cases it is best to deal with what comes out of our tap.

 

There is a water conditioner called Betta Basics(i think from Seachem) that claims to work like Prime AND buffer pH, but no clue if it actually does that.

 

In short, water conditioner won’t touch ph, gh or kh. Not sure what they were trying to sell you but there are various other products available to tinker with water parameters - not really recommended though unless absolutely needed and used very carefully.

It was definitely a water conditioner she was trying to sell me. I did not think conditioners worked that way either. I just wanted to double check with people with experience.