Recent content by gorillabay

So if the water (from both the tap and the R/O) is soft from the outset, why is the pH so high? Maybe in the tap they add something? If that's the case...how long should it take for the pH to lower? This concept of if eventually, through water changes, you can essentially replace enough of that...

Thanks for the reply...so I started with my tap water and have done about 12g worth of changes using R/O water. If I keep using R/O water for changes, I don't know at which point it would override the "original" tap water put into the tank. And then it seems that R/O water does not have a lot of...

I have about 4 inches of gravel. Why is that so critical? What kind of numbers would qualify as "hard water"? Would driftwood/peat moss etc. be a worthy investment to try and lower my pH? R/O water (or in my case Glacier Water) would be "soft", correct?

A few updates...so the tank population is up to 9 now. The ammonia is somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 to 0.12. It's really hard for me to distinguish the colors on the chart. The pH is at 7.6 and has been for the last 10-14 days. I found a water quality report for my home. Hardness is 1-3 gpg...

Thanks for the follow-ups. I will need to research the info re: water source, GH, and KH. I thought R/O water has no ammonia in it, but I when I tested it I got an ammonia reading of 0.5 ppm. This is better than my previous source water but still even if I use this R/O (from the store I got it...

The pH is back to 7.6. I read that pH can swing quite a bit based on different circumstances including time of day. Ammonia is down to 0.25. Fish stock still at 5. Tested the R/O water and got readings of 6.0 pH and ammonia 0.5. Tested the shower water (which is the water I was specifically...

Thank you so much for your reply. I will try your suggestions as soon as I can. Also I am going to test the R/O water. What could make the pH have such a swing? 7.5 to 6.0...if R/O is 7.0 I don't see how it could go all the way down to 6.0. The tap water had an ammonia of 1.0 ppm. Since my...

I am new to the forum and not sure if I'm in the right department. Even though this is not my first tank I often still feel like a beginner b/c I'm always learning something new. Specs: 55 G, started up Dec. 2017 5 fish: 1 neon dwarf gourami, 1 emerald cory, 1 zebra danio, 2 platies Temp: 76...