What Is The Right Amount Of General Hardness For An Amazonian Freshwat

I'd say it depends on the fish you're keeping, but most Amazonian species prefer softer water yes.

You can lower it using bog wood, peat, or even using a solution of 50%RO and 50% Tap Water.
 
Or rainwater, if you live in a rural area and not too near any heavy industry (which tens to pollute the rain).
 
Reverse Osmosis, basically water is forced through a membrane at high pressure to remove impurities.
 
Reverse osmosis; where the water is forced through a membrane which removes everything.
You actually can't use it on it's own as it's too pure, you have to mix it with a re-mineralising powder or some tap water to add the trace minerals that the fish and plants need back in to it.
 
No.

It's easy to harden water with additives, but virtually impossible to soften it.

You can use an additive that would reduce your pH (and the pH only, not the hardness), but it's not recommended, as your hard water would just buffer it up again in a very short space of time, leading to harmful pH swings.

RO, rainwater, or changing the type of fish you keep to suit your tap water, are really your only viable options, IMO.
 
Depends on where you live, I wouldn't recommend it unless you live near the coast, green house gasses such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide etc all reduce the pH as they create acids when dissolved in water, however, nitric acid can also oxidize to nitrate (Both nitrate and nitrite) which isn't great.

RO water mixed with tap water reduces the KH+GH if you use a 50%/50% solution of tap water and RO water you wont need to add minerals back in as sufficient minerals should be present in the tap water, water with a lower KH+GH is more easily buffered by acids such as humic acid, if you add bog wood then your PH will be reduced.

What species do you specifically want to keep? If it's not Discus, Blue Rams or another species that prefers more acidic conditions but is also quite sensitive then there may be no need to adjust the pH, a lot of species are now tank bred in water with parameters similar to those of the water in our tank.

You could use a pH reducer such as Sulphuric acid but your preparation techniques must be good to ensure that you don't experience pH fluctuations.

But I still maintain that the easiest and most simple way to reduce pH is to use bags filled with peat similar to tea bags, they will stain the water however which is a good thing as it further replicates the Amazon.

There's no need to dechlorinate rain water.
 

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