Which Water For Changes?

[nikkifro8994]

My tap water has 2-3ppm of ammonia so I've decided to use bottled water for water changes. I picked up a gallon of distilled water, purified water, and spring water this afternoon. I also tested my tap and my tank again.
Test results are:
Results are in! I tested the tap, my tank, distilled water, purified water, and spring water.

Tap:
ph- 7.2
ammonia- ~2.5
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 3
kh- 3
gh- 9

Tank:
ph- 7.6
ammonia- .25
nitrite- 0
nitrate- off the charts
kh- 4
gh- 20

Distilled Water:
ph- 6
ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0
kh- 2
gh- 2

Purified Water:
ph- 6
ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0
kh- 2
gh- 2

Spring Water:
ph- 6.6
ammonia- .25
nitrite- o
nitrate- o
kh- 10
gh- 13

I think the spring water will be my best option, but the ph is still a little low. I will try testing a mixture of my tap and spring water and another mixture of my tap and purified water to see if I can get the ph up without raising the ammonia levels too high.

 

[phoenixgsd]

i would like to say straight tap,  but i do dechlorinate first

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd still lean towards mixing a bit of calcium carbonate into your distilled or purified water and testing it.  I'd say about a 1/4 tsp per gallon and see where that puts you.  (Calcium carbonate is just "chalk".  If you can find some "pure" chalk or marble chips, you could smash that into a powder and then add it to your distilled water and it should raise the pH, and kH nicely.  This should provide your puffer with a stable pH (assuming you can continue to replicate this) and a simple solution for your water issue.  Since it is such a small tank, and only the one fish, I think that it wouldn't be as crazy as it could be.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Or you could use a dechlorinator that detoxifys ammonia like seachem prime to give your filter time to process it without hurting your fish.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's still a lot of ammonia....

 

[nikkifro8994]

I'm going to have to use the spring water. In trying to raise the ph with tap water I raise the ammonia too high. I've read more on dwarf puffers. It all says optimum ph is 7, but they will adapt to anything 6.5-8. I will change the water very slowly. I'll take out a gallon at a time. Then add a quart at a time every 20 minutes. That should slowly raise the ph without harming the shrimp already in the tank. When I get the puffer, I will acclimate him very slowly using drip acclimation. Anything else I should do?