Nelo

Package arrived faster than expected. Filled a 5 gallon bucket with 2.5 gallons of water, put an airstone in and waiting for pH to stabilize then will add CC in... How much CC should I put in the bucket to start? How long will the CC take to fully affect the water? When adding to the tank Ill make sure to rinse very well and add it over time to hopefully avoid a large KH/GH swing.

@nabokovfan87LFS and all the chain stores around me are out of Crushed coral so I have to order online. Is Carib sea fine? Also had to order equilibrium online.

@nabokovfan87Finished off gas test and pH tested at 7.4-7.5

@Biotope BiologistFound a Bypass valve for the water softener and tested. pH- No change, 8+ GH- 25-50ppm (1.39 dGH - 2.79 dGH) KH- No change, 0 ish @Rube_Goldfish So if aerating my tap causes a decrease in pH, in theory I just add crushed coral to raise the KH, Equilibrium for the GH and thats it? Im going to keep some of the hardier fish like Live Bearers, cherry barbs etc until I can dial in my water.

@nabokovfan87Thanks for the help! I did another pH test and got the same thing, Just started the off gas test this morning so will reply tomorrow with results. I am on city water and do have a water softener.

I thought about using crushed Coral but I dont want my pH going any higher. Does Equilibrium raise pH?

My tap water seems to be less than ideal for keeping fish. Suggestions? Can I do rainwater with added minerals-tap water mix? (Used a strip test to test GH and KH, results may be skewed a bit but should be mostly accurate) GH- Close to zero (I have a Water softener) KH- Close to zero PH- 8.0+ (Tested with API) I can provide a link to the test strips I used if anyone wants that. I want to say the GH - KH indicators are faulty but until I get a different test , assume they are not... What would I do?

Temperature - 78 Nitrates- 20 pH-7.5 Got some Cherry Barbs almost 1 month ago... Noticed small white dots on this Cherry barb 1-2 weeks ago, waited to see if the dots grew at all. It looks like they haven't grown on this fish, much but smaller dots appeared on other cherry barbs (Possible I just didn't notice the first time I checked). Is this Ich or something else? If so, can I let them fight it off? It seems very mild.