Thanks for your response. It looks like I need to get a reliable test kit for gh and kh then. I did just measure it with the test strips again (3 times) and got 180 for GH and 120 for KH. I compared that to my city's current water report which had things a bit lower at GH of 125 and KH of 103. I just reread the ACO post about ph, gh, and kh and it looks like I'm in a good hardness range for the most part, but I'm not sure why ph wouldn't matter? I know it's more important to have stable parameters than chase ph so my goal would be to try to slowly acclimate them to my higher ph, not to try to maintain a lower ph for the long haul. I've been looking into peat moss or sphagnum moss or mixing in RODI water as a more natural option. But if ph really isn't important then even better - I'd just like to understand it a bit more.