Don't understand KH and GH test.

[Spardas]

What dutchie is saying is if you see fishes that you like, research on where they're from first. If you got a name, you can find out where they're from. If you have soft water, you will try to find species that live in areas with soft water (most Asian and South American species).

[acetune]

Oh, I see, thank you.

[talldutchie]

What dutchie is saying is if you see fishes that you like, research on where they're from first. If you got a name, you can find out where they're from. If you have soft water, you will try to find species that live in areas with soft water (most Asian and South American species).

Yep! And I'm lazy and this is way easier than writing 300+ fish names. :-)

[Cermet]

Looks like your water is fairly soft so pH can fall between water changes. Keep an eye on it until you get a feel for how much, if any, your pH falls during a week (if you do large water changes once a week.)

For complete details, read this article:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumKH.html

This site covers everything; however, they push the amount of calcium in the water more than I like so don't be too worried about that. The key on hardness is KH in that if that is low, pH can drift faster.

[talldutchie]

Let me stay polite and civilized..... I don't agree with that article. I also think it's rather unstructured and doubt if it's suitable for beginners.

Besides, OP has almost ideal water for a LOT of different species, I see no reason at all to throw things in that unless OP wants to do an African lake setup.

[Byron]

I would agree. For 20+ years I have had tap water that is near-zero in KH and GH. I used to monitor pH, and I now do so sporadically. I have never noticed fluctuations of more than a few decimal points, occurring at water changes because the tap water is around 7.0 to 7.2 and my tanks run in the low to mid 6's. If the system is biologically in balance, with fish, plants, water volume, and water changes are regular and substantial, there should not be any issues with fluctuating pH. Selecting fish suited to your water makes things even simpler.

Byron.