The apartment that I'm moving to in about 2 weeks is water-serviced by a company that uses the local city's lake as a source of water. It's been 6 years since I had fish, but I remember checking pH with the stick strips (I didn't know about the $20 test API test kit) and it being ~7.4-7.6 when I had fish before. Now, the fish that I prefer are smaller community fish, I don't really enjoy semi-aggressive fish as it causes me to fret usually unnecessarily. The problem I now face is that most of the small fish I enjoy prefer slightly acidic water (or atleast neutral). Here's a list I've come up with of fish I'd like to slowly add to the tank after cycling, watching for chemistry changes:
Now, I've read a lot about pH and basically everything says to not mess with it as it can cause a lot of problems. That's probably fine and all if you're at a 7.8 or so with these fish, but I'm likely going to be atleast 8.4, which just won't work. I usually re-add water using 5 gallon buckets where I mix prime/whatever else in before adding it to the tank. Will this water be ok if I add some pH down to it and then maybe some pH 7 buffer to keep it steady? What are my other options, finding drinking water delivery services?
Now, I've read a lot about pH and basically everything says to not mess with it as it can cause a lot of problems. That's probably fine and all if you're at a 7.8 or so with these fish, but I'm likely going to be atleast 8.4, which just won't work. I usually re-add water using 5 gallon buckets where I mix prime/whatever else in before adding it to the tank. Will this water be ok if I add some pH down to it and then maybe some pH 7 buffer to keep it steady? What are my other options, finding drinking water delivery services?