Source water used for WCs

[ScotJudd]

It seems to me that a lot of newbies out there don't know what the specs of there source water is. It is essential to know what you are working with before adding it to your tank.
Take a sample, leave it 24 hours and test for Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Kh and Gh as a starting point.
Only then will you understand any tank water problems that may have originated from your source water.
If you've yet to choose fish with specific water conditions then take the easy option and go with the flow, be it soft water, hard water, low Ph, high Ph etc. So much easier as a newbie to hone your skills on fish that are most suited to your natural conditions.
Changing water parameters as a newbie is fairly certain to be doomed to failure.
Advice based on experience and sadly from my failures.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Usually it only applys imo if your planning to breed. I have a really high ph and keep all kinds of shrimp and fish with no problems. Most fish now days are so far down the blood line they seem to adjust easier to different water qualitys. That is of course your getting the fish from a good source. Now if your keeping wild caught anything things are going to be more difficult and youll need to want to make everything more natural for them