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I've just reset-up my 55 and I've gotten some confusing water readings. Water coming straight from the tap (right out of the lake) measures a pH of 7.2-7.4 and a nil kH. I have the test kit where you put one drop at a time until it changes colors and the first drop is a full color change...so I'm assuming the kH is less than 1. After the water went into the tank I let it sit for about 15 hours and tested again. kH still nil and pH up to about 7.6. Ok, I'm assuming the rise can be attributed to simply the CO2 from the tap dissipating, everythings normal.

Then I spent the greater part of the day collecting, scrubbing, and boiling a great big pile of rock for decor and I was so excited about it that I didn't test any of the rock for pH altering, I just set it all up in there. Now my pH has climbed to 8.0 and my kH is still next to nothing.

So, are the rocks responsible for the last pH shift? I'm thinking yes... There's a lot of them too, and some different types. I really don't want to rip them all out and start over. So what do I do? Get africans?

No kH means no buffering, that's bad. Do I need to raise my kH? Especially because I want to keep plants I think I should but I certainly don't want to raise the pH anymore. What should I do? Baking soda, crushed coral, Equilibrium, something else? Should I get a gH test kit as well? There's no fish in there yet so I have time to tinker with it.

I don't know what to do! I just want my tank to be stable. Help!

I'd get a complete master test kit. Cheaper in the long run over buying individually. Nitrite, ammonnia, nitrate tests are also important, especially when cycling your tank. Gh is more important then kh but it's good you tested it.

Lakewater if not a rocky type lake is usually very soft due to organics. Your rocks have carbonates in them, probably limestone. There's a chance that your kh test kit is faulty or expired. A fish store should be able to test a water sample for you, that will confirm if your test is good.

If you want to leave the rocks in, check out african cichlids (from lakes malawi, tang, victoria) and west african krib types, see what is most suited to your water.

Or pull the rocks and go SA or CA. What group of fish do think you would enjoy most longterm ?

edit - crushed coral either into the filter, plus in the gravel, or into a box filter.

The Amazon Nut...

I took about half of the rocks out but still left some for caves and what not. pH is holding steady at 8.0 and I still can't get a kH reading. I was getting readings from different water about 2 months ago so it might be ok but the kit is 6-7 months old...I suppose it could be expired.

I already have most of the test kits: ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kH and phosphorus. As a side, the tap water came up with .25 ppm P. I checked the LFS and Wallyworld for a gH kit but no luck. Also drove the 45 minutes to a bigger city and tried Petco but still no luck. All other LFSs there were closed for the night so it may be some time before I get that kit.

The tank is for convict cichlids, who I believe are not too picky about pH and hardness, etc... But I want the tank stable, can a low kH cause problems?

This part might be better off in the plant forum but since I moved some plants into this tank they are looking really horrible. I immediately got a hair algae bloom (on low light, limited ferts) and my giant hygros have nasty burnt, brown and yellowish looking holes growing on the older leaves. They were getting pinholes in the last tank I had them in while they were waiting for this one (different water source) and I believe that is K deficiency but this is more extreme. I am very hesitant to boost trace supplements (Flourish) as that seemed to cause algae problems in previous tanks. What to do?

Just read a post in the plant forum about carbon vs Seachem ferts. I don't usually run carbon but got lazy and just stuck the store bought filters in when I started up this tank. Carbon is going to come out of those tonight, for sure. So the carbon could have been taking away my Flourish, was it taking away my dry K and N supplements too?

What's up with the hair algae too?