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I've switched to using ro water and to start with I just did water changes with pure ro water due to how hard my water was. After 5 changes on the 5g tank(my test tank right now) the ph is 6.8 and kh 3. I decided I wanted it slightly harder and looked on my container of carbonic acid salts. It said 1/8th teaspoon per 20gallons to increase alkalinity by 20ppm. 20ppm sounds like about how much I want to raise the buffer and the likely resulting ph but I need 5g worth not 20g. I couldn't figure out a way to measure 1/4th of 1/8th of a teaspoon because I couldn't find anything that measures that small of a fraction. Would it work to mix 1/8th teaspoon in 4 cups of water and mix 1 cup of that into the 5g tank?

Would it work to mix 1/8th teaspoon in 4 cups of water and mix 1 cup of that into the 5g tank?

Yep, thats what my sister and I used to do for her betta when we were adding dechlor to the water for changes. It was some random measurement so we mixed up more than we needed and only used what was required. If you have a spare container around that you could leave the 4 cup mix in, you can use what you need and store the rest. Be sure to mark the bottle clearly....sharpies are your friend .

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If you are using RO to cut the hardness in your tank but have gone too far, wouldn't it be easier to do add your regular water back?

Also, KH is just carbonate hardness... temporary hardness if you will. If you're talking about your water being hard or soft, GH is the measure you want to look at. I'm probably just confused as to what you're asking, so if you can't use that info don't take offense.

My tapwater is junk which is the reason to use ro water in the first place. It also starts out 18kh, 8-9ph, and 2-18gh depending on the season. There are alot of other things in the water and problems I'd like to avoid so I bought an ro system. First I just used straight ro water to soften it and lessen the alkalinity since it takes 2g of ro to 1g of tapwater to lower the ph any. Now that I have the tank near where I want I'm trying to find the right mix of alkalinity and hardness powders. I have a mix of carbonic acid salts by Kent to raise kh and ph and seachem equilibrium which says it's a mineral/electrolyte mixture mostly for planted tanks that raises gh. I'd like to end up around 5kh and slightly over 7ph so I diluted the water just a little below what I wanted.