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A better option, in my opinion, would be to buy a bottle of Prime and follow the instructions on the bottle. Prime will convert your ammonia to ammonium, which is not harmful to fish but is digestable by your bacterial colony. While Orion Girl is right, doing this will undoubtedly increase your...

Also, I wonder about the reliablity of her test kits. A tank with an algae problem will definitely have some sort of nitrate reading, probably greater than 20 ppm. And what about water temp with the changes? and pH between the tank and the water straight out of filtering?

Aerosols are really bad in proximity to a fish tank. As far as febreeze goes (which obviously isn't an aerosol), my wife uses it near my tank and I have had no adverse effects or inexplicable losses. I will say however that we have agreed upon a perimeter of 5 feet around the tank that is...

Except the nitrates, obviously. I guess just keep up the water changes and see what happens when your lights arrive.

Black gravel can leech as well. Take a piece of it out of the tank, rub it well with some sandpaper and drop it in a small glass of vinegar. If it starts to form bubbles, then you have your culprit. (Not all gravels are created equal, plenty of companies sell 'aquarium safe' gravel which...

Nope, different thing. What you are looking for is something that is forcing your KH levels up, activated carbon shouldn't do that. If you compare the KH of your tap after 24 hours sit time to your tank it is higher which definitely shows something is leeching. Higher KH (carbonate hardness...

Who lives in the tank and what kind of feeding schedule are you on? Also, what's your lighting situation like and what kind of plants do you have? (If your plants don't have enough light they won't grow enough to consume nutrients).

Oops. Well, what about your gravel and decorations? What have you got in there? It is possible that you have something in there which is leeching carbon, which will in turn drive up your pH.

I agree with Harlock. A small bit of info worth adding is that your pH is probably dropping due to the dissapation of disolved gasses out of the tap (which can take up to 24 hours). Additionally, cycling consumes a bunch of oxygen and produces acids which will lower your pH. (Just to explain the...

I wouldn't catagorize your water as soft, but rather on the harder side of mid range (my interperation of soft is less than 4 degrees GH). Most test kits read KH and GH in german degrees, one degree equals 17.9 ppm (In case you didn't know, other wise just blow this off with a 'duh'). As far...