26 gallon bow front for Barbs

[Scoop47501]

Hi everybody.
I'm new to this and would like to know if I'm doing this right.
I have a 26 gal. bow front tank that has been cycled with no reading on the stips for nitirite and a 20 on nitrate.
My tap water is very soft in the 25 to 75 range.
The akaline is in between 180 and 300 on the test strip.
PH is 8.4 on the strip.
Right now I have two 3/4"Tiger Barbs, two 1" long Green Fined barbs, two 2" Rosy Barbs, one 5" Clown Plecostomus, and a 2" Red-Tailed Shark Also have two fish that I will be removing as I found out they are not a good choice for this group even though they all seem to get along fine.. They are a White Molly and a Honey Gourami.
The tank has been at home for a month or more and I have added a couple fish every few days with no spikes in the nitire since the first cycle.
What do you all think of the water conditions and how can I reduce PH. I heard some reference of RO water but not sure what it is. How about distilled water ? I have been changing 5 gallon of water each week.
Any thoughts or comments on water or fish are welcome and appreciated.

Regards
Scoop

 

[A7ESF]

There are other factors that need to be known before you can lower the pH and unfortunately the test strips you have will not be able to give you that information. I would advise doing away with the test strips and get a master test kit. You'll be able to test for a lot more stuff and be more accurate in the meanwhile.