Aggressive Dwarf Gourami?

I just tested my tap water's pH and I guess its more like a 7.6 and my tank has around 8.0 pH now. No clue why the pH was so high last time I checked it (couple weeks ago)
Would it still be a good idea for my to start using drinking water (5 gallon jug-type of deal from the grocery store)?
 
i know that a lot of the places that let you bring your own jug to fill up use reverse osmosis water. if you can get that i'd give it a go. it can't hurt. or you can try to find a water congitioner that is good for fixing water hardness and all other minerals in there.
 
I got a jug of ro water last night, $.25 a gallon. Now in another post asking the best way to acclimate my fish to it everyone is teling me that it would be better to keep using well water and the fish arent bothered by the hardness and excessive minerals found in it.

I dont think Ive ever been on a forum quite like this before. No matter what you do, someone is going to tell you its wrong, and someone is going to say its alright, and someone will say it *might* be ok.
 
for sure. there is a LOT of advice out there some of which is bad, some good. etc...

but i don't see how you can really keep using your water source. it is almost definately the culprit here. check this article:

http://www.bestfish.com/tips/110598.html


just try using bottled water for a while OR get water softener and a KH/GH test kit to be sure, AND get your PH to 7.0. don't add any more wimpy fish! lol

gouramis are great in terms of hardiness. try getting some pearl gouramis. very pretty, very peaceful and VERY hardy. just don't mix up your gouramis with another fish that has long frilly fins, as they will nip at eachother.
 
Not looking to get any gourami's again, after the way the last guy tore my catfish apart. Sure it might have been an isolated case but just left a bad taste in my mouth. Plus Im dont really have the room in my tank for any larger fish like that
With the RO water I have, the pH is 6.4 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0. Dont you need to add some sort of mineral additive to RO water to make it safe for fish?
I would like to get my water stabile and good, then finish my school of neon tetras, at which point I will be happy with the way my tank looks.
 
cats & fish

Just another thought on the "cats are different from fish" theme. I have two cats, one of whom has caused me enormous problems with urinating on the furniture. It's destructive, costly, and time-consuming to deal with, not to mention aggravating, but I've kept my cat. Putting him down, or even giving him away to a good home, would be an absolute last resort. On the other hand, I wouldn't worry too much about putting down a problem fish humanely -- especially if that would prevent suffering to itself or to other fish. I suppose that finding another home for a fish is the ideal solution, but I don't think it's a moral travesty to put down a fish.

Looking at things from another angle: I wouldn't eat a cat, but I do eat fish.
 
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Ps.

By the way, TJT, it's hard to know exactly what's going wrong with your tank, but I wouldn't add any NEW fish to it, as it sounds like there are some issues that are hard to troubleshoot. If you want to add new fish, I would suggest setting up an additional tank from scratch, and making sure it's fully cycled with stable water quality before adding any fish. Then add fish slowly, even if you do a fishless cycle first, just to make sure you're not overstocking. I wouldn't "seed" the new tank with anything from your old tank, since you've had problems in that tank, and it's possible some disease has been introduced there. (That would include NOT moving any fish from the first tank to the second tank.)

As for the first tank, if in the worst case scenario all the fish die, then I would disinfect it thoroughly before starting it over from scratch. You can't rule out disease as a cause of your problems.
 
Thanks ariston, in fact I do have a 5 gallon tank that I have set up for my betta and wanted to keep ADF, it is stocked with 1 male betta, 2 white clouds, and 3 ADF (originally bought 4 from wal-mart, 1 didnt look like it had eaten in a while and died...no suprise since the fish keeper at wal mart told me flakes would be fine to feed them, luckily i knew better.)
It has been doing quite well, and with the exception of the gourami killing fish, and the neon tetras dropping everything else is quite well. My new stock of cory cats are thriving, as are the otto's that have been in for about a month. The former residents guppies and platys also did well untill the gourami reeked havok.
On a side note, I went today and bought a hardness test kit (strips, because nobody had drops) and some electro-right for RO water. Tested my well water and got a GH of 300 and KH I would place somewhere between the 180 and 300 colors, probably closest to 300.
Test on the RO water shows GH of 25 and KH of 40. This is untreated with the electro-right. Should I treat my water with the electro-right and test again, posting results here?
There were 2 different bottles next to the de-ionizer at petsmart. The electro right and a ph raiser. Should I have gotten the other as well....? Dont think 6.4 is too low, though.
 
Another note on the cat ideals, if I brought in a new kitten and it started killing the 3 cats I have now, yes I would most likely kill the kitten. I can understand maybe you used a bad analogy and yes, I see where you are coming from. But dont think that the thought of finding a home for the gourami wasnt on my mind, unfortunately everyone I know with aquariums doesnt have a place for a fish like that. I tried my best to put him down as humanely as I could. Putting 1 fish down to save the lives of the 4 others that were left in my tank is just a choice I was forced to make. Unfortunately I guess I didnt think things all the way through (such as gourami's breathing surface air, and the ability to take him back at a convenient time using that to my advantage) but all in all I would say it wasnt the worst decision that I could have made in that spot. I am learning a lot with my first tank And I guess mistakes are going to be made along the line but I know better for next time.
 
your GH and KH are really high. do the adjustments and then retest and post. try to get your pH to 7.0 or as close as possible. :)

good luck.
 
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