Hey Kogo. Sorry from the slip of the tongue on my nitrate post.

I was using city water and the ph ran about 7.5. But it wasn't stable. I had a scare when it dipped down to 5.5. Since then I've been using reverse osmosis water which needs the buffering after being stripped clean. My ph stays steadily at 8.

For a long time I was into the bare minimum, just keeping the filters clean, changing chemical media and once a month water changes. I got lazy about testing the water and thats when I had that ph scare. Since then I trying to stay on top of it and keep everthing as close to perfect as possible.