Teresa, My first suspission is that your pH test kit is wrong. Is it old? is it Aquatic Pharm.? I've never had much faith in this brand. My tap water isn't as hard as yours and I treat with peat and CO2 and I know, by the chemistry that the pH *has* to be lower. But do you think the AP test kit will tell me? Nope. If your test kit is old, it may need to be replaced. I'm a couple days behind in reading, so if this has been mentioned already, please forgive the repost. HTH. ===== J. Miller Edmonton, AB, Can. Trade aquatic plants on The Plant Trading Board http://www.aimoo.com/forum/freeboard.cfm?id=312188 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request@listbox.com.