Water stabilization

Question
Hi there!

I am new to aquarium owning (except when I was around 6 and had a goldfish - Goldie :-) - that I loved until he went to the big toilet bowl in the sky LOL!)

I have been researching like MAD in preparation for bringing home a betta. I want to do everything right so I don't lose the poor guy unnecessarily.

I have an Eclipse 6 system. I modified the output flow to slow it down and keep surface turbulence to a minimum with an aquarium sponge and plastic ties. Works great!

I also decided I wanted live plants and got Eco-complete and 5 different low light plants from aquariumplants.com - great plants and great service!

I got a master test kit for low/high ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and a gh/kh test kit.

The tank has been set up since friday and is running without a fish. I wanted to wait a good week before bringing home baby. :-)

The natural ph of my tap water is around 8.0 or higher (I have well water btw, living on Long Island) and I was able to get it to 7.0/7.2 by mixing 1 part tap water to 1 1/2 parts spring water. The water that the fish store where I plan to buy my betta from uses in all it's tanks is 7.2, so I didn't want to shock the guy by sticking him in 8.0 water.

However, I just got the gh/kh kit and it seems that while the gh of my water is ok (80), the kh is not (50). It appears that there is not enough natural buffering in it to keep the ph stable. Sure enough, I tested the ph of the water again and it's back up to 8.0.

I know that using ph up and down stuff really isn't a good idea and playing mad scientist with my water can be harmful as it can lead to ph spikes and all, but I think I should be using some kind of stabilizer/buffering agent to keep it from spiking. I really don't want the ph at 8.0 or higher for my betta. My water may actually be 8.2, as I'm having a hard time judging by the color card.

Any suggestions as to what I should do?

Also, I checked the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and it seems that while the ammonia and nitrates are perfect (0), the nitrites are .25. Is this normal? And what should I do? Should I do a partial water change or just leave it for now?

I know Nick is the plant expert and can help me best with plant questions, but he's on vacation right now. :-( However, it seems with all your various fish, you seem very well suited to give me some help! :-)

thanks for any and all advice and suggestions!

:-)
Norma

Answer
Dear Norma,
I must hand it to you. You are doing an excellent job at preparing an aquairum for a betta! You are doing exceptional!!

An actual aquarium like the eclipse six is wonderful and bettas do enjoy living in actual aquariums like any other fish rather than being confined to tiny bowls.

Now for your questions-
Yes, it's very likely true that your natural buffering capacity or KH has caused your pH to rise back up to 8.0
That's what makes it so hard to lower your pH and hardness to a decent level. One thing I might try is slowly adjust and adapt your new betta to your tap water chemistry. This honestly should work if you are very gradual in the acclimation period. Most fish including the hardy Betta don't mind terribly if their water is out of what they would normally prefer. Fish are very adaptable to stable conditions and oftentimes as long as their water is clean and free of pollutants, they should do fine. But to provide soft water, you'll need to remove minerals from the water. You can use peat moss for this purpose in your filter.Because water filtered through peat moss will drop both in hardness and pH. This is from the natural tannins in the peat moss binding with the calcium in the water and in turn adding acid. There is such a problem though with doctoring your aquarium water because you cannot stop there! All replacement water must be treated to lower the pH to match that of your aquarium's and this might mean using RO and tap water combination. Overall I believe I would try to adapt your betta to your water chemistry rather than try to adjust and keep it at a specific level. Most likely he will do fine and thrive.

Here's a good way to slowly acclimate your Betta to your water chemistry-
1.) Float the cup/bag in the aquarium (lights off for they can heat the bag water) for 20 minutes.   
2.) Slowly add half a cupful of aquarium water to the bag every 5 minutes until the quantity of water in the bag has doubled. Should the betta be in a very small amount of water, use smaller amounts of aquarium water each time to add to the bag/cup.
3.) Once the bag/cup has doubled in its quantity over a very long period, your betta should be acclimated and you can now gently net him out.

Nitrites showing up in your aquarium water with no occupants to produce waste? Could the nitrites have been in your water already? Have you added any special aquarium chemical to your tank?

I believe I would do a partial water change and see what the readings show up after that. Test your tap water also to make sure it does not contain nitrites.

Well, I hope this has helped somewhat!
Followups are very welcome~ So far you are doing everything right and I wish you the best!
Karen~