Help Houston Tap Water Sucks

[Insane Calypso II]

I have a 50g tank and did my first cleaning. feel like i did more of a 30% water change to make up for the water evaporation. 1st water test came up high on ammonia, 2nd test came with high ph.
fish are fine for the time being... although 3 of them seem to have redness around the gills

I don't want to use ph down, from what i read it does more harm than good.

tank currently includes
1 golden dojo loach
2 yellow labs
1 red zebra
1 snow white
1 acei
1 golden Mbuna
1 bumblebee
1 kenyi

2 assorted swords (plants)
whisper 60 air pump

My overall questions are
1. whats the best thing to do to make the ph go down?
2. from this point forward what are the best ways to make w/c? since i now know my water will have high ammonia

you can kind of see the spot on the zebra.
s.

 

[aclockworkorange]

The ammonia reading is likely chloramine in your tap (mine has it too), and it's important you use a water conditioner for chloramines, not just chlorine (like Seachem Prime).

You shouldn't worry about high ph, you have african cichlids! Why would you want it lower?

 

[Trisomy21]

Yeah, Seachem Prime is your friend and while it may seem more expensive it is more concentrated. And yeah, Africans thrive in waters with pH up to 8.6 and so on. So that's not a problem, don't try and lower it.

 

[smitty03281964]

Did you take a readings after 1 day. Your numbers are probably not what they were after the water change.

 

[swk]

uh....What filters are you using?

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

+1 on Prime

 

[Insane Calypso II]

yeah did water check same day as w/c but let like 5 hours go by before making the check
i have a Marineland Penguin Power Filter 350

Thanks everyone feeling a lot better

-noob-