New Aquarium Cycle/PH Problems

I'll start the ball rolling on the fish wish list.


3 angels is a bad number. You need one, a mated pair or at least 6 with a view to rehoming some if a pair form. And keeping just one isn't really fair on this species.
Angels are incredibly hard to sex until they breed. Buying two, you could end up with a pair that like each other, a pair that hate each other, two males or two females. Angels, like a lot of American cichlids, need to choose their own mates, hence buying six and rehoming four if two pair up.
And if you end up with a mated pair, you could find that the angels will spawn and take over 80% of the tank, leaving the rest of the fish huddled in the remaining 20%

Gouramis and angelfish don't usually make a good combination, especially if the blue is one of the three spot colour variants as these can be nasty fish. Blue dwarf gouramis aren't quite as bad, but still quite nasty for such small fish.
It's either angels or gouramis, not both.

the 3 angelfish was in hopes to pair 2 and send the other back or re home it i didnt want to get to many right off the bat for ammonia spike purposes.

Ill try 6 then you have any recommendations about angelfish tank mates? I only chose the gourami because many people say they have them with angels. Also the rainbow fish as angels cant eat them hehe.

A large shoal of Rosy Tetras would look spectacular.

I use this sand in my 180 and 40 litre tanks, and Unipac silica sand in my betta's tank. Neither of these affect the pH. Lots of people swear by play sand, the most popular being Argos and B & Q.


When you said the sand in the glass of water, was the water the remineralised RO or tap water? And did you leave a glass of just water alongside to compare the glass with sand to? To be sure it is the sand, you need two containers, one with just water and one with water and sand, then you can compare the sand water to non-sand water. That will tell you if the water changes by itself, or if the sand is to blame.
Of course, you may have already done that