An interesting water map - image

This might help to start off knowing your water. 'Hardness' is related to calcium hardness and alkalinity.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...rdwatermap.jpg


We recently moved west about 90 miles and crossed four water zones from near-best to worst.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...iums/water.jpg

I still haven't got my aquarium back up to speed.

This explains why my hardness is 450ppm - I live in Ohio! That was an interesting map - thanks for posting!