Thanks Patwa..
I know RO/DI is the biggest given thing here... but RO/DI is just not working out for me in my house with my current situation. My parents arent' on board with hooking up an RO/DI unit to their kitchen, etc, etc.. so I guess one should re-consider being in the hobby if I can't use the proper water. (a little late in the game to realize this, perhaps..
) but, tap water seems to be my only solution.
I figured adding in the phosban reactor would help, but no luck yet... perhaps it's the media I'm using that's not very effective. Just have lots of other friends in the hobby using tap water and their tanks are looking just fine .. also, they are using phosban reactors with different media, which makes me question the media again.
Anyways, thanks for the post.. I guess I have some thinking to do.