My new pangasius cat

[Shane]

I would not invest in a TDS meter if I were you. Just a simple General Hardness test should be all you need.

I got some ammonia and chlorine safe but the ammonia still testes high after I use it.

I'll bet that your ammonia test kit is "hitting" on the chloramine in your tap water and not actual ammonia. Chloramine is one of the most commonly used water treatments and is an ammonia derivative. You should be able to look up your local water authority on the web and get the most up to date readings for your area as well as what chemical(s) they are treating with.

You can keep using RO. I would just recommend using it mixed in a ratio with your tap water that gets you the water parameters you are looking for.

-Shane

[fish 4 life, posts: 16]

Okay cool so I can buy a hardness test at my lfs? What is a good hardness for my cats?

[Viktor Jarikov, posts: 2317]

Sorry, can't readily help you with those questions. Just thought I'd mention that it is unclear from the foregoing exchange (to me; maybe because English is not my native language and I am easily confused) that you understand you need to treat your tap water with a dechlorinator, which also gets rid of chloramine but just at a bit higher concentration. You do know about dechlorinators and how to use them, right?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32462&hilit=+chloramine

[fish 4 life, posts: 16]

Yeah i know about dechlorinator. I have tried to use them but the ammonia in the tap water does not go away... So i just use RO water