As you have guessed, the rocks are dissolving in the tank and raising the pH. For a lot of fish that would be pretty dangerous. So long as you are regularly changing water you can probably get away with it with the guppies and fairly soft water. ;)
It is good to see that the others don't seem negatively effected.
Your rainwater pH doesn't sound too unusual. Nothing in it to buffer it. Water easily dissolves carbon dioxide which drops that pH.
Conventional wisdom suggests using inert rocks which don't dissolve in the aquarium. There are worse things which can dissolve than limestone. Yet similar substances have been used to buffer the pH for everything from Rift Lake African cichlids to baby rainbowfishes.
"At this point you are thinking why didn't this stupid lady tell me all this stuff in the beginning :)" Don't beat yourself up! You are sailing along a learning curve quite fast. I'm sure a lot of those dropping in on the conversation are smiling and identifying with your experiences. And there are always learning curves like this. ("What's under the hood of the car?" "A bunch of great gray, greasy shapes.")
I think you are doing the right thing in increasing the % of creek water. By trickling it in, the fish have a chance to adjust to the new chemistry. A chemist fish-head friend, alluding to exactly the kind of partial water changes you are doing, has suggested that, "you can't do too many water changes."
Now he is aware of the fact that some fish can be shocked by too radical a change (in terms of chemistry). And yes there are some species which are real touchy (those Rift Lake fish again). But as you have seen, your guppies are gathering under the "rainfall" and frolicking with glee. :)
More frequent changes and increasing the creek water component gradually should be fine. That's what the pros should do. With the situation you describe concerning the gravel, the frequent water changes make sense too.
Owing to a family emergency some years back, I neglected a rainbowfish tank (skipping weekly partial water changes) to the point where they were dying off from the bottom of the pecking order on up. Daily 20-30% water changes halted the illness. As the water changes continued, the survivors began healing, top down in the pecking order. :)
You have a huge advantage over the city slickers who have to contend with the chlorine, ammonia and other garbage "they" add to the water. Some of us either have to play treatment games or wait for days before using the tap water.
If you want to pay for the charcoal, go ahead and change it every two weeks. Maybe lightly squeeze out and rinse the sponge in the alternative weeks.
Your cyclone and almost cyclone are hurricanes and almost hurricanes? (Ah summer!) If you were raising pairs of small catfishes or cichlids, you would watch them spawn as the storm fronts came though and triggered the spawning. Urban kids don't have the farm animals to inform them about reproduction and animals. Summer thunderstorms and several very predictable fish tanks did that for our kids.
"The big fish don't seem at all interested in the fry (yet)." LOL! You just take too darn good care of them! ;)
"My apologies for my long winded posts." Don't apologize. (Like, I would have a right to criticize?) This is a part of the process of growing in the aquarist's craft. If I didn't have time to answer, I wouldn't (and please take no offense in that). There are a lot of others on this list who would step in with their answers.
This list probably is populated primarily with Americans. Although spread out across the United States, there seem to be modest concentrations in California, the Lower Great Lakes region (especially Illinois for some reason) and the North-east (especially New York).
We've also been privileged to meet three correspondents from Oz. Gupppies is a regular. Also have met a gentleman from Turkey, a neat lady from Scandinavia and a couple very thoughtful people from Latin America. Americans are too often too insular. It's wonderful meeting people from elsewhere.
There is a small dog next to me (the schnoodle) asking if "we" are really going to stay up at 4:45 in the morning. (No goats to service here.) I'm trying to decide whether to take the 3 hour milk run to the Peoria auction this morning. Probably 3 hours is a distance of no consequence in the bush.
The first light timer clicked on in the fish room (sunrise).
My lady has responded to my query if she minded my skipping out for the day. "Sure, get out of my hair." ;)
There's the second light timer (after proof reading this note). Time to hit the road.
All the best!
u.s.
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