Tap water pH concern

[Idris]

Out of curiosity, I did a control pH test of my tap water. It read 8.0
My tank is consistently 8.5
I've got a couple of Platies and I keep reading that they need a pH of 7.0-7.5
I was hoping to eventually add Corries (which I read need 6.5-7.0) and Neons (which I read need 5.0-7.5)

The tank is 30L and 2 weeks old.
1 week without fish, with plants from an established (shop) tank, but without fishless cycling. (Try as I might I couldn't find anywhere that sold ammonia!)
1 week with a pair of Platies.
Currently Ammonia is 0-0.25
Nitrite is 1.6+
Nitrate is 25+
Temp is genrally about 82f. (I'm thinking I may have to re-site the tank as it's been up to 86f.)
The plants have got pleanty of root growth but a significant amount of dead leaves (which I'm removing) and algae is starting to be quite obvious.
I've done 2 30% water changes in the last two days to try to get the Nitrite down.

Is the pH acceptible or do I need to do something about it.
And will it be tollerable by Corries and Neons. (I've got my heart set on Corries to deal with the algae.)

Appologies if this is covered regularly, but with site searches resticted to min 3 letters it's kind of hard doing a search for "pH" or "tap water"

 

[Bloo]

Fish do adapt and the Platies and even Cories should be fine - though it's rather high at 8.5 and not ideal. However less ideal would be to add chemicals to try and alter it.

The Neons will almost certainly suffer in such a high pH and you could expect them to slowly die off. They might be "OK" for a few months, but I doubt they will last much longer than that and thrive

I suggest running peat in your filter and adding some bogwood. That will probably lower it to around 7.8 (though this depends on how high your kH is, though I expect it to be around 10 with such a high pH) and also depends on your water to wood ratio and the individual piece of wood.