Sameee, I’m a sucker for wild Livebearers. And for that, I have a bucket of powdered calcium carbonate, and also beach clam half shells, and coral I got from the beach. I just keep them partially buried under the substrate. I don’t do water changes often but when I do, I dose about 1/34th cup of powder over a course of a week or I get lazy and dump that much at once. The tank is a 40breeder. My water ppm is over 400 but that’s bc of calcium and other minerals I add like epsom salt, and plant ferts lol. I used to have muscle shells I got from the beach also but I ran out a few months back I would crush the shells and sprinkle it in the tank. Other than that I never had much issue raising my fish in cycled tap water without adding things to buffer hardness.
Same here...
Like Lattrell has already stated, there are also livebearer species that won't reproduce that massively. The remark that livebearers reproduce massively is just a generalization and basicaslly based on tne big 4 (guppies, ,ollies, platies and swordtails). But even within the big 4, we have strains that won't reproduce massively either.
