Well, I think I'm going to try adding 8 more neon tetras to my tank this Sunday or Monday. Since I only have 4 in my tank I need more. I'm hoping that if I drip acclimate the little guys for an hour or longer and add them to the tank and leave the lights off all night that I will have minimum loss. I really would like zero loss...
But I was also wondering- What if I add one gallon of RO water a day until Monday. That would be 4 gallons of RO. Would that lower my pH slowly or would I need to add 1 gallon a day for like- 7 days? My thought on this is- lower the pH very slowly. Get it to like 7.0 or 7.5 then a few days after I add the new fish begin raising the pH slowly by adding 1 gallon of my tap water for 7 days to bring it back up to my normal ph of 8.0. Or should I not worry about adding tap water every day and just do a 10 gallon pwc a week after I add the new fish? Would that raise my pH too quickly?
It seems like the water hardness and pH are the big problem for my new fish. Its the only explanation since all my other param's are fine. Would this work? I don't want to kill any more fish. Plus if the petco gets more Rummies I really want to get some more. Lower pH and alk would make the environment more inhabitable for them.
More of what's going through my head- I do a pwc every week of about 10 gallons. If I used 5 gallons tap and 5 gallons RO when I refill do you guys think that would be ok? If I only need 5 gals of RO a week I can do that. It's $0.39 a gallon at yokes. And if I decide to do water changes this way then I wouldn't have to worry about the last step in the process I mentioned above (adding a gallon of tap water a day). Over time I would eventually have a tank that is half RO and half well water. I think it would help lower my high pH, natural nitrates of 40-80, and my alkalinity and by doing that every week it would stay constant.
What is y'alls opinion on this?
