Recent content by Churchen

I haven’t noticed anything abnormal

UPDATE: I have lost half of my neons, and none of my X-Rays. I am tired of waking up and seeing another dead fish in my aquarium. I’m at a loss of what to do. My nitrite levels are still up, even after water change and addition of new bacteria. I guess we just sit and wait. I have media bags...

UPDATE: Today I realized I had a nitrite spike. Immediately did a 50% water change. pH is still around 8.4. I added some calcium and magnesium because my GH was low. Four of my neons have died so far, with the last one just now. I had to euthanize it. It was swimming lethargically at the top...

I haven’t considered rainwater but that may be a good idea. So in the future if I had to raise a specific type of fish in a specific pH, how can I go about best lowering it from my tap? I’m assuming distilled water and RO water are both relatively neutral, but if I want to go lower than that...

I currently have tap water with and without the substrate, I’ll be checking it overtime. As far as R/O goes, would distilled water be acceptable? Do I need a whole R/O system? Is this going to be expensive, or would I be able to do less water changes in the future, just by virtue of the water...

UPDATE: Seems the previous test I did for pH for my tap was incorrect. The pH coming out of my tap is actually 7.8. Now, it has risen to an 8.6 in my tank. I desperately want to lower this overtime. Everywhere I’ve read, I’ve seen that Tetra don’t like higher pH. Perhaps this is my own...

All really good stuff! I didn’t think about the pH from the tap being different after 24 hours. That definitely could be the culprit. I’m going to let the tank sit for a week, and if it doesn’t acidify I’m going to start trial and error with the substrate and decorations. As far as GH and KH...

Hey everyone, first time poster here. I’m at a bit of a loss. First let me start by saying I’m brand new to fish keeping. I have a 45 gallon tank with 9 neon tetra and 9 X ray tetra. I have noticed that my pH is high, too high for tetra (currently sitting at an 8). It will NOT go down. Before...