delanopreston
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2021
- Messages
- 6
I started a new 10 gallon freshwater tank about a week ago.
I was told by a Petco employee that I needed to get the parameters set and cycling for 2-7 days before adding fish to the tank. So I got a water conditioner that works on tap water (our water here is quite hard). The conditioner seems to address Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia.
My daughter excitedly picks out 2 hifin white skirt tetras, and 2 of the black ones, 4 24karat back tetras, 5 ember tetras and I toss in 4 ghost shrimp for good measure.
1 day later, all the skirt tetras and one of the ember tetras are dead in the morning. So I take them back to Petco and they replace them and we talk about why they might have died. I ended up getting a water testing kit (the one with 6 colored pads on it).
Turns out that my alkalinity is a bit high and the ph is high. So I get a ph conditioner that helps bring the ph down to 7.0.
Then I put the bag of fish in the water to acclimate them to the temperature, then after a few hours. I cut open the bag (while still having the bag water separated by the bag) and transfer small amounts of water to acclimate them to the conditions of the tank (I don't have the equipment to do drip acclimation).
Several hours later, I pour the fish into the tank and all seems good.
This morning, I woke up to 1 black and 1 white hifin tetra dead.
Does anyone have any idea on what to do?
as a note: the 4 ghost shrimp, 4 24k back tetras and the other 4 ember tetras have all been totally fine (seemingly).
I was told by a Petco employee that I needed to get the parameters set and cycling for 2-7 days before adding fish to the tank. So I got a water conditioner that works on tap water (our water here is quite hard). The conditioner seems to address Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia.
My daughter excitedly picks out 2 hifin white skirt tetras, and 2 of the black ones, 4 24karat back tetras, 5 ember tetras and I toss in 4 ghost shrimp for good measure.
1 day later, all the skirt tetras and one of the ember tetras are dead in the morning. So I take them back to Petco and they replace them and we talk about why they might have died. I ended up getting a water testing kit (the one with 6 colored pads on it).
Turns out that my alkalinity is a bit high and the ph is high. So I get a ph conditioner that helps bring the ph down to 7.0.
Then I put the bag of fish in the water to acclimate them to the temperature, then after a few hours. I cut open the bag (while still having the bag water separated by the bag) and transfer small amounts of water to acclimate them to the conditions of the tank (I don't have the equipment to do drip acclimation).
Several hours later, I pour the fish into the tank and all seems good.
This morning, I woke up to 1 black and 1 white hifin tetra dead.
Does anyone have any idea on what to do?
as a note: the 4 ghost shrimp, 4 24k back tetras and the other 4 ember tetras have all been totally fine (seemingly).