PH cant stay still

[cocoasmama123]

I decided to start a 10 gallon before I start my bigger tank. I started it 2 weeks ago, and I used Safe Start, and now everything is great accept my PH, I have 2 Harlequinboras and an Albino Cory Cat. My PH was 7.6 yesterday, so I did patial waterchange, and I replaced water change water with deionized water from Fish Store. I treated the water with Neutral Regulator. I tested ph today, and it's between 7.4 and 7.6 what am i doing wrong?
Thanks,
Jennie

 

[BBradbury]

Your Tank

I decided to start a 10 gallon before I start my bigger tank. I started it 2 weeks ago, and I used Safe Start, and now everything is great accept my PH, I have 2 Harlequinboras and an Albino Cory Cat. My PH was 7.6 yesterday, so I did patial waterchange, and I replaced water change water with deionized water from Fish Store. I treated the water with Neutral Regulator. I tested ph today, and it's between 7.4 and 7.6 what am i doing wrong?
Thanks,
Jennie

Hello Jen...

It would be better to start the large tank and once you get experience keeping the water properties stable in the tank to move to the smaller one. Sounds backward, but larger tanks are much easier to manage than small ones. It's because more water allows more room for mistakes in tank management.

Anyway, you don't need to worry about the chemicals in the tap water, like pH, hardness or anything like that. The fish will adapt to it. What is required is water free of dissolved wastes the fish produce, like ammonia and nitrite. That's done with large volumes of water removed and replaced and done regularly.

A 10 gallon tank should have half the water changed out a couple of times a week. Add some floating plants to help filter the water and your fish will be fine.

However, for the sake of your fish and plants, long term, get that larger tank up and running asap.

B