Hello! I'm a first time poster, having set up my first aquarium as an adult (last one I had was 20 years ago with my dad), and of course having some problems. I hope this is the right subforum!
I've been researching the tank I wanted for a while, all the plants, fish, etc so I thought I had everything down but of course I was wrong...
I have a 60L quite heavily planted tank, with an organic topsoil base, then a sand cap and a few large round stones.
I researched quite a lot and realised I really loved the South American fish the most, and as I have a good source rain water (big tanks coming off our greenhouses at home + alotment) I decided to use that. I live in London so otherwise I thought the water would be too hard for the plants + fish. My water details (using API master test kit)
Rainwater - pH 6.6 Am 0.25 Ni 0 Na 0 GH 4 drops KH 4 drops
Tapwater - pH 7.8 Am 0.4 Ni 0 Na 0 GH 12+ drops/215 ppm KH 9 drops/9 degrees /161.1ppm
The first 3 weeks went great, the aquarium cycled surprisingly quickly and this weekend I bought my first fish - 10 neon green rasboras, 4 amano shrimp and 1 nerite. Because of the plants I have zero nitrates (over the cycle the nitrates spikedand then would go down quite quickly) I floated them in the bag for 30 minutes, then used a big syringe to take out the bag water and add in some tank water over 2 hours to acclimate them. I tested the bag water which was about 8.0, which I now think is the problem - the animals got pH shock. Some of the fish had slightly ragged fins which I noticed when we got home, but I don't think if they have fin rot that this would kill them off so quickly.
Over evening and next morning 2 of the fish died, and the rest looked unhappy so in a panic I researched, decided it was probably pH shock and bought a small quarantine tank (while doing this 2 more died). I added mostly tap water (w/ conditioner), a bit of tank water and have been planning on changing a bit of water each day to the quarantine tank over a week until the pHs are almost the same. Sadly I only have 2 left. I didn't move the amanos over as they were doing things apparently happily, but now 1 of them has died. I did add some tap water to the tank so the pH of the tank is currently 7 to hopefully make their shock a bit less.
As you can see I cocked this up a bit, and I don't want to kill everything off again. I think I have 2 options (if my pH shock theory is right, please let me know if you think it could be something else!) - either quarantine all fish for a week starting with tap and going over to soft tank water (I've called all the local shops and they all seem to use tap for their tropical fish), OR just start using tap in the tank and forget the rainwater. I really want my plants to continue to thrive, and to have some kuhli loaches and german rams, which I read wanted a low pH, but I would love some advice on what everyone else thinks.
I've also noticed in the last few days that some of the plants have stopped growing (before they went mad) and I think I need to dose with iron/magnesium/phospate. Would I still need to dose if I used the tap water?
I attached a photo from during my last water change before the carnage - it's much less yellow IRL but my phone is a bit crap.
I've been researching the tank I wanted for a while, all the plants, fish, etc so I thought I had everything down but of course I was wrong...
I have a 60L quite heavily planted tank, with an organic topsoil base, then a sand cap and a few large round stones.
I researched quite a lot and realised I really loved the South American fish the most, and as I have a good source rain water (big tanks coming off our greenhouses at home + alotment) I decided to use that. I live in London so otherwise I thought the water would be too hard for the plants + fish. My water details (using API master test kit)
Rainwater - pH 6.6 Am 0.25 Ni 0 Na 0 GH 4 drops KH 4 drops
Tapwater - pH 7.8 Am 0.4 Ni 0 Na 0 GH 12+ drops/215 ppm KH 9 drops/9 degrees /161.1ppm
The first 3 weeks went great, the aquarium cycled surprisingly quickly and this weekend I bought my first fish - 10 neon green rasboras, 4 amano shrimp and 1 nerite. Because of the plants I have zero nitrates (over the cycle the nitrates spikedand then would go down quite quickly) I floated them in the bag for 30 minutes, then used a big syringe to take out the bag water and add in some tank water over 2 hours to acclimate them. I tested the bag water which was about 8.0, which I now think is the problem - the animals got pH shock. Some of the fish had slightly ragged fins which I noticed when we got home, but I don't think if they have fin rot that this would kill them off so quickly.
Over evening and next morning 2 of the fish died, and the rest looked unhappy so in a panic I researched, decided it was probably pH shock and bought a small quarantine tank (while doing this 2 more died). I added mostly tap water (w/ conditioner), a bit of tank water and have been planning on changing a bit of water each day to the quarantine tank over a week until the pHs are almost the same. Sadly I only have 2 left. I didn't move the amanos over as they were doing things apparently happily, but now 1 of them has died. I did add some tap water to the tank so the pH of the tank is currently 7 to hopefully make their shock a bit less.
As you can see I cocked this up a bit, and I don't want to kill everything off again. I think I have 2 options (if my pH shock theory is right, please let me know if you think it could be something else!) - either quarantine all fish for a week starting with tap and going over to soft tank water (I've called all the local shops and they all seem to use tap for their tropical fish), OR just start using tap in the tank and forget the rainwater. I really want my plants to continue to thrive, and to have some kuhli loaches and german rams, which I read wanted a low pH, but I would love some advice on what everyone else thinks.
I've also noticed in the last few days that some of the plants have stopped growing (before they went mad) and I think I need to dose with iron/magnesium/phospate. Would I still need to dose if I used the tap water?
I attached a photo from during my last water change before the carnage - it's much less yellow IRL but my phone is a bit crap.