New tank, dont know if fish are ok?

[TrevorW]

Hi there,

I have recently setup an aqua one ar620T. I cycled it for 3 weeks doing 20% water changes once a week before adding any fish. Used stress coat and stress zyme each time I changed the water.There is a large piece of driftwood in it and some live plants in a gravel base. Just using the standard filters plus a 150 watt heater at 24 degrees C. On Sunday afternoon we added 10 Neon Tetras, and they seem fine, no deaths yet and behaving just like the ones we've looked at in the stores always do. However this evening I noticed one of them has a relatively large lump on its belly. I have read about Neon Tetra disease, but I am not sure if this is what the fish has?

Water Readings are PH 6.0 (not quite sure why its this low, tap water is 7.4 here) Ammonia 0.25ppm Nitrites 0ppm and Nitrates 0ppm.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated,

Thanks,

Trevor

[cichlid7]

hi

driftwood lowers the ph level but Ph 6.0 should be fine for neons

not too sure what is wrong with it sorry

possibly a female with eggs??

[cichlid7]

also welcome to the forums

[phoenix44]

:bounce: welcome.

It sounds like your tank is now cycling.see the stress zyme needs something to work on like fish poop.many of us don't even use that stuff. I sometimes do to speed up the process.

Adding it to plain tank water will not have any or much affect at all.

With regards to your neon,perhaps a pic will help. Maybe its eaten too much food.

[Scottie841]

Try setting the temp at 28 and see if that helps.

Ours don't like anything below 26 and seem happy at 28.

Also where in NZ are you? Someone might be able to have a look at them for you (if you update your profile it would help too )

[TrevorW]

Thanks for the help.

The lump on the fish grew bigger last night then this morning it was gone. So might have been food. Ok i'll try 28. Do plants alter PH at all? As if I want to put more fish in later on that require a higher PH, is there anything I can do apart from take the driftwood out?

Cheers for the advice ,

Trevor

[LYNDYLOO]

Don't worry to much about the PH, sometimes it's best just to leave it as is, rather than fiddle around trying to adjust it to where you want it, this can at times do more damage to the fish with fluctuations in the level of PH than what it worth.

Bird grit in your Filter will slowly adjust the PH, for you, or place some in a cut of leg of a pair of pantyhose or knee high stocking tie the end in a knot then place in you tank somewhere where it will get abit of water flowing through it.

Lynda