Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:15 am GMT   Reply      

Tetras are notorious for dying soon after purchase. I'm too tired right now, but check to see if they like soft acidic water like diskus's do or hard alkaline water. My new tank's water was alkaline until I added some pH buffer and now it's staying at 7.0. Yea, I know it's sometimes hard to keep water from reverting back to it's original pH, but with pH buffer that's supposed to maintain a pH I've had good results.

Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:02 am GMT   Reply      

Just thought I would throw it out there since I am not sure if you misspoke when you said I will wait until all readings are at zero, Zambize. You are right, the ammonia and nitrites should always be at zero once your tank is cycled, but a cycled tank will always have some level of nitrate concentration in it (unless it is a heavily planted tank). You just want to keep your nitrates at or below 10 ppm (via water changes). At around 20 ppm, the nitrate starts to become unhealthy and at 40 ppm fish will start to die from it. I just didn't want you sitting around waiting for the nitrates to hit zero. Good luck.