Hi all, I'm new here. A few days ago, my family decided to up our aquarium game from a single old goldfish in a 20-gal tank. Here's what we've done so far this week:
Fill 55-gal tank with city tap water
Add 2 new sponge filters
Add appropriate amount of water conditioner
Let it bubble & degas for 2 days
Add some old substrate & decor bits from the old goldfish tank to kickstart nitrogen cycle (the goldfish will stay in his old tank until the new tank's all good)
A day later, add some new gravel & small anubias.
Last night, add a dozen black neon tetras to get some nitrogen cycling.
Which brings us to today, when the Amazon fairy brought my water test kit. To get more familiar with the contents of the whole test kit, we did all the tests. Unsurprisingly, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate were all nil. However, the pH was 8.4, well outside the range I found for the tetras and pushing the goldfish's range as well. I wondered if it was a factor of the new gravel, but the water in the old goldfish tank tested the same.
How worried should I be? How should I find the line between "it's good enough, leave it alone" vs. "it's too high, but give the new tank a while to stabilize before changing things" vs. "ye flipping gods, that's way too high, add acid now!" The tetras all survived their first night in the tank (and the goldfish has survived almost a decade), but I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell whether they're fine or struggling.
