Hi everyone,
just started getting into having a tank at home. I have a 10 gal tank with a fake plant little bridge and little castle and it is the Aqueon 10 gal delux starter kit. everything is brand new and working good. have bought water clearing solution, fresh water salt, and PH balance. I set it up let it run for a week (i know I should have done longer but I was impatient.) and added 2 fish. 1 Blue Gouramis and 1 Dalmatian Mollie. That day (yesterday) I saw a change in the gouramis from at the store, (active mid-high smimmer shinny and stripped.) to now (pale, wont eat, just sits at the bottom of the tank sometimes tipping over slightly. I went back to the pet store and they tested my water said levels were fine except the water is hard which is how our water is and my PH level was through the roof. added the ph balance and some salt and took a test but the gouramis hasnt seemed to change at all.

Here are my current levels
Temp. 78 F
nitrates-well below 10ppm maybe 5 if that
nitrites- looks like 0ppm
Hardness(GH)- around 100ppm
Alkalinity- 150-180ppm
PH-7-7.2

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

guess I should have just waited cus the gouramis is active up top and colorful again. Well just hello to everyone hope to talk to you all soon lol.

Welcome to the forum and to fish keeping! I'm glad to hear your gourami perked up. If your pH was really high (how high???) that might have done it. If a fish is used to a pH of say 7.5 at a store and then it gets tossed into a tank with a pH of 8.5, that will really mess things up, especially if you don't spend enough time acclimating them. I don't know how big your gourami is now, but they can get to be about 5-6 inches long, so it'll likely outgrow your tank. Just a heads up.

Please ask as many questions as you like.

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When in doubt, do a water change.

Thanks I hope I can get more people to stop by again cus hes back to being at the bottom and not swimming......unless I turn off the light......does this mean maybe hes just stressed? yea the PH was pretty darn high id say atleast an 8 alkalinity is (and I hope Im reading this wrong) around 300 ppm this is after I added the PH adjuster that is supposed to level it out to 7.0. Should I try some more or the PH adjuster? the water is also pretty hard. The Molly doesnt seem bothered though she just seems bored either swimming up and down or just chilling behind the filter spout. I also havent seen the gouramis eat at all since I got him. A guy at a nearby aquarium store told me I should only feed them once a week for the next month or so since I didnt let it cycle fully which he said it works better with fish anyways. Is once a week ok? that just seems like to little.

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55gallon
Light - 6500K CFL, 23wattsx5 5hr/day
Substrate - Red Mexican Clay, Sphagnum Peat moss, Eco-Complete
Misc- Pressurized CO2, EI Dose KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM-B
Plants -Limnophila Aromatica, Stargrass, Dwarf Hair Grass, Christmas Moss, Baby Tears (HM), Dwarf Baby Tears(HC), Rotala Rotundifolia, Ludwigia Glandulosa, Riccia Fluitans

Yeah, the water issue is a tricky one. There's no really good way to lower pH, hardness, etc. without just getting rid of whats making your water so hard. Since your tank isn't that big, you might want to try out RO water that you can buy from the store before considering something like a RO unit. You can get OK ones for about $60. RO would be worth a shot.

Also, since your tank probably wasn't fully cycled, there might have been a small ammonia spike when you added the fish. Just check your water quality regularly and keep us posted

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When in doubt, do a water change.

hello and welcome

Hello and thank you everyone. Yea I have done some reading about the gh and kh and I have a britta water filter. So just out of curiosity I filtered some and tested it. the kh and gh were like 0 compared to my tank and the ph was acidic. so I took out some of my tank water and added some filtered until the kh and gh came down and everything leveled out. added some more ph balance just to be sure and a bit of salt and this morning all the levels are right in the ideal range. the only thing I dont have test for is amonia and chlorine but have some tabs that clear them up so I put one in last night as well just to be sure. The fish seem to be much happier. The gouramis is swimming around and actually ate a little something, However now my water is a little cloudy I added some aquaclear last night but its still cloudy is this a problem? Thanks again for everyones help.

Welcome to the site! Your gourami sounds like its nocturnal lol

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

The cloudy water may be due to the fact that your tank is not fully cycled yet. You can either leave it alone (since it will go away on its own) or you can buy some "Cycle" to help speed up the cycling process. Cycle contains beneficial bacteria that help establish your biological filtration system, reducing fish stress. It might not be a bad idea.

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When in doubt, do a water change.

Thanks a ton everyone. everything seems fine so I think Ill just wait it out let it fully cycle and keep an eye on it. thanks again Ill be sure to be around in other threads!!