Tanks... You're Welcome! (Jonelle's Journal)

[gwand]

I find that Amazon swords, Anubias and cryptocoryne grow well without C02. They also do well in low to medium light. My lights are on a timer from 8am until 2 pm. I also feed my fish a small amount of food every other day. My only tank with an algae battle gets direct light from a window it is next to.

 

[Essjay]

The late Byron said on the forum that his tap water was naturally soft and acidic. This caused problems for his water provider as acidic water corroded their pipes. So they added soda ash to temporarily raise the pH so their pipes didn't corrode. When this tap water was allowed to stand, the soda ash gassed out and this allowed to pH to drop to its natural level.

It is easy to find out if this is what your water provider is doing. Run a glass of tap water and test it straight away for pH, GH and KH. Leave the glass of water to stand somewhere for a couple of days and test those three again after 24 and 48 hours. If the readings change, that's what the shop man meant.
If the pH does change a lot after standing, you could try filling containers with tap water then leave them to stand for a day or two before using the water to do a water change.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Sorry your tanks are struggling! We've all been there. I concur that we need to know about your water parameters--GH, KH, pH (less important than GH IMO but still good to know). Also, are you testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? (I have kind of skimmed this thread, so pardon me if you've already answered this) Sometimes plants can struggle and critters can die if you have too much or too little nitrogen.

If you could post some pictures, that would help us figure out with you exactly what's going on.