any aquarists here? I need some help...

[deranged chipmunk]

yes, tetras are extremely hardy fish and can and do acclimate to harder water quality. i know guys who keep neons in 8.2 ph levels. one guy actually uses water from a flooded limestone quarry in his tanks because it is pure, clean and free....lol
i have never kept glowlights, but if i recall correctly, they live about 2-5 years. i prefer the smaller tetras (neon, cardinal, von rio) and the largest ones (pirhana).

[Lija]

you know what guys, I've kept fish for n years, but not anymore though as frogs and snakes took all the space lol
the thing is after reading this I'm realizing I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing hm...
thank you!

[deranged chipmunk]

i somehow find that very hard to believe

[Bolisnide]

Okay, this is what I decided:

I'm going to keep all inhabitants, including the pleco...
I'm not going to add a 5th glowlight tetra.
I have fertilized the plants with the API root tabs, and replaced my bulb (because it was 2 yrs old).
I am going to see how it goes for now, and not soften my water.

I also added 3 peacock ferns (thought they were pretty).

I tested my water at the lfs and my nitrates were at 40 ppm, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and pH came in a 7.8.

I'll post pics of the progress with the plants

AND- Thank you so much for all the info Carlos and Bill! You guys rock!

[deranged chipmunk]

you are so welcome, but you are going to hate me when i tell you that the peacock fern is a marginal and will rot and die submerged :-(

[Bolisnide]

you are so welcome, but you are going to hate me when i tell you that the peacock fern is a marginal and will rot and die submerged :-(

My lfs sucks! They said it would be a nice addition?
I have no idea what marginal means?

[deranged chipmunk]

marginal is the area between aquatic and terrestrial. otherwise knows as the bog area. java fern would be better. or an anubias species. those people at petsmart have no clue