Question for all the NSC (pet) fish experts

[jevs]

I was going to use sand as a substrate but bottled it and went for a fine black quartz gravel instead, maybe in the future ill try sand, especially as my corydora will love it.

My Vallis really struggles, I'm thinking about swapping it out for something else, my amazon swords and other unknown plants are doing ok, but not great.

My water in burgess hill is really hard, it's above 7.6, don't know how hard it actually is as the checking colour cards in my test kit don't go that dark green....

I've had 4 rams and they died after a month, I've been after some centre piece fish for a while but am running out of options, I tried paradise fish but they were evil and terrorised my tank bullying my other fish, I also tried some dwarf gourami but they only lasted a week.

I'm worried there may be an underlying problem in there but all my others are doing really well, it's weird, I can't find a problem with the water apart from the pH.

But Ive only had my aquarium for 6 months and I'm still new but learning quickly, already want another tank but I live in a rented flat and when I move out at some point moving the tanks is going to be a massive ball ache.

I think the black sand looks good mate. Why don't you take it out and put compost underneath....i just used normal peat based potting compost about an inch deep with playpit sand on top. The problem with this is that if you do move, you have to throw the lot and start again, which might be a problem if you're paying out silly money for black sand, but not so much of a prob if it's a £3 bag of play sand from Argos !!!

Your Vallis will love getting their toes into the "mud" under the sand, mine are spreading like mad as are my little Sagittaria natans at the front.

Maybe you should think about adding some rain water or Reverse Osmosis water (RO) which can be bought for 50p a gallon from most fish shops. That will, over time, bring the pH down a bit especially if you add some bogwood and allow all the tanic acid to come out (gives you that nice, blackwater look that you get in the Amazon)

keep going and certainly look into CO2....you'll be quite amaized at the growth you'll get.