Just a quick update on the fish. It didn’t go well. The concrete is still leaching and the water was so basic that it killed the fish in about a day. We had one fish go about four days, but the smaller the fish died before bedtime. The poor neon tetras didn’t stand a chance. Two of them completely disappeared into the abyss. The only thing we can do at this point is to try to change out the water more aggressively.

I began to worry about our tap water in general and thought our water was so basic on its own, that having a fish tank is completely futile. After a quick test strip, our water is picture perfect for a fish tank, Shoo! We just have to push through the leaching of the concrete in the tank. The cost of owning a fish tank is rising. So far I’ve:

• Broken two water heaters (one was a freak accident and it barely touched the tank and it shattered).
• Killed eight fish
• Purchased countless tank conditioners attempting to balance the pH (fail).

Thankfully the tank and almost all of the peripherals were all donated. While the tank looks fantastic, it’s not much fun if there aren’t any swimming friends. Needless to say, Toph was pretty bummed all his new little friends went belly up. He did give them all a proper burial at sea, however, and he was pretty excited to be able to use the net without being told to put it away. He likes to dance around the kitchen waving the net around until he’s told to put it away. He was pretty bummed that dad flushed the final survivor. “Oh fine…” as I dumped “Tank” (the last surviving Molly) into the toilet. He clearly wanted fish cleanup duty.

Plan B at this point is to just do minor water changes every day, twice a day (two pitcher fulls out and fresh in), and a half tank change every other day. I’m hoping that sorts us out in short order. My only other fear is that the foam I used for the concrete base will retain all of the alkaline water and it leach out even slower than expected. We’ll see. Next round of fish will not be $25 dollars worth. We’ll be buying those $.16 goldfish by the bucket load and see how they do. The internet, which is never wrong, says they can handle much higher levels of alkaline. Fingers crossed!