Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. (Marie Curie)

I have fish! Two pairs of fancy tail guppies, three sunburst platies, and four zebra danios are now happy residents of my aquarium.

I was beginning to think that I would never have anything alive in the tank. Tuesday evening we used the Ph Increaser exactly the way the pet store employee (who turned out to be the manager) told us. I ran the tank a full day, and went back to have the water tested again. This time the Ph was way too high (8.4) and I was told that I would have to start all over again. So PJ and I drained the tank, wiped it out clean, and refilled the tank. I ran it a full day to leach out any acid that the gravel might still have, and we drained and refilled it again. After another day of running the tank, I took a sample back to the petstore. AGAIN the water quality wasn't right. The Ph was still a little high. Not as bad as it had been, but they still wouldn't let me bring home any fish.

So I bought a wonderful product called Ph 70. This stuff is amazing. I added it to the tank, and the next day the water was perfect. So we made another trip to the petstore, where the employees are now greeting me by name. They tested the water, and this time I was allowed to bring home a few of the fish. After they survived the day, we went back and got the rest.

I never expected that having fish was more complicated than having children. At least the fish haven't talked back to me yet.