Auric, Honegger, Poulenc, Milhaud, Bruce, Diana, Clark, Hal, Barry, and Jon are all doing well. No more mysterious deaths or disappearances.

I'm really getting this water pH thing down to a fine art. In the first week, the kids acclimated to an acidic 5.0 and showed their colors brightly. With some of the water changes, the pH went up to 6.5, which, although I've heard it's ideal for Cardinal Tetras, caused their colors to fade somewhat: a faded Cardinal Tetra is like a 20-watt O.R. bulb...what's the point?

I've brought the pH back down to just over 5, which -- voila! -- has caused them to appear a little more bright. I worry about pH shock, since the changes in digits is logarithmic, like Richter-scale results. Six-point-five is an order of magnitude more alkaline than 5.0. Now that I've seen them thrive in 5.0, I think that's where I'm going to keep it.

I also rearranged the substrate and faux-plants as part of a gravel vacuuming. The substrate now has a slight incline toward the back of the tank, which creates the illusion of greater depth of field. And the plants are now positioned so that wherever Les Six (or is that Les Quatre, now that Durey and Tailleferre are [sniff] dead) and the Justice League swim, you can clearly see them.

Best news is that my GH, which was a ghastly, Tetra-terminating 13, is now holding steady at 8. That's harder than ideal, but it's close enough to Tetra comfort levels that I don't have to worry about anybody dropping dead.