You are a far better snail catcher than I am. I always missed a few. Now, I never introduce new plants into any of my tanks before they have been soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. Then to be sure, I pot them up and leave them for a month in a tank housing snail eaters. Happy, happy loaches. LOL! There are various avenues to acidifying tank water, from super cheap but tiresome, which is to soak peat moss in a bucket of water for a few weeks, then strain it and add it to the tank, to easy; a bottle of black water concentrate. Add it a spoonfull at a time until you determine how much you need per gal. to achieve the acidity you want. For such a small tank, you might be as well off with the prepared mix. It's not very pricey. However, very few pet stores keep each tank with ideal water for each species. I suppose they really can't, so the chances are that the water you will bring them home in will be at best, neutral. So hold off making any more adjustments to the water until you have them and acclimate them to it. Then, slowly, over the course of several days, use whatever solution you decide on to acidify a bit. Rasbora are pretty hardy and would do okay in your tank as it is, but if you do give them more of what they do best in, they will positively glow. Otherwise, don't drive yourself to distraction trying to play chemist. It's not as if you are trying to spawn them and it's always better to acclimate the fish to the water than the water to the fish. As long as you keep the water in the ranges you have established, you will be fine. Just take your time acclimating them when you get them home and for that, any clean 3 gal. bucket or other container will do. As long as the ambient air in the room where you are keeping the tank is no more than 4 - 6 deg. lower than the tank temp, you really don't need to float the bag. Lay the bag into the container, cut off the top to allow the fish to gently slip out and slowly exchange bag water for tank water. If you do it in a warm room so the container doesn't get cold, the tank water will acclimate them to the tanks' temp along with its chemistry. If you do one cup of bag water out to 2 cups of tank water in about 4 - 5 times over the course of about 1/2 hr., they should be fine. Then net them into the tank and replace the lost water with fresh. Do it with the tank light off and the room lights dimmed, as they will be coming from total darkness. Once they are in the tank, leave them for at least an hour with only room light before you turn on the tank light. It will be tempting to feed them. Don't. Leave them be until the next morning then give them a light feed. If they show color by Noon that day, you will know they have settled in. The next day, start adding the acidifier and if you keep at it over the course of several days, they should display the colors for which Harlequin's are famous, but is rarely ever seen in pet store tanks. The trick of preventing the fouling of any tank, particularly such a small one, is to feed the fish just enough to maintain them, but not a speck more, so your greatest challenge may be in preventing your Little Miss from feeding them every time she gets near their tank. Have fun. Ours are all long ago grown and gone and I miss them, even though one of them once feed foundered our senior sire, (But Mommy! He was hungry!) those really were the best years of our lives.

Btw, what kinds of non peat based potting soils are out there? I had been using Vigaro with a good bit of luck, BUT, what else is out there in big box stores? I tried "Miracle grow" because I had THOUGHT it was "the best" because of it being sold everywhere, and it sure isn't cheap. I'll be sticking with "Vigaro" from now on. It's cheaper than MG too. It DOES have a LOT of "forest products" in it, and THAT is why I switched to MG. I had seen a Youtube video that had spoken badly about potting soils with lots of "forest products" in it, meaning wood fines, and other organic matter in it, BUT, it works quite well, I should have never tried the MG. It seems that the Vigaro had held onto moisture more than the peat based MG potting soil. that's just MY experience though. BTW, I did NOT use a giant pot though, so, that will surely make a lot of difference. Vigaro is cheaper too. About $8 a bag, BUT, the ounces or square feet, I have NO idea. And MG is about $12-$15 bucks a bag, ABOUT the same size. I get mine at Home Depot at that price of $8 a bag for the Vigaro, BUT, to each their own. The Vigaro would surely be TOO moisture holding for a tree in a pot THAT size.

Re-post the info. from the other thread: The problem with lime? Its high pH kills the soil bacteria that fixes nitrogen, so lime UNDO the effect of nitrogen-fertilizer like alfalfa. I put lime in Pink Peace's planting hole, since the soil was previously occupied by a large bush, plus I wanted to tone-down its gaudy color. The result? Calcium & other nutrients deficiency in young leaves, along with less petals and flowers that don't last long. Calcium could not be released since the pH is too high in the planting hole. Will have to dig Pink Peace AGAIN after its 3rd flush. Grafted Pink Peace gives me hell, compared to much-cleaner-own-root. I dug it up 4th of July since it black spotted on me, fixed the hole with compost & lime, it became pale & less petals after that. It's really hard to achieve balance of nutrients, so I'm better off using slow-released balanced stuff: red-lava-rock & pea gravel, compost, alfalfa hay. My GRAFTED Pink-Peace black spots be it wet or dry. Above pic, it's a calcium deficiency, since the young leaves are, "New leaves (top of plant) are distorted or irregularly shaped. Causes blossom-end rot." see link below: http://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1106.pdf I get tons of blossom-end-rot on my cherry-tomato: the one I forgot to put gypsum in the planting hole. Gypsum is questionable on top, but great in the planting hole, since it's evenly distributed, rather than gunking on top to burn roots. Below is a good chart:

Fertilizer plan for pots is tricky, since potting soil doesn't have trace elements like in-the ground soil. Pots leach out nutrients with frequent watering. Pots accumulate the alkalinity of tap-water, and pots become more alkaline in hot & dry climate. The ratio of nutrients is important. Re-post what U. of CA found in rose-tissue: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7465.html For low-ratios, it would be 3 Nitrogen, 2 Potassium, and 0.2 Phosphorus, plus 1 Calcium and 0.25 magnesium. For ppm it would be 50 iron, 30 manganese, 30 boron, 15 zinc, and 5 copper. Re-post the outline which I wrote for Carol in 2015 regarding fertilizer plan for pots. Tomato-Tone is better than Rose-Tone since it has more of the expensive green sand for potassium, plus gypsum for calcium. I always put a couple of earthworms inside my pots, and some organics on top to feed them. Tomato-Tone NPK is 3-4-6, with 8% calcium, contains Bio-tone®, Espoma proprietary blend of beneficial microbes. ONCE A MONTH in hot & dry weather: Tomato Tone NPK 4-3-6 to supply the trace elements of zinc, copper, and boron in chicken manure. Plant Tone is cheaper and works the same. ONCE A MONTH in rainy weather: Pea Gravel & red-lava-rock to supply the calcium & magnesium & trace-elements. That's to fulfill the high-ratios of nutrients in rose tissue in %: 5 nitrogen, 3 potassium, 0.3 phosphorus, 1.5 calcium, and 0.35 magnesium. For ppm it would be 250 manganese, 150 iron, 15 copper, 50 zinc, and 60 boron. Below is Yves-seedling, which I grew from a tiny-seed in 2012, it's 7-months old in 5 hours of morning sun. MG-moisture control potting soil is used. Jobes NPK 2-7-4 is mixed into the potting soil for beneficial bacteria. It's watered 3 times a week with tiny amount of sulfate of potash (21% sulfur at NPK 0-0-50) together with gypsum (calcium sulfate with 17% sulfur) to lower my high pH tap-water. I don't like the high urea, high salt of MG-soluble, so I used a tiny bit of high-phosphorus Bloom-Booster (lower salt-index) for trace elements. Lots of buds (more than 5) on a 7-month-old baby grown from seed. Potassium and calcium, plus phosphorus are needed for solid-root-growth to survive my 5a winter (I transfer roses from pots to ground before winter hit). Below is Excellenz Von Schubert that Seaweed in CA grew In full-sun, fertilized with fish emulsion. Seaweed uses Gardner & Bloom organic potting soil for EVS rose, it blooms lots for her, despite her low annual rainfall of 11" per year: Here's the ingredients in Gardner & Bloom potting soil for the above pot that Seaweed used: "INGREDIENTS: Recycled forest products, bark fines, peat moss, perlite, sand, composted chicken manure, alfalfa meal, bone meal, oyster shell & dolomite limes (as pH adjusters), worm castings, bat guano, kelp meal." http://www.kellogggarden.com/products/gborganics/soils/?s=rose-flower-planting-mix