trong

My ada soil is way old. what are the statagies for changing soil in a shrimp and plant filled tank? can I change out 1/5th at a time section by section without killing shrimp? Has anyone tried this? the tank has been running for yrs

thanks for all the feedback, I do use TDS meter also. I may have discovered a possible reason I have slowly been loosing my CRS. I have been monitoring my water change water with my TDS meter and my tank water with it. Somehow my tank water although maintaining a good TDS, (I thought), my dGh has gone down to 3. I do lightly fertilize for plants and have corrected this problem in my tank, but wanted to post this for those who use ferts and TDS alone to monitor there tank. This will probably only be an issue for those with plants and shrimp. Hope this helps someone

Just curious which brand test kit people like and why? My preference is Nutrafin because color changes from pink to blue which is very obvious. even at low dGh Not a fan of API on dGh because the color change from green to orange isn't that clear. Is there a test kit that's preferred amongst shrimpers? Please throw some feed back out

hi all, I used to use this when I started out last year with shrimp. My population exploded. Over the year I've learned a lot and have much more to learn. My RCS population is huge but my CRShave dropped off. I think I remember reading this has something in it to promote breeding. Anyone have experience with Gravidas by Mosura?

Before and after water change as promissed

I would and do throw it on your lawn

the difference between RO water and distilled water is, RO water passes through a membrane under pressure. Salts or solids are extracted. Distilled water is water that is heated, turned to steam and reconstituted back to water as it cools void of any salts or solids

Thank you again for your reply. i do understand in regard to Co2. I'm sure my substrate does help with stability in regard to alkalinity. I know it contributes to great plant growth. I love learning and like the challenge of stability. my actual Kh in the tank is .8 My Ph meter calibrated every 6 weeks says Ph in the morning before lights on is 6.6ish and Ph at lights out is around 6.16. I'm pretty sure that's right around 20ppm I do only have easy plants. will do photos tomorrow

thanks nicpapa for reply. I have been having a heck of a time finding akadama. I do use api Ph test, i aged water from my tank for 24 hrs and it tests at 7.6. I use DI water at water change with salty shrimp Gh 2x per week. 5gal out of 25 gallon tank. i use potassium bicarbonate to buffer Kh to .5. I do use Co2 but never exceeds 20ppm. Nitrates are unmeasurable (0) as for ferts i dose PPSPro. My tank is in need of a trim. I will post pics on sunday when i can find time. Before trim and after.

thank you for response dao. In all my reading about shrimp i do understand it is a subtle balance of both micro and macro nutrients that shrimp prefer. In regard to substrate leeching i agree. what we are talking about here is balancing water,yes?

I realize this is an older thread so I just want to be helpful. Sometimes in an older tank this event with nitrates has happened to me. I fixed it by simple and slowly adding potassium to the tank and continue with regular 10 to 20% water changes. this will allow your plants to kick into a higher gear of growth rate and naturally bring nitrate down. at this point watch for GSA on the glass. this indicates phosphate is low to nonexistent .

I did forget to mention in my inquiry I keep my TDS between 135 and 160

so ive been doing this CRS and RCS shrimp tank for about a year. Its a 25 gal tank. I started adding shrimp into a planted tank with 4year old ADA substrate. So now the substrate is 5 or more years old. Its a heavily planted CO2 inriched aquarium. Before starting with shrimp I read everything I could. At first I had great luck, turned 11 CRS into maybe 150 and 10 RCS into 300 or more. RCS are still prolific, however my CRS have really slowed down. I'm down to about 15 to 20, hard to tell because of plants and rocks. MY KH with salifert alkalinity test says .8 dkh. my ph probe says 6.2 with lights on. I took a water sample out and let it rest 24 hrs. it tested at 7.6. I do weekly 15 to 20 % water changes with salty shrimp and RO water weekly. I also add potassium bicarbonate to get .8 dkh I have been doing planted tanks for over 20yrs. Plants are thriving. Im think changing substrates regularly is a scam? Maybe someone can help me understand? Is my substrate loosing or has totally lost it's ability to buffer? I,ve read this happens but never believed it to be relevant to shrimp keeping. If it did loose its ability to buffer wouldn't it be inert? Maybe its only relevant to cardinia species? Gh 5dkh Kh .8dKh Nitrate unmeasurable

I still this up in October and am having great luck with CRS and RCS. Started with 20 cherries and 20 crystal reds. I'd never done shrimp before and lost 1/2 of the crystals. Since then I've added none and have probably over 2 hundred cherries and 100 crystals

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