dmartinx Posted September 2, 2018 Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 I bought 8-10 adult CRS around 6 months ago. They’ve been doing well with no deaths however I haven’t seen any berried females. Can anyone tell me why they’re not breeding? My parameters are: 20 gallon tank PH = 6.7 NO3 = 0-5 Temp 68-70 TDS = 160 GH = 1 Food - plenty of algae in the tank plus Shrimp King Complete by Dennerle fed twice a week The tank has a large mass of susswasser tang, two large pieces of driftwood and 3-4 large Indian almond leaves Substrate is Fluval Shrimp Stratum No fish in the tank. Only other occupants are half a dozen cherry red shrimp Water changes 15% weekly I’ve seen several molts but no berried females Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcrafted Posted September 2, 2018 Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 I hope you meant KH=1, not GH=1. If not, your GH is extremely low and should be between 4-6 for CRS. This is required for proper molting. The pH is a bit high too, so it makes me think your KH is closer to 1-2. Many CRS keepers try to maintain a pH of around 6 - 6.5, which can be difficult with Fluval Stratum, unless your water has no bi/carbonates (KH). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNCarpenter Posted September 2, 2018 Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 Iv wondered on this topic for some time. Is there a general rule of thumb for what to adjust to try and find the optimal breeding condition? Like does generally lowering the tds say 10 ppm a week or raise it? Lastly regarding active substrate does anyone know of a chart that lists the brand of substrate and the average pH it buffers to with RO water and 0 KhSent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmartinx Posted September 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 Response to Madcrafted - No I really did mean GH. I live in the Bay area where our water is essentially snow melt from the Sierra - very soft and acidic with minimal mineral content. I'll pursue your idea to increase the GH (slowly). I also agree with your comment that it's difficult to maintain a ph of 6.0 using Fluval Shrimp Stratum. In experience it seems to buffer the water to a ph of around 6.8-7.0. To make things more difficult our tap water has a high bicarbonate content and comes out as a ph of around 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcrafted Posted September 2, 2018 Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 Yeah, I would try to aim for at least a GH of 3-4. If you start with r/o water from the first fill up, it can buffer and hold a lower pH from my experience. I have a tank with some galaxy pintos in fluval right now that are breeding, but fry don't seem to survive in this substrate. I also lost an entire tank worth of taiwan bees in Fluval because I used baking soda to cycle with (big no no for this substrate). It quickly lost it's ability to keep pH low and hung around 7. Lesson learned, I never cycle with anything other than remineralized r/o water. All of my current tanks hold below 6 pH now because my r/o water is stored in sealed jugs. This keeps CO2 levels higher due to lack of gas exchange. My substrate doesn't really need to do much but keep it where it's at. The r/o water in my storage tank ranges between 6.8 and 7, so that would cause my pH to raise (temporarily) during water changes and top offs if I used it straight from this storage tank. I'd rather keep my r/o water in sealed jugs and just deal with lower pH, as I've had better luck with shrimp health in more acidic water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmartinx Posted September 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 I misspoke in my previous post when I said my water was acidic. My tap water is very alkaline - ph 8+. I have been told that the water district adds alkaline to the water (liming) to reduce CO2 and carbonic acid in an attempt to prevent the corrosive effects of carbonic acid on water pipes. Consequently when the water arrives at my house the CO2 is near zero. After 24 hours of aeration the CO2 levels rise to that of room air and the ph falls to 7.2-7.4. I still need to add something to bring the ph down to the mid 6 range. I've tried adding tannin sources but the ph rarely moves. I've been using a combination of Discus Buffer and Neutral Regular added to my water reservoir. The ratio that has worked for me is 1:1 to give me a ph of 6.7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNCarpenter Posted September 16, 2018 Report Share Posted September 16, 2018 Be cateful i know for a fact nutral regulator has phosphates in it. Its not meant for s planted tank. Also the neutral reg will add kh so I'd really stay awsy from it. If you are just trying to drop the ph use acid buffer or citric acid.Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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