My Small Planted Shrimp Tank Journal

[JenCliBee]

maybe the pH then, i would of acclimatised them, even if the differences was small, stops any implications then.

Plants are producing O2 (even if you cant see it). Pearling occurs when the water is saturated with Oxygen and no more can dissolve, so instead you see it forming as bubbles on leaf tips.
As long as there is enough oxygen then the CO2 levels wont have a badaffect on the fish.

shrimps can be buggers when acclimatizing, i would of done 3-4 hours using the drip method with a PH drop like that

I honestly didnt relise my PH would drop so much hence the usuall just acclime by floating bags for an hour lol, ill know for next time now.

At least now thats that one possibly sorted out



Onto the other one with dosing any recommneded way of doing or just follow bottle instructions?

one more thing i managed to get hold of some seacham flourish while i wait for my TPN+ and easy carbo to be delivered, How much seaham and when to dose? and when i get the crbo and TPN+ how much and when to dose with that aswell please

Would rather the info from experiance than follow bottle instructions tbh.

 

[Truck]

maybe the pH then, i would of acclimatised them, even if the differences was small, stops any implications then.

Plants are producing O2 (even if you cant see it). Pearling occurs when the water is saturated with Oxygen and no more can dissolve, so instead you see it forming as bubbles on leaf tips.
As long as there is enough oxygen then the CO2 levels wont have a badaffect on the fish.

shrimps can be buggers when acclimatizing, i would of done 3-4 hours using the drip method with a PH drop like that

I honestly didnt relise my PH would drop so much hence the usuall just acclime by floating bags for an hour lol, ill know for next time now.

At least now thats that one possibly sorted out



Onto the other one with dosing any recommneded way of doing or just follow bottle instructions?

one more thing i managed to get hold of some seacham flourish while i wait for my TPN+ and easy carbo to be delivered, How much seaham and when to dose? and when i get the crbo and TPN+ how much and when to dose with that aswell please

Would rather the info from experiance than follow bottle instructions tbh.

i would do 1ml a day because your tank contains moss.

 

[JenCliBee]

maybe the pH then, i would of acclimatised them, even if the differences was small, stops any implications then.

Plants are producing O2 (even if you cant see it). Pearling occurs when the water is saturated with Oxygen and no more can dissolve, so instead you see it forming as bubbles on leaf tips.
As long as there is enough oxygen then the CO2 levels wont have a badaffect on the fish.

shrimps can be buggers when acclimatizing, i would of done 3-4 hours using the drip method with a PH drop like that

I honestly didnt relise my PH would drop so much hence the usuall just acclime by floating bags for an hour lol, ill know for next time now.

At least now thats that one possibly sorted out



Onto the other one with dosing any recommneded way of doing or just follow bottle instructions?

one more thing i managed to get hold of some seacham flourish while i wait for my TPN+ and easy carbo to be delivered, How much seaham and when to dose? and when i get the crbo and TPN+ how much and when to dose with that aswell please

Would rather the info from experiance than follow bottle instructions tbh.

i would do 1ml a day because your tank contains moss.

For all the products or just the seacham?

 

[Truck]

sorry i thought you were on about easy carbo, i would dose easy carbo 1ml a day

wasnt looking properly

 

[keenonfish]

AE, the green machine, and fluid sensor online, sell TPN+
Those DC's are fine

Not sure if Fluid sensor are into this game anymore as I couldn't find powders on their site last time I looked. Shame they were better value than the others too!

@Jen Nice little tank you got their - Maybe you could remove your CO2 over night and acclimatise your shrimps early in the morning. That way ph will be back up to normal and your shrimps can then acclimatise as the CO2 starts to drop the ph again (after you have connected back up!)

I would pass that by aaron first as it might be a bit ott or might not even work but it seems logical to me

 

[JenCliBee]

Rite peeps a slight dilema, Ph is sitting at 6 but i had the shrimp die as above casuing an ammonia spike. becasue my PH is at 6 the ammonia wont go (in a sense a cycle stall), i need a way of raising my PH back upto say 7 ish to get the cycle runnign again so it can clear this excess ammonia. Any idea's?, i dont want to add chemicals as in PH up and all that crap but would bicarb raise it or is there somethink that i can use to perminently to keep it at around 7?

jen

Quick Edit just to say ive just tested all my tanks for PH and it seems there is no buffering compasity in my tap water at all, my tanks and this is all of them are coming out at a PH of 6, from my tap the PH is 7 so it looks like the KH GH are extreamly low giving me extreamly soft water which wont hold the PH.

 

[Craster]

A water change is your best bet. Raise your pH and clear your excess ammonia in one go.

 

[JenCliBee]

A water change is your best bet. Raise your pH and clear your excess ammonia in one go.

Yeh thats what i was thinking...but beens the ammonia is still there and this was very mature media that was added would the bacteria still be alive?, the ammonia source is there for it to feed on but its just not feeding becasue the PH has in essence stalled the cycle.

Also my Ph will just drop again as it has in all my other tanks which i new happens anyway i just forgot lol, but even if the PH did stay stable from tap the CO2 would drop it.

Causing more grief than i expected simply becasue this is and was going to be a shrimp tank and PH and ammonia fluctuations is not really ideal for them

 

[aaronnorth]

AE, the green machine, and fluid sensor online, sell TPN+
Those DC's are fine

Not sure if Fluid sensor are into this game anymore as I couldn't find powders on their site last time I looked. Shame they were better value than the others too!

They are because they have just started to sponser UKAPS

add some purigen and/ or zeolite into the filter - it will help with any ammonia problms you are having. Also like craster says, so a water change. It is reccomended you keep the photperiod at 6hrs for the first 6 weeks, and in this time also do 2 x 50% water changes a week.

 

[JenCliBee]

AE, the green machine, and fluid sensor online, sell TPN+
Those DC's are fine

Not sure if Fluid sensor are into this game anymore as I couldn't find powders on their site last time I looked. Shame they were better value than the others too!

They are because they have just started to sponser UKAPS

add some purigen and/ or zeolite into the filter - it will help with any ammonia problms you are having. Also like craster says, so a water change. It is reccomended you keep the photperiod at 6hrs for the first 6 weeks, and in this time also do 2 x 50% water changes a week.

Cheers aaron but not really answered the question, ammonia i have an incliling of why its not going, doing a water change will clear this issue. Having my PH constantly dropping is casuing me more concern simpley becasue when ever a fishless cycle is mentioned it states dont let the PH crash otherwise it will stall the cycle well my PH will crash either way onyl way i can stop is by doing huge water changes everyday which im not willing to do, but if it does crasj below the stall level then am i always gonna have an issue with ammonia been processed?.

Am curious about one thing tho..... why keep the photperiod to 6 hrs for 6 weeks? and why the need for 2 50% water changes per week?

jen

 

[aaronnorth]

AE, the green machine, and fluid sensor online, sell TPN+
Those DC's are fine

Not sure if Fluid sensor are into this game anymore as I couldn't find powders on their site last time I looked. Shame they were better value than the others too!

They are because they have just started to sponser UKAPS

add some purigen and/ or zeolite into the filter - it will help with any ammonia problms you are having. Also like craster says, so a water change. It is reccomended you keep the photperiod at 6hrs for the first 6 weeks, and in this time also do 2 x 50% water changes a week.

Cheers aaron but not really answered the question, ammonia i have an incliling of why its not going, doing a water change will clear this issue. Having my PH constantly dropping is casuing me more concern simpley becasue when ever a fishless cycle is mentioned it states dont let the PH crash otherwise it will stall the cycle well my PH will crash either way onyl way i can stop is by doing huge water changes everyday which im not willing to do, but if it does crasj below the stall level then am i always gonna have an issue with ammonia been processed?.

Am curious about one thing tho..... why keep the photperiod to 6 hrs for 6 weeks? and why the need for 2 50% water changes per week?

jen

limiting the photoperiod limits algae growth.
2 x 50% water changes removes algae spores & ammonia.

It is all about preventing algae from the start, rather than finding a cure later.

I have not heard of the substrate you used before, and some do leach ammonia for the first few weeks of their life.
You could try raising the kH to stop the pH dropping, you can then be assured you wont stall the cycle.

 

[keenonfish]

Rite peeps a slight dilema, Ph is sitting at 6 but i had the shrimp die as above casuing an ammonia spike. becasue my PH is at 6 the ammonia wont go (in a sense a cycle stall), i need a way of raising my PH back upto say 7 ish to get the cycle runnign again so it can clear this excess ammonia. Any idea's?, i dont want to add chemicals as in PH up and all that crap but would bicarb raise it or is there somethink that i can use to perminently to keep it at around 7?

jen

Quick Edit just to say ive just tested all my tanks for PH and it seems there is no buffering compasity in my tap water at all, my tanks and this is all of them are coming out at a PH of 6, from my tap the PH is 7 so it looks like the KH GH are extreamly low giving me extreamly soft water which wont hold the PH.

I have the same problem in a sense that my Kh is very low Ammonia wasn't so much a problem as the plants seemed to gobble that up but NitrItes seem to be just showing off blue. I also used mature media from my UGF. I have resorted to doing 3 50% water changes a week (90 liters each!) and buffering with Bicarb to raise the Kh and try to keep the ph above 6.5 with CO2 but even this isn't easy!

I think 1 tsp of bicarb for every 50 litres of water raises the Kh by 4 degrees.

This might help I got this link from United Utilities has loads of info on water supply http/www.unitedutilities.com/waterquality Interpreting the data is another matter though

@aaron yeah I found their site it seems I was looking at the same company just a part that deals with commercial gear so made the wrong assumption

 

[JenCliBee]

limiting the photoperiod limits algae growth.
2 x 50% water changes removes algae spores & ammonia.

It is all about preventing algae from the start, rather than finding a cure later.

I have not heard of the substrate you used before, and some do leach ammonia for the first few weeks of their life.
You could try raising the kH to stop the pH dropping, you can then be assured you wont stall the cycle.

Cheers m8, that cleared that one up and yeh ive herd some substrates leak ammonia so will just monitor that tank for a while without fish just to check, if theres an ammonia source at least its feeding the bacteria so even without fish/shrimp it should be ok for the time been

I have the same problem in a sense that my Kh is very low Ammonia wasn't so much a problem as the plants seemed to gobble that up but NitrItes seem to be just showing off blue. I also used mature media from my UGF. I have resorted to doing 3 50% water changes a week (90 liters each!) and buffering with Bicarb to raise the Kh and try to keep the ph above 6.5 with CO2 but even this isn't easy!

I think 1 tsp of bicarb for every 50 litres of water raises the Kh by 4 degrees.

This might help I got this link from United Utilities has loads of info on water supply [URL="http/www.unitedutilities.com/waterquality"]http/www.unitedutilities.com/waterquality[/URL] Interpreting the data is another matter though

Cheers for the link, unfortuantley it wont except my postcosde lol but ill have a read through and see what the other parts say.

I was thinking bicarb to raise the KH/PH but once added is that it untill next water change or does it eventually stop buffering then u have to add it again?

also does biocarb affect fish in anyway?

thanks for all the help guys

jen

 

[keenonfish]

Cheers for the link, unfortuantley it wont except my postcosde lol but ill have a read through and see what the other parts say.

I was thinking bicarb to raise the KH/PH but once added is that it untill next water change or does it eventually stop buffering then u have to add it again?

also does biocarb affect fish in anyway?

thanks for all the help guys

jen

Contact your water company and they should point you in the right direction!

As for the bicarb I only ever treat the water I am changing so yes every water change I am sure aaron will help you further here.

 

[Underwurlde]

Just to chuck my 2p's worth in Jen.... I personally wouldn't try to adjust pH and KH etc... It's a royal pain in the butt to do & unless you have very specific water conditions you are targeting I'd consider it a waste of time, effort & money. Let your tank find it's own natural balance really and this means taking time to do things gradually... and gradual changes is the key to all this really and in a sense this philosopy has already been advocated with the suggestion of using a short initial photo-period of just 6 hours and then gradually increasing it to 8 - 10 hours.

Andy