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Moving inverts into a tank with fresh aquasoil

ElleDee

Member
Joined
12 Mar 2022
Messages
217
Location
Southeastern US
I have a tank with dirt and gravel that has amano shrimp, nerite snails, and a well established neocaridina colony. The buffering capabilities of the soil have long since been exhausted and the parameters are as follows:

pH: 7.4 to 7.0 (daily swing from endogenous CO2)
TDS: 190-ish
KH: just over 1 DH
GH: ~6 DH

I have a new tank with aquasoil that is buffering the pH/kh and I'm remineralizing less, so GH and TDS are less. Water parameters in this tank:

pH: 6.4, maybe a little lower
TDS: 150
KH: 0
GH: ~4 DH
(Temperature is identical. They are unheated and in the same room.)

I want to move a snail and an amano over to my new tank, but do you think the difference in parameters is too much? I'm not sure how much is too much, or if there are some parameters that matter more than others. I am using the same tap water in both tanks, so the differences are entirely from the soil and my inputs.
 
Could you do a drip acclimatization for the critters?
Put a bucket on the floor and use an airline hose with a knot or a valve to let water drip from the new tank into the bucket of critters. A couple of hours should do just fine, especially for amanos who are quite tough.
This is assuming your fresh soil is not releasing any ammonia still?
 
@Hufsa,

I'm using contrasoil and it never leached any ammonia that I saw in the 4 weeks since I submersed it, so I'm probably safe on that front.

As for drip acclimation, my understanding has been that your livestock can't really adapt to major changes except for temperature changes over the course a few hours, so it can't really bridge any parameters swings that the livestock couldn't handle on it's own anyway. I'm open to revisiting that thinking, but I was pretty convinced the first time I had the plop and drop method explained to me.
 
Ah, might be, I havent gone very deeply into the subject so I dont have any sources to rely on as such. Shrimp keepers do a lot of things that im not entirely convinced are necessary, but since the advice to drip acclimate has been so universally recommended for shrimp then I have just followed that, and not had any issues with deaths following their introduction, which I understand they are prone to.
If you heavily subscribe to the plop and drop then I dont think 1 degree KH is the wildest span you could go for, so you could just try it out with that one snail and amano and see how it goes, most likely just fine I should think 😊
 
Shrimp keepers do a lot of things that im not entirely convinced are necessary
I have that suspicion as well, but I'm not experienced enough myself to figure out what is really necessary and what is just extra fuss. I go back and forth between feeling like I'm being overly cautious and overly cavalier and that's why I made the thread.

I think I will move one of each over in a day or two unless someone convinces me not to in the meantime.
 
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