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Nearly cooked?

jamila169

jamila169

Member
Joined
4 Mar 2021
Messages
170
Location
N Derbyshire
My Nano has been up and running for 3 weeks now and I've just got round to testing it fully (have been keeping an eye on the TDS because its 50/50 tap and RO and I wanted to be sure I'd done the maths to keep it hovering round 200 right)
Tank stats:
30l nano cube
Dennerle corner nano filter with the biomedia extension (biomedia's only been in a week, so probably not much happening in there yet)
Fluval stratum plant and shrimp
It has bogwood and seiryu stone in
GH8
KH2
pH 6.5 (tap is neutral as per usual)
Ammonia and nitrates zero
Nitrate 5
TNC complete 3ml every other day
Easycarbo 0.6ml every other day
I'm guessing that it's nearly ready for some shrimpy occupants or will be when the nitrate drops some more. The plan is to keep an eye on the TDS daily as I've been doing and also add in GH and KH to see if it's stable or if the stratum is eating the KH down any lower. I'm guessing the Seiryu is propping up the hardness, and fighting the stratum a bit ,TDS is rising from 200 to 230 before water changes so the Stratum isn't lowering that but I'm mindful that if the substrate wins, it might not be advisable to go with cherry shrimp. Has anyone else got Stratum + Neos or am I better off with Caridinas, and is there anything I'm doing that would be a really bad idea for either type ?
 
another entry for SCIENCE
after yesterday's GH, KH, TDS I had:
GH 8
KH 2
TDS 228
I did a clean and replaced 5 litres of the water with pure tap (roughly 25%) and got
GH 10
KH 4
TDS not done
Today (about 21 hours after the change)
GH 8-9
KH 2-3
TDS 219

So, whatever I do, this substrate is going to lower my KH to 2 until it's exhausted - will oystershell or some other form of carbonate mitigation support the KH enough for Cherries, or am I getting Tigers?
 
Would deffo reccomend oyster shells!

I'm sure the cherries would be fine without it, but with those stats, both cherries and tigers would appreciate some extra minerals from the oyster grit anyway, so why not? :)

You could even just hide a few shells from the beach in the tank and test the water to see if it's makes a difference, in case crushed oyster shell is bit awkward to intergrate in to your tank.

I have softer tap water than you and while it's great for wild bettas, tetras and other soft water fish species, I find inverts like snails and CRS benefit greatly from adding any source of calcium carbonate to the tank.

I've never used Fluval Stratum (I much prefer inert substrates now), but the few times I've used ADA Aqua Soil I found adding coral sand was the only way I could maintan decent water stats for inverts lol.
 
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