Hi, I am planning on doing that - have you had good success with it?
Yes i have setup 2 tanks now using dark start , i still suffered with diatoms but not much with plants melts or ammonia spikes, i am from surrey too and as you know we have hard tap water so co2 will have to be turned on 3 hours before the lights come on , you can check out my tanks https://www.instagram.com/scaper.inc?igsh=cmcwb2RlZ3Y0YTFr
Your tanks look great! Would like to have cherry shrimp too, so good to see that they can do well in our tap water with co2.
Neocaridina apparently like hard water, i already have 9 baby shrimp.
They are fine in hard water. They do well in our tap water (<"about 18 dGH / 18dKH">), <"it is soft water"> that they don't do well in.
I would say 18 dGH is probably at the very high end of acceptable... the high Calcium content can make the exoskeleton too hard and thick and can cause the shrimps to get stuck in the molt. This is less common for Neo's or Amano's though. The bigger issue rather than the 18 dGH (if it would be all from 128 ppm of Ca) by itself is that hard water is usually associated with a lot of other compounds that makes the overall EC (TDS) too high for comfort (fertilizers, and other minerals). On the other hand, water being too soft (low on Ca/Mg) is definitely an issue as well for pretty much all species of dwarf shrimps. In my experience, keeping quite a few varieties, is that you can accommodate pretty much all at around 4-5 dGH - some species can arguably go a lower - and keep the EC/TDS low and still provide adequate amounts of fertilizers for your plants.
