Hi
So I have 2 questions which are about 2 separate tanks, if you want to help me with shrimp question please skip to the bottom. Anyhow I will start with my most concerning question which is about my fish tank.
I have just tested my tank for the first time on GH&KH , I have had the tank about 3 weeks since I upgraded from a 90l, Its now 200l, I dose EI and inject CO2.
I was shocked to find I had 16GH, "16 drops" and the results are not even on the charts? I also did have a dead fish this morning, but If it's related I don't know as I only purchased the Zebra Danio's about a week ago. "The tank is also cycled from my previous filter" and all other fish are all fine.
My other readings:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40ppm which it is all the time even for the previous 2 years on my 90l and even at the end of week, so I guess I either have 80ppm to start with or something very odd is going on with my plants lol.
KH 8
GH 16
313 TDS bucket of new water, 320 with dechlorinator added
PH 8 from tap water.
"I also do not add potassium nitrate to my EI and instead use potassium sulfate"
"I also now only do 30% water changes a week instead of 50% so could this be leaving to many nutrients?"
I also purchased a TDS meter and it's going up and down like a yoyo, It was 480 yesterday. Here is an example of it jumping up and down.
Before W/C 490 TDS , After W/C 432TDS, After Macro 450TDS
In the morning 359TDS After Micro up to 455TDS, and pattern continues like that pretty much.
Also to add I am new to all this so I have no idea what I am on about, but the reason I am doing all these tests is because of shrimp problems which leads me to my next question on behalf of my girlfriend as officially its her tank
So months back we purchased 10 Yellow shrimp for her new Fluval Ebi which we cycled, they were all babies and we lost about 3-4 over a month, the rest lasted about 3 months and all reached adults until one would die each week, until there was 1, anyhow we decided to go down the cherry shrimp route, which everywhere I seem to read people say there cherry shrimps survive everything, anyhow we purchased 10 once again, and all were babies. only this time it was from a local fish shop as I thought this could give them an advantage as the water could be near enough the same.... anyhow the same thing happened all over again, I think 8 got to adult size, then 1 started to die each week or 2, and we are now left with only 4 adults.
I have done research and more research, which is when I decided to convince my girlfriend to buy a TDS meter and a GH/KH kit, her results were:
TDS 300
12 GH
6KH
Which I believe cherry shrimps should be able to live in from what I've read, I have asked her to let me look after the tank and since then I have changed the layout for her, to make it more clean/simple and also changed the weekly w/c's from 30% down to 20% and have kept these 4 alive for couple of weeks now, so not sure if the problem has been sorted or something is happening? I hope someone can give me some ideas/advice or let me know what's happening.
Sorry for the essay, hope someone can help!
So I have 2 questions which are about 2 separate tanks, if you want to help me with shrimp question please skip to the bottom. Anyhow I will start with my most concerning question which is about my fish tank.
I have just tested my tank for the first time on GH&KH , I have had the tank about 3 weeks since I upgraded from a 90l, Its now 200l, I dose EI and inject CO2.
I was shocked to find I had 16GH, "16 drops" and the results are not even on the charts? I also did have a dead fish this morning, but If it's related I don't know as I only purchased the Zebra Danio's about a week ago. "The tank is also cycled from my previous filter" and all other fish are all fine.
My other readings:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40ppm which it is all the time even for the previous 2 years on my 90l and even at the end of week, so I guess I either have 80ppm to start with or something very odd is going on with my plants lol.
KH 8
GH 16
313 TDS bucket of new water, 320 with dechlorinator added
PH 8 from tap water.
"I also do not add potassium nitrate to my EI and instead use potassium sulfate"
"I also now only do 30% water changes a week instead of 50% so could this be leaving to many nutrients?"
I also purchased a TDS meter and it's going up and down like a yoyo, It was 480 yesterday. Here is an example of it jumping up and down.
Before W/C 490 TDS , After W/C 432TDS, After Macro 450TDS
In the morning 359TDS After Micro up to 455TDS, and pattern continues like that pretty much.
Also to add I am new to all this so I have no idea what I am on about, but the reason I am doing all these tests is because of shrimp problems which leads me to my next question on behalf of my girlfriend as officially its her tank
So months back we purchased 10 Yellow shrimp for her new Fluval Ebi which we cycled, they were all babies and we lost about 3-4 over a month, the rest lasted about 3 months and all reached adults until one would die each week, until there was 1, anyhow we decided to go down the cherry shrimp route, which everywhere I seem to read people say there cherry shrimps survive everything, anyhow we purchased 10 once again, and all were babies. only this time it was from a local fish shop as I thought this could give them an advantage as the water could be near enough the same.... anyhow the same thing happened all over again, I think 8 got to adult size, then 1 started to die each week or 2, and we are now left with only 4 adults.
I have done research and more research, which is when I decided to convince my girlfriend to buy a TDS meter and a GH/KH kit, her results were:
TDS 300
12 GH
6KH
Which I believe cherry shrimps should be able to live in from what I've read, I have asked her to let me look after the tank and since then I have changed the layout for her, to make it more clean/simple and also changed the weekly w/c's from 30% down to 20% and have kept these 4 alive for couple of weeks now, so not sure if the problem has been sorted or something is happening? I hope someone can give me some ideas/advice or let me know what's happening.
Sorry for the essay, hope someone can help!