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20g new red cherry setting up help please

C

chop81

Seedling
Joined
3 Jan 2012
Messages
14
Location
Bournemouth
Hi everyone! I know some of you may say its stupid question but really need help.
I have 20g tank and want to set up for red cherry shrimps. Just bought RO/DI unit because mine tap water is liquid stone with over 8ph. Have normal tank gravel (11L).And my questions what to use to remineralize RO water to get proper GH and KH was thinking about benibachi mineral powder and Bee3 and what about the soil, what to use to buffer ph. I was thinking about benibachi Fulvic Grain but just worry ph will be to low. Is it maybe somethink cheaper avalible? Please dont laugh fromy questions.
 
I hate to say it after you've already bought the RO unit but rcs would probably be okay even though your water is hard. Mine are thriving and out of the tap my water is GH 19, pH 8 - 8.2.

Viv
 
For the RCS you dont need RO water, they are really sturdy ones :)
If you want an active substrate, I would recommend getting some Shirakura Red Bee sand, it is wonderful! Been using it for a while and all my shrimps are thriving. If you want you can mix the RO water with tap water, to get desired parameters and to save money from buying GH buffers and so on. Better invest in some minerals and good food, what ever brand you like. I'm personally using Shirakura food and Mironekuton deep sea minerals and I'm happy with both of them.
 
Id go for some "fluval shrimp stratum" just google it and you will find it, its quite expensive but looks good and is good for shrimps.
 
Unfortunetly I had to buy RO unit because of copper pipes. In future want to keep RC together with Red and Black crystal.
 
I dont want to risk and mix ro with tap water. Could you tell me please what should I use to put minerals back to RO and get the proper GH. will be ok using just RO and Fluval Shrimp Mineral Supplement PLEASE help
 
chop81 said:
I dont want to risk and mix ro with tap water. Could you tell me please what should I use to put minerals back to RO and get the proper GH. will be ok using just RO and Fluval Shrimp Mineral Supplement PLEASE help
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If you can tell me if you're planning on putting other shrimp into the tank in future I'll tell you how I'd go about it. You need to get the correct GH and KH and this varies depending upon what stock you want now and in the future.
 
I was thinking about Red Cherry and Red Crystal later but I think they wont be ok in one tank because Red Crystal need much lower GH, so I think to keep Red and Black Crystal.
 
Red cherry and crystal reds should be fine in the same GH, red cherry are very resilient little things and quite happy at a range of water qualities. If you've not done already, check out the post Mitchell posted. The water hardness (BOTH GH and KH) are only part of the puzzle, the TDS level (Total Dissolved Solids) it also important - i.e. the amount of stuff in the water column.

Personally I use TMC Tropic Re-Mineral products to re-mineralise. I currently use 50% of their tropical and 50% of their discus re-mineral products which gives me just under 9 dGH and just under 4dKH and a TDS of around the 100 mark. I do have a pressurised CO2 system & dose with fertilisers.

If I weren't running the CO2 system then I'd just use TMC Tropic Re-Mineral Discus which will give roughly 5 dGH and 1 dKH. With a KH that low you do need to be very concious of pH crashes which is why I wouldn't chance it with adding CO2 in any form.

Also you shouldn't keep different colours of the same type of shrimp together as they'll hybridise... So Red Crystal and Black Bee (aka Black Crystal) shouldn't be kept together, but Red Cherry and Red Crystal could be.

Hope this makes sense!

pete
 
DO NOT USE fluval substrate, it is completely useless! Get some ebi gold substrate, use the products you mentioned and you will be fine. You have all the minerals needed for your RO water.
 
Thank You for advise. So Option 1 by Petea: TMC Tropic Re-Mineral and is ok, what about some bufor for ph.
Option 2 by Dinco benibachi. I like option 1 because is much cheaper just worry if TMC Tropic Re-Mineral will be enough.
 
I havent got this products just ready to order. Problem is I want to try cheaper option but dont want to take a risk my shrimps die.
 
Dincho said:
DO NOT USE fluval substrate, it is completely useless! Get some ebi gold substrate, use the products you mentioned and you will be fine.
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Why is it useless? It's just a pourus substrate; good for plants and good for shrimps because of its size.
 
Its fine for something simple like cherry shrimp. If you want to keep something like CRS etc then its useless, it does not buffer the ph low enough, it has no effect on kh and only last about 6 months. I have only ever heard horro stories from people that have used it. Save your money!!!!
 
chop81 said:
Thank You for advise. So Option 1 by Petea: TMC Tropic Re-Mineral and is ok, what about some bufor for ph.
Option 2 by Dinco benibachi. I like option 1 because is much cheaper just worry if TMC Tropic Re-Mineral will be enough.
Click to expand...

Tropic Re-Mineral (both the regular and discus versions) contains everything you need to re-mineralise RO water including getting the KH level to a specific amount. I believe (and somebody will correct me if I'm talking tripe) that pH buffer just increase the KH of the water.

If I were doing it, I'd just use it without any extra and see what pH you get because it will be dependent on the amount of CO2 in your water :) If it's not right then you should be able to get something that does the necessary to fix it. Probably cheapest way.

One of the benefits that I see of using RO water is that you have complete control over what is going into your tank. I've never used any fancy substrate but don't like the idea of having to change my substrate and upsetting the tank every X months just to get the water right.
 
Thanks. So Ill use Tropic re minerall to my RO and shuld be ok. Could you tell me if I need to use any extra things
 
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