You Thought Wrong
It's been just over a month since this tank was setup and I'm hoping this is the beginning of the road to stability and a more 'hands off' approach.
Firstly, the random Neocaridina die off appears to have stopped or drastically slowed. Maybe once a week I spot a death but it's inexplicable at this point as there's simultaneously multiple heathy and berried Neocaridina in there, as well as new born shrimplets. Maybe some aren't cut out for the blackwater life...
The crystal shrimp appear to be doing just fine. I've since added 6 Black Taiwan Pandas to the crew too. They were intended for my
Pillar of Convenience tank but they just weren't holding up well at all, and the population halved in a week. They would barely eat, were sluggish and were almost always hiding. I was a bit worried I might stress them out even further by moving them again but I figured if the red crystals are doing well I don't see why these wouldn't and it was better than watching them slowly die. I drip acclimated for about 2 hours and the difference was noticeable instantly. They became much more active, started eating rambunctiously and some even look berried (it's hard to tell with the opaque carapaces). The black colour is supposedly dominant and the red colour is recessive so over time I should end up with more black than red, but the reds do have a good head start.
I removed the anubias from the front of the wood structure and placed them lower down to the sides because they were getting covered in algae. It's a tricky balance providing enough light to the corners (especially in tinted water) yet not making everything up top suffer from too much light. As it's now firmly winter, the sun is lower and so the tank does get a couple of hours of direct sunlight on a sunny day. Funnily enough the susswassertang is the only thing unaffected by the high light and currently has no algae on it! I also placed a stem of Hyptis lorentziana given to me by
@Alex Papp and it seems to like having the extra room, light and no whitefly.
The microfauna population is booming with all sorts of 'pods and worms which I'm sure are helping to stabilise the system.
After doing some RO-only water changes I managed to get the TDS down to 130-150 and the GH to 5. The KH sits at 4 no matter what. I don't know how or why, and I can't add more RO without reducing everything else which is already in range. I could do a 50% water change and remineralise with Salty Shrimp GH but honestly, I cannot be bothered. 😅 The shrimp seem to be fine though so I'm not going to chase the numbers.
All the Leaves Are Not Brown
I recently went on a botanical forage with
@shangman and collected some Magnolia grandiflora leaves, Oak leaves, Swamp Cypress fronds and Liquid Amber pods. I'm slowly adding little bits every few days to build up the leaf litter. The cypress in particular looks really nice, especially at this scale (although I'm low-key slightly nervous to add it because I don't see many people using it. Research says it's safe!).
My biggest challenge in this tank is actually maintaining the water tint I'd like. I want a deep golden colour but can't seem to get there. It doesn't help that the wood was already pre treated so has very little if any tannin left to give. I've added mini alder cones, catappa, Texas live oak, and more recently oak leaves in attempt to get the colour I want. I did look at rooibos tea but decided I wanted to achieve it with botanicals only. If the oak leaves don't work, I'll try more catappa. If that doesn't work, I thought about getting a small piece of fresh driftwood (the real leachy type like river wood or mopani) and plonking it somewhere out of sight.
Other than that, it's ticking over nicely.