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Struggling with Shrimp/Planted tank advise

I am about to do a water change tomorrow, so will aim to get the tank down to around a TDS of 150 and see where the TDS is after each day of adding the fertiliser.

The floating plants are certainly doing well and multiplying, so they seem to be happy with the current status. Guess the algae is loving the light, so hopefully bringing the light down will help with that too.

Once settled, I'll check the parameters and post them for your thought.
 
Hi
Sounds like a plan.Im sure U will wing it.
Don't get too obsessed with the parameters and testing.
Unlike marine tanks in planted tanks is just a hasstle U dont really need.
Regards Konsa
 
How much water do you usually change @tayloss ?
 
What was the KH of your tapwater?
 
If I was you I would mix 1ltr of dechlorinated tapwater with 9 ltrs of RO water and use that for water changes. That will get your water change water at around 1dkh and 2dgh and test the TDS of the water you have cut before putting it in the tank to see what that is. You know if you add your fertiliser from your other post (with the KNO3 added you bought)

3.22 ppm Nitrate x7 =22.54ppm Weekly
0.4 ppm Phosphate x7 =2.8ppm Weekly
2.53 ppm Potassium x7 =17.71ppm Weekly
0.2 ppm Magnesium x7 =1.4ppm Weekly
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The total of all of the above will raise the TDS by around 45ppm by the end of the week and will not affect your KH just raise your GH slightly because of the magnesium. Obviously some of those ferts will get used up which will lower the TDS. Ideally if you are aiming for around 150-200 TDS for the shrimp the cut water you are going to use wants to have a TDS of around 100 if lower even better.

Then you know that in total with ferts and water changes you are adding no more than 150ppm to the tank weekly. The water is perfect for shrimp and you are dosing EI levels of fertilser, plants and shrimp are happy. As you are dosing max ferts gradually over the space of a few months you could start dosing slightly less ferts and see how the plants react especially the floating ones until you find a happy place where TDS isn't rising in the tank and plants aren't suffering and make that your ritual. If plants aren't getting enough ferts and you want to stick with your fert regime simply removing a load of floaters and trimming out plants will help get back on side as the ferts you are putting in has less plant mass to feed. Checking TDS in the tank at the end of the week and logging in it will help to keep an eye on which direction the TDS is going over time and you can adjust to that.
 
Do you mean use the TDS levels the RO/Tap water produces and don’t use the RO agent?

Certainly worth trying 🙂


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tayloss said:
Do you mean use the TDS levels the RO/Tap water produces and don’t use the RO agent?

Certainly worth trying 🙂


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Click to expand...
Yeah keep it nice and simple. As discussed RO water is too raw on its own and your tapwater is high for the shrimp you intend keeping so just dilute your tapwater with the RO.

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Yes if you do this to make 2dgh 1dkh every d is 17.9 ppm 1 ppm is 1 point on your tds meter. So your input water kh plus gh is roughly 54 tds then what ever else is in your tap water adding to the TDS.
Your ferts for the week are roughly 60ppm so these with zero consumption by your plants will add 60 TDS weekly. The rest is organics waste etc in your water.
So i would think you can have 2dgh 1dkh imput water and ferts for your plants and still maintain a sub 200 tds or there abouts and grow plants and keep whatever shrimp you like?
 
Daveslaney said:
Yes if you do this to make 2dgh 1dkh every d is 17.9 ppm 1 ppm is 1 point on your tds meter. So your input water kh plus gh is roughly 54 tds then what ever else is in your tap water adding to the TDS.
Your ferts for the week are roughly 60ppm so these with zero consumption by your plants will add 60 TDS weekly. The rest is organics waste etc in your water.
So i would think you can have 2dgh 1dkh imput water and ferts for your plants and still maintain a sub 200 tds or there abouts and grow plants and keep whatever shrimp you like?
Click to expand...
Should be 34tds water other than whatever else is in the tapwater. Dgh is combined so it will be both KH and permanent hardness together so 2dgh x 17.9

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Should I do a bigger change to bring the TDS down as it’s currently 236 or perform a couple of water changes?


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tayloss said:
Should I do a bigger change to bring the TDS down as it’s currently 236 or perform a couple of water changes?


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While there's no fish or shrimp in there just change 10 ltrs with pure RO and that should half your current tds.

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AverageWhiteBloke said:
While there's no fish or shrimp in there just change 10 ltrs with pure RO and that should half your current tds.

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Click to expand...

Okey... sounds good.. will let you know the results.. am i ok to weekly water changes after that? Or another one after the RO only change?


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Alright, as I already had 15l of RO ready for a saltmix, I redirected 10l to the planted tank and performed a water change 🙂

TDS is now 130, but will test again before the fertilisers are added to verify the reading...

Should I do another change this week or wait until next Sunday/Monday for the next dose?


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tayloss said:
Alright, as I already had 15l of RO ready for a saltmix, I redirected 10l to the planted tank and performed a water change 🙂

TDS is now 130, but will test again before the fertilisers are added to verify the reading...

Should I do another change this week or wait until next Sunday/Monday for the next dose?


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Click to expand...
What do you mean by dose?

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Sorry, dose of water as in next water change...

The TDS has risen this morning to 158? Added Fertilizer and didn’t see an increase?

Could the rock be adding to the TDS as well?


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Last edited:
tayloss said:
Could the rock be adding to the TDS as well?
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe a little. Don't get too bogged down with the numbers though mate. The TDS meter will probably have a margin of error and the differences are tiny, as long as generally speaking you keep the same parameters it will be fine. The problem with small tanks is they are very unstable, any slight change makes a big difference. Now you TDS is where you want it Just go ahead and make your WC water up as discussed and go for 50% weekly. You can of course do more and should it will just keep the tank overall cleaner and as the water you are using is similar to what's in the tank there shouldn't be any extreme changes to parameters. When/if you get your fancy shrimp just do the water changes slowly I would say.
 
Thanks mate for being so patient 🙂

This was more complex than I thought being a planted shrimp tank, especially after keeping a marine tank!

I’ve made up some new fertiliser mix and KNO3 this evening, so will start to add it from tomorrow.. I’ll probably do another change to bring the TDS a little more, but with the mix as suggested..

I’ll keep you posted on progress, as seemed to have stalled on the algae removal, but could be resolved by the reduction of light thanks to the floating plants..


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