• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Water

Plantpot

Seedling
Joined
3 Jun 2017
Messages
12
Location
Uk
Hi I have recently started a 20 litre planted tank. I used tropica plant soil dust as my substrate, so that i could give the plants a good start. The problem is that the soil has made the water much softer than my tap water. I dont have ro water and i was hoping to keep cherry shrimp eventually in that tank, which looks unlikely now. Is there anything i can do apart from starting again from scratch with a different substrate. Any help would be gratefully accepted .
 
I'm fairly certain that aquasoil's ability to buffer low pH is not infinite. So, with enough time and water changes, your hardness will creep back up if you use tap.

RO water would be even softer than your tap water so it would be unlikely to "fix" your issue. Usually you'd buy a remineralizing product to add GH/KH (i.e. hardness) to the RO water before adding it to your shrimp tank.

But I think the more important question is, what's the hardness of your tank water now? Cherries are pretty adaptable shrimp. Your tank might still be acceptable for them even after the pH has lowered, no remineralizer needed.
 
Back
Top