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Substrate help....please

Baccus

By Baccus
in Shrimp Tank Setup

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Baccus Shrimp Master

Baccus

Posted
Posted

I was recently in Brisbane and happened to find some time to stumble into an Aquarium shop that I just happened to find (turns out it was no other than Fishchix which I only realised after I got their business card :stupid:).

Any way I decided to bite the bullet and get some shrimp sand, since I couldn't take anything live home on the plane with me.

But now my dilemma is this, the sand I got is made by Up -aqua and simply called Shrimp Sand, if it has any other names it is in Japanese which I cant read.

The sand is supposed to bring a tanks pH up to around 6.5.

My native tank that I was thinking about putting the sand in is currently sitting around 6pH. The shrimp in this tank are breeding well with lots of shrimplets of all ages getting about.

I was wondering if I add the entire bag of shrimp sand to the current set up will it increase the pH to much higher ranges or will it settle out at the 6.5 mark and just take longer to break down?

Or do I just add a little of the sand to the tank if I notice that the pH is dropping below 6?

Or my final option do I just leave well enough alone?

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ineke Shrimp Guru

ineke

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Posted

It it isn't broken don't try to fix it. Last option if they are breeding and surviving they are probably in good water parameters already:D unless there was a reason why you want to add sand.

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Squiggle Shrimp Guru

Squiggle

Posted
Posted

I have that substrate in one of my tanks, it works on the same principal as other shrimp substrates, the thicker the substrate, the lower the PH will be. I'm not sure how it will go on water that is already below the target PH. :dejection:

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Baccus Shrimp Master

Baccus

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I had thought the pH was a little low that was why I was thinking of maybe trying to bring it back up to around the 6.5. I generally don't muck about with pH and gH simply because it all gets so confusing and frustrating having to adjust it all the time, especially since I don't use RO water or even rain water.

I guess I will just leave the tank alone, since they are breeding well.

I am going to do some more water changes soon on my tanks to try and bring their temps down before another hellish day of heat tomorrow and will do some more pH tests while I am at it.

Thanks for the input.

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jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

Posted
Posted

Time to do a substrate review.

Maybe use some tank water in a cup of substrate to see what it does before adding it to the tank.

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