Water Parameters for Yellow Cherries

[rawprawn]

Hi All,

I'm struggling a bit with my water parameters in my 4 foot yellow cherry tank.

The town water is really alkaline, off the scale on my API test kit (8.8 max).

My tank has about 4cm of "Serenity" black sand and two big pieces of driftwood with some java moss and a few plants just starting to grow.

My readings today were:

PH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 5ppm
TDS 260
GH 4
KH 3

My HM TDS meter has never been calibrated, but I have some calibration solution on the way.

The tank has no light, but is outside where there is indirect natural daylight all day.

They're breeding a bit, but I do lose a shrimp every month/fortnight and I feel it could go a bit better.

I have a good 4 stage RO unit for drinking water, and am considering going with salty shrimp GH/KH+ http://www.bossaquaria.com.au/shrimp-mineral-gh-kh-850g-4250-ltr/ in RO water for a better result.

Is this overkill for cherries?

Will the salty shrimp buffer the RO water PH (6.6) at all, and if so in what direction?

I don't want to get into using that PH up/down solution, I'd rather use water that lands in the zone for my water changes.

Cheers for any advice in advance.

[Squiggle]

GH/KH+ is the minerals specifically designed for cherry shrimp & they can handle up in the mid 7s quite easily. It's very strange that your KH is so low but your pH is so high, but I guess that's town water for ya. You probably don't need to calibrate your TDS pen ad they rarely go out of calibration, but if you've got the solution then there's no hurt in checking. If I had to take a guess, I would say there might be something in your town water that could be causing it(copper maybe?).

The GH/KH+ minerals are designed to be used with RO water, this way you know exactly what is in your water & that it's at the right concentration, I use RO water & Salty Shrimp in all my tanks, cherries, crystals, TBs, tigers & natives.

[rawprawn]

GH/KH+ is the minerals specifically designed for cherry shrimp & they can handle up in the mid 7s quite easily. It's very strange that your KH is so low but your pH is so high, but I guess that's town water for ya. You probably don't need to calibrate your TDS pen ad they rarely go out of calibration, but if you've got the solution then there's no hurt in checking. If I had to take a guess, I would say there might be something in your town water that could be causing it(copper maybe?).

The GH/KH+ minerals are designed to be used with RO water, this way you know exactly what is in your water & that it's at the right concentration, I use RO water & Salty Shrimp in all my tanks, cherries, crystals, TBs, tigers & natives.

 

Cheers for that.

 

The guy at the LFS is a shrimp guru and a very nice and helpful person always.

 

He did a copper test for me back in the start, but haven't done one since.

 

He said that the water in our town is notoriously difficult to work with, and he puts quite a bit of effort into adjusting it himself.

 

Apparently the salt above is specifically for neo's, I'm just a bit worried about the PH of my RO water (6.5)...will it end up too low with my drifwood, etc?

 

Seems that this particular salt is designed to end up with GH/KH at a 1/0.5 ratio, meaning if I end up with my GH at 6-7 my KH will be 3-3.5, very acceptable.

 

Whether I use town or RO water, it seems I'm going to be at either end of the cherries PH parameter, not in the middle where I'd like to be.

Edited September 4, 2014 by rawprawn

[Squiggle]

That's correct, GH/KH+ is designed for Neocaridina Davidi or cherry shrimp. It's really not too much of a problem which end of the pH scale you are, as long as you are in between 6.5-7.5 you should be right, cherries are pretty flexable like that.

The best thing about using RO water is that the pH is easily changed to what you want it to be as there should be zero KH(which is what keeps your pH stable, with Caridinas the substrate does this job). GH/KH+ is designed to raise the KH enough to stablize the pH at an acceptable level while also keeping your other parameters within spec.

I'm not sure if that ratio is necessarily true dude, my cherry tanks are at 7dGH & 2dKH, as long as you keep your GH between 4-14 & your KH between 0-10 you should have no issues. You might want to read up on Calcium:Magnesium ratio too, ideally you want it to be at 3.6:1 but anywhere between 3-4:1 should be good.

Sounds like your local shrimp guru has gone through all this before, I'd try to pick his brain on what he has done to combat your local town water.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Squiggle

[rawprawn]

Cheers again for the tips

[B3nn0]

When you guys speak of kh and gh do you mean in drops

[petfish]

When you guys speak of kh and gh do you mean in drops

yes, 0-10 drops to change colour. 1 drop = 1 dKH or dGH

Edited October 13, 2014 by petfish

[B3nn0]

No worries just did mine and I came up with 1gh 3kh but ph8 got me stumped

[B3nn0]

Thanks petfish

[OzShrimp]

You will also get slightly different results from your RO Unit as opposed to one for aquarium use. If you ever decide to run it only for your tank its just case of changing one of the resin inserts :)

[B3nn0]

thanks ozshrimp will keep that in mind when i finnnally purchase my ro unit