Leaderboard

I was hoping you'd weigh in jayc. Yeah yeah ok I'll buy a heater. I'm going to cycle all the filters in one tank so that works. Looked at my tap earlier, I quit wasting kh reagent after 15 drops. I read somewhere the bacteria can utilize kh as well, oddly enough, so super I guess. Definitely won't be wasting any media in the tanks until shrimp water goes in. I've got some ammonia on hand I'm going to go add now. Here is the super filter 9000 in action. "More filter". "That's not a filter, this is a filter". Sorry. Hehe

Hmm that's not the right way of going about cycling a new tank. Beneficial bacteria need a suitable environment to live and grow in: - Temperature = 26-27 degC. If you don't have a heater to get the temps that high, it will take many extra weeks for the BB to grow. Not absolutely critical for a heater, but are you patient enough to wait. Is it warm where you live? According to weather.com, it's 17degC in Three Forks, that's certainly not going to speed cycling up even if you add mulm from another mature tank. - Oxygen = so lots of water circulation and something to break the water surface like air stones and filter outlet splashing the water surface. - Food = an ammonia source. - pH = BB thrive in alkaline environments. So your tapwater, which is hard and above 7pH, is perfect for the cycling process. BB start slowing down at 6.5pH. Any lower like under 5pH and they start dying out. Don't waste RO water during cycling, you will need to change out the water completely after the cycle anyway. Once the cycle is complete and you detect 0ppm ammonia, change out all the water and add water that is adjusted to the livestock you are planning on keeping in that tank.

It depends.... are you patient enough to wait more than 4 weeks for beneficial bacteria to grow or not. If you are impatient like me, you need to seed the new tank with bacteria. Either from a bottled product or from the filter of a mature tank.

@Spidey, I don't have any certainty of your issue. Not without knowing exactly what ingredient you have purchased. Are you sure you mixed 40g of Calcium sulphate? and not Calcium carbonate? The end result of high pH you are getting would suggest it is 40gm of Calcium Carbonate not Calcium sulphate. There is a possibility that the seller mislabel the product. If you can, test the pH of the ingredients individually. Calcium sulphate should have a low pH and Calcium carbonate will have a high pH. My mix is cloudy until added to the change water. It doesn't stay cloudy in the tank. The original post recipe for the DIY mix is for Caridina. Hence the target of 140-160 TDS. I mix in calcium carbonate or calcium chloride separately for my neocaridina tanks until I get the desired pH/KH and TDS. Not sure how you would salvage the remaining mix, if it could potentially be 40gm of Calcium carbonate instead of Calcium sulphate.

Hi there! I dealt with BBA a while ago, and came at it from a bunch of different angles - I did full doses (but not doubles) of excel (directly on the algae), manually removed what I could, did vinegar dips, experimented with some week-long blackouts, decreased hours of lighting, and added in a couple Siamese Algae Eaters to eat the remainder (they did a great job)! In the end, I pretty much eliminated the BBA from that tank (actually, besides a teeny bit of green spot on the glass, my tank is algae free!!!) In the end, I think the problem was my light. Using a timer, I’ve cut my lighting hours down to about 6 hrs per day, and the tank gets maybe an hour of nice full sunlight in the morning too. I suggest trying whichever of the above options you can, especially the lighting.

I live in south east Asia, so I would just have to add calcium and magnesium sulphate? What about the rest of the items you listed in your DIY remineralizer? Do I need to add those aswell? And if it's just calcium and magnesium sulphate that needs to be added, what is the ratio? I always thought calcium and magnesium will increase the gh and kh lol. Okay, I'm definitely getting the cheapest caridinas, as this will be my first time keeping them. Would you recommend adding calcium and magnesium sulphate only to my water aswell to increase the tds?

I added dr Tim’s ammoni but I did not add any bacteria. Does that matter?

As long as your tests keep detecting ammonia, you are fine. When it reaches 0ppm ammonia, that's when you need another source of ammonia to keep the beneficial bacteria alive. One type of bacteria in the tank uses ammonia as food and converts it to Nitrite as waste. Another type uses Nitrite as food, and converts it to Nitrate. So when ammonia reaches 0ppm, that's the time to add fish or shrimp because your cycle is complete. If you are not ready to add livestock after the tank has cycled, you can add a small amount of fish food, or some organic matter that will degrade and rot. The rotting food will keep generating ammonia to feed the bacteria. Some people like adding pure ammonia (not the stuff you buy in supermarkets for cleaning), like Dr Tims ammonia chloride. Adding fish food is probably easier. You mentioned you have Dr Tims ammonia, but did you also get any Dr Tim's bacteria additives like One and Only ? When you are cycling a new tank, what you are doing is actually trying to create is a suitable environment for beneficial bacteria to grow. So don't forget to turn you temperature up to 26 - 27degC, and provide lots of oxygen and water flow. A food source (ammonia), oxygen and temperature are the key ingredients for a successful cycle. BB are living organism afterall, they need these basic ingredients to live.

Hey, thanks for the advice. I do need to find out more about the iron issue as I read they might be sensitive. No I am not keeping these bees on tap water that would be beyond miraculous, neos don't do super well in my tap. I bought this colony 2nd hand a few weeks back. It was a weird story of a breakup and a girlfriend ending up with the dudes shrimp for 6 months, on top fin flake and distilled top offs. The plant is densely planted, which I believe is the only reason they surthrived. Before I got a test kit I topped off with distilled. They are a stable 6-6.5 ph, about 130 tds atm, 4 gh, 0kh and around 260 mS. 0amm/0nit, don't have a nitrate kit yet. The plants man, the plants. Lol.

I would go carefully with tap water, there have been many (including me), actually that should read MOST, whose tap water is 'ideal' for Caridina shrimp but it just hasn''t worked despite every effort. Just get a few shrimps as a dummy run and don't get too carried away, if they have babies and they grow up to half size you probably will be ok. Mine had shrimplets but they died whilst very young and the adults died witthin about 2-3 months (despite perfect water parameters). You can read more here if you want to, https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14025-tap-water-taiwan-bee-uk-zerowater/ You should try and increase the TDS to 100-150 as well! Simon

@Josh16622, you have excellent tap water for Caridina shrimp (CRS or CBS). Where do you live? That water is very close to rain water. Theoretically, you don't need to much to it if you acclimatise the shrimp to the water before adding it into a cycled tank. You can also increase it a bit to 100 TDS, doesn't matter what the corresponding GH and KH is. You would increase the TDS with Calcium and Magnesium sulphate which does not increase pH or KH. Premixed products like Salty Shrimp GH+ is what you would buy. But having said that, they shrimp will do well in you tap water. Just remember to dechlorinate it first. If anyone else has any thoughts on the subject, please chime in.

Well, I've got all the supplies for my breeder tanks. Now just working on rearranging, get my RO machine fixed and it'll be hurry up and cycle. I don't have any heaters and don't want to buy any so hopefully seeding the new tanks with mulm and filter cleanings will speed things up significantly. Think I'm going to buy a bottle of bacteria too, and am overstocking the main tank with cholla and whatnot to transfer. Question- Should I cycle with 50:50 tap:RO, or would straight tap be ok? My spring water is very base and hard. I've seen that my pH should stay above 7 while cycling. I'm wondering if I can't cycle with my spring water, ph 8+, I'm not sure about gh/kh(could/should test) but the waters usually 300+ tds from the well, and very iron rich. Ofc once cycled I'd change 90%+ water to hit the shrimp parameters. Before I leave, I found another couple of very fun morphs. They are red zebras with a uniform and complete black undertone that results in a maroon tone darker than Wine Reds. The one pictured has such fantastic stripes!