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remove your coral chips it causing you kH to be extreemly high. Plant in general does not do well in high kH. High light intensity without CO2 also one of the reason plant cannot grow while algae grow.
Setup:
Tank: 60 (length) X 30 (width) X 45 (height)
Light : 60cm LED 126 X 0.3W LED (white) 5100 lm 7000K-8000K temp, on for 8-10hrs a day
Filter: HOB 600L/hr waterfall
CO2: None
Plants: 1. Taiwan Moss+Xmas Moss on drift wood
2. 1 X Java Fern on drift wood
3. Fanwort, new grow yellowish, old growth browning
4. HC which seems to be dying
Fauna: 30 Neon Tetras
5 Horned Snails
2 Panda Cory
2 Oto
Water Parameters (With API Test Strips):
GH 180ppm
KH 40 ppm
pH 6.0-6.5
No2 : 0 ppm
No3 : 20ppm
this is a consistent reading for nearly 2 month, weekly water change
Situation:
1. I cannot seemed to get pH up despite adding coral chips into the filter, negligible effect on pH
2. Hair algae taking over tank sides and on HC. Lighting seems to be more than enough but never had much HC growth, but algae and mosses are growing very well.
3. What should i do to better the tank condition? Not doseing anything at the moment, afraid that the tank may be overwhelm with nutrients.
remove your coral chips it causing you kH to be extreemly high. Plant in general does not do well in high kH. High light intensity without CO2 also one of the reason plant cannot grow while algae grow.
Move to co2, better lighting, weekly dose of npk.
Hc is a bitch.. I too, don't have success despite co2, ada substrate
Bean + Kurt
kH at 40ppm is considered high? shouldn't i be aiming for higher kH allow more buffer for pH fluctuation?Originally Posted by Shadow
trying to keep it low tech for the moment until im confident enough. maybe ill juz go for moss carpet instead.
Yeah, moss are much Easier.
Did you actually dose excel? It should prevent algae..
Bean + Kurt
What substrate are you using?
If you are using active nutrient-rich soil substrate (ie. ADA Amazonia aquasoil), then the soil is designed to lower the pH and kH to create an environment favourable to plant growth. You do not need to buffer the pH, the soil will control the pH and kH for you. There is no point putting coral chips in the filter because its like "fighting" against the soil's natural pH and kH buffering abilities... in fact, it'll contribute to shortening the lifespan of the soil's buffering abilities.
Since you want to grow plants well, then just let the pH and kH be maintained at those lower levels, don't try to mess with it using coral chips, that interference could be one of the reasons why your plants are not doing as well.
Cant really rmb the soil im using, not ADA quality though. that may well be why the pH is kept at a rather low but stabled index.
my purpose of the raising of pH was because i had intention to keep shrimps around, and i think most of the shrimps requires pH ard 7-7.5? was attempting to raise the pH to around that level before introduction shrimps into the tank. (may be a skewed approach as the previous time i tried keeping shrimps, the water which keep them alive was those with pH ard 7-8 with the rest of the parameters the same, any water with pH lower seemed to cause them to die)
Nope. i will try that.
Well, it depends on the type of shrimps you are keeping... CRS shrimps usually prefer lower pH conditions (hence most of the branded quality shrimp soils lower pH), while RCS shrimps, yamato, rednose etc are generally able to adapt easily to both lower and higher pH conditions, they are commonly kept in planted tanks that maintain low pH anyways. The shrimps that require higher pH are sulawesi shrimps, which need rather specific tank conditions to thrive.
Maybe it could be the tank was still cycling or conditions still fluctuating that caused your previous shrimps to die... lower pH itself shouldn't be the cause of shrimp deaths. Acclimating the shrimps slowly (ie. drip acclimation) before introducing them into the tank also helps in greatly increasing their survival rate.
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