2nd attempt painted ( Unzan stone mountain scape )

[HeMan]

Progress of my tank update

DAY 6

All plant looks healthy going faster except HC .
Colour light luminous bright green

Will post again 1 week later . Stay tune

[HeMan]

Some updates on my Journal. .....

Things I encounter:

HC- growing slow but steady , emerse plant really tough to handle when going through submerse

Pogostemon helferi - growing moderate speed

Rotala rotundifolia - rather strange moderate speed, I thought should be growing the fastest of all??

Hydrocotyle japan - fastest growth of all
...........

Very very little pearling has been seen since Day 1, anyone know whats the cause?

Tank water always have a fishy smell

So far no alage issues ( fingers crossed) , started to add fertiliser few days back
Dosing sechem Nitrogen and Phosphorus , plus Tropica Premium .

Comments are greatly welcome and learning from seniord here...thanks alot

DAY 14 .......

[AQMS]

Plants look very healthy bro...

[tongyang]

Very good progress! Roundifolia and hydrocotyle lush and densely grown.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[HeMan]

Plants look very healthy bro...

Very good progress! Roundifolia and hydrocotyle lush and densely grown.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks but some leaves are still melting and dissolving. ....

[HeMan]

Update

HC creeping liao and growing faster .......as what bro Urban Aquaria mentioned
HC takes time to root in 1-2 weeks and getting use frim emerse to submerse.

Alages also start appearing , brought in a battalion of Malayan shrimps to tackle them.

Think going to trim my plants soon....

DAY 21

[qngwn]

poisonous! how could i be missing on this thread? subscribed!

[felix_fx2]

it's taking off !

once hc established the foreground completely. it will look very very good and by then they will be pearling fast.

trim the plants on left rocks. becoming abit thick.

[HeMan]

it's taking off !

once hc established the foreground completely. it will look very very good and by then they will be pearling fast.

trim the plants on left rocks. becoming abit thick.

The Rotala grown very dense but not very tall , its small leaves emerse ones all below.

Btw how do you trim Hydrocotyle japan ? Cut it like grass or cut the runners

Thanks

[HeMan]

Hi guys, I need some help here

Yesterday I tested my water PH with Sera test kit because I wanted to know why my malayan shrimps
keep dying daily.

To my surprise my PH is at 4.7, this is the 1st time im experience such a low PH using ADA soil
I did a test on tapwater to confirm my test kit is ok , it shows 7.2

Would like to know from seniors here is it normal to have such a low PH in new planted tank???

I used to keep shrimps previously but the ph is at the lowest it can go is 5.5 with ADA soil


Things in tank
Unzan rock, Co2 at 2bps, plants, and nothing else.
Fertiliser dosing Tropica premium plus seachem nitrogen and phosphate

Thanks for helping me ......

[hann]

Seems like you are not the first one getting a pH as low as 4.x lately. A few brothers are also experiencing this. My tank pH ever went down to 4.4 and when I told some of the aquarists, they can't believe it. My tank has a mixture of ADA and ANS Planta soil. Currently stable at 5.1. Once the co2 is switched on, the pH will drop to 4.8. Can anyone shed some lights whether there is any difference in a setup when the initial pH is 6 and above using ADA soil?

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, same experience for me too... whenever i setup a new planted tank with brand new ADA Amazonia aquasoil, during the first 1-2 months the pH is usually around 5.0-6.0.

When pressurized Co2 is on the pH will drop even further. Even when it is off, there is still residual Co2 in the water that may affect pH too.

Usually after a few months, the pH eventually stabilizes to around 6.4-6.6.

[HeMan]

If thats the case, does fish like tetras , otos able to survive such low Ph at 5.0 -5.5?

I know usually algae eating shrimps like cherry , yamato , malayan etc are higher ph fauna that cant survive in low ph, then how am I going to
solve the initial algae problems without these cleaning crews.

Thanks

[AQMS]

4.7 is really low, usually otos and tetras are able to survive ph at 5.5 to 7.8.

[muakmuak]

I am using ADA Amazonia too but my PH is at 6.8 lowest. Its been 1 month + now. Perhaps it is due to the Seriyu rocks I put inside but I am not really sure.

[HeMan]

Its rather strange as I have been doing daily WC since week 1-2 , week 3 every other day
and PH still yet so low.......

[boliaoguy]

Its rather strange as I have been doing daily WC since week 1-2 , week 3 every other day
and PH still yet so low.......

Hi HeMan, just to share my experiences with you when i encounter the same situation last time. I added about 1 or 2 very small coral stones into my canister. The coral stone introduces some mineral (calcium carbonates) which in turn, increases the PH of the water. It works well for my system and I am able to maintain a stable PH ranging from 6 to 6.5. At the same time providing enough minerals/hardness for fauna. Bear in mind, just add 1 or 2 pieces will do. Do not add too much as corals are very efficient in maximising(buffering) the PH to stable around 8 - 8.5. This coral stones are very cheap, you can get quite a handful pack for about $2/$3 from LFS usually wrapped in net. Then again, this method works well for my system but may not work for yours. You may want to try at your own risk. Perhaps, you want to try adding just 1 piece first. Don't expect immediate effect, i will take a few hours/overnight to see the effect, which is useful and safe in my opinion as it will not give your fish/shrimp PH shock.

[HeMan]

Thanks alot boliaoguy , noted that .....

I will monitor for one more week see how things are going .

I suspect maybe is the Unzan rock that causes the low PH.
I only have all substrate pro media in my canister now

[Urban Aquaria]

One of the other factors which could reduce pH is the conversion process of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate... during the cycling period (especially with ADA Amazonia aquasoil is used) when there is alot of excess ammonia present and the beneficial bacteria is busy processing them, the effect could also contribute to keeping the pH lower than usual.

I've found that my tank pH stabilizes around the same time as when the tank has completed cycling, so that might be a connection there.

Usually its recommended to only introduce fishes and shrimps when the tank is cycled and the parameters are stable, so adding shrimps before that time (when pH is still very low) wouldn't be so ideal, though its common to see people just buy a large bag of 50 or 100 malayan shrimps and just dump them in their tanks to help clear algae even in the midst of tank cycling, i guess those shrimps are cheap to buy in bulk so people tend to consider them "expendable".

That being said, fishes and shrimps (the hardy types) can live though lower pH conditions for a period of time, but the pH change has to be gradual enough for them to adapt to it. Its usually the sudden changes in water chemistry (like vastly different pH or TDS between LFS tank water and home aquarium water, or very large water changes) which cause the issues if fishes or shrimps are not acclimated properly.

I suspect maybe is the Unzan rock that causes the low PH.
I only have all substrate pro media in my canister now

I think its more likely the Unzan rock is inert? So its probably not buffering the pH upwards enough to counter the current lower pH levels.

I am using ADA Amazonia too but my PH is at 6.8 lowest. Its been 1 month + now. Perhaps it is due to the Seriyu rocks I put inside but I am not really sure.

That could be one of the reasons, i had a similiar experience with those type of rocks too, but mine changed gradually over a few months, ended up the water pH rose up to 7.4-7.6 even with ADA Amazonia aquasoil! When i removed the rocks in stages, the pH dropped back down gradually to 6.4-6.6. The fishes and shrimps didn't seem to get affected though, probably because the changes happened over a longer period of time.

[HeMan]

Thanks Urban Aquaria.

2 thumbs up for the detail explanation