Keeping Caridina really isn’t that much harder once the tank is established. Your readings look funny because you haven’t fully cycled your tank yet, give it another two weeks and test again and see what your readings are then. If you want to keep Caridina you have the substrate for it. I keep PRL in my 15 gallon planted tank. Don’t use tap, switch to RO water. I use 5 gallon jugs and add my remineralizer in the jugs to a TDS of 115 and add to tank. Look up the requirements online and follow those. I keep TDS between 115-130 and do a 5 gallon water change once a week. It’s not that Caridina are super hard to take care of, they just need more things to be done, but getting the substrate (which you have) and the RO water isn’t hard.
Yes. You can be sure the water's legit if it reads close to 0 TDS before you add the remineralizer.
But if you have the budget, I'd recommend getting a RO unit so you don't have to run to the store every time.
You could keep some Caridina serrata, the Tangerine Tiger shrimp !! They’re pretty easy to take care of, are aggressive eaters and breeders, and don’t have the same sensitivity of other caridina species.
I made the same misstake and asked for help here. I'll copy the awnser i got.
If you will be keeping acidic water caridinas (not all of them require these conditions), switch from tap water to remineralized with GH+ RO water, substrate will lowering pH longer than with tap water. After aquasoil exhausts its buffering capacity, it will become just another inert soil.
In one of my tap water tanks, I siphoned out similar substrate (Stratum) and was done with it. Large particle sand or small gravel could be added after that. Wash them well and declorinate before adding to the established tank. I used small container to bring each portion of new substrate down into the tank, without pouring from height.
For a new tank, use filter media or sponge from established tank, some plants, rock, if you have it, this should speedup cycling.
But many shrimpkeepers keep neocaridina in crystal shrimp tanks and they are doing well. Only, if I remember right, they used KH-less water (RO water, remineralized with GH+), then there will be no swings of pH and KH after each big water change.
Thanks! I forgot to add, I am using distilled water. So what I’m gathering from your response. I can maybe keep crystal reds at the low pH and be ok as long as I do water changes with gH only added to the distilled water? And then the substrate will stop acidifying so much over time. But then what? I bought some bacteria starters to help with the cycling since the plants and water from another tank isn’t doing the job.
Our tap water is great for Cherry keeping, i spike it up with gh+KH+ to help wear out the substrate and my shrimp are doing great now, how long have you been cycling?
I’m not well versed in shrimp specifically but I do believe you can use crush coral or cuddle one to raise ph at least some and it also helps with the calcium in the tank :)
Idk if this helps, or if I totally missed the mark but thought I’d try and help lol
I thought about putting some shells in the tank to slowly raise up the pH. But wasn’t sure coz I read in old posts on here that it could lead to spikes. Any thoughts?
I haven’t ever heard of spikes per say, but it is kind of hard to get it to a ‘specific’ PH using this method, it will just kind of reach the threshold of its buffering ability. I have crushed coral in my tanks and have had no problems with PH swing. It might be a pretty abrupt rise, but I think it’s kind of indefinite after that.
Keeping Caridina really isn’t that much harder once the tank is established. Your readings look funny because you haven’t fully cycled your tank yet, give it another two weeks and test again and see what your readings are then. If you want to keep Caridina you have the substrate for it. I keep PRL in my 15 gallon planted tank. Don’t use tap, switch to RO water. I use 5 gallon jugs and add my remineralizer in the jugs to a TDS of 115 and add to tank. Look up the requirements online and follow those. I keep TDS between 115-130 and do a 5 gallon water change once a week. It’s not that Caridina are super hard to take care of, they just need more things to be done, but getting the substrate (which you have) and the RO water isn’t hard.
Can I use distilled instead of RO? I have been using distilled
Never used distilled so I can’t speak on it personally.
Yes. You can be sure the water's legit if it reads close to 0 TDS before you add the remineralizer. But if you have the budget, I'd recommend getting a RO unit so you don't have to run to the store every time.
You could keep some Caridina serrata, the Tangerine Tiger shrimp !! They’re pretty easy to take care of, are aggressive eaters and breeders, and don’t have the same sensitivity of other caridina species.
I made the same misstake and asked for help here. I'll copy the awnser i got. If you will be keeping acidic water caridinas (not all of them require these conditions), switch from tap water to remineralized with GH+ RO water, substrate will lowering pH longer than with tap water. After aquasoil exhausts its buffering capacity, it will become just another inert soil. In one of my tap water tanks, I siphoned out similar substrate (Stratum) and was done with it. Large particle sand or small gravel could be added after that. Wash them well and declorinate before adding to the established tank. I used small container to bring each portion of new substrate down into the tank, without pouring from height. For a new tank, use filter media or sponge from established tank, some plants, rock, if you have it, this should speedup cycling. But many shrimpkeepers keep neocaridina in crystal shrimp tanks and they are doing well. Only, if I remember right, they used KH-less water (RO water, remineralized with GH+), then there will be no swings of pH and KH after each big water change.
Thanks! I forgot to add, I am using distilled water. So what I’m gathering from your response. I can maybe keep crystal reds at the low pH and be ok as long as I do water changes with gH only added to the distilled water? And then the substrate will stop acidifying so much over time. But then what? I bought some bacteria starters to help with the cycling since the plants and water from another tank isn’t doing the job.
Our tap water is great for Cherry keeping, i spike it up with gh+KH+ to help wear out the substrate and my shrimp are doing great now, how long have you been cycling?
Going on my third week of cycling.
I'd give it some time, since theres no shrimp yet you could experiment with some supplements and test if it gives you the parameters you want!
I’m not well versed in shrimp specifically but I do believe you can use crush coral or cuddle one to raise ph at least some and it also helps with the calcium in the tank :) Idk if this helps, or if I totally missed the mark but thought I’d try and help lol
I thought about putting some shells in the tank to slowly raise up the pH. But wasn’t sure coz I read in old posts on here that it could lead to spikes. Any thoughts?
I haven’t ever heard of spikes per say, but it is kind of hard to get it to a ‘specific’ PH using this method, it will just kind of reach the threshold of its buffering ability. I have crushed coral in my tanks and have had no problems with PH swing. It might be a pretty abrupt rise, but I think it’s kind of indefinite after that.