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Hi all,
I was dosing EI via pre-mixed ferts from nilocg previously, but bought EI ferts from GLA and am trying now to learn and understand all aspects. I used a calculator and came up with my EI dosing which is fine far as I can tell. My questions right now is understanding GH and KH.
I had a large snail die off in my tank, almost all my bladder, ramshorn, and MTS died, the substrate looks like a shell graveyard. I have like 3 live ramshorns right now and their shells are bumpy and pitted. That made me think I had a calcium deficiency so I got a GH and KH kit to test the parameters. I did a 50% water change yesterday and my GH is 6 and my KH is 2. My understanding is that a GH of 6 shouldn't need a GH booster, but if that is the case why are the snail shells pitting and thin causing death? KH of 2 seems really low to me. How does this affect plants and the snails? The plants look health, some leaves have crinkles though and I do lose old growth on the bottoms of stems sometimes along with some rotala stems just breaking on their own low. I'm thinking this is clearly some sort of deficiency. Do I need to use a GH booster? Does KH need to be raised somehow?
From the faucet KH is 3 so slightly higher, and GH is the same at 6.
Edit: realized I left out ph. ph from the tank is 6.4 and from the faucet is neutral at 7.
Appreciate any insight and recommendation as to what I need to do for my water to A) help the plants out and B) be able to sustain the snails.
I was dosing EI via pre-mixed ferts from nilocg previously, but bought EI ferts from GLA and am trying now to learn and understand all aspects. I used a calculator and came up with my EI dosing which is fine far as I can tell. My questions right now is understanding GH and KH.
I had a large snail die off in my tank, almost all my bladder, ramshorn, and MTS died, the substrate looks like a shell graveyard. I have like 3 live ramshorns right now and their shells are bumpy and pitted. That made me think I had a calcium deficiency so I got a GH and KH kit to test the parameters. I did a 50% water change yesterday and my GH is 6 and my KH is 2. My understanding is that a GH of 6 shouldn't need a GH booster, but if that is the case why are the snail shells pitting and thin causing death? KH of 2 seems really low to me. How does this affect plants and the snails? The plants look health, some leaves have crinkles though and I do lose old growth on the bottoms of stems sometimes along with some rotala stems just breaking on their own low. I'm thinking this is clearly some sort of deficiency. Do I need to use a GH booster? Does KH need to be raised somehow?
From the faucet KH is 3 so slightly higher, and GH is the same at 6.
Edit: realized I left out ph. ph from the tank is 6.4 and from the faucet is neutral at 7.
Appreciate any insight and recommendation as to what I need to do for my water to A) help the plants out and B) be able to sustain the snails.