Hello folks,
I have a Taiwan Bee tank that is over a year old by now. The first half year was great, but these last few months the shrimp seem on average to be slower. It's not like they are dying off left and right or anything, but just that there are more "bad days" when they just kind of stand around. (There are periods of good days too, but I still haven't figured out what makes the difference.)
Anyway, since I still use the same food, same water, etc, the only thing I can think of is that the substrate and driftwood "ran out" and the pH is about half a point higher than original.
I tried some common methods to lower it like: add IAL, alder cones, scoop of new substrate, but all that does is lower pH by about 0.2 for about a week and then it rises back up again. I also got some peat moss but didn't use it because I tested it and saw it releases ammonia in the water.
Does anybody use those tannin extracts like SL Aqua Dark Extract, SS Leaves and Bark, etc?
The water is RO + SS GH and I change 15-20% every 1 or 2 weeks.
The other reasons for trying to lower the pH are anti-bacterial benefits, and anti-ammonia (even though I always measure zero)
pH used to be 6.2 initially, now 6.7
I have a Taiwan Bee tank that is over a year old by now. The first half year was great, but these last few months the shrimp seem on average to be slower. It's not like they are dying off left and right or anything, but just that there are more "bad days" when they just kind of stand around. (There are periods of good days too, but I still haven't figured out what makes the difference.)
Anyway, since I still use the same food, same water, etc, the only thing I can think of is that the substrate and driftwood "ran out" and the pH is about half a point higher than original.
I tried some common methods to lower it like: add IAL, alder cones, scoop of new substrate, but all that does is lower pH by about 0.2 for about a week and then it rises back up again. I also got some peat moss but didn't use it because I tested it and saw it releases ammonia in the water.
Does anybody use those tannin extracts like SL Aqua Dark Extract, SS Leaves and Bark, etc?
The water is RO + SS GH and I change 15-20% every 1 or 2 weeks.
The other reasons for trying to lower the pH are anti-bacterial benefits, and anti-ammonia (even though I always measure zero)
pH used to be 6.2 initially, now 6.7
