[ctaylor3737]

I am using the Sulawesi 8.5 mix for my tank and have a quick question. I get and do the whole co2 dissolve thing.

My question is for top offs do I use pure RO or the water I prepared. Only asking is I topped off my tank with mixed,water and some minor changes in the levels. I got it very close but it's never perfect.

Would just topping off with RO keep the water stable and do 10% weekly. Also would it be beneficial to drip the water changes? Though I had all my questions answered. Funny how something like this raises a hundred questions. Love these,shrimp and don't want to lose them! Here's a pic of my berried friend😁

Thanks for any help!

-Chris

 

[bostoneric]

Top off use pure RO. the minerals don't evaporate.

When you do large water changes measure the tank and figure out how much you need to mix into the RO you are adding for the change.

And yes go slow. Drip changes are best because it's makes matching the water parameters happen slower which means less change means stability the most important thing.

 

[ctaylor3737]

Thanks, I figured as hard as it is to mix that It would stay in the tank. These shrimp make anything else look easy lol.thanks for the response reassuring!

-Chris

 

[steakman]

I don't do WC weekly.
I do WC monthly with these Cardinals.
I keep my eyes on their TDS.
I keep the water TDS around 250.
When it's creeping up close to 300, I'll do WC but no more than 25%. I even heat the premixed water for WC at 82F to match the tank's water temp.
Never had any problem with my Cardinals.

 

[52149]

Most important with these shrimp is making sure the temp doesn't drop below 80 degrees. Or surely they will start to disappear. I made the mistake of that one time letting the water drop too low and heater shut off boom 6/8 died. Argh

 

[lamiskool]

Curious what food you guys have the best success with/the cardinals go crazy after. I havnt really found anything so far that they swarm or seem to eat.

 

[52149]

Their not like crs cbs and neos I noticed they eat more when there very little or barely any light

 

[takelow]

Hi, I use only RO water for top off.
As already said, minerals don't evaporate and if you do top off with remineralized water, your hardness will progressively increase.

Concerning TDS, i oberved an increase in cardinals reproduction with a lower TDS. Working at 150-200 ppm showing best results that working at 200-300 ppm.