Hello all,
I`m new to opae ula keeping. Long story made short I came into an ecosphere under distress (very high ph/salinity/too high temp) while I was in the process of prepping a freshwater planted (java moss/java fern and seiryu stone) tank. Due to the fact that the rocks I`ve chosen have risen the ph to 7.8 after a week, I`m contemplating slowly turning it into a brackish water tank to house the opae ula,with the addition of ph buffering, since both of these plants appear to handle higher salinity ok. My question is if I cycle the tank under freshwater circumstances and then slowly change salinity and raise ph, will I need to recycle the tank? I have not yet started the nitrogen cycle in the planned planted tank, so I`m debating whether I start it as a freshwater tank and maybe slowly change it to brackish or just keep everything quaratined until I verify the survival of the opae ula and try to start the cycle as brackish?
Cycling and salinity/ph changes
Moderator: Mustafa
Re: Cycling and salinity/ph changes
Welcome to the forum!
I would just completely start over. Read the setup instructions under "Supershrimp!" above and go from there. Also do a bunch of searches on "plants" in this discussion forum. In short: Take out your plants and forget all the information you read about "brackish tolerant plants". They *will* die in Supershrimp tank at typical Supershrimp salinities. The only plants that I have found to thrive in Supershrimp tanks are the Supershrimp Macroalgae (special type of low salinity Chaetomorpha species...NOT the ones you find in stores and online for reef tanks) and a type of algae ball ("Supershrimp Mossball"...which actually is a misnomer since it's not moss..
). You also don't need to worry about a traditional "cycle." Just wait for algae growth and your tank is ready. It works 100% of the time. You don't even need to test the water. All of this is detailed in the articles and posts here in the forum.
Once you've read up a bit here and set up your tank, come back and post pictures.
If you have further questions after reading, browsing and searching the forum and website, come back here and ask them and we'll gladly help out. It's really, really simple to keep and breed these shrimp as long as you follow the instructions here. People usually fail because they can't believe that keeping it simple works and then complicate things by introducing new factors to the equation...factors that have actually been proven to cause disasters for many years in the past.
I would just completely start over. Read the setup instructions under "Supershrimp!" above and go from there. Also do a bunch of searches on "plants" in this discussion forum. In short: Take out your plants and forget all the information you read about "brackish tolerant plants". They *will* die in Supershrimp tank at typical Supershrimp salinities. The only plants that I have found to thrive in Supershrimp tanks are the Supershrimp Macroalgae (special type of low salinity Chaetomorpha species...NOT the ones you find in stores and online for reef tanks) and a type of algae ball ("Supershrimp Mossball"...which actually is a misnomer since it's not moss..
). You also don't need to worry about a traditional "cycle." Just wait for algae growth and your tank is ready. It works 100% of the time. You don't even need to test the water. All of this is detailed in the articles and posts here in the forum. Once you've read up a bit here and set up your tank, come back and post pictures.
If you have further questions after reading, browsing and searching the forum and website, come back here and ask them and we'll gladly help out. It's really, really simple to keep and breed these shrimp as long as you follow the instructions here. People usually fail because they can't believe that keeping it simple works and then complicate things by introducing new factors to the equation...factors that have actually been proven to cause disasters for many years in the past.