Freshwater aquarium water quality
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 5:23 am
Hi I am fairly new to the aquarium hobby and have quickly got hooked on the chemistry of water and it's quality as I believe this to be key to success with fish/shrimp keeping?
So I got an api water test kit and then got an api kh, gh kit and a tds pen.
So got my ammonia to 0 my nitrites to 0 and nitrates at around 5ppm my kh is 1 my gh around 14 and my tds at 450 ppm.
So I tested my tap water and it is 420ppm, I have read that if you wish to breed high grade shrimp this needs to be lower than 200 ppm.
So I went to the local supermarket and found a value spring water with only 98 ppm great so warmed it slightly added a drop or 2 of seachem prime and did a 30% water change with the value spring water and checked the tds and it has gone up to 610 ppm?? So I am now puzzled as to what could of happened .? Is it something to do with water buffering issues? I have some algee shrimp in there already which seem happily feeding and dashing around but was hoping to introduce some cherrys when I get the water quality correct? please help
So I got an api water test kit and then got an api kh, gh kit and a tds pen.
So got my ammonia to 0 my nitrites to 0 and nitrates at around 5ppm my kh is 1 my gh around 14 and my tds at 450 ppm.
So I tested my tap water and it is 420ppm, I have read that if you wish to breed high grade shrimp this needs to be lower than 200 ppm.
So I went to the local supermarket and found a value spring water with only 98 ppm great so warmed it slightly added a drop or 2 of seachem prime and did a 30% water change with the value spring water and checked the tds and it has gone up to 610 ppm?? So I am now puzzled as to what could of happened .? Is it something to do with water buffering issues? I have some algee shrimp in there already which seem happily feeding and dashing around but was hoping to introduce some cherrys when I get the water quality correct? please help