General Help With My New Nano/Shrimp Tank

[Grant_F]

Do not use pH adjusters in an aquarium. Once you have fish, these chemicals are dangerous for them, I am not sure about crustaceans (your intended shrimp) but they may be harmed as well.

I think what I have decided is that for just a 10 gallon tank it isn't too much of a hassle to just use distilled water from the grocery store and add the GH and KH. I am setting up a dedicated shrimp tank with an old 10 gallon I had and am going to use the product I linked below to raise the GH and KH whenever I do water changes. Distilled water will have a pH of 7 so I wont have to worry about adjusting it or keeping it there. The Chili Rasboras I am going to get prefer 7.0 or lower pH, so trying to bring 8.2 down to 7.0 or lower and keeping it there would be a struggle I think. For the 75 gallon I am going to start I am just going to limit myself to fish that thrive in higher pH so I can just treat my tap and add it. I think I will still have to add some hardness though. Why exactly is Equilibrium bad for the fish? You said you used it for 2 years and you didn't sound like you had any problems with it. It contains potassium sulfate, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, ferric sulfate, and manganese sulfate. All of these are naturally occurring except for ferric sulfate and manganese sulfate. So unless these have some adverse effects I think it would be fine.

Brightwell Aquatics - NeoTiger KH+/GH+

 

[StevenF]

Steven, in regards to what you said about the sodium and potassium. I did some research on the typical sodium levels in freshwater lakes and rivers and they are typically 0.5 parts per thousand (ppt) or less. The sodium reading of 253 ppm comes out to 0.253 ppt. So, I'm hoping there won't be any problems there. Not sure about potassium though since I can't really find anything about it.

According to my water quality report:
Ssodium 43PPM
Potassium 1.2PPM

In the past I looked for information on amazon river water and found levels around 5PPM for each with some variation throughout the basin. Portlands water quality report says 5PPM. So I don't believe 0.253PPT is correct.

Now in some places they used salt to minimize and snow and ice buildup on roads. this has caused elevated salt levels in steams and ground water and some places are trying to reduce the amount of salt they use.

I use RO water in my tank to keep my PH near 7 I use seashells. Sea shells are calcium carbonate. they only dissolve when the water gets acidic. The PH stays close to 7 all the time without the need of sodium or potassium bicarbonate.

 

[StevenF]

Why exactly is Equilibrium bad for the fish? You said you used it for 2 years and you didn't sound like you had any problems with it. It contains potassium sulfate, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, ferric sulfate, and manganese sulfate. All of these are naturally

I use a mix of magensium chloride and Calcium sulfate. to boost the GH in my shrimp tank. And have had no problems. The only issue I observed is it would push the PH slightly down. So I don't use much. Only about 2 to 3 degrees GH with 3 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium.

byron has mentioned his concerns about GH boosters in the past. Basically he got advice from one person and then based on that stopped using it and found he didn't need it. As far as I can tell CA/MG in steams is mainly in the corm of chlorides, sulfates, and carbonates which occurs naturally in many rivers and streams.

 

[Byron]

Why exactly is Equilibrium bad for the fish? You said you used it for 2 years and you didn't sound like you had any problems with it. It contains potassium sulfate, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, ferric sulfate, and manganese sulfate. All of these are naturally occurring except for ferric sulfate and manganese sulfate. So unless these have some adverse effects I think it would be fine.

I keep very soft water fish, and the fewer minerals I add to the water the better. I was persuaded to use Equilibrium for the benefit of the plants (calcium deficiency in particular was certainly evident), so the GH of the tank water which was zero out of the tap, was raised to 4 dH or 5 dH in two tanks. There is no question the plants improved. I happened to have an issue in one tank, and consulted a marine biologist online through another forum I belonged to at the time. To sort out the problem, she asked tons of questions, and then gave her opinion on this and that. Given the fish I had, she questioned the use of Equilibrium, and I understood the point and decided my fish were more important than the plants. I cannot say what issues the Equilibrium may have caused, it would take a necropsy by a biologist to dig into this, but further research into fish physiology has confirmed her approach. Over the intervening years I have become much more cognizant of the impact of any additive to the water, subject to the fish species, and I am firmly convinced that adding the fewest substances/additives to the water will inevitably mean safer conditions and healthier fish. I use conditioner because I have to for the good of the fish, but I use as little as needed; I do use liquid plant fertilizer for my floating plants because they do weaken without it, but I use as little as I need just to keep the floating plants growing. Nothing else goes in the water, ever; the absence of fish disease since I've been doing this is probably related, and my research into fish physiology certainly supports my position.