New tank

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DaleV87 said:
Yes this water is soft. I turned to RO water for a couple reasons.
I had read long ago that I would want to keep my TDS around 150 for best results but I am on well (rock water).
I have a softener on the system as well. I caught water from the tap prior to the softener and the GH was like 27 best I can remember so I decided to go to the RO water and use GH booster to elevate the TDS of each jug of water to 125-150 prior to water change.
But your description of what your plants are doing is spot on with this tank but mostly effects the AR in this one.
In my 90g I face very similar issues as well with considerably more of the melt.
Both tanks I use the RO water in.
The 90 I have reduced the CO2 in due to when the CO2 ppm hit at the recommended count of 35 ppm my PH dropped to like 6.4 which is pretty low. I melted a lot of my plants there.
Maybe I should take your recommendations and consider dropping micros to every other day and start doing 25/75 with tap (25rock) and 75 RO water change and see if the added GH will settle things out better in both tanks.
I was planning to add shrimp to the 20 long once I start my 40b and move my cardinals out of it.
Wouldn't the GH/KH and TDS be out of line for them at those levels? How would I balance the planted tank and have water quality for the shrimp as well?
I know this is a lot but I'm trying to ask while my mind is fresh or I'll forget....lol
Thanks for all the help guys!
Click to expand...



That's still considerably soft at 75. I've never kept shrimp so I'm not really sure to be honest.
Dropping the co2 isn't a great idea. If the melt is worse due to the co2 then that means nutrients are being blocked by something (over dose of micro's or another nutrient). I really struggled to find a balance in both my old and new tank. I'm growing the best plants I ever have in this 60g but it's still not perfect.

In the end I got so sick of chasing the micro issue that I added soil under my Eco so I never have to dose it lol. I've found its made balancing a lot easier. Me and caliban07 had a hell of a time trying to work out the right fert dosages etc with soft water and Eco complete. Both ended up with soil and looked more into hardness.

Barr and the big wigs at planted tank etc can preach all they like about micro's not causing
toxicity but I believe it is very common in tanks with soft water.
 
I think micros can definitely be an issue in soft water. Especially when added to any Additional in the tap and/or a fertile substrate. That said, it will depend on many factors that I'm not going to go in to here.

Tom says a lot of things. One being that tap water should provide non limiting amounts of calcium. Maybe 5ppm calcium per 50% WC is enough for plants to grow in any setup.

But what if you have high nitrates, potassium and phosphate? What happens to calcium uptake then or magnesium?

It's frightening how many threads you read that state EI dosing in excessive and are still having problems. This is why the attention immediately moves to co2. In a lot of cases this may be warranted and the causes is low co2 but there are so so many people who are already stating that their fish are gasping, drop checker is lime
Green etc and they know it's not co2.

I was reading a funny one the other day. Excessive EI dosing and frogbit was showing deficiencies. Now they couldn't blame co2 so they were going on about water droplets and lens burn or mechanical damage from flow and snails. Anything but the Fertilisers. It's madness.
 
Sticking to the every other day and see what happens for now.
Here's a nice evening shot-
 
Bert2oo1 said:
Looks mint! [emoji106]
Click to expand...



Thank you!
I was concerned about the Proserpinaca palustris due to the change in the leaves since I've had it.
The leaves were oval with serrated edges when I received them but now they seem to not have much of a leaf but rather needles instead of a serrated edge.
When I looked it up the ones I saw were actually just like mine.....yes!
IMG_4103.jpg
 
It's obviously still work in progress but is making a positive change little by little. IMG_4157.jpg
The staur repens will need thinned out very soon....
IMG_4164.jpg
 
<div style="width:480px;text-align:right;"><embed width="480" height="360" src="http://pic2.pbsrc.com/flash/rss_slideshow.swf" flashvars="rssFeed=http://feed1074.photobucket.com/albums/w416/Dale_Vandiver/feed.rss" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" /><a href="javascript:void(0);" target="_blank"><img src="http://pic.photobucket.com/share/icons/embed/btn_geturs.gif" style="border:none;" /></a><a href="http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/w416/Dale_Vandiver/" target="_blank"><img src="http://pic.photobucket.com/share/icons/embed/btn_viewall.gif" style="border:none;" alt="Dale_Vandiver's/albums/w416 album on Photobucket" /></a></div>
 
Thanks J. Mcpeak!
It still has its spots that I'm working on. And I'm still figuring the balance out but getting closer.
I hope the video loads I just posted.
 
The ar has algae on the lower leaves that has had it stunted since I've had it probably actually is starting to produce new full leaves and the staur repens has started going nuts since I started back to dosing every morning.
I think the closer balance has come from the slight increase in CO2. And I still am not getting the light green in the drop checker with almost 3bps.
 
Don't look like the video is working.
Try something else.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/Dale_Vandiver/embed/slideshow/"></iframe>
 
Ideas on stocking

Línea new to hobby and new con this dont know how to start a thread and dont know what to stock in a 75 Gallón aquarium i want it planted but my wife went out AMD bought alot of decoration stuff dont want small fish anud dont biig fish mkes Tank look strong
 
Julio0207 I use the mobile app so it may be different than yours appearance wise; but at the home page there is a box at the top with a line through it , kinda like pen and paper, if you hit that button you can start a thread.
Stocking of the tank is a personal preference.
 
Nice videos. I thought I had a lot of Staur repens...look at that carpet!
Is that duckweed floating around up top? Or I should say "mobile light dampening system".
I don't keep RCS in my planted tank anymore; they end up in my canister.
 
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