KH / GH help for new shrimp tank

[Gulp]

Long time no post for me. I have 3 planted tanks that have been active for years as generally community tanks. Two are now guppy tanks, and the third....I decided to try shrimp (with some cory). After a couple of weeks, I still have live shrimp in the tank....but it seems like many have died. I finally tested the water this morning when a new kit arrived and I need a bit of advice.

In the GH test picture, tap water is on the right, tank water is on the left. Tap water turned green after 3 drops. Tank water was still orange after 15 drops....which is off the chart, so I stopped. Last week I pulled a lot of the plants out, as they were taking over the tank. Filter was also cleaned at that time. What is my best plan of attack to get the GH down without shocking what's left alive in the tank? I admit I have never really paid attention to GH/KH levels in the past as everything I have put in the tank has done great....so this is my first time dealing with this issue.

EDIT: KH only took one drop to turn yellow.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Whats your water change schedule like?

If you have hard water in your tank, but soft water coming out of the tap, then changing water will bring it down. If you want to do this gradually, then smaller frequent water changes are the order of the day, rather than bigger less frequent ones.

After that you should look at why the water is harder in your tank than whats coming out of the tap. What chemicals are going in there? Are there any rocks in your aquascape that might be disolving and raising GH like limestone? Are you suffering from a lot of evaporation, in which H2O evaporates but leaves behind dissolved minerals, and topping up for evaporation will then increase the GH.

Might you have a water softener on your tap like a Brita filter? Maybe the water you tested from the tap came from the drinking water tap (ie softened) but the water in your aquarium came from the regular tap and the softener is bypassed?

 

[Gulp]

Whats your water change schedule like?

If you have hard water in your tank, but soft water coming out of the tap, then changing water will bring it down. If you want to do this gradually, then smaller frequent water changes are the order of the day, rather than bigger less frequent ones.

After that you should look at why the water is harder in your tank than whats coming out of the tap. What chemicals are going in there? Are there any rocks in your aquascape that might be disolving and raising GH like limestone? Are you suffering from a lot of evaporation, in which H2O evaporates but leaves behind dissolved minerals, and topping up for evaporation will then increase the GH.

Might you have a water softener on your tap like a Brita filter? Maybe the water you tested from the tap came from the drinking water tap (ie softened) but the water in your aquarium came from the regular tap and the softener is bypassed?

Doh!!! I feel like a dummy now... The evaporation thing you mentioned is probably the obvious answer. That tank has just had plants in it for almost a year...with no fish or critters. I got lazy and simple topped off the tank when it would get too low, with zero water changes....and when I did the water change/filter change before adding shrimp, I only changed about 20%. I will just do water changes every other day or something over the next few weeks and I bet the problem solves itself. Again...doh! Thanks!!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Theres no reason to feel like a dummy. Water hardness increasing due to evaporation and topping up isnt an obvious thing.

If you are suffering from a lot of evaporation topping up with RO water rather than tap water will avoid that hardness creep. Then use tap water for your water changes. If its only a little evaporation then not such a big issue to use tap water for topping up, especially if you do frequent water changes too.