What the heck did I do?

B

Barbis2cool

Registered Member
May 15, 2005
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Hi everyone,
I just broke down and re-started my 20 gal long tank. I wanted all real plants this time so I bought the special plant gravel, planted my new plants, put in some natural rocks (from lfs) and started the cycling waiting game. After about a week, I bought some ghost shrimp as canaries to see if it was safe to add fish. My initial pH and ammonia checks came back great (7.2 and 0). After about 2 days the shrimp started dropping like flies. I checked my water again and the pH was around 6 and my water was showing as really hard! Acidy water while hard at the same time?? What did I do? I even changed 1/3 of the water, and within the next few days it was all acidy and hard again! There are no fish in this tank and the shrimp have all went to the big lake in the sky. Could it be from the "plant friendly" substrate or from the rocks I put in there?? I'm stumped. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I've never had much success with ghost shrimp lasting too long.

Most you find at LFS are not hardy in my experience.
 
Sorry I can't help, but you might try posting this in the plant section, maybe they will be better able to tell if the substrate might have caused the problem! Good luck
 
Did you think to check your ammonia levels again. Sounds like an ammonia spike to me. And you may need to age your water outside of the tank for a day before adding it to allow it to stabliize.
 
Ammonia/nitrate/nitrite levels were fine, just really low pH and super hard water. I always thought if you had hard water the pH would be alkaline. My tap water tests neutral and soft, so I think something in the tank is making it hard. Can rocks dissolve making the water hard and acidy?
 
What's the KH? GH doesn't really tell you much about pH. And yes, there are rocks that can dissolve in the tank and alter water chemistry.
 
Rocks dissolving is not a very common occurance, there are only a few types that will dissolve fast enough to even influence the water chem, and it will not be to lower the pH. The pH would go higher, kH would go higher, and gH would go higher if the rocks were allowing dissolved minerals into the water. I would most likely think the water has a low kH. Letting the water Age for 24hrs before adding it to the tank will allow it to stabilize, and solve the problem. All you would have to do is get a tupperware container to put your new water in, and let it sit over night.
 
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