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I am starting a new shrimp only tank (Cherry Shrimp) and need advice on my water parameters. I have well water and my numbers are: Ph 7.4; KH 3; GH 11; TDS 154 Can I use my well water or should I use distilled water and remineralize? Thanks for any and all advice as keeping shrimp will be a new venture for me. Kelley

I have noticed that the longer I wait to read my Co-op test strips the nitrate color changes. It will show one color at 1 minute and 2-5 minutes will have a darker nitrate color. The bottle says to read at 60 seconds but I'm nervous about the higher nitrate reading after a longer period of time. Advice and/or thoughts?

I have lots of hiding places in the plants also I have some Java moss that the newest fry seem to hide in and around. I love having the babies!

Interesting...I've looked and looked at my fry and juveniles and they all look like females. I'll keep a closer look as they grow a bit more! My oldest are almost 2 months old.

Probably fertilizer! Thank you.

Thank you for your responses. Why is the GH so much higher in my tanks compared to the well water numbers? Is high GH like that harmful?

I'm fairly new to aquariums (about 6 months). Water parameters confuse me so I'm asking for advice from others much more knowledgeable than me! I have attached a chart with the parameters for my well water (both without going through our water softener and from the tap), and also the parameters for each of my 20 gal tanks. My 20H tank is beautiful. The water is clear, plants are healthy and fish are well (Platies (adult females, juveniles and fry); panda corys and a Pleco). My 20L is newest (about 2 months). Has plants, male platies, ember tetras, rummy nose tetras, albino corys, 2 Kuhli loaches and 1 Pleco. In my limited knowledge, I believe I need to raise my buffer. Is that correct and if so, would adding crushed coral be a solution? Thanks in advance for your advice. Kelley

I have two 20 gal planted Platy tanks. Started out with 2 males and 6 females. Wasn't very long and we started having babies. I moved the males to the other tank to stop the population explosion and the males constantly chasing the females. The original tank has several generations of fry and juveniles. I want to pull the males and add them to the "man tank" before they start impregnating the females but am having a difficult time determining which are the boys. Do they need to be a certain age to identify boys and girls. They move so fast but the ones I've been able to look at closely seem to be girls. At what age are they mature for breeding? As a side question, one of the males that I moved is a bully and chases the other male. The tank is a planted tank and there are some rummy nose tetras, ember tetras, and albino corys in it. Thoughts on what I can do to stop his agression?

It looks like Water Lettuce to me.

Thank you all! I will explore the bypass

So am I correct that the harder water is desired? The guy in the fish store (not a big box store) admitted he didn't know as much about freshwater fish as he has saltwater tanks.

I have two 20 gal planted tanks with Platies, Corys and Ember Tetras. We have well water that is very hard and we have a water softener system to reduce the hardness for household use. The GH in the house tap water is 0-25 ppm. I am fairly new to aquariums (about 6 months) and my tanks seem healthy. I use Easy Green fert for the plants. I have thought that a higher GH was better for livebearers so I have been getting water from a faucet outside the house that does not go through the softener system. I have also been using Wonder Shells. The GH in my tanks is 300 ppm. Ph from the tap is about 7.0. Ph in the tanks is 7.2 to 7.4. I would like to use tap water from inside the house for my water changes as opposed to hauling heavy water jugs. Can I use the tap water with the lower GH? Do I need to add anything to the tap water to increase the hardness. I asked at my local fish store and was told that it would be better to use the house tap water than the harder water. Is this correct? Advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.