Jumbo Slim

Thanks. Added 1 pound of crushed coral and a wonder shell from the COOP. That was November 25. Today December 4, still getting exactly the same readings on test strip. Shrimp continue to die slowly. All other tanks remain normal. I would really love to figure this out.

Anyway to deal with those? Total rehaul of the tank, removing any substrate and hardscape?

Yes this part I realize. But I am wondering why one of 7 tanks would have such different numbers. Only neo-cardina shrimp, no fish. Plain aquarium gravel, 1 pothos growing out the top, 1 sponge filter on an air pump. Same as the other 7 more or less. There is a piece of wood in the tank. But there are also pieces in some of the other tanks. And this is not new wood. It was in the same tank at my old house for over a year.

Hi I moved to a new house. Was on very hard well water with low buffer. High pH around 8.4 My new house has hard water with medium buffer out of the faucet. Moderate pH around 6.8 but it fluctuates. Surprisingly all my neo-cardinia shrimp and live bearers adjusted pretty well. Now I am about a week in and one of my shrimp tanks is seeing die offs. Plus the shrimp in that one tank aren't acting normal. Very slow and barely moving. So I test the problem tank with Coop test strips: 300+ hardness 0 buffer 6.4 pH Wow! So I test the other 7. They all come out like this: 300+ hardness 80 buffer 6.7 pH Any idea what could cause this in only one tank? All the water is from the same source.

Thanks! Wow so I got them free. I see some places selling them for a couple of bucks each. Crazy!

Been keeping fish for many years, but never cared much one way or another about snails. But this one has me curious.... The first one hitched a ride in on a live plant, now I have hundreds. Ram's Horn ? (Just guessing by the shape of the shell). Thanks!

I was using the black. i saw the red and black but thought it looked ugly. they also had some cichlid stuff. What does that do? Raise your PH off the charts?

Wow that's a real shame! So apparently this is so common. So why do people talk about eco complete like it's so good? 8.2+ PH is going to be way to high for most fish you'd put in a planted tank. Has anyone gotten any answers or refunds from eco complete?

Thanks! So just wait it out? The bad thing is the reason I bought Eco Complete was to avoid waiting super long to get a tank going. Ha! I don't know if it raised my KH and GH - Both are already so high out of the well that I can't even measure them on standard test strips. Definitely drove my PH super high. Now I have to put off plans of starting the tank out. Worried about the high PH. Wish I knew this in advance.

This is awesome! Thanks for the updates

Beautiful tank. Shouldn't all those plants help take any minerals out of the water? Might be something else. Any chance of insecticide on the zucchini? I once lost an entire tank of shrimp after someone sprayed insect spray on the other side of the room to kill bugs!

I just moved to a new house. My first time on a well. Water is very hard, but neutral PH out of the tap. Because I moved I wanted to kick start my aquarium. I bought some eco complete. I put it in wet as they recommend. A day later, my PH is over 8. Change water 50%, it's back to 7.0. Next day, it's back to 8. Wash and repeat. It's been 7 days. It might be even higher than 8 -- My Coop test strips only go to 8. I know it's the eco complete causing the problem. Because another aquarium I set up with just black gravel (couldn't afford more eco complete), and it's at 7.2. What should I do? Do I have to trash the $30 of eco complete?

This is really awesome! What is your PH and water hardness? Where'd you get your original stock?

They're from Indonesia right? I've read about them before. They look awesome. Wonder where I can get some.

Sounds like a good mix. That's about what I expected in such hard water. They must thrive. Good excuse to get some Odessa Barbs! I might have to try the shellies too. I am sure all African cichlids would do good in this water, but I am not really into them. Though shell dwellers are the except, they look so cool.

Great! I am glad to hear you are keeping CPDs, because I love those fish.

Yep, and they're getting worse. One advantage of living in a very rural area. Our post office only serves a few people. I know the guy inside on a first name basis and he'll do stuff like calling if I have a package or hanging late 5-10 minutes if an elderly neighbor needs a package or something. When I lived in a major city visiting the post office was a chore at best.

What kind of fish do you keep?

Great! Thanks for the info. I usually keep a couple of tanks with cherry shrimp and peaceful nano species like small rasboras. I guess the shrimp will do well here but the rasboras maybe not?

Okay good to know that I am not alone. What kind of fish do you keep and do you find it effects you much?

Thanks! The house is actually 151 years old and we're on a hand dug well. It's pumped straight into the house with an on demand pump. It doesn't go through anything except the hot water tank. So is this going to bad for fish? Or is it going to mean I can only keep African cichilids?!

The funny thing is that in the picture above the hardness looks like it matches 300. But in person I swear the color is much different!

Hello all. I have been keeping fish casually for over 30 years but I am not nearly good enough to be at nerm level! I just moved to a new house and it's my first time having well water or hard water. Being a long time viewer of Cory I decided to order the COOP test strips. I ran a couple through my water. Everything was as expected except that the hardness turned a color that isn't even found on the bottle. Does this mean my water is harder than hard or what? Here are the results.