Conrizzle Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Hello everyone. I am partially colorblind and am looking for some help. I joke and tell people that I'm "color confused" but for me, blues/purples, reds/greens, yellows/oranges etc. all can sometimes blend in and I have a hard time seeing color differences. I have attached 2 Pics of my co-op test strips and was wondering if someone is willing to help me reading my results and point me in a good direction of how to balance my water. I have roughly 15-20 fish in a 40 gallon breeder. All on the smaller side. 3 gourami, 2 clown plecos, 4 zebra snails, 10 "feeder" shrimp (they are pets to me, its just what my pet store labeled them) and the rest are all tetras ranging from black skirts, neons, red eyes ect. I have had this set up for approximately 4 months. Treated Ich and mouth rot successfully. Before this set up, I previously had mollies and platys but they slowly died off approximately over 4-6 months prior. I do 25% weekly water changes. I just recently added in plants and It looks like they are starting to struggle. I know most aquarium plants are grown out of water and die back but something seems up which makes me question my water. As a noob, I was so focused on ammonia that it seems I neglected the other water parameters and now my tank is starting to be stunted / negatively affected. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for being so long in text, but I am trying to cover all the basic things I figured what people would ask about. Thanks! Fish are friends, not food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Well your nitrate is pretty low so the plants might be hungry depending on how heavily you are planted. You could start feeding the plants or reduce your water changes to let it build up a bit I normally fine my plants have a growth spurt above the 25 ppm and I water change when it gets to 40. To me your strip reads as Chlorine 0 pH 6.4 Buffer below 40 Hardness - no idea that's pink and the code is blue. So possibly very hard. Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10 One suggestion I've seen is to take photos and change them to grey scale to help with colour ambiguity. But as long as is doesn't get crazy there is probably always someone about on here to double check with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conrizzle Posted August 16, 2022 Author Share Posted August 16, 2022 On 8/16/2022 at 7:33 PM, Flumpweesel said: Well your nitrate is pretty low so the plants might be hungry depending on how heavily you are planted. You could start feeding the plants or reduce your water changes to let it build up a bit I normally fine my plants have a growth spurt above the 25 ppm and I water change when it gets to 40. To me your strip reads as Chlorine 0 pH 6.4 Buffer below 40 Hardness - no idea that's pink and the code is blue. So possibly very hard. Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10 One suggestion I've seen is to take photos and change them to grey scale to help with colour ambiguity. But as long as is doesn't get crazy there is probably always someone about on here to double check with Thank you for your reply. I assume when you say to feed the plants, I should use a fertilizer? I will try and skip a week or two of water changes and see if that boosts the nitrates. And as for the Hardness, that one was really throwing me off. I had no idea what color that was. I didnt know if it was way too hard, or way too soft. But after looking at it, it seems like what you are saying is correct and the water is very hard. Any recommends on what I should do for water that hard? Also pH at 6.4 and Buffer being below 40 seems on the lower side correct? should I be concerned with those levels and should I be doing anything about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleveland M Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 I read it exactly as Flumpweesel above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conrizzle Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/16/2022 at 7:57 PM, Cleveland M said: I read it exactly as Flumpweesel above. Thank you. Do you suggest I should do anything about how hard my water is? Or should I be doing anything about how low my pH and buffer are? Much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleveland M Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 If me, I wouldn't worry about the hardness but I would drop in some crushed coral or similar to get some buffer and nudge the PH up some. The gourami are fine where it is at but the snails and shrimp would thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conrizzle Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/16/2022 at 8:10 PM, Cleveland M said: If me, I wouldn't worry about the hardness but I would drop in some crushed coral or similar to get some buffer and nudge the PH up some. The gourami are fine where it is at but the snails and shrimp would thank you. Awesome, thanks for your time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conrizzle Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 (edited) On 8/16/2022 at 8:14 PM, Conrizzle said: Awesome, thanks for your time! On 8/16/2022 at 8:10 PM, Cleveland M said: If me, I wouldn't worry about the hardness but I would drop in some crushed coral or similar to get some buffer and nudge the PH up some. The gourami are fine where it is at but the snails and shrimp would thank you. I do have a question about adding crushed coral, with my hardness being so high, do I have to be concerned about that making my hardness increased even more? Also, if I were to be interested in keeping other fish, should I try and keep something in mind of how to lower or balance my hardness? I would love to eventually have Rams or something along that line and I want to get as much knowledge of the basics of my water before I take that next step of a awesome fish of that sort. I would never want to take on more then what I am comfortable with in fear of damaging or killing something due to negligence. Edited August 17, 2022 by Conrizzle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 This might help you wrap your head around things, but it's easier in general choose fish that like your water than chase parameters. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh There is also plenty on you tube discussing these just search KH and GH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 https://youtu.be/Y_KnuCHxwdQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conrizzle Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/17/2022 at 4:33 AM, Flumpweesel said: This might help you wrap your head around things, but it's easier in general choose fish that like your water than chase parameters. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh There is also plenty on you tube discussing these just search KH and GH Thank you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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