Dr.rex Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 (edited) Has anyone used neo Marine kalibrite saltless salt mix as mineral supplements in freshwater aquariums, I bought a 25lb at an auction for pennies what am I missing because it does it with like the shrimp Trace elements, The reef Trace elements, ect they all work the same I have a breeding activity explosion for a couple days and then the whole tank just starts to crash out, am I missing like some obscure Trace element or elements here cuz algae doesn't happen, everything goes into breeding and then everything stops about 4 days later till another shot of mixed water hit the tank breeding Molly's and apple snails atm And I live in Southern Illinois where we have literal mineral water just pouring out the tap ph around 7.6 water hasn't changed in 2 years from the town even check that, so do you guys have any ideas what's going on I have several tanks but we'll use this one since everything gets 10% ever 2-3days using the same mix 55gl, 86°f , ph 7.6-8.2, gh maxed out on everything 500+, kh is around 450, no nitrite no ammonia, between 60 and 100 nitrate, I have copper pipes but I cannot detect any copper, lron is around 50, tds is 1900ish All the testing is ppm Stocking is regular mollies, balloon mollies, apple snails, Malaysian trumpet snails, 1 green spotted puffer and one really large dojo loach Edited January 12 by Dr.rex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RennjiDK Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Salt mix supplements other parameters besides "salt" (NaCl). You're dKH, Mag, and Cal are now through the roof, far outside anything a FW plant would ever encounter. Great for a stony skeletal corals, not so much for plants. This is why your tank is crashing. You've induced a massive alkalinity swing, which at the very least, is enough to make most plants melt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerceptivePesce Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Freshwater tanks run around 200 TDS. I think @RennjiDKis right. Try testing your tap water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RennjiDK Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 On 1/12/2023 at 11:00 PM, PerceptivePesce said: Freshwater tanks run around 200 TDS. I think @RennjiDKis right. Try testing your tap water. TDS on it's own doesn't mean anything, it's just the amount of dissolved solids in the sample water. A lot of the US has high TDS because it sits on a massive limestone deposit. This in and of itself isn't problematic. Now if you had say 200 TDS and 199 of those were copper, you're going to have a bad time. Either way, his source water isn't the issue. He's mixing alkalinity, magnesium, and calcium supplements into his source water, mistaking them for only "trace elements". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerceptivePesce Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 (edited) On 1/12/2023 at 10:23 PM, RennjiDK said: TDS on it's own doesn't mean anything, it's just the amount of dissolved solids in the sample water. A lot of the US has high TDS because it sits on a massive limestone deposit. This in and of itself isn't problematic. Now if you had say 200 TDS and 199 of those were copper, you're going to have a bad time. Either way, his source water isn't the issue. He's mixing alkalinity, magnesium, and calcium supplements into his source water, mistaking them for only "trace elements". You're right. I should have explained more thoroughly. I use remineralized rodi, my tds is around 220ppm. 200ppm is the average most remin rodi users are in, give or take 50ppm. I'd like to see OPs spring water test results. It may be perfect for a freshwater tank! Edited January 13 by PerceptivePesce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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