Hi new here

[Mymel]

Hello everyone,just wanted to introduce myself and ask a little advice about my water.
Today the 3 week setup period for my 30 l dennerle nano tank ended.Living in London I struggle with my water. I changed water yesterday and I don’t seem to get itunder control.
Iam planning to keep neocardinia and ordered some on eBay so time is of the essence to get it right. I will attach a picture of the test strip from today so any recommendations welcome. I used rainwater for the water change yesterday.

Mel

[Stephen]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Those test strips are not reliable, a liquid test kit would be better such as the API Master Freshwater test kit.

3 weeks cycling an aquarium is a very short period.
How did you cycle the aquarium ?

London water is fairly hard which would be good for some shrimp.
Using rain water for a water change will likely bugger up your water parameters. Keeping the parameters stable is more beneficial.
Which water conditioner do you use ? This will be the brand of dechlorinator which is added to new water before adding to the aquarium so that the chlorine/chloramine in the new water is totally removed.

All the best

[fr499y]

Test kits can be inaccurate, so would recommend buying an api liquid master kit instead

As said, stick with your tap water and stock accordingly. Trying to soften it with rain water can cause more problems, especially in a city!

[Martinspuddle]

Greetings & Welcome to

[Mymel]

Well 3 weeks is the minimum recommended time I use easy life Filter medium and pure aquarium balls and have fed the plants for them growing quickly




Ok noted to get a better water test kit and only change with tap.

[Gingerlove05]

Hello and welcome

[Stephen]

Well 3 weeks is the minimum recommended time I use easy life Filter medium and pure aquarium balls and have fed the plants for them growing quickly

Ok noted to get a better water test kit and only change with tap.

Easy Life filter medium and Pure aquarium balls will not cycle your aquarium. Who told you that 3 weeks is the minimum recommended time ?
There are 3 proven products to assist a fish-in cycle (although we recommend a fish-less cycle), those 3 products are Seachem Stability, Tetra SafeStart and Dr.Tim’s One & Only.
These are basically scientifically proven "bacteria in a bottle" products.
As you have already ordered your shrimp then I would suggest getting Seachem Stability and dosing the aquarium as per the instructions. (I would remove and ditch the pure aquarium balls).

Are you using a conditioner to remove the chlorine/chloramine from the tap water ?
Removing the chlorine/chloramine is important.
I would recommend Seachem Prime as a conditioner/dechlorinator as it works well with the Seachem Stability.

When starting on the fish/shrimp keeping venture many people are blinded by the advise given by their LFS (local fish stockist) or by bad advise from sites such as Facebook.
The LFS is more interested in selling products (it pays their wages) and sell products that they sell. Some LFS are excellent, some are good and some are quite bad. Places such as Pets at Home usually have inexperienced staff and will direct you to a product which is often over-priced and not needed.
Here on aquariumforums.co.uk we have experience and knowledgeable members who will give good, honest advise (we don't sell anything).

All the best

[PaulVerrall]

Hello and welcome, don't worry we've all fallen to poor advice from pet stores or Facebook. The good news is you've found this forum, the users have a wealth of experience and will help you without judging.

[Mymel]

Ok Stephen thank you now it’s just a matter of where I can buy seachem products today in my area where I live the best shop is a maidenhead aquatics a couple of miles away. I might have to call and see if they have any in stock.
Honestly I had various aquariums years ago but I never had to deal with such difficult water quality for the set up.yes I use a water conditioner but it doesn’t seem to do the job and the shrimps will arrive on Thursday

[Martinspuddle]

Hi Mel, can you stall the order?

Your current state of your water parameters your Neocardinia Shrimp won't survive. Either that or if you can find and purchase some dwarf water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) or Guppy grass (Najas guadalupensis)

Once you added some Prime or equivalent, used as a temporary measure both these plant species are fast growers which will stabilize your water parameters in a few hours by eating up all the excess toxins and nitrites within the small water volume you have, thus making the water safe to use.

Also, has anyone told you about Shrimp acclimation? Best to use drip acclimation with Shrimp as they are shocked easily and can lead to a shorter life expectancy, can cause death or unneeded stress.


Click to enlarge

Here using a clean jug, I've placed the Shrimp in with their water. Using a length of silicone airline you tie a loop knot in the airline and for around 15 minutes allow the aquarium to drip into the jug. Personally I tip some of the jug water away after 15 minutes and repeat the process again to be on the safe side.