Hi all.
I have done enough research for everything I was certain about to be directly contradicted hehe my head is spinning.
I want to start a heavily planted low tech shrimp in my cycling 20 gallon tank (aqua one 620), with peat to lower hardness and sand as the top. With the shrimp i want to learn to learn to raise fry, hopefully from my bristlenoses and after a long time/when i feel confident, i would like to raise rainbowfish from fry or eggs.
plants i am thinking of are jungle val, crypts, water lettuce, penny wort, Christmas moss, java fern plus stuff that have survived me in the main tank i don't know the names of.
My water test results in my main tank are nitrogen about 30 (lower than the water supply), ammonia 0 and nitrite 0.
The shrimp tanks has aqua one filter and a small internal filter.
I live in a very hard water area I don't understand these numbers and don't have a test yet.
my local water according to my water suppler Jan to March 2016
Total hardness as
Calcium (mg/l) Total hardness as 136
Calcium carbonate (mg/l) Total hardness as 340
Degrees Clark (°Clark or °e) Total hardness as-23.664
Degrees French (°f) Total hardness as 34
Degrees German (°dH) Total hardness as 19.312
millimoles (mmol/l of Ca) -3.4
Nitrate from 31 to 34.8
pH value 7.55 to 7.86
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My questions are
As i am relying on plants to remove nitrate how frequent should water changes be, little and often or 20 -30% once a week? since i raise the nitrates each water change.
Do I need peat layer, then gravel then sand?
can poison air pockets in sand be avoided if sand is 1/2 an inch to an inch?
do i need to add supplements in with the peat? i want to avoid anything chemical other than safe plant feed.
how long till peat is inert?
Is this a daft way to do it? i want maximum plants v low set up and running costs
Will accidentally dropping the small filters sponges full of live gack seed the built in filter faster? I feel something good should come out of that mess!