I put the adding of triops on hold as I wanted to run some chemistry experiments on the tank first. Results on those still to follow but I've done a few water changes and the water is now clear.

I have found that the exceptionally soft water required for the triops is resulting in difficult keeping the PH from crashing. With the additional chemical activity of the plants and the ammonia starting a cycle the ph drops low, the cycle stalls and it all goes pete tong. Lucky this is all being discovered before adding the triops. To counter this I have chosen to increase the KH and TDS of the tank a little. I am now holding a PH of 6.4 - 6.6 and a TDS of close to 200.

To answer a couple of questions posed on the last blog entry,

1. I have some egg cysts left over from a couple of years ago, I know they are good at surviving drought (~sp.) but do you think they would still be viable?
Triop eggs are amazingly resilient and can be viable after decades. It will depend on how they've been kept, hopefully dry and cool. The only way to know is to try it out.

2. How big do they get?
That depends on the particular species of Triop. I've been told Triops inhabit every continent and climate, the largest being the european (Triops cancriformis) and grow to over 4" plus tail. The UK has triops however they are an endangered species so collecting from the wild is a definite no-no. Normally the ones you get in kits are from one of a few species that grow to around 2" (plus tail). Once you learn the species names ebay makes it easy to get the ones you're after.


I promise there will be triops in the next instalment of this triop blog!