New to Shrimp Keeping

[vicky]

I have a 5 gallon shrimp only tank. 

I am having molting problems. Lost 6+ shrimps in 2 months. I am yet to get my KH/GH kit. My TDS of tank is  404. I reduced brought it down from 478 using distilled water. My tap water TDS is 274. Will hard water cause molting problems?

I am not interested in doing RO water changes for RCS. Just wondering anyone had success with these kind of parameters. There are some baby shrimps now in my tank, one the new RCS was burried. Hopefully they will get accustomed with this water parameter.

 

 

 

[jayc]

2 hours ago, vicky said:

Will hard water cause molting problems?

Absolutely. With TDS of 404, that will be the cause.

If the shrimp were accustomed to lower TDS levels (previous breeder), then they won't live long enough to get accustomed to 400+ TDS.

They will live happily in it until time for moulting. That's when the problems arise.

 

It would be interesting to see what GH you have in that tank. If it's high then there is a lot of Calcium/Magnesium. 

If the GH reading is moderate, then the tap water is full of other dissolved solids.

If you don't want to use RO to reduce it, can you collect rain water to reduce the TDS?

Edited September 1, 2016 by jayc

[vicky]

Thank you jayc. 

So the baby shrimps have a better chance with this TDS? I would rather make them accustomed with my water parameter than try to adjust it.

Any way I will be buying a GH/KH kit, I am also curious to know my water chemistry.

If I adjust the water parameter what would be recommended GH/KH/TDS to maintain without causing any shock. 

[jayc]

9 hours ago, vicky said:

So the baby shrimps have a better chance with this TDS?

I don't think they will have a better chance of living a long life.

400+ TDS is just asking too much.

Maybe 250 - 275. If you bring it down to those levels, the chances of your shrimp falling into moulting issues will be dramatically reduced.

[revolutionhope]

I can say that although I'm sure jayc is right about the moulting troubles at high TDS I know from experience that rcs can in fact breed in TDS of around 500 as my first colony of shrimp did this in a tropical community tank before I learnt anything about shrimp requirements.

Having said that though I imagine when I first got the shrimp my tds was somewhere in the high 200s so it may be that there was some adaptation and selection for survival in harder water.

I've read a claim somewhere on the web from someone who said their rcs were breeding in TDS 800+ ! But who knows the truth of it of course...

Anyhow if you can drop the TDS to somewhere below 300 you will definitely be better off as jayc has said.

Out of curiosity did you test the water pH ?

Love n peace

Will

[vicky]

My tap water is 270 there is no change in that.

I started reducing the TDS mixing RO water. Or should I just do a 75% water change?

My pH is 7.8

[revolutionhope]

Someone else might advise the best way to reduce tds by waterchanges im sure there will be no exactly right or wrong way.

I know I can say for sure it is very important in this situation that you very slowly drip the different water into the tank.. an airline is the most popular way to do this - try to allow the change to occur over a minimum of 3 hours if possible.

Doing this reduces the stress on the shrimps from any change in the environment. I like to do this with all my waterchanges... and i also try to make sure the temperature difference isn't dramatic as well.

Hope I've been helpful and good luck! If I were in your situation I'd do perhaps 25% change with RO once every couple weeks or maybe weekly till you get the desired TDS. Again I must stress it is highly important to slowly drip in the new water.

Hope I've been helpful! Jayc is a very experienced breeder you can rest assured you are in good hands there. :-)

Love n peace

Will

[vicky]

Never came the idea of doing a drip water change, thanks will do that. 

Again in one week span I reduced the TDS from 475 to 404, will take a slow approach.

Yesterday also lost one more. So in one month lost 4 out of 6 new shrimps, this is the second batch. Now the total adult population is 4, two from the old batch.

[revolutionhope]

It might be worth getting some salty shrimp gh/kh+ for remineralising ro and rain water. You can order some online fairly cheaply from one of our sponsors if you are in oz.

If you do get a hold of some salty shrimp to mix with the RO water you could change out most if not all your old water for the properly mineralized water.

If you go this route then you could net the shrimps and put them in a bucket. Change 90-100% of the water in the tank. Then drip acclimatise the shrimp in the bucket to the new water.

Love n peace

Will

[vicky]

This is my tank now

TDS - 322
GH - 7
KH - 2-3

Tap Water:TDS - 274
GH - 8
KH - 4

 

Edited September 4, 2016 by vicky

[jayc]

4 hours ago, vicky said:

This is my tank now

TDS - 322

That's good progress Vicky.

Keep it going if you can. Get it down to 274 as the target, the same as your tapwater. 

Do you have any idea what the water parameter is where the RCS came from?

 

Edited September 4, 2016 by jayc

[vicky]

22 hours ago, jayc said:

That's good progress Vicky.

Keep it going if you can. Get it down to 274 as the target, the same as your tapwater. 

Do you have any idea what the water parameter is where the RCS came from?

 

No idea. Its from a locat Pet Store