Effects from crushed coral and high GH

[Notshrimpboy]

I have several 10G tanks of crystal shrimps. In 2 of the tanks, I am using Fluval substrate. The others, I am using Flourite. RO water is used with a mineralizer with lots of plants in all the tanks (java fern, java moss, pelia). The pH=6.6, TDS=145 kH=1. Last year, I found that pH was drifting low so I added a teaspoon of crushed coral. That stabilized the pH at 6.6-6.8. Then I noticed that gH was increased from 4 to about 7-8. Even though the shrimps seem to be doing fine, they stopped breeding. The females were seldom berried. Even when a female become berried, she loses them before she carries to term. Has anyone have this experience of high gH causing infertility in crystal shrimp? Or, is this simply coincidental and the infertility is caused by something else. I would like to learn from your experience before I take out the crushed coral. Thanks for your help.

[Zoidburg]

I've heard that crystal shrimp babies thrive better in lower GH where-as the adults do better in higher GH... which is more of a difference between 3 GH and maybe 6 GH, at the highest... and seems contradictory to me.

 

Based on pH guidelines for Crystals, anything below 5.8-6.0 would be too low, so you may want to consider removing the crushed coral, if you can, and start working on doing small and slow water changes to get the GH back down to at least 5.

[Notshrimpboy]

Thank you to Zoidburg. I have taken the crushed coral out and will start making incremental water changes.