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Water conditioners on the Market


discusxgold

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Hello,

Im new to shrimps and i always used water conditioners for my fish with no issues so far.

I have read quite a bit on shrimps and honestly its like im having my first fish tank..

Anyhow i do not currently have a reverse osmosis water treatment  and still using the good old water conditioner.

What are the brands that are shrimp safe or you have experience with the like of Seachem prime, API stress coat or Tetra Aquasafe.

Also when you use water conditioners do you add mineral salt?

 

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I have used the Tetra Aquasafe to dechlorinate waterfor years and that seems fine.

The question on whether you need mineral salts will depend on the parameters of the water (tank and source) and the shrimps you are planning on keeping? If you are using tap water then I assume it will be cherry (neocaridina) shrimp?

Simon

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I have a weird water change system - my main fish tank (100L, HEAVILY planted) gets water changes with conditioned tap water, but my other tanks get water changed with the water from that main tank (they're all 20L tanks). The plants probably do most of the conditioning work for me, and my driftwood reduces pH to about 5-6, so I don't add anything to the water when it goes into my shrimp tanks. This method works AMAZINGLY for me. 
In terms of ammonia... well... PLANTS! The plants basically make it so that I don't have any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate problems either. So, I guess if you have a fish tank that can play the role of the 'mama tank', so to speak, then try that. 

In terms of specific conditioners, though, I've heard great things about prime, but honestly API Super Strength does it for me. I'm only halfway through the bottle after a whole year, so it ends up being super cheap!

I don't usually add mineralisers, but that's a personal choice. It honestly depends on the shrimp you keep and the parameters of your water out of the tap.

Hope that helps mate!

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11 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

The question on whether you need mineral salts will depend on the parameters of the water (tank and source) and the shrimps you are planning on keeping? If you are using tap water then I assume it will be cherry (neocaridina) shrimp?

You are right i am currently keeping neocaridina shrimps. I should invest in a water test kit to have all the required information on them.

Out of a batch of 8, 3 shrimps died on me and the remaining ones are mostly inactive (they do graze around here and then), they have taken up color though so i'm hoping they are ok.

BTW if I' planning on moving to Caridina shrimps, can I still use API stress coat and tap water or I should definitely have an RO system.

7 hours ago, Crabby said:

In terms of ammonia... well... PLANTS! The plants basically make it so that I don't have any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate problems either. So, I guess if you have a fish tank that can play the role of the 'mama tank', so to speak, then try that

Thats sound great, I should get a main tank too where i can get really clean water out of it for shrimps. Whats the water ph of the main tank with fish, im assuming you are using an active substrate in your fish tanks?

I have neocaridina and inactive substrate, im guessing my ph is around 7 which should be fine for them.

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3 hours ago, discusxgold said:

Whats the water ph of the main tank with fish, im assuming you are using an active substrate in your fish tanks?

I live in Melbourne, and we have pretty soft water here, with about 7 pH still. So, I actually don't use an active substrate. I use AquaIron by Oliver Knott and Pisces in my main tank, bare bottom in 3 of my 5 gallons (inert substrate in a tub in one), and an inert substrate in my last 5 gallon (Sorry if I switch between metric and imperial - I naturally use metric, but I've learnt to use imperial since most of the fish keeping community online uses it).
 

My pH in the main tank, with all that in mind, is about 5-5.5... Now, that is 100% from the driftwood. It's a random piece of driftwood I collected at the beach, looks fantastic, and is kinda massive. 
My pH in the other tanks tends to be around 6.5-7, since I use crushed coral to raise it up a little (I keep and breed blue dreams - neocaridinas - and tangerine tiger shrimp, which can do well in a slightly lower range than neos.

3 hours ago, discusxgold said:

BTW if I' planning on moving to Caridina shrimps, can I still use API stress coat and tap water or I should definitely have an RO system.

Uhm, I have caridinas and don't use RO, so I wouldn't say that investment is necessary. If you want to try Taiwan Bees, @sdlTBfanUK can help you more than I can. I would give it a year or so before transitioning into them though. You could probably do crystals and tigers with an active substrate and some wood, without RO

 

4 hours ago, discusxgold said:

I should invest in a water test kit to have all the required information on them.

I cannot recommend this enough. TDS isn't necessary with neos, but it would be great for the survival and well-being of your shrimp if you could test the water, say with the API kits - Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH & KH.

 

4 hours ago, discusxgold said:

Out of a batch of 8, 3 shrimps died on me and the remaining ones are mostly inactive (they do graze around here and then), they have taken up color though so i'm hoping they are ok.

Sorry to hear that! If it was 3/8, there might be something going on with your water. I find my shrimp become way more active (constant grazing, flying around the tank) when the water is just right. 

 

Could I ask what you're doing in terms of food?

 

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As Crabby has stated, the first thing you need really is the test kits he mentioned, and I would get the TDS as well as they are cheap and probably the one you will use most, and the easiest to use.

Some caridina shrimp are a bit easier than others to keep, ie Tiger but still it is very unlikely to work unless you have RO water that you remineralise, though VERY occassionally it can work if your source water is good enough, but this is so rare it probably shouldn't even be considered! The Caridina usually do best with soil type substrates to help buffer the water parameters as well so it will mean either a new tank or completely re setting your existig tank so there can also be a lot of time and cost involved with the Caridina shrimp, it would be best to stick with neocaridina for a year or so, until you have mastered everything and then feel confident enough to make the change?

When introducig new shrimp you should drip acclimate them to the wew water, if you did not do that with the shrimp you got I would say you were lucky you only lost 3/8 and you may possibly lose more yet, if they survive 3-4 weeks they should be ok!

You can't really go any further though until you know the water parameters so that should be your next step/purchase! When we know the parameters we will have a much better idea? An idea f the tank and contents as well is always useful as certain items can alter the parameters as Crabby has said also! When you get the tests you should test your source water AND the tank water and we can go from there?

Simon

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15 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

An idea of the tank and contents as well is always useful as certain items can alter the parameters

Yeah, would be good to see a photo of the whole tank, so we can see what sort of setup you have going.

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On 9/14/2020 at 3:14 AM, Crabby said:

You could probably do crystals and tigers with an active substrate and some wood, without RO

Thanks for the recommendation, definitely helps to know where to move next. ? 

On 9/14/2020 at 3:14 AM, Crabby said:

Sorry to hear that! If it was 3/8, there might be something going on with your water. I find my shrimp become way more active (constant grazing, flying around the tank) when the water is just right. 

 

Could I ask what you're doing in terms of food?

Yes definitely something with my water, i just did a 50% water change with the API Stress Coat and I noticed that they are a bit more active about an hour later. Will give it a day to be sure all is ok.

In terms of food im feeding JBL Novo Prawns.

On 9/14/2020 at 11:33 AM, sdlTBfanUK said:

it would be best to stick with neocaridina for a year or so, until you have mastered everything and then feel confident enough to make the change?

Will do neocaridina for now, there is quite an extensive range of neocaridina, i'll stick to that till the end of the year.

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On 9/14/2020 at 11:33 AM, sdlTBfanUK said:

You can't really go any further though until you know the water parameters so that should be your next step/purchase! When we know the parameters we will have a much better idea? An idea f the tank and contents as well is always useful as certain items can alter the parameters as Crabby has said also! When you get the tests you should test your source water AND the tank water and we can go from there?

Thanks for this recommendation, ill make sure to test the source water as well as conditioned water. Btw the test kit do not contain calcium, magnesium or phosphates which is present in the mineral salt. Should i get a test kit to test these parameters as well?

20 hours ago, Crabby said:

Yeah, would be good to see a photo of the whole tank, so we can see what sort of setup you have going.

Will share one soon ?

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Calcium, magnesium and phosphate are not really necessary, and considering they’re usually $20 AUD each, I personally wouldn’t bother. A TDS pen tests the total dissolved solids in the water, which includes those. Phosphates is the only one I would consider, as if you have phosphates that are too low or too high you may get an algae problem, but that’s really up to you. Generally, though, I would say you really don’t need to.

Good to hear they’re more active now. As shrimp are more sensitive, I generally tend to do 10-30% water changes, so just a bit of advice going into the future there.

Sounding good!

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When you change some water it is normaal for the shrimp to get a bit 'excited', it can trigger a moult as well so you may see some ghosts a day or so afterwards!

The salts contan everything in a perfect balance for the shrimp therefore you don't need to check Calcium, Magnesium or Phosphate. As Crabby says, just use a TDS meter, they are cheap and the easiest test to do! Also, as per crabby, you should only do smaller water change and add the new water slowly (a dripper is best) over several hours. Shrimp in a tank with no fish don't produce much bioload. 

Simon 

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  • 2 months later...

 

I am using an H2oEliteLabs water conditioner for my fish tank because I am worried that a normal water conditioner can have bad effects on my fishes.

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I think that is a water softener device? Fish are much more tolerant than shrimp and the H2OElite may remove any chlorine. Two of my tanks I use dechlorinated tap water without any problems!

Do your fish do well using this water conditioner, and do you know what the parameters of the water are?

Simon

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