TDS PEN

[zacsbee89]

hmm very true, makes sense!

[Daydream]

As Bluebolts said tnk size does have a bit to do with fish growth.But more important is reg water changes.Fish secreat a hormone to stop others from growing the more water changes the lower the hormone.Have done an exp on discus and cory cats half of each batch got put in 2 diff tanks.1 4ft and 1 2ft the 4ft got weekly 1/3 water change the other 1/3 every second day after 2 months the results were 2ft tank almost doubble the size of the fish in the 4ft.

[Triggs]

If you're getting deaths every time you do a water change I think there it's something else wrong other than your TDS.

There's a few things it could be.

- Tipping the water in too fast and too hard, this basically mixes up all the crud and crap from the substrate in the tank and makes the water cloudy and causes a bacterial bloom. This isn't really good for Shrimps.

- pH Changes, if the pH of the water you're adding is far different from that in the tank it will cause a pH swing and it can cause stress as the pH adjusts. Esp if you have any buffers in the tank that changes the pH drastically from that out of the tap.

- Temperature shock, if you're adding cold water from the tap it will take awhile for it to warm up in the tank.

- Copper pipes, This contradicts the above statement slightly but if you're using hot water from the tap in conjunction with the cold to ratio out the temperature of the water you're adding this could be causing copper to leach into the water from the copper pipes in the hot water system. You've only gotta go and look at the hot water service to see all the piping hot water pipes that are all copper. This is esp true in older houses with old pipes.

- And this is pretty obvious to some but make sure you're adding a water conditioner such as Seachem Prime when you do water changes. And make sure you're adding it to the water as you're filling it up with a jug. Or add it slowly as you fill the tank with a hose, try to add it at the approx rate for the rate the water is going in.

A good option is to let your water age a day or two before adding it to the tank. But with cherries this shouldn't really be necessary. I've had them breeding like rabbits with tap water that's treated coming straight from the tap to the tank.

I personally think it has something to do with some kind of shock rather than anything to do with TDS. Doing water changes should slightly drop your TDS rather than raising it which shouldn't really effect your shrimp that much.

As for molting issues as suggested above try adding some form of mineral powder. This will make a huge difference, esp if you have a high number of shrimp for the size of the tank. Diet can also play a part in this, try to feed a few different kinds of foods and mix them up.

The other thing is it could just be natural deaths. If you have tank with a few hundred shrimp with ages ranging from 1wk all the way to 18-24 months a death or two each week isn't really abnormal.

[zacsbee89]

@daydream: This is true, I have had multiple fish that i've bought pairs or more of. cory cats, plecos, discus, yoyo loaches, golden suckers and everytime there'll be 1 large 1 and the rest are tiny!

@triggs: Since lowering waterchanges to 3L everyday i've lost very few if not no shrimp. The 3L WC per day has also taken ammonia, nitrite and nitrates to 0. I also lost only females. They would moult and die. or moult, berry then die.

[Gbang]

Make sure you like your Wp up to TDS 150-200 or ec of minimum 300-400 It will really lift your GH and cherries love it :) like I said, Sulawesi mix works well for me. Haha get ready for a parcel ard wed

[Triggs]

The 3% water change would minimize and shock or effects listed above as they would be 6x less drastic than 21%.

But why change something if Its working.

Glad things are going well.

[zacsbee89]

can't wait for my parcel:D gbang! lol

Triggs: I worked out that doing the 3L water changes every day are a 100% WC for 1 tank per week. 30% per week for another tank and 50% per week for the last tank. Your probably right with it being some form of shock. either ph, temp, gh/kh etc. Atleast the smaller more frequent changes limit my deaths

[zacsbee89]

got the ghkh kit today.

just a comparison between no substrate and riversand substrate.

no sand: sand:

GH: 4 GH: 5

KH: 5 KH: 2

TDS: 100 TDS: 209

EC: 202 EC: 423

What do you's reckon? I'll be putting river sand in the non sand tank today as I bought 50kg this morning. 50kg for $4

Will test it before putting shrimp in though.