be carefull where u source your water

[honcho]

well i thought id post this up ,so it may help someone else before they do the same mistake :cower:

i

i decided last week that i would go past an lfs the other day to buy some RO water 40L to be exact..

id bought water from this place and there was no issues before and it was gonna be quicker than making my own RO h20..

seemed like great idea at the time .. it was cheap and ready to use..

anyways i took water home and added salty shrimp mix..

stupid me didnt check out water parameters and just chucked it in as i would any other water clean..

unfortunantely this water made my tank go crazy kh went up to 6 ang gh to 10-13 EC also went upto 320..

at first i didnt realise but the next day a couple shrimp died with molting issues..

this went on for about 4 days before i thought i gotta check water parameters as some of my nice shrimp died :sorrow:

after a few watr cleans last night and chatting to BB..

i seem to have the tank parameters almost back in order

gh6-7

kh 2

EC 260

thanx to distilled water ,some salty shrimp, and my own RO water..

moral to the story be carefull where you source your water and if in doubt check it first....!

I had to learn the hard way once again......

[Heavyd]

That's bad news mate. Sorry for your losses. It's too easy to get complacent isn't it.

[Trav80]

Sorry to hear honcho. Before I got my own RO unit I used to buy my RO too, the first couple of times I tested all the parameters then got lazy. Out of the blue I don't know why but I decided to test the RO from the LFS and to my surprise 1x 20litre jug was off the charts while the other 2 were fine. I went out and purchased my own RO unit the next day.

Always test it especially when you are using there water containers as it may have had salt water or any combination of buffers added to it.

[honcho]

cheers guys..

@ heavyd, complacency is definantely something to look out for, its too easy ....

@ trav80 cant believe u got different readings out of same place ..

i suppose its always good to check everything..

im only gonna use my own RO now, at least i know i can trust it :)

[Naraic]

Thanks for the heads up Honcho, I guess its the old adage of if you want something done....

[Trav80]

2 containers @ 0TDS, 1 container was @ 500+TDS. Tested it further and it was surprised to see the GH and KH were also very high. I believe the container had something else like a cichlid buffer or something in it before they used it for my RO.

They apologised and offered to replace it and give me a couple of free refills, I declined the free refills, took the replacement and tested the water right there in the shop.

[BlueBolts]

Thanks for sharing this tragedy, and trust the tank's stable and within the right WP.

IMO, part of the success of a shrimp breeder (or any sensitive animals..), is that we must be an absolute control freak, so that we can learn and understand any issues that we no doubt will face....i.e., if you used tap water, no chiller, and/or no understanding of GH, TDS ...etc, and your shrimp dies, it'll be impossible to know why...BUT if you used RO water, and control the mineralisation/TDS, check you WP to ensure stability, Temp control with chiller/heater etc...immediately you've eliminated 80% of the known common issues, and we can then attempt to pin point the cause/issues etc...and learnt from it, and/or induce a safe guard for it not happening.

Again, thanks for sharing, as all experience good or bad, helps and reminds us all of the potential pitfalls....

[BlueBolts]

Hi Honcho, trust the tanks have stabilised, and all is OK ?

[honcho]

Yeah mate.. i must say its taken a while.. and plenty deaths.. but everythings looking much better now , thanx for asking