Jump to content

Understanding Important Water Parameters for Shrimp


BlueBolts

Recommended Posts

With so many dedicated new members, and the mountain of information, I thought I'd summarised my 6 most critical water parameters I frequently test, to ensure my shrimps have the best possible water quality.

GH (General Hardness)

GH is the measure of Magnesium (Mg+) and Calcium (Ca+) ions in water. Water described as “soft†or “hard†is in reference to GH. GH is measured in dH, and 1 dH is approx.. 17.5mg/L (ppm)

0-4 dH (Very Soft)

4-8 dH (Soft)

8-12dH (Medium hard)

12-18 dH (Fairly Hard)

18-30 dH (Hard)

KH (Carbonate Hardness)

KH is the measure of carbonates and bicarbonates in water. KH measure the alkalinity (buffering capacity resulting in the resistance of a PH fluctuation). KH is measured in dH, and 1 dH is approx.. 17.5mg/L (ppm). The higher the KH the more stability and resistance PH will fluctuate.

pH (Per Hydrogen)

pH is the measure of the balance of Hydrogen (H+) and Hydroxide (OH) ions in water. The pH scale goes from 0-14. pH reading of 7.0 is neutral, 0-6.9 is Acidic, and 7.1-14 is alkaline. pH is also a function of KH and CO2 concentration.

Nitrates

Nitrates are critical to our beloved shrimps, and often utilized to indicate the level of water quality once a tank is cycled. Nitrates between 0-20ppm should be our goal. Nitrate should be tested/checked frequently, as high nitrates can/will lead to shrimp deaths even weeks after the event.

TDS/Ec

TDS (Total Dissolved Solids)/ Ec (Electrical Conductivity) is essential to ensure overall purity of water. A TDS reading measures contaminants , but also minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and other trace elements and metals. The TDS reading of most natural clean spring water is approx. 100-200 ppm. RO (Reverse Osmosis) water will have approx. 0 TDS, and by adding essential salts/minerals to the required TDS/Ec,, this will ensure our shrimps have the purist of water with the right/essential minerals.

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/3078-Dean-s-(Ec)-vs-BlueBolts-(TDS)

Temperature

Water temperature is a critical factor, and depending on the type of shrimp, a higher/lower range can be tolerated, but does add stress to the shrimps. Ensuring no sudden fluctuation, and maintaining the recommended level will ensure the best survival/breeding zone for our shrimps.

There are many breeders using varying WP (i.e. soft water vs hard water, low PH vs high PH...etc)...please do your research and/or ask the forum members of their experience/knowledge, depending on the shrimp species you intend keeping.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow BB, another stunning write up, so informative & easy to understand. I think I smell another sticky, well done mate :encouragement:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

hi there im new here and the shrimp world. i just need to be sure about a few thing if you guys dont mind helping me im from montreal canada and my tap water here super  hard 30 gh and over 

from my understanding most shrimps keepers will use r o water  and use buffers  cause there are no easy way to reduce de gh from the tap water right ? 

except rain water ,boiled water  and little thing like most, plants, and drift wood  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, drdonut said:

montreal canada and my tap water here super  hard 30 gh and over 

:surprise: Woah.

What's TDS like?

Never mind the shrimps, what's that doing to your health?

 

There is not much you can do to reduce GH that high, except for RO. Plus there will be other parameters that will be out of whack as well, like KH, pH and TDS.

Boiling is all but impractical except for the smallest of tanks. And I doubt boiling water will reduce GH, unless you collect the steam vapour. Boiling reduces KH a little, but not GH.

Rain water is a viable alternative. Similar initial amount of investment just like RO systems, but free afterwards. No ongoing costs like RO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi, thank for your information about the important water parameters. I would like to ask about Mg+ and Ca+, how much the maximum and minimum of Mg+ and Ca+ which are suitable with scrimp culture? thank you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, grobest said:

I would like to ask about Mg+ and Ca+, how much the maximum and minimum of Mg+ and Ca+ which are suitable with scrimp culture?

 Mg+ and Ca+ together will be reflected in the TDS measurement, and to some degree the GH measurement. 

(TDS and GH measurements will pick up other minerals as well and those will effect the reading)

While you can measure them individually it doesn't give you the whole picture.

So you need to get a TDS meter and a GH test kit.

The TDS and GH readings will give you an indication of what you should aim for with your specific type of shrimp.

For example...

Freshwater shrimps like,

CBS, CRS (Caridina) - TDS around 130-150 and GH3-4.

Cherry shrimps (NeoCaridina) - TDS 140-180 and GH 4-6.

 

Marine prawns and shrimp are a different matter since seawater contains a LOT more Mg and Ca.

 

Edited by jayc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...