Jump to content

How to lower tds


Kev

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone, just like to pick your brain abit.

just like to find out how can you lower your tds.

many thank you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi everyone' date=' just like to pick your brain abit.

just like to find out how can you lower your tds.

many thank you.[/quote']

RO water...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HOF Member

Depends on what your tap water TDS is water changes will help but RO water is the best way to get it down but if you use straight RO then you need to add salty shrimp minerals

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Kev,

i reduced my TDS from 330 to 170 by stop adding salt to my water changes which ive always done with fish and even my cherries. my tap TDS is 70 and my tank was 330. with each WC it would drop around 20ppm per 10L n then it raises slightly due to mineral balls or whatever and then reduce again with WC and so on. so its just up to u where u want to stop when u see results.

having the RO and using salty shrimp definitely better if shrimp is the focus but presuming ur tap water TDS is lower than 150ppm u can lower it with each water change... the rate at which it will drop will depend on many factors of course.

what is ur TDS now? where do u want to get it? and what is ur tap TDS?

the rest is all easy to figure out once uve got the pen. u just need to measure the water before and after WC and u'll notice the drop. it took me around 6-7 weeks to drop mine. from there i noticed all my shrimp getting berried and like i told ya yesterday i dont have a single female in my CRS tank that isnt berried :)

hope this helps :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

for those who arent as lucky, my tap water tds is 450ppm. the only real way to do it was to purchase ro unit. havent looked back since, best investment imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow Shrimpstan what are your water parameters and do u add Any additives/minerals to get a result like that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HOF Member

my tap water out of a pura tap is 330 so had to get RO unit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Micheal,

yeah my WP are nothin special and quite normal:

Ph 6.3

GH 5

KH 1

TDS 160-170

Temp 23.5

i put it down to me having good tap water to work with initially (although now i use RO/Saltyshrimp anyway) and the gradual decline in TDS.. nothing sudden. i add some azoo mineral liquid and it seems a very good product that helps with moulting.. almost every day i have new moults in my tank as i dose this stuff very lightly (probably quarter of the dose rate) every other day. i also have some bee balls and some of that clay rock mineral stuff.. all in all i dont notice big jumps in my TDS its very stable. when i do a 10% WC i do it over 2 days of 5L per day and i do this once a week for now.. i drip that 5L in over maybe 8-10 hrs. very slow but very good. the shrimp would never even realise that new water is being added.. they just have the benefit of not having any toxic build up.

i used to use a spoon of salt per 20L WC. once i got the pen i realised how much TDS this adds (from 70 TDS to 220-240TDS).. not that its bad TDS but for sure the salty shrimp minerals are the way to go. the bad TDS would be unknown solids from tap water like they get in the west or up QLD way i beleive.

last night i was playing around with doses and saw interesting results.. i took 5L RO water and added 2mg salty shrimp the TDS was 95 and GH 5 but ph 6.4.. i then doubled the dose to see what would happen.. basically everything doubled.. (TDS and GH) except fot the PH. i was doing this as ive noticed some cherries lacking color in low TDS tanks so im upping the GH and TDS for them although there final PH will be around 7ish. so for my cherries i'll aim for TDS 200-300 GH 8-10 and PH 7 and ill notice any difference. i will share my findings for those interested.

apart from all this the answer to using additives is yes.. i do have a couple herbal tricks up my sleeve but unfortunately i'll have to leave it at that for now :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I simply do water change with RO water. If it's still high, you can repeat the wc, just remember not to shock the shrimps.

if it become too low, i add minerals such as shirakura ca+.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

....if it become too low' date=' i add minerals such as shirakura ca+.[/quote']

The shirakura Ca+ will increase your GH/TDS, but it's does not re-mineralise RO water like Salty Shrimp, Mosura Mineral Plus, Benibachi Mineral Powder etc...., Do you add anything else to your RO ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shirakura Ca+ will increase your GH/TDS' date=' but it's does not re-mineralise RO water like Salty Shrimp, Mosura Mineral Plus, Benibachi Mineral Powder etc...., Do you add anything else to your RO ?[/quote']

I only use Shirakura ca+ to increase the TDS of RO water. The seller told me that this is the one to add good mineral to the shrimp. I use it in all my tanks. The result is good, they all breed now.

Salty shrimp is not exist in here, but i saw this forum use it alot. Like to try if available.

My PRL Asuka, PRL Yuken Line, Aura Blue and Shadow Panda already breed. So seems good. I use ADA amazonia, Ista ph5.5, breeders soil and just try the platinum soil now.

I will check again to see the ingredience of shirakura ca+, thanks for the info.

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...