Jump to content

GH9! how to reduce GH and TDS/EC


Sprae

Recommended Posts

Hi Shrimper Keepers!

I'm hope to get some advice when I found a couple of dead shrimps in my tank the past 2 days. After doing some extensive water testing, everything was perfect except the GH and TDS/EC.

TDS/EC has always been high without any issues, around 420us for EC. The last time I checked GH was three months ago, at GH5. Last night it was GH9 and 460EC. I was thinking there's a link between EC and GH values, so immediately did a 10% WC with WC water at 220us.

I plan to keep doing WC every 3 days until EC is under 300us. Hopefully this will lower the GH as well.

FYI, the only thing I've changed in the past month was cleaning my 2213 canister filter and adding a 3/4 pack of fulvic grains to keep the pH low. I do monthly WC regularly too.

I'm looking your experience in lowering GH and TDS/EC, so please help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best way to reduce GH and TDS is with RO water or rain water.

What sort of water are you using for water changes?

If you were using tap water, it might already have a high GH and TDS. Have you tested your water source?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What sort of water are you using for water changes?

Sorry I didn't mention I only do WC with RO+SSM and target 350us. But now I'm lowering that to 230us for each 10% WC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the right thing to be doing to lower TDS and GH. Keep it up. But it will take a while if you only change 10% water monthly.

Are you adding any additional Calcium and Mangesium ? That will increase GH and TDS as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gday Sprae, presume they're caridna shrimps ? (CRS/CBS/Mishlings…..) as GH 9/Ec is definitely too high….Be patient with lowering your TDS, as a sudden drop will cause issues too. Love to see an update pic of your tank ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1, can't really add anything new to that, definitely WC with RO & SSM, take it slow & be patient. Good luck with it dude & keep us up to date on how everything is going. :encouragement:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HOF Member

Sprae - My tanks have just finished cycling and needed their final water change as nitrates were high, I did a full water test and my GH was 9 and TDS 190 . I took 8 litres out of a 60 litre tank and filled it with straight RO redid the GH which had come down to 7 .

the tanks had no shrimp in them :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Sprae.

When you do evaporation top ups, do you use just the RO or are you adding extra SSM too??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the advice guys. The water today is at 430us and definitely will do it slowly over the next few weeks. Just hoping for no more deaths.

Just noob question though, is GH actually linked to TDS or EC?

BB - I'll take some pics thus weekend for ya ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Sprae.

When you do evaporation top ups' date=' do you use just the RO or are you adding extra SSM too??[/quote']

No top ups. Just extract and replace. Add SSM to my RO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you are in melb right?

i'd say almost everyone would have a few dead shrimp in the past week without a chiller in melb

it's the fluctuation in temps over the past week that would stress and kill your shrimps

but 10% straight ro dripped slowly every few days will solve your gh problem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you are in melb right?

i'd say almost everyone would have a few dead shrimp in the past week without a chiller in melb

it's the fluctuation in temps over the past week that would stress and kill your shrimps

but 10% straight ro dripped slowly every few days will solve your gh problem

Yes I'm in bloody hot Melbourne! But luckily I have a big chiller for my nano tank. It's not going to be temp issue as it never gets higher than 23.7c :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just noob question though' date=' is GH actually linked to TDS or EC?

[/quote']

General hardness (GH or dGH) refers to the dissolved concentration primarily of calcium, magnesium and other mineral ions.

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water.

So TDS is a measure of how much "stuff" is in the water. The lower the measure, to purer it is. In some ways TDS is linked to GH, in that TDS measures some of the salts and minerals that make up GH, but TDS measures a lot more. You might have low Ca and Mg, but high metals - which might give you a low GH but high TDS. So it's not always safe to assume the two are linked where a high GH must mean a high TDS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In some ways TDS is linked to GH' date=' in that TDS measures some of the salts and minerals that make up GH, but TDS measures a lot more. You might have low Ca and Mg, but high metals - which might give you a low GH but high TDS. So it's not always safe to assume the two are linked where a high GH must mean a high TDS.[/quote']

Bugger~! If my GH doesn't drop later the next WC, when TDS/EC has then I need to find out what else is raising it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GH should drop slowly. Use less Salty Shrimp GH+.

Unless you are also dosing Ca and Mg separately to Salty Shrimp.

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...