Jump to content

Water Parameters for Yellow Cherries

rawprawn

By rawprawn
in Neocaridina davidi

 Share

Recommended Posts

rawprawn Shrimp Enthusiast

rawprawn

Posted
Posted

Hi All,

I'm struggling a bit with my water parameters in my 4 foot yellow cherry tank.

The town water is really alkaline, off the scale on my API test kit (8.8 max).

My tank has about 4cm of "Serenity" black sand and two big pieces of driftwood with some java moss and a few plants just starting to grow.

My readings today were:

PH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 5ppm
TDS 260
GH 4
KH 3

My HM TDS meter has never been calibrated, but I have some calibration solution on the way.

The tank has no light, but is outside where there is indirect natural daylight all day.

They're breeding a bit, but I do lose a shrimp every month/fortnight and I feel it could go a bit better.

I have a good 4 stage RO unit for drinking water, and am considering going with salty shrimp GH/KH+ http://www.bossaquaria.com.au/shrimp-mineral-gh-kh-850g-4250-ltr/ in RO water for a better result.

Is this overkill for cherries?

Will the salty shrimp buffer the RO water PH (6.6) at all, and if so in what direction?

I don't want to get into using that PH up/down solution, I'd rather use water that lands in the zone for my water changes.

Cheers for any advice in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Squiggle Shrimp Guru

Squiggle

Posted
Posted

GH/KH+ is the minerals specifically designed for cherry shrimp & they can handle up in the mid 7s quite easily. It's very strange that your KH is so low but your pH is so high, but I guess that's town water for ya. You probably don't need to calibrate your TDS pen ad they rarely go out of calibration, but if you've got the solution then there's no hurt in checking. If I had to take a guess, I would say there might be something in your town water that could be causing it(copper maybe?).

The GH/KH+ minerals are designed to be used with RO water, this way you know exactly what is in your water & that it's at the right concentration, I use RO water & Salty Shrimp in all my tanks, cherries, crystals, TBs, tigers & natives. :thumbsu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rawprawn Shrimp Enthusiast

rawprawn

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

GH/KH+ is the minerals specifically designed for cherry shrimp & they can handle up in the mid 7s quite easily. It's very strange that your KH is so low but your pH is so high, but I guess that's town water for ya. You probably don't need to calibrate your TDS pen ad they rarely go out of calibration, but if you've got the solution then there's no hurt in checking. If I had to take a guess, I would say there might be something in your town water that could be causing it(copper maybe?).

The GH/KH+ minerals are designed to be used with RO water, this way you know exactly what is in your water & that it's at the right concentration, I use RO water & Salty Shrimp in all my tanks, cherries, crystals, TBs, tigers & natives. :thumbsu:

 

Cheers for that.

 

The guy at the LFS is a shrimp guru and a very nice and helpful person always.

 

He did a copper test for me back in the start, but haven't done one since.

 

He said that the water in our town is notoriously difficult to work with, and he puts quite a bit of effort into adjusting it himself.

 

Apparently the salt above is specifically for neo's, I'm just a bit worried about the PH of my RO water (6.5)...will it end up too low with my drifwood, etc?

 

Seems that this particular salt is designed to end up with GH/KH at a 1/0.5 ratio, meaning if I end up with my GH at 6-7 my KH will be 3-3.5, very acceptable.

 

Whether I use town or RO water, it seems I'm going to be at either end of the cherries PH parameter, not in the middle where I'd like to be.

Edited by rawprawn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Squiggle Shrimp Guru

Squiggle

Posted
Posted (edited)

That's correct, GH/KH+ is designed for Neocaridina Davidi or cherry shrimp. It's really not too much of a problem which end of the pH scale you are, as long as you are in between 6.5-7.5 you should be right, cherries are pretty flexable like that.

The best thing about using RO water is that the pH is easily changed to what you want it to be as there should be zero KH(which is what keeps your pH stable, with Caridinas the substrate does this job). GH/KH+ is designed to raise the KH enough to stablize the pH at an acceptable level while also keeping your other parameters within spec.

I'm not sure if that ratio is necessarily true dude, my cherry tanks are at 7dGH & 2dKH, as long as you keep your GH between 4-14 & your KH between 0-10 you should have no issues. You might want to read up on Calcium:Magnesium ratio too, ideally you want it to be at 3.6:1 but anywhere between 3-4:1 should be good.

Sounds like your local shrimp guru has gone through all this before, I'd try to pick his brain on what he has done to combat your local town water. :thumbsu:

Edited by Squiggle
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
petfish Shrimp Lover

petfish

Posted
Posted (edited)

When you guys speak of kh and gh do you mean in drops

yes, 0-10 drops to change colour. 1 drop = 1 dKH or dGH

Edited by petfish
Link to comment
Share on other sites
OzShrimp Shrimp Guru

OzShrimp

Posted
Posted

You will also get slightly different results from your RO Unit as opposed to one for aquarium use. If you ever decide to run it only for your tank its just case of changing one of the resin inserts :)

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
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Join Our Community!

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

  • Must Read SKF Articles

    Shrimp Disease and Treatment
    Tibee, Taitbee, Pinto, Mischling, F1, F2

  • Tropical Fish Forum
    Discus Breeding Guide
    Discus Disease and Treatment Guide

  • Posts

    • ngoomie
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By ngoomie · Posted

      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By sdlTBfanUK · Posted

      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By beanbag · Posted

      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
    • ngoomie
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By ngoomie · Posted

      Yeah, cancer risk was a thing I'd seen mentioned a lot when looking into gentian violet briefly. I kinda just figured it might only be as bad as the cancer risk of malachite green as well, but maybe I should look into it more. I've been doing a pretty good job of not getting it on my skin and also avoiding dunking my unprotected hands into the tank water while treating my fish at least, though. Maybe I'll just not use it once I'm done this course of medication anyways, because I know a store I can sometimes get to that's pretty distant carries both malachite green and methylene blue, and in pretty large quantities.
    • jayc
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By jayc · Posted

      Can't help you with Gentian Violet, sorry. It is banned in Australia violet for potential toxicity, and even possible cancer risks. I thought it was banned in Canada as well. At least, you now know why there isn't much info on gentian violet medication and it's use. But keep an eye on the snails after a week. If it affects the snails, it might not kill them immediately. So keep checking for up to a week. Much safer options out there. No point risking your own life over unsafe products.
×
×
  • Create New...