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Just a few pictures of my shrimp cleaning my yabby

Here is my formula for re-mineralising RO or Rain water: Powdered compound Grams needed: Calcium Sulphate CaSO4 Heptahydrate (so it dissolves easily) or Dihydrate if you can't find it, but dihydrate is not as soluble. 58gm Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salt) MgSO4 37gm Potassium Sulphate (aka Sulphate Of Potash) K2SO4 11gm Iron Sulphate (optional) FeSO4 0.30gm Manganese Sulphate (optional) MnSO4 0.16gm Total weight 106.46gm Multiply accordingly if you need to mix bigger batches. Alternatively, Iron and Manganese can be replaced with a Micro-nutrient (trace element) mix of 0.46gm. Again micro nutrients or trace elements are optional, but a small amount of these minerals can be beneficial for shrimps. They will get it elsewhere if it is not added here. You can either use it in powder form, adding small teaspoons to your water change until a TDS of 140-160 is reached. OR You can premix this in 500ml bottle of RO water, and drip it into your water change until the desired TDS 140-160 is reached. If you have a TDS pen, you can check how much 1gm will raise TDS in 1L of water. Similarly you can also test GH/KH raise in 1L of water. It is very important you test this yourself, since there can be a number of variables between your mix and my mix. This mix will not alter pH. You will be able to find all you need at www.aquariumonlinestore.com.au <--- Back in business as of Jan 2018! It is getting more difficult sourcing Calcium Sulphate heptahydrate. The best source I can find is from home brew shops. keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-1kg.html - $9.75 for a kilo. This is food grade stuff. removed - never seem to be in stock. https://www.keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-caso4-300g.html.html https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111974621019 - $20.89 for 1kg of Calcium Sulphate. https://www.bunnings.com.au/manutec-1kg-epsom-salt_p2960980 - 1kg of Magnesium Sulphate. https://www.bunnings.com.au/richgro-1kg-soluble-powder-sulphate-of-potash_p2980321 - 1kg of Potassium Sulphate (Potash). Alternatively, if you need a remin mix for Neocaridina or Tigers, you can replace 15g - 20g of Calcium Sulphate with Calcium Carbonate or Calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is probably easier to dissolve in water and that would be the preference. This will raise KH a bit. http://keg-king.com.au/calcium-carbonate-caco3-300g.html - $4.95 for 300g of Calcium Carbonate.

@kizshrimp - You were right, my TDS meter was off, I broke out the calibration salt and got it dead on the money, it was about 50ppm low. Today's readings: Kh 6dh Gh 10dh TDS 192 To your point though, my TDS is still less than the combined kh and gh. Does it really work that way? Or is it possible that the two tests could be reading some of the same stuff. I used API titration style test kits. I am confident in the values assuming the reagents are accurate, they are less than 6 months old. Also, you were spot on about the substrate, it a mixture of Rift Lake substrate and regular gravel, with large baseball size pieces of coral added in as well. My tap water is about 7.2 after 24 hours, (but 7.4 out of the tap) and my tanks buffer out around 7.4. Also spot on about the Malawis, mostly Aulonocara and other Haps, a dozen Synodontis cats, some Nerite snails, but no Mbuna, was shooting for a more peaceful tank this time. I have done a lot of Victorians in the past, I love them but they are just too aggressive for this tank. Anyway, I changed my TDS meter to a setpoint of 250ppm to trigger the water changes. The rate of rise on the TDS is a lot slower now. @jayc – you are certainly right. I know I am pushing the envelope here, trying to run the Africans at the lower end of their range, and the RCS and green Babaulti at the upper end of their range. I “think” I can make it work. The RCS colony is certainly thriving, lots of population growth, the babaulti isn’t yet, but then I just got them a few weeks ago. The cichlids seem plenty happy too, with frequent fry. It is certainly working for my original goal, with was to reduce the nitrates in my big tank. My nitrates measured around 5 today, where they used to be around 40.

Day 7 cycle Looks like the ph is where it's suppose to be.

This is Dexter in the full. He is currently in with the cherry red shrimp and some baby guppies. Just put in a female cory to lay eggs (they get eaten by the adult guppies) but he is chasing her around a bit so will have to move her back soon. The only issue Dexter ever gives me is when I try adding plants - they all get uprooted, or eaten. My other tank has some more cherry red shrimp, guppies, a bristle nose and the cory with a resident crab with minimal issues so far.

Thanks Buck, Yeah I dont what I was thinking. I thought something along the lines of bringing back the shrimp that's been in high ammonia water might be a bad idea but as you said it would be minimal. They seem to been doing ok lol Found another three. Thanks Bob Yeah crazy how it goes sometimes. There are even a few molted skins in the tank lol

Michael, definitely smaller more frequent changes are better. I have to say though that 150ppm TDS is incredibly low for an African Cichlid tank, even though they're just Malawi fish. We run them at more like 300ppm GH over here with high KH too, TDS would have to be over 400ppm. Having a look again at the schematic (nice setup btw) I don't understand how your GH is 180, KH 80 and yet TDS lower than than combined total. Something is not measuring accurately. Calibrate the TDS monitor and change the water change set point higher! JayC, it's not unusual for African tanks to have alkaline buffering substrates and rock. You want to run the hardness higher than those substrates will buffer to alone and the water change regime stops levels getting out of whack. I guess in this setup the RCS have to cope with the parameters and they look fine.

It takes days for my tank to raise TDS from 145 to 150. Not 20 hours. I believe some of your rocks or substrate is raising TDS. If you gave the RCS their own tank, you will save on water changes. Remember I said shrimp and cichlids need vastly different water parameters?

smaller water changes would be better, because the big ones will shock the fish and shrimp more, if you ever wants to adjust anything like ph TDS, its best to do it slowly rather than fast nice looking tanks by the way.

After comparing our wp, I'm tempted to massively increase my GH to see if it brings on better colouration. Yours is double mine (essentially 8 drops vs. 4 drops).

Kinda confused with your question. You can use this for CRS. Or any other shrimp for that matter. But it's technically not really the answer. You use re-mineralising solutions to remineralise Reverse Osmosis water or Rain water or very soft tap water, in order to get it to a target TDS for whatever shrimp or fish you are keeping. This target depends on they type of shrimp and what their preferred water parameter requirements are. If your high grade CRS likes 140 TDS, then mix just enough of this into your RO or rainwater to get it to 140 TDS. Measure it with a TDS pen. If your Cherry shrimp likes 160 TDS, then mix enough to get your RO/rainwater to 160, again measured with a TDS pen. You don't pour a whole lot of remineralising mix into the tank and it automatically adjusts itself to CRS ideal parameters. It doesn't work that way. You still need to test and measure. <- this goes for all remineralising products. Therefore, while it's good for high grade CRS, it's also bad if you use too much. <- this goes for all remineralising products, not just my DIY mix. The trick is knowing what TDS your shrimp will like best and adding just the right amount to achieve the correct TDS reading. This mix helps you raise TDS, since using pure RO water or rain water is detrimental to fish or shrimp in the long term due to the lack of minerals in that type of water. Hope you understood my response. I didn't know what to cover, as I didn't know how much you knew about remineralising products.

Nah I will make sure it is fully cycled before I add shrimp even if it takes longer I just want everything to be perfect.

Thank you. I hope I am able to give Shrimpy Daddy a run for his money as he is the man currently mentoring me in shrimp keeping and photography. In a way, I like to believe that I am getting better under his mentorship so it is a great honor for me when folks genuinely like my photos. I still have a lot to learn from Shrimp Daddy and I feel like he is still leaps and bounds ahead of me. Slowly but surely, I will learn and play catchup. As for photos of my other shrimps. I didn't know if folks would be interested. I have a few photos on the PC of my Taiwan Bees. ^She is currently my favorite Blue Bolt. Her shade of blue is so strange and different. She's full bodied but her off-blue color is what makes her so special and interesting to look at. ^Blue Faced Monster! She's 1 of 5 original Japanese BlackBees. My biggest and "The Den Mother" of the tank. She consistently has the biggest brood and highest breeding frequency among females inside my tank. ^Typical Full Bodied Blue Bolts folks are more accustomed to seeing ^Mothra Bee from Japan (Mosura Bee) ^Unique Headgear Blue Bolt ^Typical Shadow Panda ^Deceased Blue Bolt ^Does he look familiar?