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Deaths have stopped since I moved my co2 diffuser. For a couple weeks so far. A couple shrimp had eggs. Now I'm seeing little shrimps swimming around.

Your posting is a lot clearer than mine, thanks for posting it, I think I may have gone off the original posting at a bit of a tangent. Hopefully the original poster will read your reply! Does the part about my tap water tds 174 and ro water + remineraliser tds 163 can, and probably always are, more different than just the tds difference of 11 would show. and just because the figure is correct on paper doesn't mean what substances make that figure what it is, is appropriate for the shrimps etc? I just don't know whether I am getting across what I mean, and more importantly am I right, does it make any sense?? Someone put me out of my insanity with a reply !

There is no need to convert German Degrees to ppm. Telling us how many degrees in drops is fine. Do you know what GH and KH they came out of? The best way to lower the parameters is using RO water, but you may want to consider using RO/distilled with a shrimp specific remineralizer for the best chance of success at keeping them. You could aim for a GH of 6-8. Tetras may appreciate the lower GH, too. As to why the shrimp died? Other than high parameters? Could be diet, water changes, maybe not enough aeration, or?

If you want CRS that were raised in "Caridina" parameters, then you need a completely different setup for them and you can't use tap water. Your CRS might "live", but they might not thrive until you get the tank set up "correctly" for them. This means a buffering substrate to lower the pH, RO/Distilled water (don't know if you can buy it in stores where you are at... but I can buy 1 gallon for 33-50 cents here) to have 0 ammonia, nitrites and nitrates with 0 GH and 0 KH with 5 or less TDS. You then remineralize the water with GH only minerals until you get the GH into the desired levels for the shrimp you are keeping. The way that buffering substrates work is to remove KH from the water (KH helps to keep the pH stable) and release tannins, humic acid and/or fulvic acid into the water column. This lowers the pH and keeps it stable. The more KH that is in your water, the harder the soil has to work to remove it and buffer your pH down. Each time you do a water change, you are causing unstable water parameters. The more work the soil has to do to do this, the faster your substrate will wear out and lose it's buffering capacities. (this is what Simon was referring to) If the water has 0 KH to begin with, it doesn't have to work hard, keeps pH low and stable, and it lasts longer. Buffering substrates where tap water is used may only last 3-10 months... depending on how good the soil is and how much KH is in the water. Buffering substrates where RO water and GH minerals are used may last 10 months to 5 years... again, depending on soil. At 1-3 years, you'd want to replace most soil anyway as that's about the time where the shrimp may stop breeding and the soil becomes less likely to buffer down. (exhausted the acids in it to keep the pH down?)

Thanks for the reply. I may not have got down in writing what was going on in my head, quite possible....... but what you seem to be saying appears to confirm what was going through my head. ????? I have tap water of TDS 174 which has unknown proportions (and may not have all of them) of the VARIOUS salts and other things etc you list. When I filter the water back to zero TDS and then add the shrimp products to get TDS 163 (at present), the 'on paper' figures are very close, but what is in the 2 waters can be wildly different, with the one made specifically for shrimps having different proportions/quantities biased towards that of shrimps needs. Whatever is in the tap water 'on paper' figure is almost identical but must have different proportions of the different things you list and therefore isn't suited to the Caridina shrimp but more Human biased obviously. My tap water is sufficient though for cherry shrimps. The same I assume is related to GH, which is Calcium and Magnesium (hope that is right?), The shrimp remineralising products must have the perfect proportions of both, whereas without knowing what is in the tap water it probably is unlikely to suit the shrimps, it could be 100% Calcium 0% Magesium , or reverse, or more likely an unknown split between each? Therefore you could have the perfect GH figure but still not have the required balance. On this forum in the past (I have been doing a lot of reading of older stuff on here) there have been many old posts where people seem to get one or other of TDS or GH out of sync with the other, as indeed I did by not using the remineraliser and zerowater from tank setup, I just used (Brita filtered) tap water as the TDS looked close while I cycled the tank, but then to get it right when I wanted to put the shrimp in the tank meant many large water changes basically to empty as much of the (Brita filtered) tap water and replace it with the remineralised zerowater in order to get the GH up (from 3 to now 4.5 and that will very gradually increase with weekly water change to 5 or 6 max. but as it is about 7% each week it will be a long slow process), but the TDS was right 'on paper' at all times. If the base water doesn't start at GH0 and TDS000 it will be out of kilter if you use a product which adds 1GH and 20-25TDS per drop (or scoop) per litre (rough figures based on the one I use (dennerle)). But if you want GH5-6 and TDS 150 and you use the remineraliser you need to start with both inline with those proportions. If you have base water of TDS 90, GH1 to start with it won't equate when adding premixed remineralisers - trust me, I used to be an accountant! BY FAR THE EASIEST THING TO DO IS TAKE IT BACK TO ZERO FOR EVERYTHING FROM THE START AND REMINERALISE WITH SPECIALIST PRODUCTS. I hope this makes sense to anyone reading it as I understand it in my own head but may not be getting it down on paper properly, added to the fact I am getting a headache as I am not used to thinking this much on a sunday whilst watching Judge Judy on TV............... Simon

Well first of all I have a small 1.x gallon tank, and only a capping layer of Aquasolum. I looked at my old notes, and it seems a fresh batch of aquasolum wants to have a pH of 6.4, and will take GH down one notch, and KH down either a tiny bit or none at all. My tank originally had a problem where the GH slowly rises, and the aquasolum is not enough to counteract that. But other than that, GH KH and pH are fairly stable. Regarding the Aquasolum, I mean it has a picture of a shrimp on the bag, so... My tank right now is pH 6.6 (lights off) to 6.8 (lights on), GH 5-7, kH 1-2, TDS 180-200. I do partial water changes with a mix of Salty Shrimp GH/KH and GH only.

Here some of my tanks, i redone some of them to try glasgarten shrimp soil. And here shrimps on feeding.

T.d.s are inorganic salts in your water, basically calcium, chlorides ,sulphates,sodium bicarbonates ,magnesium and potassium that are put into drinking water , im pretty sure that if you just keep topping up your tanks , due to evaporation and not doing water changes that over time the tds numbers will rise , lime scale on the glass of your tank is a result of tds in your water

After more observation, i can confirm that they react less to my presence in the tank than both neocaridinas and caridinas babaulti; i have not performed testing for "out of the tank" visual stimulation.

Hi jayc, Zoidburg and everyone, Since your advice about my water parameters I've slowly increased the GH up to 6 and I've finally got some berried females. So happy, and no more deaths either! Thanks again for your advice, it worked!!!!