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1) KH at 0 is not an issue. The Calcium & Magnesium required for shell development is measured in GH. KH measures predominantly carbonates, that impact water parameters like pH. So you need to maintain GH rather than KH. 2) an airstone is strictly not necessary, especially with a low population. But there are added benefits to an airstone. It helps break the water surface tension to allow greater oxygen transfer. The more oxygen you have in the water the healthier the shrimp are going to be. The airstone helps prevent scum from developing on the surface of the water as well. I suggest you add something that will break the water surface ... an air stone or a filter outlet. 3) ADA is a very good plant substrate. But there are also many choices equally as good if not better. Brand availability depends on your location. Add your location in your profile, so we can help with suggestions based on your location. I personally use CAL Labs Black Earth Premium, which i find better than ADA. Less ammonia, doesn't get soft as fast, and is cleaner with no debris like ADA can have. 4) You have really good tapwater by the looks of it. It's so low in TDS. Great for tanks. It doesn't beat RO or rainwater, but you can certainly be successful breeding shrimps and fish in your tap water and salty shrimp. Which salty shrimp version you use depends on which type of shrimp you decide on keeping. Use Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ for Neo Caridinas like cherries and for Tigers. Use Salty Shrimp GH+ for CRS/Taiwan Bees .

Hey Keepers, Made a change today to the landing page for the forum index, here is the short story... Noticed the latest activity page was very popular and our mobile app also uses a similar latest activity listing, so I updated the SKF page to show the latest activity over the traditional forum category listings... You can see the change here... https://skfaquatics.com/forum Depending on your feedback and posting increase/decrease, we will either keep it or return back to the old forum index. To dig a little deeper, the old page seemed a bit dated. With so many posts received on a daily basis here on SKF, it often felt like nothing was going on, when in fact, there are posts that go unseen and unanswered because they are buried and hard to find. Changing the front page to show the latest stream/activity of the forum enables us to quickly check what new posts and replies have been posted without having to dig around. SKF is growing really fast, and I want to make sure we are providing the best experience for shrimp keepers possible while creating the greatest online shrimp keeping resource. In that spirit, we will continue to make a test new stuff, for now let's keep it simple and start with one page... Let me know what you think... Thanks!

I was pulling my hair out wondering why it was doing that.

Yep, you have found the "TDS inevitably rises" problem. A tank is a closed eco system. Waste inevitably collects and raises waste (organic or inorganic) that 10-20% water changes will never get rid of. Evaporation, food, substrate, rocks, plants, etc all contribute to the change in TDS. As the tank ages, you will never be able to get it back to ideal TDS level, because those minerals are used up, either by the beneficial bacteria, shrimps or plants, or dissolved solids are added from some other source. A complete water (99%) water change is required to reset your water parameters. This is a good idea to perform a drastic water change half yearly. This reset the levels of Calcium, Magnesium, and removes any build up of unwanted minerals. I do this every 6 months +/-. I have found this to be the ideal length of time before minerals in a closed ecosystem like a tank get completely depleted leading to moulting issues with shrimps. This big water change is when I gravel vac the substrate as well as squeeze out filter media. BTW: 150 - 170 TDS rise in 2 weeks is normal. Time for a water change.

LoL! Every time I set up a quarantine tank, I have have used it to permanently house something. I do that too !

TDS creeping up from 150 to 170 in short span of time, say 1 day to 3 days, is usually due to the materials you have in the tank. It can be difficult to find. How fast are you finding TDS go from 150 to 170? A simple test you can do is use several plastic cups and add the items in your tank along with water. Measure the TDS of the water before adding it in the cup. Start measuring TDS after 1, 2, 3, 4 days to see what is raising your TDS. Usual suspects are substrate/gravel; filter noodles (glass or ceramic); rocks; ornaments. TDS does rise naturally and slowly. The shrimp can handle the slow rise. But changing your parameters in a rush, like daily water changes because you are chasing an ideal TDS, is more detrimental to the shrimp than the TDS itself. So try to find the cause of the TDS rising and avoid daily water changes. On hot summers, water can evaporate faster, causing TDS to rise due to the concentration of dissolved solids in the tank which now has less water. So top up evaporated water with pure RO to bring TDS back inline to what it should be. TDS also rises as waste is produced from the shrimp and left over food. So gravel vac occasionally can help and removing uneaten food is also a good idea. Feed less maybe.