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You have two (unrelated) questions here, from what I see. Firstly, the Ntirite spiking from culling duck weed has no relation to your TDS reading. Are you using RO (or that zerowater water jug) right? -> there should be no nitrites in that. So it mean your beneficial bacteria in the tank cannot cope, which mean not enough of those little buggers. You shouldn't be getting Nitrite spikes in a mature (cycled) tank. How much biological filter media do you have? How old is the tank? Don't clean out your filters or gravel vac too often. Once a year is more than enough. The idea here is to get your tank mature enough that beneficial bacteria load is high enough to deal with an imbalance like culling some duck weed. I'd suggest bacteria in a bottle, but I cannot guarantee any of them will give you the right type of bacteria to tackle nitrites. Best to let nature take it's course here. Let them grow by providing the best conditions. Lots of oxygen, correct temps and food (ammonia). Ammonia is taken care of by the shrimp's waste and food. So you only need to ensure there is enough oxygenated water and don't let temps fall too low. Keep temps between 22-23 degC, that's for the shrimps. Make sure the water surface tension is being broken by air stone bubbles or by your filter outlet. Secondly, with TDS ... since you have cherry shrimp, I would personally aim for 250TDS water change each week, and slow drip the new 250TDS water back in. At 10% water change, this can take a while to get 350TDS down to somewhere near 250TDS. Once you reach close to 250TDS, switch to 200TDS water changes. And maintain between 200 - 250TDS from there on.

As with JayC not totally sure what the question is but these are the water basics. If you change water, ie remove 2L and add 2L then you remineralise the new water. When topping up you use pure RO water. You are changing water with 200TDS to bring the TDS down to a better figure but once you get to the desired figure of say 250, then you remineralise to TDS250 so you are removing 250 and refilling with 250. If you may be talking a one off due to something unexpected and not in the usual schedule (which I think you are) which will mean taking out a lot of water and replacing a lot of water, say 50% (thats a guess on my part) or something then I would remineralise to say about 330ish (based on your 370 tank figure) which will reduce the overall TDS a bit but not too much in one go. Hope this answers your question, if not ask again? Really pleased to hear how it is all going well and to plan. I agree it would be better to wait until you get back before trying to set up something for dripping as it is only a week away before you go away! Simon