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Hi @Seattleshrimp, welcome to SKFA. With that tap water and the fact that you have an RO system, and active substrate, you can try for CRS. Both RCS and CRS would suit your water parameters. However, you would be constantly battling to keep the right parameters with Neo caridinas.

after 2.5 hours its is now 703 so its coming down, i will leave it over night and see what i have in the morning. maybe 1 teaspoon per 100ml is an too concentrated does not look like much in the bottom of the glass. if you backed off the quantity per volume it possibly would not be quite the TDS shock we see here. it says on the packet 500ml of macropore treats 2400litres so maybe the dosage is 4.8ml per litre. Its a solid seems stupid they go by ml and not g. The directions are really crappy and ambiguous. Seachem the bag is pre filled with purigen which is 100ml per treats 1000L and they sell this in presealed bags to just throw in your filter they have videos on youtube putting this stuff in small 10gallon tanks. I would have put no where near 182ml of the volume of this stuff in my 38 litre tank and it was scary.

I just dosed 100ml of tank water and 1 teaspoon from my blue dream shrimp tank the TDS started at 232TDS and an hour later the TDS was at 722. dangerous stuff.

Have you been using this in your shrimp tanks jayc? Its brand new macropore, it was like $20 for 500g. I dont thing I would recharge it anyway. I will do a test as well since it is all payed for and I cant return it and see where it goes. Cant see this product being great for the shrimping community if you are trying to stop the high nitrates killing your shrimp and then the TDS shock kills them anyway. Has to be bad for freshwater fishes as well how can they get away with selling such a product.

Just caught up reading this. Been busy at work recently. I have Macropore. It's the Australian equivalent to Purigen, except a bit cheaper. And to the sceptics ... it actually works in reducing and removing Nitrates. BUT I have never tested to see if it increases TDS. I have never had cause to think my TDS was rising due to Macropore. New macropore doesnt release anything. Old Macropore that is oversaturated with the minerals that it has absorbed might stop absorbing. But it should not release anything. At least I don't think so. Need to do more research. @Sabertooth, run a test in a cup with a handful of Macropore and RO water. See if the TDS rises significantly. I will run the same test this weekend. Mine is old stock, as I don't use it often, only when I need to reduce Nitrate fast. I control Nitrate in other ways where possible. Purigen is recharged by bleach. Macropore is much easier and is recharged by salt. - are you sure this is new macropore? and not recharged stock? I guess we will find out from tests this weekend. <edit> - well seems I was wrong about it not releasing anything. "this product uses sodium exchange" - Graham So yep, it macropore releases sodium and absorbs nitrogenous waste.

I don't use co2. My plants fo fine without I do have a splash bar on the opposite end as the bubbler that disrupts the surface and helps generate a little O2. I do have lids but I have to leave one of them opened do I can use the fan. It's a dual fan maybe 4 inch by 8 inch. I checked the TDS again after I posted and got 137. I'm not having much luck with TDS meters

Looks like my API test kit is faulty i just did a test on my tap, RO water and at the same time my tank water and they have the same reading being a slightly yellowy green swaying towards the 0.25 reading. can anybody recommend a test kit that reads accurately. the surface skum must just be from the oils released in the new foods however do not effecting my tank water.

I must admit it does polish the water a treat but whats the good of having a high clarity tank when all the occupants are dead. Glad i pulled it out when i did and not let it cycle over night. I'm just going to back off on the feeding let everything settle down and work out a new feeding schedule where i can utilize these new foods to the degree where it wont mess with the tank. I would still love to know how this product works and effect on TDS, maybe you need to leave it in and let is run the course eg. TDS goes up for a while, stabilises and then lowers again. maybe you can only use it for fish not inverterbrate. The shop i bought it from said it was safe to use for shrimp but i am not so sure now. 14 hours have passed and i have seen no deaths and only 1 molt in the tank and that i assume was caused by the water change. I am not keen to try it in any tanks fish or shrimp at this stage until somebody gives me the confidence of the precise way it can be used safely.

Tank is cycled, I try to do smaller feeds more frequently. It was surprising how much changing the food messed with the water. The tank in question is heavily planted with lots of mosses and floating plants and has not varied for months the only change was the food type. Quantity and frequency never changed.