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Oh, um, yep, that should be good ?

Just a bit of a warning - it's usually best to leave the tank about a month before adding shrimp. Just so algae can grow well, and there's sufficient biofilm. So maybe add the neons then the darwins? Just my personal preference tho.

So here is an update - the cycling is not going as smoothly as hoped. I lost a couple of fish and immediately moved the rest to the other tank - all happy and healthy. I have been feeding the tank a pinch of food every second day, putting in mulm from the other tank, and trying to be patient, the nitrites went right down, but now they are high again.. so just having to ride it out I suppose. LFS tested the water and says that the Nitrates are building and its just a matter of patience.

Hopefully you are on the right road now and the spring water will work. The new water will usually make them molt. I can't see clearly enough the shell but they may just be eating it, which is normal. Spring water usually has minerals in it so you will only find out if that is going to work by trial, I hope it works for you and the initial signs are positive, so fingers crossed. Simon

Yeah I have read that too but the tank currently has an outbreak in all sorts of things, as you might see in the pictures. In particular the driftwood has thick biofilm emanating from it, typical of new wood in an aquarium. I've got brown diatoms all over the tank and glass, even forming cobwebs on the rocks, and there's green algae on the wood now. From what I know, shrimp will readily eat all of this, especially the biofilm. Some of the plans look like they are suffering from the brown diatoms, so I'm hoping the shrimp will help alleviate the issue. Also I only have 4 darwins, so I don't think it should be a huge hit to the tank, in terms of initial stock? What do you think?

Also I don't think the almond leaf would cause a change PH quick enough to cause a PH shock. So probably something else?

I don't use anymore RO filtered water using the filter that adds back minerals, someone recomment me a spring water here that with right parameters, he said breeding with this water like years and I did waterchange 2 days ago with this water with gh+, my tds is 180 now, better than before I think? 2 shrimps died after waterchange, but now shrimps looks good, there is no death today, I'm really happy not dead any shrimp, I'm going to buy gh test this week, shrimps looks good and moving but there is peace of molt on head 2 shrimps, here is pics, but they are moving, its a big promblem? I hope they don't die, Zerowater is expensive for me now, I think I will use this spring water for now untill use pure RO water.

Hello, Thanks sTDI! Oops, I meant to include the TDS. It’s high for CRS at 197. These CRS have acclimated to 160-180. So I think you are right, there’s now too much mineral per rain water. I could gradually top off with water, maybe tiny doses of shaved cuttle, and that should bring down the parameters/pH and hopefully maintain some KH for the neos (who seem to be breeding less than the CRS in this environment). I’m not too panicked, since they seem to all tolerate it well but don’t want to leave this way. I’ve added the CaCo3 slowly and read that it is low risk adding too many Alder cones, I should probably not just trust any online commentaries though. Can shrimp OD in tannins? I did recently add some flourish plant fert tabs. I’ve had good experience with these before but not since first keeping CRS, while I felt the flourish liquid was too dangerous for inverts; perhaps this had thrown the aquarium minerals a bit. If this is an issue, I’m open to suggestions for other plant fertilizing techniques. As far as maintenance, I do a 10-20% slow water change about once every 1-2 months. I change My jumbo canister filter pads about every 5 mo. I do 1 squirt brightwell and 5ml shrimp essentials per 2 gallons of rain water. I think I need to stop tinkering and realize I overmineralized the last one. Getting a little new water in there to lower TDS is my main priority. thanks again.