Jump to content

Advantage of RO or rain water?


Matuva

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

Yesterday, for the first time, I used a remineralizer (GH Builder) to to upgrade my rain water before water changes. The rain water has a very low TDS, around 8, so it is perfect to lower TDS levels in my tanks.
From what I understand, I must remiralize, if not, these waters are not suitable.

So, I started with rain water, KH, GH, NO², NO3 = 0 Yada, yada.... TDS is 8.

I dosed the GH builder accordingly: 1ml per 3 liters to raise GH 0.5>1 GDH. I dosed to achieve a GH at 4. Then, I measured TDS, and found it up at 170 :surprise:

Prepared another bucket with rain water, started at TDS 8 and reached TDS 165 with the new mix :anger:

Is that something normal? I'm complying to all instructions of this GH builder to dose...

Under those conditions, with a TDS sky rocketting, I don't see any advatage to bore with rain water or RO for water changes - other than seeking for a 0 KH - considering my tap water is KH 3, GH 5, TDS 70...

What's your TDS once you have remineralized it?

Edited by Matuva
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm confused what you are trying to do or what water parameter target you are trying to reach.

Premixed remineralisers are meant to do that.

 

The RO or rainwater with remineraliser that has a TDS of 170 is made up Calcium & Magnesium.

VS

Tap water TDS of 70 that is made up of ???????

Knowing exactly what is in your water is the key benefit.

If you need TDS lower, but GH still at 4, then you will have to make your own remineraliser.

That product you have is made to give ~165 TDS at GH4, based on the amount of Ca and Mg they used.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My target is to maintain low TDS in my tanks, 2 especially, the one with CRS, and the second hosting local shrimps caught in the wild.
In the wild, parameters are KH: 0, TDS 30~40, GH unknown (3 according band test). For this one, I think a remineralized water with a TDS of 165 should not comply, considering the wild water is at 30~40. Should I just use rain water with nothing else?

For the CRS tank, I would like to bring the TDS level back from 235 to 130, so, in that case too, a water with a TDS of 165 is not going to do the trick.

I ended using pure rain water to reach my goals, I'll see what's going on.

As for my tap water, Kh: 4~5, GH 4, TDS 70

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Matuva said:

For this one, I think a remineralized water with a TDS of 165 should not comply, considering the wild water is at 30~40. Should I just use rain water with nothing else?

Yes, just plain rain water should be used. You could add a very little amount of remineraliser to bring TDS up to 20-30. But only if you want.

 

7 minutes ago, Matuva said:

For the CRS tank, I would like to bring the TDS level back from 235 to 130, so, in that case too, a water with a TDS of 165 is not going to do the trick.

You still use the remineraliser for rain water to bring it up to TDS130. Just use less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for advices Jayc. I though I must absolutely remineralize rain or RO water, but doing that way makes things easier.

So, if I correctly understand, for water changes (from 10 to 25% of tank):

- for the "wild" tank, rain water is fine, remineralizing recommended (up to TDS 20~30) if big water change, just topping is OK

- for the RCS, topping with "raw" rain water is OK, but if big water change, remirelazing is recommended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the GH Builder liquid or powder?

 

Correct though.... top off - RO or rain water. Water changes, remineralize.

 

 

For lowering TDS in a tank, there's a few different things you can do...


Remineralize new water to desired TDS and perform more frequent water changes.

Remineralize water to a lower TDS (i.e. target is 130, remineralize to 100), and use this water until the target TDS is desired in tank. Switch back to higher TDS water at next water change.

Use straight RO/DI or rain water. Not recommended, as this could result in a much more drastic change and cause shock to the inhabitants.

 

 

As per a couple of other forum members, your tap water TDS should be around 150.... nice to see someone else with low TDS tap water. I have 3 KH and GH with a TDS of ~50. I've been mixing it with hard water, about 4:1 ratio, and aim for about 180 TDS.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Matuva said:

So, if I correctly understand,

As Zoidburg has already confirmed, yes, you can use straight rain water for your wild tank, much like our Zebra shrimp here, that like very low TDS.

For RCS, CRS and fish, you will need to remineralise to a suitable TDS level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

i use salty shrimp gh + to remineralize my 2 tds ro water and achieve gh 4 at a tds of 60-70 and that is what i use for water chánges.  Tds in the tank stays arround 90 to 100. .for Taiwan bees. Good breeding and baby survival

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...