Shrimp breeders come on in...

[Nicklfire]

RO water is almost never pH 7. DISTILLED water is what pH is measured from, and is pH 7. RO is typically acidic and if left unbuffered can reach as low as 4.

I was never aware of that, but it makes sence, good info to know, i once tested ro water in a tank and it was between 6-7 so i thought that it buffed a bit and was 6 to begin with... but i'm glad i know this.

guess i'll have to get some RO and ph test it again lol

[timbruun]

My pH is around 8.5. Not sure on alkalinity. I've been doing 20% water changes every couple days. I don't do bigger changes since my tank water is at 8.5 and my tap is at 7.5. So I have a 1 gallon pail sitting for 2 days to let the pH come up.

Is it a bad idea to use distilled water? I can get ahold of that pretty easily. Not in large amounts, but enough to do my shrimp/snail tank.

Edited February 8, 2010 by timbruun

[werner]

If it's just for a small shrimp tank, go get a jug of distilled or R/O water from the grocery store and mix it with your tap water.

[timbruun]

Is there a benefit to doing it that way? What will distilled be improving?

It's only a 5.5 gallon tank.

[werner]

By mixing distilled (or R/O) with tap water, you will be reducing the GH and KH. Good for shrimp like CRS that need soft water. Easier to get a low pH if you're adding CO₂.

Keep in mind that if it's very soft, snails may not be able to maintain their shells.

[timbruun]

I do have cuttlebone for calcium in the tank for the snails and they seem to be doing ok. My water goes through a water conditionner/softener already. I'll have to double check the KH and GH but I'm pretty sure they were low as is. At least the GH is. I thought about CO2 but I'd only go with DIY setup and I'm looking for a small powerhead so it doesn't go all night. I'd rather not use CO2 in all honesty. Don't think the plants need it in there. If I mixed distilled with my tap water would the pH regulate somewhere in between then?

[werner]

A household water softener will reduce the GH. However, it just replaces the Ca and Mg with Na, so you aren't really getting a lower amount of dissolved salts/ions (or low TDS) like you would find in the soft waters that some of these critters come from. Thus, you may want to mix with distilled or R/O, in effect "thinning" out the water.

Cuttlebone is calcium carbonate, which will raise the KH of your water.

Can't say where the pH would end up, since it's dependent on all the biological processes going on in the tank.

[timbruun]

So how should I be keeping it soft but not too soft for snails? I don't have any CRS as of right now. I'll probably just stick with the cherry and dark green for now. But I would like them to be reproducing which I'm pretty sure they aren't right now. Is pH that big of a factor?

[timbruun]

Well since I'm robbing this thread already.... I tested a few of my waters that I have. KH and GH is in drops.

In my snail/shrimp tank KH 40, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

Distilled water that I have KH 2, GH 0, pH 6 or less.

Tap from somewhere else, not my house, KH 32, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

My tap KH 38, GH 0, pH around 8.2.

What's my best option and what will work and won't work?

What do snails need to maintain shells, GH or KH?

I seem to be slowly losing cherries and green shrimp lately.. all the other water parameters, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, are perfect.

Edited February 9, 2010 by timbruun

[timbruun]

Anyone? Lost another shrimp today.

[gobies et al]

Hi timbrun... I'm a little confused (nothing new there). I'm assuming you are using the Hagen test kit, which for gH you then multiply the number of drops by 20 to give mg/l or ppm; yours = 0, soft. The kH drops x 10, yours then = 400 mg/l, very hard. Could you please clarify the measurement.

Below is a link to a great site which gives the appropriate water parameters for the different species. The gH and kH is measured in dH (ppm x 0.056) on that site.

http://crustaforum.dedenet.de/board/forumdisplay.php?f=55

I hope this helps.

Well since I'm robbing this thread already.... I tested a few of my waters that I have. KH and GH is in drops.

In my snail/shrimp tank KH 40, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

Distilled water that I have KH 2, GH 0, pH 6 or less.

Tap from somewhere else, not my house, KH 32, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

My tap KH 38, GH 0, pH around 8.2.

What's my best option and what will work and won't work?

What do snails need to maintain shells, GH or KH?

I seem to be slowly losing cherries and green shrimp lately.. all the other water parameters, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, are perfect.

[timbruun]

Pretty sure it's the API kit. I'll check when I get home. pinkish, yellow blue box i think that has KH and GH in it. Just looked online and yes it's the API.

And yes the KH and GH are right in drops. As soon as I put a drop of GH in it's already green tinge. And it takes from 38 to 40 drops of KH to change it to yellow from blue.

Thanks for the site. If I go by that then my KH is 22 and I shouldn't be higher than 15. So I can mix with my distilled to get that down. What is the best way to get the GH up?

And it looks like I should bring my pH down also. Which the distilled should do somewhat I'm hoping. I can possibly mix 3/4 distilled and 1/4 tap and see what the KH and pH come down to.

Unless I use complete distilled and bring the pH, KH and GH up? Would that be better?

And I guess I should turn my temp down since I have it around 79-80 F.

And now that I looked up the api test kit 1 drop converts to 17.9ppm. So my KH is 716pppm. Which is 40 dH.

Edited February 10, 2010 by timbruun