Remineralizing Ro/di Water For Shrimps And Gh / Tds

[jumpsmasher]

Just a word of advice for those remineralizing R/O water for their shrimps tanks to pay attention to the GH and TDS values as they can vary greatly between products.

A couple weeks ago I switched over to new product for remineralizing RO water and made a mistake just measuring the TDS (assuming the would give me the same end GH). It turned out that it gave me the same GH at about 1/2 the TDS so my water ended having a GH value that was twice was what the previous product was at the same TDS!

Measuring for RO water is useful for establishing a baseline TDS for a target GH value so in the future you only need ot test for TDS which is much more convenient with those TDS meter pens.

However, once the water is in your tank I think the GH value is more important than TDS as there is many different factors that could alter your TDS in an established tank while not effecting the GH. Two different tanks might have the same GH value but one might have a TDS of 120ppm while the other might be 230ppm.

Of course you don't want either value to change dramatically either so it is still helpful to keep on eye on both but if you are trying to replicate the parameters that someone give you, make sure you focus on the GH first

[Fisch]

Great point. I just learned this the hard way. I was checking with a tds pen and did not test gh and kh. My shrimp started dying and I realized that even thought the tds was the same, my kh, gh and ph had changed dramatically.

[jumpsmasher]

Wow that post was almost two years ago! Suffice to say it was one of the many lessons I learned over the years

[komarnjicki]

4 years ago actually and that is a great advice as I find myself only checking the TDS as well. Great advice!