# Tds/ro tap water



## Samjpikey (11 Oct 2014)

Hi guys .
I've never really kept 'designer' shrimp before so Im in need of some opinions please.

My tap water has a tds of 66 , kh of 2 and gh of 3. 
I live in Devon and the water is nice and soft  
Is it really worth me messing with ro water ? 
I tested my water at the end of the week before a water change and the p/ms are 

Tds 165 
Gh5-6 
Kh 3-4 .
(I have Ada soil ) 

Cheers


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## darren636 (11 Oct 2014)

Your tap water is to die for.
Sometimes my LFS to is TDs 40+


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## Samjpikey (11 Oct 2014)

Well that answers my question really  

Will mg raise gh ?


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## Andy Thurston (11 Oct 2014)

Samjpikey said:


> Well that answers my question really
> 
> Will mg raise gh ?


Yes but i'd be tempted to use shrimp minerals


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## Samjpikey (11 Oct 2014)

Big clown said:


> Yes but i'd be tempted to use shrimp minerals




Shrimp minerals to do what exactly ??


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## Andy Thurston (11 Oct 2014)

To Raise hardness and tds to suit your shrimp. I presume the tds in your tank comes from ei and tank waste.
My tap waters like yours and i struggle keeping crs in my high tech cube. I'm thinking about a low tech shrimp tank and using shrimp minerals to get the right water parameters when i try again


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## Samjpikey (11 Oct 2014)

Ideally what parameters do we need to keep crs ? A shrimp breeder told me to try lower my gh for crs :/


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## Andy Thurston (11 Oct 2014)

Couldn't say about the hardness sam.
Tds should be about 150-180ppm
Alan at keen shrimp said my tap water was nearly perfect for crs/cbs when i ordered my painted red sakuras and asked a few questions. he also said the rules don't seem to apply when keeping them in a high tech tank but too much co2 is a problem that will kill them very quickly.


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## Lindy (11 Oct 2014)

Tds 130 -160, gh5-6. Kh would ideally be 0-1. I use rainwater re mineralized to tds 145. My tap is good at tds45 gh2 kh0-1 but the water companies can randomly add stuff.


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## sparkyweasel (12 Oct 2014)

Samjpikey said:


> Ideally what parameters do we need to keep crs ? A shrimp breeder told me to try lower my gh for crs :/


Did he know how low it is already?


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## Samjpikey (12 Oct 2014)

sparkyweasel said:


> Did he know how low it is already?




Yep I did tell him and he said gh 0-5 

I've just tested my tank water ,water change was yesterday 

Tds 146 
Gh 4 
Kh 2 

Also tested the tap water again 

Tds 66 
Gh 3 
Kh 2


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## madlan (12 Oct 2014)

Hi Sam,

He probably meant Kh should be 0 - 5, not Gh.
Your tap water sounds excellent, you obviously can't test it for everything as Lindy says - My water company added something that killed a large number of my Neocaradina a few months ago... 
If it were me, I would add dechlorinator and  some Salty Shrimp GH+ to bring the TDS up a little (150ish) and test this on a small tank of CRS before anything expensive.

Do you know what the pH is after 24 hours?


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## Samjpikey (13 Oct 2014)

Yep I'm adding a dechlorinator  without fail , always have but no I'm also going to start letting the water stand for 24hrs before.
Not sure of the tap ph after 24 hrs , I will see what the is . 
The tanks ph is 6.4 and drops to around 5.4 after co2 . 
Cheers


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## bogwood (15 Oct 2014)

I initally used treated tap water, but was never completely happy. the way the  CRS  sometimes  reacted after water changes was a little worrying.

Having kept marines for years, i had a RO system available. Furthermore i was concetrating on breeding CRS and Blue Bolts.

The parameters that work successfully for me are.
Temp 22c
TDS 130
PH  6.5
GH  5
This is consistently achieved by using. RO. Salty shrimp GH, and ADA amazonia.


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## ian_m (15 Oct 2014)

madlan said:


> My water company added something that killed a large number of my Neocaradina a few months ago...


Which is why in UK we must use dechlorinator. Most water companies use chlorine in the water, easily removed by all dechlorinators as well as self degassing in 24hours, but some are now using chloramine and also put chloramine in the water in emergencies ie pipe burst. In my last house we had a pipe burst out in the road and I received a leaflet pushed though the door that said "due to water contamination from the burst pipe extra "chlorine" (read chloramine) was being injected in the water and one of the items not to do was use it for fish tanks".


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## wazuck (7 Dec 2014)

Glad to looked through the posts before asking the same question. Just got my tds pen and read 41 tds  also from Devon.  Glad I checked it before shelling out for a ro unit.


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