Switching from treated tap to remineralized RO?

[Kerri]

I am new to the shrimp keeping hobby and have watched my 15 shrimp dwindle to 11 in a few weeks. (3 gallon tank seasoned for 2 months, shrimp introduced to tank 2nd week of Feb.). It looks to be molting issues. I am contemplating switching from my treated tap water to remineralizing RO water using Salty Shrimp. My question is, how do I go about switching? I realize I am not going do an entire tank water change, so…how much and what do I use as a stability point with each water change since my tap water in the tank already has it’s own pH, gH, and kH? 

[Tony s]

Do you have measurements of your tap water? Gh kh ph. That would help figure this out. 

On 3/7/2024 at 9:08 PM, Kerri said:

treated tap water

Treated how. Softened? Could you get a gh kh ph reading before it gets treated. That gets us all the information. We’d hate to give you bad advice without knowing all the information.

and your shrimp type would be good too.

[Kerri]

As for treated, I’m referring to dechlorinated. 
 

the parameters are below:

On 3/7/2024 at 10:59 PM, Tony s said:

Do you have measurements of your tap water? Gh kh ph. That would help figure this out. 

Treated how. Softened? Could you get a gh kh ph reading before it gets treated. That gets us all the information. We’d hate to give you bad advice without knowing all the information.

and your shrimp type would be good too.

pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5.0
kH - 6
gH - 18

If I start to use RO & remineralize, I’m confused about how to do it slowly and getting the right parameters with the water I already have in the tank.

[Tony s]

if this all comes from your tap. you should be very good just using tap. red cherry shrimp (neocaridina) actually prefer harder water. crystal red shrimp (caridina), not so much. Your shrimp may be adjusting to their new environment. It's not uncommon for adult shrimp to die when getting used to a new tank. now the babies usually do very well. as long as you get some babies started. you should be fine. It may not look like it. shrimp are very good at hiding. but I'm betting it won't take long and you'll have a huge colony.

[Tony s]

If you really prefer to switch to RO. I think I'd get just a couple 3 liquid containers. fill one with RO, fill another with tap water. then mix into the third one in equal proportions. that would give you a 50/50 mix and you really wouldn't need to remineralize anything at all. your gh and kh would roughly be half. which is excellent for almost anything.

as far how much at one time. i don't think id change more than 20% every 3-4 days. gives them a chance to get used to it.

[Tony s]

remembering to still dechlorinate of coarse. half the water would still be tap

[Kerri]

On 3/12/2024 at 7:06 PM, Tony s said:

if this all comes from your tap. you should be very good just using tap. red cherry shrimp (neocaridina) actually prefer harder water. crystal red shrimp (caridina), not so much. Your shrimp may be adjusting to their new environment. It's not uncommon for adult shrimp to die when getting used to a new tank. now the babies usually do very well. as long as you get some babies started. you should be fine. It may not look like it. shrimp are very good at hiding. but I'm betting it won't take long and you'll have a huge colony.

Everyone keeps saying that cherry shrimp are hardy, but I’ve lost quite a few! First, I battled hydra & now I’m guessing it’s having such a small tank & trying to control any major instabilities with the 10% water changes each week. I’d prefer to do no water changes, but I have an outbreak of daphnia & ostracods so I need to keep the tank clean.

[Tony s]

yeah. I don't think anybody gets away with no water changes. even the systems that claim no water changes have to eventually.

Daphnia and ostracods shouldn't be harmful to your shrimp. but maybe you could find a couple of nano fish that could snack on them. something really small. like chili rasboras. you could possibly get away with 5 or 6 temporarily

On 3/12/2024 at 7:31 PM, Kerri said:

Everyone keeps saying that cherry shrimp are hardy, but I’ve lost quite a few!

Yeah, but I'm also thinking that it's normal for adult cherry shrimp to do that. the next generations should be good

[Kerri]

On 3/12/2024 at 7:50 PM, Tony s said:

 

Yeah, but I'm also thinking that it's normal for adult cherry shrimp to do that. the next generations should be good

Someone in my local aquarium group said “the shrimp you begin your tank with aren’t the shrimp that establish your colony…it’s their babies that establish your colony.” I just hope I can keep the 3 berried females happy & healthy until then!!!

[tolstoy21]

On 3/12/2024 at 8:17 PM, Kerri said:

Someone in my local aquarium group said “the shrimp you begin your tank with aren’t the shrimp that establish your colony…it’s their babies that establish your colony.” I just hope I can keep the 3 berried females happy & healthy until then!!!

I find that this is somewhat true. At times, you can expect to lose a small percentage of the new shrimp you add, especially if they are adults. But the deaths should not be excessive.

I find that shrimp from US breeders acclimate much better than imported/aquarium-store shrimp. I usually don't lose many shrimp when I buy them from good breeders online. Shrimp is the one aquatic species I highly recommend getting through your aquarium club or online, over purchasing them from a local fish store (unless it's a really good one that sources from US breeders).

Looking at your params, you water does seem a tad on the hard and alkaline side. Unfortunately I don't have experience keeping neocaridina shrimp in a Gh/Kh that high to offer advice.

If you do switch to RO water I would recommend using Salty Shrimp Kh/Gh+, and not mixing in your tap water (but this is just because I find it's easier to get the same results with each bucket of RO you create/mix). A 5 gallon bucket typically takes a single scoop of the product.  Mixing in your tap water would also work perfectly fine.  Salty Shrimp is just my preference.

As for water changes, just perform a 25% change every few days over the course of a week or so. That should be sufficient in my experience. If anything shocks shrimp, it's typically sudden, large changes in temperature more than changes in hardness (avoiding extremes of course). Shrimp can handle a large jump or dip in temperatures if it happens over the course of a day -- going from like 78F to 55F. Sudden changes however can force them into premature molt.

Edited March 13 by tolstoy21

[Kerri]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:05 PM, tolstoy21 said:

I find that this is somewhat true. At times, you can expect to lose a small percentage of the new shrimp you add, especially if they are adults. But the deaths should not be excessive. I find that shrimp from US breeders acclimate much better than imported/aquarium-store shrimp. I usually don't lose many shrimp when I buy them from good breeders online.

Looking at your params, you water does seem a tad on the hard and alkaline side. Unfortunately I don't have experience keeping neocaridina shrimp in a Gh/Kh that high to offer advice.

If you do switch to RO water I would recommend using Salty Shrimp Kh/Gh+, and not mixing in your tap water (but this is just because I find it's easier to get the same results with each bucket of RO you create/mix). A 5 gallon bucket typically takes a single scoop of the product.  Mixing in your tap water would also work.  Salty Shrimp is just my preference.

As for water changes, just perform a 25% change every few days over the course of a week or so. That should be sufficient in my experience. If anything shocks shrimp, it's typically large changes in temperature more than changes in hardness (avoiding extremes of course).

Thank you for the suggestions! I was thinking about using Salty Shrimp. One question though…how do ai know what parameters should be my “goal” to work toward?

[tolstoy21]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:09 PM, Kerri said:

One question though…how do ai know what parameters should be my “goal” to work toward?

Im not sure for neocaridina.

I know with my caridina, I shoot for 1 scoop per 5 gallons of water. Where does this get me in terms of water params, I'm really not sure. I forgot a long time ago. For caridina shrimp, I measure more by TDS than Gh/Kh. TDS doesn't tell me that's in the water, but gives me an idea of if I mixed the proportions correctly. My neocaridina just get my tap/well water (dKh 0 / dGh 9 / TDS 300+).

The Salty Shrimp Gh/Kh+ instructions indicate using one level scoop with the provided scooper per approx 2.5g of water (10 liters). 

Edited March 13 by tolstoy21

[Tony s]

For neocaridina. Gh 7-9.  Kh 3-4. Ph neutral to 7.5 tds 200-250. Which can be done with a 50/50 mixture of tap and RO. Without spending $ on a supplement constantly. 

[Kerri]

On 3/12/2024 at 11:25 PM, Tony s said:

For neocaridina. Gh 7-9.  Kh 3-4. Ph neutral to 7.5 tds 200-250. Which can be done with a 50/50 mixture of tap and RO. Without spending $ on a supplement constantly. 

So in doing the 50/50 mixture, would using this mix each week for 10% water changes change what’s already in the tank too much? I’m trying to avoid shock & losing any more of my shrimp.

[Tony s]

For top off you would do straight RO. As the calcium and magnesium don’t evaporate. So you don’t want to add more. For water changes you would do your mix. This would be the same procedure if you would do the salty shrimp. It wouldn’t evaporate either.