Distilled water

[Aloeus]

So I am starting a 10 gallon shrimp tank and my tap water is super bad. I have access to a lot of distilled water. My question is would easy green be enough to get some solids back into the water for my pants or would I need something more? I know the ph of the water is 7 and kh/gh is 0.  I am using fluval stratum for substrate.

[CT_]

Solids maybe, kh gh no.  They make a shrimp oriented salt mix the shrimp guys Love (I forget the name unfortunately).  You'll need something specific for gh and kh to get enough.  I use seachem equilibrium to up gh and they have a similar kh product.

[Keeg]

I would not feel comfortable just using easy green in distilled water. I would assume you would need to add a lot more to make your distilled water better for use. How is your tap bad? It might be more cost effective/ easier if you could fix the tap water rather than having to add supplements to distilled water every water change. 

 

[Frank]

Bottled spring water? $10 to start, then $2-3 per water change thereafter. Plus, they have full lab reports online. No chlorine or chloramines either.

[Aloeus]

I hate my tap water because has chloramine in it.

[Keeg]

3 minutes ago, Aloeus said:

I hate my tap water because has chloramine in it.

I believe there are water conditioners that can remove chloramine. Some might only separate the ammonia and chlorine, and in that case you might need two more conditioners (3 total, 1 to break bond of chloramine, 2 neutralize chlorine, 3 neutralize ammonia). if you end up taking the route for distilled water, get some crushed coral, it'll raise the pH but it will also add calcium carbonate to the water for the shrimp's shells. 👍

[Aloeus]

I found a seachem product I am going to give a shot. https://www.seachem.com/equilibrium.php see how it works with the distilled water route.

[Andy's Fish Den]

I know it costs more up front, but you may want to consider an RO unit. There are carbon blocks that will remove chloramines. As for what to use, depending on what kind of shrimp you are keeping, there is products by salty shrimp, they have a GH/KH+ and another GH+ which is what I use to remineralize RO water for my caridina shrimps. 

[Maggie]

15 hours ago, Aloeus said:

I hate my tap water because has chloramine in it.

API water conditioner states it removes chloramines. The amount to add is quite a bit more than for just chlorine/heavy metals (5 ml per 30 gallons, compared to 1 ml per 20 gallons).

[Aloeus]

I get distilled water for free just as good as RO and cheaper.