Is there a reason you need to lower it? I have over 400 ppm GH as well and all of my fish, shrimp, and plants do fine. That said, if you really need to lower it the only good way is to start with RO water. That means either buying it by the jug at a store for every water change, or purchasing a RO unit which can be pretty pricey.
GH is basically a measure of divalent metal ions, mostly Ca++ and Mg++.
What you need is to remove that, and avoid adding it back. As mentioned above, RO water is the common way to go. It wastes some water and takes a while, but then you have very soft water, that needs to be remineralized, up to the desired levels.
I would only go for it if you are 100% sure. It is very straightforward, but does involve some effort.
Like others, I would be sure it is a problem before you fix it. Battling any parameter related to your base water makes keeping difficult and can set you up for swings in the future which can be worse than the symptom you were treating to begin with.
Yeah, CRS don't do too well in water with a GH over 105ppm (roughly 6 dGH). The hardest part is that with a dGH of 22 like you have, you don't know how much of that is calcium.
For a smaller tank (20 gallon and under), I'd just go full RO and remineralize it to around 6 dGH. For anything larger, I'd mix your water with RO to hit around 105ppm
1.) Go out and purchase a tank to set up for your Crystal Shrimp (10 gallon preferably)
2.) Purchase a buffering substrate (SL-Aqua is a great price from Discobee! If in the USA!)
3.) Cycle tank with RO water and "pure" Ammonia (no detergents or dyes) - ~3-4 weeks
4.) Once tank is cycled, perform a 90 or 100% water change with RO water and a GH+ remineralizer
5.) Acclimate Crystal Shrimp to water
Neos are fine on plain sand and tap water. If you have hard tap water, then mix tap with RO (about 3.5-4 parts RO to 1 part tap) to get desirable parameters for them.
Make sure you have the following products: API Freshwater Master Test Kit *OR* Sera Aqua-Test Set for Saltwater & Freshwater (does not include Nitrate test) API GH & KH Test Kit *OR* Sera Aqua-Test Set for Saltwater & Freshwater TDS Meter
At minimum, you only need 2 things, max 3.
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