[sbarbee54]

Why not just use buffering substrate. It not only does that but the ion exchange in it is vital for the shrimp too


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[Asu1776]

Well, it's because the tank has already been scaped, and I would love to not have to redo it with buffering substrate. Currently I'm using black sand.

 

[Whiskey]

I've heard Peat Moss can be quite effective. I got some of the fluval stuff (for in the filter) because my fluval substrate had given out and it lowered my PH quite well.

Whiskey

 

[stanjam]

What is your ph? It is not as important as the mineral content and hardness. Your ph could be 7.6, and the water be fine from a softness /hardness aspect. As long as you are using ro or very soft water wuth remineralizer you should be fine. Imo ph is overrated, though I am sure some will disagree. Don't muck with the water any more than is necessary.

Add some almond leaves. That is supposed to help adjust ph naturally.

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[wicca27]

fluval shrimp stratum worked great for my crs. it will buffer the ph down for you and take alot of the guess work out of it for you. i just used tap water with it and it worked really well. and unlike ada, fss does not leach ammonia.

 

[Asu1776]

Thank you all for the responses! This would be my first time keeping these types of shrimp. I think I'm ready for it, since I've kept RCS before. My PH out of tap is above 8, but the water is very soft (GH<0 and KH around 1-2). I have GH booster which I plan on using to get the GH up to 5-6 dGH. I don't have a reverse osmosis water machine, so I use regular tap. I have indian almond leaves which I could throw into the tank. Right now my PH sits at 7.2ish, which I think is the upper limit of what I read online. However, water changes down the line, I wonder if it would gradually raise the PH. This will be a non-co2 injected tank. I suppose I can get some peat moss and put it in the filter. What would I do about the high PH out of tap?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[sbarbee54]

What is your ph? It is not as important as the mineral content and hardness. Your ph could be 7.6, and the water be fine from a softness /hardness aspect. As long as you are using ro or very soft water wuth remineralizer you should be fine. Imo ph is overrated, though I am sure some will disagree. Don't muck with the water any more than is necessary.

Add some almond leaves. That is supposed to help adjust ph naturally.

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Even though gh and KH play a huge roll, so does PH. So even though people have had success with ph of 7 or more, does not mean keeping them alive is the whole thing. As baby survival rate will be low if any & it would be like living in a house full of smog. You could live, would not be the best and your life span may be reduced due to it as well as other functionallities of life.

Peat moss is temp solutions, and just lowers ph, there is more to it than just that.

 

[ctaylor3737]

If it just a 3 gallon get a 5g water jug of RO. I did this for awhile and just used Mosura Minerals. Mine was 1.80 for 5g of water at a grocery store. I never really did water changes much on my shrimp tanks so it was easy to just do that. In my experience trying to bring the PH down is usually hard and causes swings. Especially in a small tank. I lost more shrimp trying to control the PH by dropping it. Switched to RO and Mosura and never had a problem since.

 

[stanjam]

As I said, I knew people would disagree, even though I know that several very successful breeders have a ph of 7.6.

I disagree with the smog analogy. Smog would be closer to harder water, not high ph, and many experienced people make the same mistake. When most people say low ph they mostly mean soft water. The more correct analogy would be the ph balance in our bodies, which can vary with little ill effect. I have not yet seen a lack of health, shortened life, or decreased babies from ph. I do see tons of problems from mucking around eith ph! Unless you are seeing problems such as early deaths, decreased yields etc. don't worry about it.

Basically the rule of thumb is don't muck around with your water unless absolutely necessary!

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[mnemenoi]

I agree with CTaylor, with it being a 3ggalon tank buying RO/DI or distilled water is a cheaper and easier fix with no worries down the line. We keep a 5 gallons of distilled in the house all the time and in a low bioload tank like that WC should be minimal (10-20%/week) so a gallon once a month.

 

[Whiskey]

I also believe that a lower PH is best,.. I had a tank with high PH before I used the peat moss and I noticed the CRS in that tank were not as active as the ones in my work tank with a lower PH - they just didn't seem as happy.

Hardly proof, just a little observation.
Whiskey

 

[Asu1776]

You guys speak good sense. Using distilled water on a 3 gallon tank shouldn't be difficult at all. One last thing. In terms of remineralizing the RO water, do I need to be sold Mosura mineral plus or any sort of similar product, or would Barr's GH Booster suffice?

I suppose all this would be easier to narrow down if I told everyone I was planning on getting S-SSS grade from shrimptank.com

Thanks!

 

[sbarbee54]

As I said, I knew people would disagree, even though I know that several very successful breeders have a ph of 7.6.

I disagree with the smog analogy. Smog would be closer to harder water, not high ph, and many experienced people make the same mistake. When most people say low ph they mostly mean soft water. The more correct analogy would be the ph balance in our bodies, which can vary with little ill effect. I have not yet seen a lack of health, shortened life, or decreased babies from ph. I do see tons of problems from mucking around eith ph! Unless you are seeing problems such as early deaths, decreased yields etc. don't worry about it.

Basically the rule of thumb is don't muck around with your water unless absolutely necessary!

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I can give you first hand experience PH matter and lower PH is required for godd success. Many people on here would not say it if it were nto true. I can give you email list of breeders I talk to daily in Germany, C.Republuic, Taiwan, Japan, S. korea and they will all say the same. it can be done in higher PH but not good. babies will not survive well and shrimp life span will be shorter because they have been breed for lower ph and that is what thier bodies are breed for. As they say could take 10 plus gererations of solid breeding to get them to adjust and be stable in higher ph.

 

[stanjam]

In that small of a set up and high grade shrimp you are better off with ro water.

I had many people tell me the same for very sensitive fish direct from the Amazon. While softness and mineral content is crucial, ph is just not that important. Usually softer water has lower ph, so when most people talk about ph they are really talking about the hardness of water, even breeders.

What I will say is do what is best for you and your shrimp. I would never put such sensitive shrimp in a 3 gallon. Too easy for water params to fluctuate.
I won't try and convince you about ph, because conventional wisdon says otherwise. I know people who get full yields from higher ph when all other params are good (tds 150) kh of 1 or less and gh of 4. You rarely see water like that that has a high ph. Get all of your params in order, then ph if you really must. I also have talkedto breeders in Europe and Japan. Having talked to many, many breeders of rare fish most of them also assume ph is a must. Not saying it isn't a parameter you should consider, I just wouldn't worry about it, espescially if you are remineralizing ro water. BTW I use bee salty shrimp for that.

Everyone has their own opinions, but jyst because it is common wusdom does not mean it is accurate. In my history I have seen a lot more misery when people start screwing around with ph.

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