[KhanhMa]

i have a batch of crystal shrimp coming in next week, and the ph and hardness of my current tank is kinda high with normal tap water. Can i purchase Distilled water and slowly do water changes for the next couple days to lower my ph and hardness? or any other suggestions

thank you for the help

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

What are your readings?

Yes, you can use RO to drop the gh and tds.

 

[Raymond S.]

I recently found by test that distilled water reduces TDS and other things you want while not having much effect on PH unless a lot is used. I only keep the easy care RCS
so I certainly don't have enough exp to help you more than that, but I do know that Peat is used by lots of people(in their filters) to lower PH.
Perhaps you might add an edit to your question letting people know you would like
a list of correct perameters for CRS to be includedin their reply if possible.
I'm sure some of the more hard core shrimpers know what that is.

 

[usgetata]

You can do that. But if we know your current tank size and water parameters then we can give you a better suggestion.

 

[KhanhMa]

10galons
ph 7.5
gh 10
kh 5

thanks

 

[MsNemoShrimp]

Your Crystal shrimps won't be happy in those conditons.

Try to replace it with at least 50% pure RO water

You want to try and hit:

PH 6 - 6.5
GH 4 - 5
KH 0 - 1

 

[KhanhMa]

thanks i will try that tomorrow

 

[KhanhMa]

i did about 50% water change with pure RO water and my parameters came out to be

KH 4
GH 7
PH 7

i guess im going to do another water change tomorrow and try to bring them down some more without shocking my cherries.

thank you everyone for the help

 

[greenteam]

are you adding anything to your RO water? Because if you don't add product like say SS GH+ and you keep replacing with pure RO you will drop all your parameters to nothing.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

That's the point with this particular water change, greenteam. He is trying to drop his values.

 

[greenteam]

He did a 50% WC and to do another 50% might lower his parameters too low don't you think.

I know in the past I did something similar and took a GH 8 KH 7 tank down to GH 3 KH 1 with 2 WC's lol

 

[Whiskey]

Just be careful, I did the same thing when I wanted to add CRS to my Cherry tank a couple years ago and went to fast. I lost about half my Cherry colony. I was also doing multiple large (2 gallon at a time) water changes with distilled, mine was a 10G tank.

Whiskey

 

[KhanhMa]

hi everyone, i did a second water change today with RO water again and my parameters are
ph 7
kh 3
gh 5

thanks everyone for the input. hopefully i didnt do too much that would jeopardize my tank

 

[MsNemoShrimp]

Cherry shrimps strive in almost all conditions.

I can toss my Painted Fire Red colony anywhere. Can go from TDS 150 to a TDS 350-400 by the bulk (30-50) adults at a time and they just go on fitting right in. For me its the Crystals that are more picky and difficult.

Doing two 50% WC without adding anything to it will reduce your TDS to low, but it shouldn't ever be like 0 ppm. Just not possible in any tank. Even if your tank is bare bottom, the lowest it'll be is about 50 ppm and that is doing 100% WC with no additives whatsoever. There are things in your tank that should keep your TDS constant at some value.

Back to the topic, Khanh your GH is great. Not sure why your KH is still 3. Do you have rocks or ornaments and your tank? From my experience unknown rocks or ornaments will raise GH and KH values. Your pH is better, but if you can manage to hit 6.5 you would be better off. Usually Borneowild Humic or active soil will help with this.

You can double-check by testing your PURE RO water what the PH is. It should be 7.