[EmoPrincxss666]

Hi! I'm new to keeping shrimp and I didn't think to test my GH and KH before getting my RCS (everything else was fine as far as I know). My GH is only like 30 ppm and my KH is SUPER high, somewhere between 180 and 240 ppm! 2 weeks ago I bought 4 RCS for my planted 10 gallon, and this week 2 have died due to molting issues. I do know that 1 of the remaining shrimp did molt successfully though because there was a molt in my tank. Can someone help me find a way to lower my KH and raise my GH (and also maybe lower my pH too. It's a 7.6 which is a little high I think)? I'm super new to this!!

 

[Zoidburg]

For cherry shrimp, that pH is fine. Heck, even the KH is fine! But sure, you could lower it!


Do you by any chance have a water softener?

 

[EmoPrincxss666]

No, but I saw somewhere that using some distilled water could help. Do you think that's a good idea?

 

[Zoidburg]

Interesting.

If you are willing to get distilled or RO water, then yes, you can use that. That said, I would recommend getting a shrimp remineralizer and not using tap. Salty Shrimp is popular, there's another called Bee Shrimp? Unless you want to go the liquid route, in which case, you would probably have to get GH and KH separately.

You would remineralize the new water to desired parameters prior to doing water changes and using the distilled or RO straight for top ups (for evaporation). If the tank parameters are a bit higher than you'd like, you could counteract that by remineralizing the new water to be a bit lower than what you would normally remineralize it to.



It can seem confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it gets easy! Be sure you are using liquid GH and KH test kits and perhaps look into a TDS meter you can calibrate, and get calibration solution as well.

 

[EmoPrincxss666]

Alrighty. I'll look into it, thanks