# Why do all of my shrimp die? Will RO water help me?



## mjbn (Dec 14, 2011)

The problem might just be the high ph, high KH, kinda-high gh, and probably high temperatures of summer months. If you decide to use RO water, which probably will help your problems, you'll need a remineralizer such as Shirakura Ca+ or Salty Shrimp GH+.


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## Lexinverts (Jan 17, 2012)

I suspect that you have a trace contaminant in your tap water that is killing your shrimp. Those high KH and GH readings should not be an issue for Cherry or Yellow shrimp.

RO water is pretty easy. For Neocaridina, you can get a jar of Kent RO right, and you will do well adding about 3/4 of a tsp of the stuff to a 5 gallon bucket of RO water. Get a digital TDS pen and make sure your reading is around 180 - 250 ppm in the bucket after mixing and you are good to go!

If you want to try CRS, you will want to get some Salty Shrimp GH+, which is better than Kent for softwater shrimp. 

The easiest way to test this hypothesis, is to pick up a bunch of distilled water from the grocery (NOT MINERAL OR SPRING WATER). Add the Kent RO right, and see if your shrimp do better. I'm betting they do.

Good luck!


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## ldaniel (Jul 4, 2011)

Check the water for copper and nitrates. My RCS run in a tank with straight tap water (250-350 ppm TDS) and I don't have any issue. RO will help if it is remineralized. Change the water slowly so they can acclimate if that is the route you chose to go. Good luck.


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## TheGiantDwarfShrimp (Jan 20, 2012)

The tap nitrates are around 5 and I might have copper pipes.
So all I will need is salty shrimp GH+ to remineralize? Are all those other things like mineral balls and pine cones just for shrimp color or do they improve water quality?

Also on a side note I have Black Brush Algae trying to completely take over this tank. Does anyone have BBA in tanks with RO water or is it much easier to control without all the extra stuff in the water?


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

I have had it in tanks with RO water as well, not sure if its easier to control in RO but I konw you can still get it and it still sucks.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

I can tell you this if the params look right and shrimp are still dying, it's probably some contaminant. 

I had the hardest time using my school tap even though the params were ok. Switched to RO, the deaths stopped.


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## $AN DIEGO N8 (Mar 7, 2013)

*shrimp advise*

you want kh as low as possible ive also had pretty good results with low gh as well though i had been told tds should be in the 200 to 250 range r o = pretty good!


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## TheGiantDwarfShrimp (Jan 20, 2012)

oblongshrimp said:


> I have had it in tanks with RO water as well, not sure if its easier to control in RO but I konw you can still get it and it still sucks.


I was afraid of that. I can't kill the stuff. The only way I know kills it is H2O2 or excel but of course I went for a tank covered in Mini pellia which is easily killed by both chemicals.


I was also having problems with fertilizing and shrimp health. I want to dose fertilizers so hopefully my plants can outgrow the BBA but I am afraid of killing shrimp. Should I just use much less than recommended ei dosing? I was also thinking of using DIY root tabs so most of the ferts won't even be in the water column. What do most of you do to dose your shrimp tanks?


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## truong (May 21, 2012)

Do not dose CSM+B or any micro fert in a shrimp tank. They have copper.


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## ShyShrimpDoc (Jun 28, 2012)

they make a copper test kit designed for checking dosing on meds. It works good for determining of copper is your problem. If it is, RO should fix that assuming the outlet is not copper as well. This having been said, copper tends to be absorbed by plants, substrate and even silicone. So, if this is the problem you will need to do water changes with copper free water for a few weeks to a couple months to let the copper leech back out of the system till it is at a safe level. Copper toxicity in shrimp kills pretty slowly. The one time I saw it they acted all crazy for a few days before dropping dead.


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## steven p (Jun 22, 2012)

I have a hardness of about 17 degrees total, with tds of 360+ on a regular basis. What stands out to me as a factor is the tds difference between your tank and tap. Something seems to be building up there. My neos do well, breed often and random deaths are minimal and usually only in the tanks I raise plecos in. I attribute those deaths to the massive handfuls of green beans I feed.

I _think_ that activated carbon absorbs cu. Some duckweed and a nice bright lamp will help tie up heavy metals for you as well, as part of an ongoing attack. 

You should probably try and identify your contaminant. If its something easily remedied, you could save yourself the money and hassle of r/o.


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## ShyShrimpDoc (Jun 28, 2012)

I just thought about this, but sometimes a mix of ferts and decay can cause a phosphorous buildup. That is toxic. It can be tested for as well. It is easily remedied by cleaning the tank and a water change though, so that might not be it. I have seen it happen in one of my tank to a level that didn't hurt anything, but I mention it because it can happen even in a planted tank and it would cause algae growth to increase which may account for the BBA.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

How do you do top offs? They should be performed only with RO water. 

That is a contributing factor as to why they are dying.


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## TheGiantDwarfShrimp (Jan 20, 2012)

Yeah I top off with tap but usually accompany it with a water change. I thought that was why TDS was so high. I have an RO system but just need to get it working and maybe replace the filters since it has not been used in 5+ years.

I would not be surprised if there was a contaminate of some sort because we have so much stuff in our water. I will get the RO system working and just bypass having to test for all of those contaminates. That way I can have a lower PH anyway. If I use the Salty shrimp GH+ do I just add it until I reach the desired PH and TDS?


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## "Got light?" (Dec 16, 2012)

Spend $100 on a RO/DI system, $25 for a TDS meter, and $15 for some Mosura Mineral Plus.

Add the Mineral Plus to the RO water until you reach 125 TDS (*add nothing else)

Perfect' water to make happy CRS's.... period roud:
(And feed with Mosura's CRS, Excel, and BioPlus... NO need to even _sample'_ any other brand of food!!)

**You can make the process much harder if you want to add a bunch of drama'... or you can follow my above directions and be done with it*


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

$100 on a RO unit not necessary if you have few small tanks. Your local grocery stores sell the same water for ~30¢ a gallon.


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## Shrim'n (Feb 27, 2013)

MABJ said:


> $100 on a RO unit not necessary if you have few small tanks. Your local grocery stores sell the same water for ~30¢ a gallon.


or the Zero Water system, got one 2 weeks ago for 30bucks the original filter lasted me for several gallons before TDS stopped going down and even came with a TDS meter. Great for RO water for shrimp and yourself :icon_lol:


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Hmm if you can get single digits out of that thing, that's pretty incredible!


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## Shrim'n (Feb 27, 2013)

MABJ said:


> Hmm if you can get single digits out of that thing, that's pretty incredible!


my tap comes out at 350+....brand new filter got it to Zero instantly eventually it worn down to around 65-80 after 10-20gallon worth after about maybe 20-30 gallons more died out and just stayed at 350 and even spiked up to 500 :eek5: so replaced filter and all is back to Zero again.


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