# Salty shrimp explained



## Pluke (Jun 17, 2017)

koolaid235 said:


> I need help to chose witch one I need gh + or the gh/kh + . I have a substrate that buffs water,drift wood and co2 injection I'm planning on holding both caradina and neo caradina
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> 
> ...


I use RO water with salty shrimp gh+. Fluval stratum which buffers the kh to 0. When I mix the RO I make it about 150 tds. I started with crystal red/black shrimp first, had some older ones die off then leveled off and now have one crystal black berried. Die off could have been because temps or possibly because the tds of the suppliers water was about 180-200. Started my tank in July. Mid August I added neos, red and sky blue, and all my females have been pregnant and have a ton of shrimplets. I dose with Excel so can't speak of CO2 injection. Mines a 5 gallon tank if that matters at all. Others will chime in with more useful info I'm sure, that's just my experience with salty shrimp. Hope it helps.









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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Never use KH in a tank with a buffering substrate!

Never use tap water in a tank with buffering substrate!


Based on the information you provided, you only need the GH minerals, aka "Bee minerals"! If you want a tank geared towards Neos, then you need a separate tank without buffering substrate.


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## koolaid235 (Oct 1, 2017)

Zoidburg said:


> Never use KH in a tank with a buffering substrate!
> 
> Never use tap water in a tank with buffering substrate!
> 
> ...


Zoidburg I understand this is bad of me don't hate me lol but I care more about CRS.RCS ARE EMORTAL I have Literally a tank out side. Its heavly mossed out with a heater and I never do water changes for them . There is over 50 in the tank there thriving.... how dont ask me there on there own at this point

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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

No hate, I get ya.

Honestly, I've been having trouble getting any Neos to survive... finally thought I was getting somewhere with them, and they were doing better, breeding better, then had two major die offs... by this time, I had amanos, amano larvae, red cherry shrimp, bloody mary shrimp and a new colony of yellow king kongs that was just kicking off. (had RCS and amanos the longest closing in on 2 years - YKK's and BMS less than a year) I lost all the amano larvae, all but 3 of the YKK's (I only know for sure that I have 1 now... starting colony was 16/18 shrimp, had 2-3 females that had *just* recently given birth so *TONS* of babies! with other females still berried - before the die-off), and a large chunk of the RCS and BMS. The die-offs were completely out of my control. After the first one, I figured I would have enough YKK's to attempt to restart the colony. Now? Pfft.... Why bother?

In fact, I've basically given up on those tanks. No water changes, no top offs, no filtration, no air stone. Fed whenever I think about feeding them. (planning on changing that - just haven't... yet)


The remaining Neos and amanos appear to be thriving now. They might not be breeding out of control, but I haven't noticed a slow decline in population, either. I might not be paying enough attention to the tank, but they do seem to be doing better than before. The female amano is also, once again, berried. Trying to figure out if I should even bother attempting to raise them... for the 4th or 5th time... (no success... )


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## koolaid235 (Oct 1, 2017)

In Los Angeles are tap is high in Calcium magnesium only bad thing is the copper that can be removed with conditioner I would never use it with crs but charry shrimp are hardy also it are tap is TDS 220 

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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Water around where I'm at is either too soft or "too hard"... that is, without using RO water, I can get either....

GH 3
KH 3
TDS ~55

or

KH 10
GH 19
TDS 475+


Easiest access to the soft water... which has to be remineralized... cherry shrimp died in it when it was just straight tap water... babies never survived to adult-hood. So ya... not so "hardy" for me...


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## aotf (Dec 19, 2016)

+1 for Zoidburg

Get the gH+. Adding kH to your water will exhaust your buffering substrate and 6mo-1year from now, your pH will start to rise like crazy. Your caridina will not be happy and you'll have to do a tank overhaul to replace the substrate (boo) or start trying to buffer down the pH by adding a bunch of stuff (also boo).


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## koolaid235 (Oct 1, 2017)

So I should have kh at 20 huh co2 and Substrate will make it around that and gh should be 8 or 6? 

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I want to add iron and potassium for my plants will that harm my shrimp if I add a little

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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> I want to add iron and potassium for my plants will that harm my shrimp if I add a little


Potassium nitrate and is often added to planted tanks. As long as you dose the water to 5 to 20ppm you should have no problems. Iron is sometimes added by itself but most off\ten as part of a micro fertilizer mix. As long as you fertilize with enough for the plants without adding excess nutrients your shrimp should be fine. Note there are 15 mineral nutrients plants need. plants need all of them. If you just fertilize with iron and nitrogen your plants will not grow.


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## koolaid235 (Oct 1, 2017)

Surf said:


> Potassium nitrate and is often added to planted tanks. As long as you dose the water to 5 to 20ppm you should have no problems. Iron is sometimes added by itself but most off\ten as part of a micro fertilizer mix. As long as you fertilize with enough for the plants without adding excess nutrients your shrimp should be fine. Note there are 15 mineral nutrients plants need. plants need all of them. If you just fertilize with iron and nitrogen your plants will not grow.


What fertalizer brands should I buy and will that mess with gh kH 

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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

koolaid235 said:


> What fertalizer brands should I buy and will that mess with gh kH
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


All should be similar. I personally use Nilocg's stuff. Colin is a member here, and he's always super helpful.

I would recommend reading in the fertlizer/ water parameter section of this forum to learn more. To start though, I'd look at Thrive which is an all in one fertlizer that simplifies some things for you, or if you are a little more willing to jump in a bit more, he has a DIY EI package that sets you up well. Any questions, you can hit up @nilocg 

Also, micros do increase dGH, but so slightly that it won't be a problem. It's barely replacing what has been consumed by plants.


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