# High TDS :(



## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

I was testing my water today and found out my shrimp tank TDS is over 700!! Is this harmful to the shrimp? I am going to start getting RO water now to try and lower the TDS. I have at least 5 berried females. Is the high TDS harmful to the babies?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Generally yes. But you need to know your gH and KH before you freak out about TDS. Also, do you dose ferts? Ferts will also increase TDS. But 700 is still ridiculously high


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

Not sure what my GH or KH is, but my KH is low as I have to have crushed coral in all my tanks or my PH crashes. I also have peat in the tank to get the PH a tad lower. GH is at a decent range at least last time I tested it was. I don't use any ferts.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

TDS 700 pretty dang high..... Have you ever tested the water you use for TDS??


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

My tap water is 400 something


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## AlisaR (Dec 7, 2011)

Put some distilled in there.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

You'll likely find high GH as well. Don't reduce the TDS in one shot, do it gradually or you might kill the shrimps by doing so. Problem with high TDS is molting issue, that kills shrimp much slower than TDS shock (say, from 700 to 200 in one WC).


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

My shrimp have been molting left and right just fine. But I will work on lowering the TDS for peace of mind.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Yeah, lower it slowly, like mentioned, do a 10% water every other day with distilled until you at least get to the 260 range at the most. 400 TDS is straight from your tap??? Because that is above what federal regulations says is acceptable for drinking water. Unless you run on a well or something.


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## moosenart (Feb 18, 2012)

300 on my well.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

700 is not even safe for human consumption.


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## Lifeblood (Jan 31, 2012)

what kind of shrimp didn't get killed in that water is my question.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

um, before jumping to any conclusions, consider the possibility that your tester may need adjustment....


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

acitydweller said:


> um, before jumping to any conclusions, consider the possibility that your tester may need adjustment....


If you don't have a reference solution to test with, most bottled waters (at least here in Canada) have the PPM listed on them and makes a great test reference for a $1.00


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Yes all bottled water down in the US should to... Put it this way 500 TDS is not for human consumption, they say anything over 300 is not suposed to be drinkin with out filtering it first


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## moranger (Mar 26, 2011)

The tap water here comes out at 600TDS and my tank (150gl) is measureing at about 650TDS I have cherries breeding like crazy. Also have BN plecos and Celestial Pearl Danio that have bred for me.


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## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

As I've never used coral in tanks so I am not sure if it would add to TDS but I would assume yes. 
How long have you had your tank? I'm guessing you've been using tap and sometimes refill and top off evaporation with tap. I can see how TDS could build up over time. Especially with dosing fertilizers. 
Just my conjecture.


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## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

And I forgot to add that using or water to cut the TDS is good but do it slowly like the others said. A shock can and will kill shrimp.


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

Tested my TDS out of my tap and it was way lower than the first time I tested it. In the 200s. I have 3 tanks set up now, but my other tank TDS is not as high as my shrimp tank. I just tested my big tank and TDS are only 462, my other tank which is bare bottom and gets 3 50% water changes a day has a TDS of 500, the shrimp tank has TDS of 720.

Currently there are mutt shrimp (there were cherry shrimp and blue tigers in the tank when I got it and now they are just huge clear shrimp left) and I have CRS and CBS. The mutt shrimp are constantly berried and I have a zillion babies from them and my CRS are berried. Not sure if they have hatched their eggs yet or not. I did not calibrate my meter as it said it was already calibrated but I'm questioning that cause I tested my parents water out of their RO system and the TDS were kind of high there as well. But they may need to change the filter in the system.

@FreedPenguin I have to use crushed coral. If I don't my PH nose dives lower than 5. My tap water has no KH in it to keep PH stable. And with my PH out of my tap being 8.2 it diving that much is not good at all. Oh and the tank has been up and running well over a year. I'm going to do a rinse on the filter media since that is over due and see if it helps bring down TDS.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

That seems ridiculous that your shrimp tank increased TDS by 500. I think it has to be the crushed coral as FreedPenquin said. Did you add a ton of that into the tank? I have like 4 sea shells in my 10G tanks and they have only raised TDS by 50 or so after 4 months.


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## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

The best thing is to promote a constant steady environment. You say that the mutt neos are breeding. That's good but if you want to breed CRS, you may have to lower TDS. RODI Would work best IMO


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

I have baby shrimplets now. Will lowering the TDS harm them or will they be ok if I can do it slow enough? Also I got some distilled water today and tested it with my meter and it tested 0. Tested their tank again today and it was 670-680 so it dropped a squeakers bit.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

I've lowered mine no more than 100 TDS a day for cherries and did fine. If I remember correctly, Mord only lowers his 40 (a day?) for more sensitive TB.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Crushed coral should not add much TDS to any tank.... i run a bunch in my 55g community and my tap is 30-50 tds and my tanks stays at 120


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## binbin9 (Jan 31, 2012)

What I do is take out about 20-30% of the tank water and then take an equivalent amount of clean lowered TDS water in bucket. Set it higher than you tank and do the drip method back into the tank with an air line hose. Set your drips so that it takes about half the day to finish dripping. It may seem like a long tedious task but if you 
set it up in the morning before work, once you're home it should nearly be done dripping.

Don't forget to reconstitute the clean water with the necessaries minerals to avoid the PH crashes.

The shrimp will not freak out over the new cleaner water and will love you for it.

It's employing the same principles of drip acclimating your new shrimp.


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