# Distilled Water for Shrimp?



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I definitely wouldn't keep OEBT in a tank as small as 2-3g. That's why people set up 40B tanks for OEBT to keep the water parameters stable. At least use a 10g.

But the idea is sound. You'd have to mix the tap and distilled in the right quantities to have low enough gh, kh, and tds. You might need something additional to bring the pH down to around 6.5 as distilled normally runs neutral.


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## Alpha Pro Breeders (Jan 26, 2010)

That is basically what I do with a r/o system, just mix with tap to get the desired mix. My tap is on the hard and high ph side, so most of my tanks get a mix of 30% tap water with 70% r/o water.
Diwu13 is correct about keeping parameters in line with such a small tank, but I think OEBT would do just as well as any of the other Cardinia species in it.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

I would find out what your GH is so that you can get the right balance, or at least find out whether getting that balance is even possible. If your GH and KH are way out of whack with each other you'll probably have to supplement with something to get them just right.

For example, my tap has GH = 1.5 and KH = 14. I could conceivably dilute my tap water by a factor of 10 or so and get decent water for these shrimp, but I'd have no GH to speak of, so I'd have to add something to boost the GH a bit before using it.


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## Fishly (Jan 8, 2010)

I think something is wrong with my GH test because when I added one drop, the water wasn't orange, and when I added more (I stopped at 35), the water didn't turn green, it just got a little darker.

I thought OEBT were hardier than CRS, and don't people keep CRS in nano tanks?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I'd say CRS are more hardy now, only because so many people are breeding them, and thus more access to different genes. But OEBT and CRS are pretty similar in that its better/safer to have them in larger volumes of water. You're taking a chance with a small 3g.

And... is it 3 gallons with substrate and everything already included?


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