Shrimp and R/O water...need advice!

Janthina · Post by **Janthina** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:39 pm

I just moved to a city with tapwater even harder and more alkaline than the last place i lived. This didn't bother me, as i don't keep any softer-water shrimp...didn't bother me until today, that is, when i finally found a fish store and asked the owner what he thought of the local municipal water supply. He ticked off numerous problems and when he got to copper i knew i would be switching to R/O water.

So what do i need to add to R/O water to increase alkalinity and hardness and keep my shrimp happy? Will a small mesh bag of crushed coral do, or do i need to add a chemical product? And if so, which one (Kent's R/O Right, Red Sea’s FW GH+/KH+, something else?)?

This is entirely new territory for me, so any advice is appreciated. I'm currently keeping cherry shrimp, green shrimp, rainbow shrimp, and the mixed grab bag called 'black dwarf shrimp', and am moving them here this weekend and will need to do a water change then.

Thanks!

Cara

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:59 pm

Before you do that, buy a GOOD test kit and test for copper, nitrates and phosphates. After that we can decife if a good water conditioner, or an R/O unit s best.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:58 pm

Your local water company should be able to provide you with a detailed annual water quality report. They are REQUIRED to make this available to the public. Many will even have it on their website. That report combined with your own testing can help you to decide what you need to do. You can also send a water sample to an independent lab to test the water as it come out of your tap.

You may find that the water company's report and the local pet store guy's ideas are different.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:11 pm

Yup, what they just said

. Also, are you keeping some of those shrimp together? Besides the green shrimp, I think all the others have a good chance of interbreeding = mutts. If you are seperating them then that is prefered.

Janthina · Post by **Janthina** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:26 am

The owner of the lfs does mostly reef tanks, and since speaking with him i've asked among the few other non-newbie aquarists i could find...all have confirmed that the city water occasionally (and randomly) contains enough copper to cause problems for corals and inverts.

I also discovered that PetCo and even Walmart use nothing but R/O water for their tanks...i figure when even Walmart is willing to shell out money for an R/O unit to keep their fish alive (or half-alive, as it usually seems) then that's a good sign not to mess with tapwater.

So, back to the original question: what do you recommend i add to R/O water to boost the hardness and alkalinity?

(And yes, shrimp species are separated.)

Thanks,

Cara

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:30 am

There are two products I recommend. R/O Right and Electro-Right.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:57 am

badflash wrote:There are two products I recommend. R/O Right and Electro-Right.

Like Badflash i use Electro-Right, easier to found in my area than R/O right.

Janthina · Post by **Janthina** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:24 pm

Thank you for your replies.

I think i'm going to try one of these products plus a small amount of crushed coral and see how that works. I'll be monitoring with pH and TDS probes as well as occasionally checking results against chemical test kits to assuage my paranoia. Too bad i left all the test kits and probes with the fish tanks (several hundred miles from here) and won't be able to use them 'til i move everything this weekend--that wasn't too smart.

This board is such a boon--shrimpkeeping would be a much more frustrating trial-and-error experience without it.

Cara