maylee

Yes, it seems the output water gives me 3-4 TDS and that's after adding a tiny bit of Prime to it. I do that just in case of chloramines. I don't actually know whether my town uses chloramines or not. I should probably check. But that value seems okay.

I use an RO buddie filter with a DI cartridge. I've had it for about a year now with its original cartridges. I actually don't use it all that much. I produce less than 10 gallons of RO water per month at most. I've noticed reduced water flow recently. It's taking a lot longer to fill up the containers while filtering than it used to. So, I'm curious which cartridge should be the first one to start getting clogged and needing replacement. Would it be the sediment or carbon? Or should I just replace both? My TDS out of the tap is about 150. Thanks!

I'm curious what the maximum amount of variance or fluctuation in TDS you guys would consider safe. Due to having open top tanks, I get quite a bit of evaporation. I notice a difference of 10-25 in TDS before topping off at times. Big reason being is I don't get to top off on a daily basis so sometimes it's once every three days or so. This is a 10 gallon with fire reds and tigers that I don't get any breeding in whatsoever so I'm looking for reasons why that is. This tank has been up for over a year. I will definitely have to look into getting some glass cut or something to have a closed off top when I get a chance. TDS is about 200 GH - 8 KH - 2 pH - 7.6 Temp - 20c

ph - 7.4 gh - 8 kh - 2 ammonia/nitrites/nitrates - 0/0/0 temperature - 72f I don't know what it is with my 10G. I have tangerine tigers and fire reds in there. This tank has been running a whole year now. I don't remember the last time, if ever, a female has developed a saddle in this tank. I've had new shrimp that came berried introduced to the tank and they gave birth without issue. But no females will develop saddles, let alone breed. I don't have random deaths in this tank. They molt properly. I use RO/DI water re-mineralized with Blue Diamond. I have never used tap water in this tank. I feed a variety of foods from leaves, commercial shrimp foods, algae wafers, the occasional blood worms for protein etc. I have a sponge filter in there which should provide adequate oxygen. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

Thank you everyone for your input For anyone else wondering, my tap water comes out to around 150 TDS. With the RO/DI, I get exactly 0 TDS so I'm pretty happy with the performance of the unit so far. I see they do offer a chloramine cartridge so I might have to look into that.

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some clarification. I just bought a RO/DI unit since I was tired of buying and carrying 5 gallon containers from the store every time I ran out. I've read some conflicting info about whether RO/DI removes chloramine or not. I also read that aging or running an air stone does not remove it. Assuming this is true, then does that mean I should use some Prime after making the RO/DI water? If so, should I still age it a bit after adding Prime and before adding minerals? I guess I should mention the unit I got was the RO Buddie with DI cartridge. I know it's not exactly top of the line. It's cheap though. I was having second thoughts about buying the unit. I wasn't sure it was worth it considering the cost + the cost of how much water it takes to make RO/DI water. Oh well, more for convenience.

I have my TT in very similar parameters except my females don't even develop saddles, let alone get berried. No idea why. My pH and TDS are maybe a tiny bit higher (around 7.6 and 200 TDS) but that's about it.

Could be. Kind of hard to tell from the pics. Do they wriggle around? Don't use No Planaria. Use an aquarium salt and RO or tank water solution in a bowl. Something like a 25% aquarium salt to water is enough I think. Net the affected shrimp out and dip it into the bowl for about 30 seconds. If it is scutarella, they should jump off of the shrimp.

I finally have a berried blue bolt!! Ah. I'm sorry, I'm just excited. I've been a member here on shrimpspot for a while and honestly, despite all my efforts, I've never had luck with my tanks. As easy as some people made it sound, I couldn't even get red cherries to thrive. I had some early success when I first started over a year ago but it has been downhill since. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to start a TB tank despite that fact. Months and months would pass by and I don't even see saddles in either of my tanks, let alone any berries. There would be the occasional death but nothing drastic. My shrimpies lived for the most part but they weren't thriving. Over time, I started to lose interest. I figured I was doing things wrong. No matter what I did, neither of my tanks had any success. I still maintained them but I didn't put in as much effort as I used to. Now, finally... for the first time EVER since I started this TB tank, I have a berried blue bolt. I didn't buy it at the LFS and it came berried.... it became berried while it lived in my tank. And that feels so much better. To give you an idea of how long it has been, I think I started this tank back in November...

No idea why they go so crazy for it but I see similar behavior with snowflake in my tanks too. Most other foods, including the commercial stuff, don't elicit as big of a frenzy. But recently, the one thing that gets them crazier is blanched spinach. That's always a pretty big hit.

I have this issue with color changes in my blue bolt and shadow panda tank too. I have almost the exact water parameters as you. The only difference being is my GH is 5 and TDS is slightly higher at around 145. I keep the tank at 72 degrees. I don't use any of the extra products you use though and I only do 15% water changes about every 2-3 weeks. RO water remineralized with blue diamond. A couple of the blue bolts look more like golden bees now. Others look fine. For a period there, my shadow pandas looked like regular pandas too. Eventually, the blue came back. They haven't lost the blue ever since but it feels as if the intensity of the blue is changing almost on a daily basis. Some days, it'll be darker and some days it'll be lighter. One day I noticed it was almost a dark blue and a couple of days later, it's almost a teal color. With that being said, I honestly don't even recall ever having a death in this tank. So, whatever the reason for the color changing, it doesn't look like it's serious enough to be fatal. At the same time, I haven't had a berry in there for a while either. They're all still very active in this tank and they feed well too.

Thanks everyone for your input. I haven't seen it happen since so I'll chalk it up to bad luck for the little guy or girl. I like the clean, simple look in a tank so maybe it does need more hiding spots in the future.

Possibly. My tank isn't quite as nice as DETAs tanks but a similar sort of layout. gh 6 - kh 2 - tds 180 These are tigers and neos btw. Forgot to mention. I usually see good molts. This particular molt looked complete but what you say is still possible. Thanks for your input guys

So, I'm pretty sure I just caught a shrimp being canabalized after he just molted. Do you guys think this is a sign of anything? Not enough protein, not enough feeding in general, or just "shrimp being shrimp"? While I didn't actually see it happen, everything was fine before I went for supper and when I came back, I see a fresh molt and a nearby shrimp being eaten by about 4 others. I currently feed once every other day. The tank probably has around 20 shrimp in total

I think my situation is similar but it's with my neo tank. I used a small amount of No Planaria several months ago to get rid of some hydra which worked wonderfully. I also did some water changes after I confirmed the hydra were all gone. Ever since then, I don't even see saddles now, let alone berries but they seem to molt just fine. I can't say for certain it was the No Planaria because I don't seem to have the best of luck with my shrimp tanks in general but it's hard to say. At the time, all I used was a sponge filter which I still use in that tank today. I wonder if it's possible that the No Planaria sort of "lives" in there this entire time. This thread has got me considering removing it to see if it helps. I also wonder about the substrate (eco-complete) after a No Planaria dosing. I forgot to mention I didn't lose any shrimp during the dosing.