Bought my first TDS meter

[JLui83]

Just ordered my first TDS meter. I never used one before. Figured everyone else is using it. Id get one too lol.

 

Ill be getting crystal reds next week. 

 

I ordered the TDS EZ pen from amazon.

 

Anything i need to know?

[chappy6107]

rinse it off with ro water after use.

[JLui83]

Oh yeh thats another thing. As of right now i dont plan on using ro water. With 

 That said, is the TDS meter even necessary?

[LesterBee]

2 hours ago, JLui83 said:

Oh yeh thats another thing. As of right now i dont plan on using ro water. With 

 That said, is the TDS meter even necessary?

 

Well if it's a matter of knowing what's going on with your tap water and how much you need to either harden or soften the water to achieve the magic balance of GH to KH, yeah I think both the API GH/KH test kit, the TDS pen, and possibly a pH pen would be a good addition to anyone's bag of tricks for soft water shrimp keeping.  Bee/Crystal shrimp are fairly touchy for water chemistry, and even if I'm running the raw edge of those envelopes it's good to have some tools to give me a baseline so I don't get their water too far out of their comfort zone.  I mean if we really care about our little creatures we keep.

 

I'd at least get some distilled water and some calibration fluid, use the distilled to clean your tester's tip after calibrating and testing

[JLui83]

20 minutes ago, LesterBee said:

 

Well if it's a matter of knowing what's going on with your tap water and how much you need to either harden or soften the water to achieve the magic balance of GH to KH, yeah I think both the API GH/KH test kit, the TDS pen, and possibly a pH pen would be a good addition to anyone's bag of tricks for soft water shrimp keeping.  Bee/Crystal shrimp are fairly touchy for water chemistry, and even if I'm running the raw edge of those envelopes it's good to have some tools to give me a baseline so I don't get their water too far out of their comfort zone.  I mean if we really care about our little creatures we keep.

 

I'd at least get some distilled water and some calibration fluid, use the distilled to clean your tester's tip after calibrating and testing

You are right. If im in this hobby go hard or go home heh?

 

I bought some distilled water from walmart. At $.82/gallon. 

 

Ill go pick up gh and kh test kits too today.

 

I just have the mentality that its not needed b/c i didn't test any of this 10 years ago when I was in this hobby. But that could just be me being naive.

 

Thanks

[LesterBee]

1 minute ago, JLui83 said:

You are right. If im in this hobby go hard or go home heh?

 

I bought some distilled water from walmart. At $.82/gallon. 

 

Ill go pick up gh and kh test kits too today.

 

I just have the mentality that its not needed b/c i didn't test any of this 10 years ago when I was in this hobby. But that could just be me being naive.

 

Thanks

Well I'm not that hardcore myself, I mean I'm lucky enough to have tap water that starts out really soft, so all I have to do is give it a bit of GH hardness.   When I got my first batch of Crystal shrimp I was using just Epsom salts as the GH. I lost about half of those shrimp to molting issues.   They really seem to need a 3:1 ratio of Calcium to Magnesium, so I am now using a premixed GH hardening 'salt' Like NilocG's GH Booster or Seachem's Equilibrium.  Niloc's booster has the added amount of Potassium so it's also good for your plants.  Depending on where your own tap water sits as far as GH and KH content, you may need to either dilute it with RO or distilled, ( BTW some grocery stores will have an RO water vending dispenser outside and it's generally about $.0.50 or so per gallon.) or add GH booster.

 

I'd premix up the amount you need the night before in a 5 gallon bucket with an airstone and heater if your house gets chilly at night,  add dechloramine to the tap water.  ( remember to unplug the heater before emptying the bucket.  Also set your tank up a month or so in advance of getting your shrimp, by doing a fishless nitrifying bacteria cycle.  If you decide to you could probably get away with  a reduced ammonia cycle by using small amounts of dried fish food added weekly to build up a beneficial bacteria base.  The main thing is to get the tank ready for them without it still undergoing big water chemistry swings. Using another tank's loaded filter media and squeezing into the shrimp's tank water will speed things along, just make sure the filter is from a tank with really healthy fish, the best option would be a healthy heavily planted tank's filter media.

[JLui83]

Tank is fully cycle now.

 

im just feeding it with pure ammonia every other day to feed my bacteria. Every morning the ammonia and nitrite reads zero. 

 

I plan on on doing a big water change a couple days before I get the shrimp with DI water and salty shrimp gh to reach 5-6 gh

 

other than

 

ph at 6.5

temperature at 74*F

GH= 5-6

kh= 0

tds =around 120

ammonia ='0

nitrites = 0

nitrates = low as possible

 

anything else I'm missing? Drip acclimate shrimp .......

[chappy6107]

try to keep the acclimation water as close to the same temp as the tank water temp too

[JLui83]

3 hours ago, chappy6107 said:

try to keep the acclimation water as close to the same temp as the tank water temp too

Luckily that wont be an issue. 74*F in my office. 

[JLui83]

Got another newbie question.

 

Lets say my tanks tds right now is over the ideal tds. Can't I just add DI water,and not remineraliZe it? Thus getting me closer to the ideal tds? I guess it depends on my gh.........

[OMG Aquatics]

Depends on the situation.

If you're trying to lower GH, you can just add RODI and not remineralize it.

If you're trying to keep GH and lower TDS, perform small water changes more frequently with remineralized water.