Just moved thinking about blue bolts

[Whitesage1]

So I just moved and the tap water here is complete opposite from where I was. PH is 6.8 tap, 6.4 in my FW fish tank with Amazonia, TDS is 246 tap and 462 in tank, GH is 8, KH is 0-1 and no metals in tap. I set up my 55 FW when I got here. I had planned on setting my 10g halfmoon for neos but isn't my tap water just about perfect for blue bolts and king kongs? I've never kept them before because my tap was crap and I really don't like adjusting tap, don't have RO and I'm not buying 50 gallons of distilled every month. I'd rather stock to the water than change the water to what I stock. My concern is the gh and kh too low? Will I have ph swings at that lvl. I've had a couple of weird fish deaths in my 55 that I can't explain but it's just random fish not all of my cardinals just a couple and a couple of cory. No ammonia, nitrite and 10ppm nitrate but it's a heavy planted tank. Weirdly enough there are still 5 amano swimming around in the 55. None of them have died or been eaten by the cories. So does anybody know if those water params will work for blue bolts?

[rhoagland]

I would say that you won't be able to successfully keep blue bolts or any Taiwan bee shrimp in tap water.  GH8 is pretty high for starters.  Normal range is 4-6 and they would likely have trouble molting. 

 

Also GH, KH, and TDS are only general parameters and they are made up of many elements.  The shrimp need proper amounts of minerals and other compounds that may or may not be present in your water.  In my opinion, the only good way to keep them is RO and remineralizer formulated for shrimp. 

 

To illustrate my point, you can probably mix table salt, baking soda and Epsom salt to get water with GH4, KH1, TDS 120 but it wouldn't be suitable for shrimp because it doesn't contain much of anything beneficial to them.

[wyzazz]

I completely agree with what Ryan said above.  Use RO Water and a Shrimp Specific Remineralizer and you will have way fewer issues.