help with water

[Jadenlea]

Hi all,

I hope I am posting in the right place. I need some understanding about my tank water.

I have a 20 Gal right now and just got a TDS meter. The TDS out of my tap is 100 but the TDS in my tank is reading
240!! I cannot understand why it is so high. What in my tank could be adding 140 tds? There is very little in the tank atm.
1 apple snail, 12 carbon rili, 5 or 6 malawa and 1 otto cat.
There is also some wood, with pelia, a sword plant and a few spirals. The only thing added has been prime and a couple root tabs.
Substrate is just play sand

I am worried because when I look at the parameters for shrimp, none of them recommend over 180.

I will say about 3 weeks ago, the tank had been unattended over the summer and was all rescaped. I did about an 80 % water change at that time and have done regular 20 % water changes since.
I have some mischlings coming this week and want to give them the best chance possible. I know I am already a bit behind the 8 ball with my PH.


rest of the tank parameters
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 - 5
kh 0-2
GH 4
PH 6.8 -7

Aquaclear 30 filter with purigen along with sponge filter.

Any thoughts or suggestions for getting this tank better for the mischlings?

[hyoushoku]

Hi Jadeniea,

Almost everything in the tank, substrate, ornament, plants, filter media, will leech substances for certain period of time. I saw you have a piece of coral in the tank, is that real coral skeleton or made of plastic? If it is a real one, then it might be the cause; coral leeches a lot of chloride and carbonate salts. For your substrate, it is a artificially colour type. Did you check whether they are compatible with acidic water? Also, did you clean thoroughly and soak for days before using them?

In addition, TDS of tap water can be different between straight from tap, sit still for few days or it is in a container with proper circulation and/or aeration. This is due to the chemical within the tap water reacts with itself or with the air (mostly CO2) and form different compound.

Don't be fool by those phoney information on the web that says shrimps need the "mystical" TDS of 120 to 200. Most of my tanks have 300+ TDS and my shrimps are thriving well. I just revamp a Taiwan Bee & Pinto cross-breeding tank and the conductivity is at 480uS (about TDS 240). However your TDS is caused by that piece of coral, then I will worry it will get too salty. If it is real dead coral, take it out immediately.

[Jadenlea]

Thanks for answering HYoushoku!

It is not real coral, just a piece of ornamental plastic or whatever they make fish ornaments out of. So I won't worry much about the TDS then. Do you think I should be worried about the PH? Is there anything you suggest I should do to lower it? I just ordered mosura bt9 to add to the tank.. what else would you suggest for someone just getting into the cystal/mischling shirmp?

[hyoushoku]

Adding stuffs into water to buffer the water is not stable. I tried pH 6.8 for Taiwan Bee is OK.

What I will suggest you is not to change anything. Stable water parameter is the key factor.