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Best Substrate For RCS?

Can I just quickly ask what re mineralising product you or anyone else thinks is best to use for RCS.

I just realized there is two products one being Salty Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ which is maybe the best option for my RCS and see how that goes, but if KH is not that real important I could just purchase Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+?

For now I would rather get the product that's best for the RCS just to see how it goes, but if KH is not important then maybe I should get the Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+?

Also I am a bit confused what does it mean when they say "conductance of about 300 +/- 50 µS (Microsiemens)" does the 300 conductance mean TDS? 300 TDS sounds a bit high? I was hoping to achieve around 150-180 TDS.

I'm trying to go by this site: "http://shrimpkeeping.com/water-params/"

Also how hard is it going to be for me to re mineralise 3 litres of water, I don't want to do much more as then I would need visit LFS more than once a month which I didn't really want to do.
I presume for example with the Salty Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ it says (about 2 g) to 10 litres for a GH of 6 so I would just / 10 litre by 3 as that's pretty close to my ideal 3 litres.
So 10/3 is 3.3 litres and 2g / by 3 is 0.6grams... not sure if my scales go lower than 1g though =\ ... I guess its quite a fiddly job.

Hope someone can let me know what product would be best, I think I know which, but I seem to have read KH is of not of much importance and RCS would still do fine at 0KH, and then that makes it easier if in the future we want to get some CRS.

Thanks again. :D
 
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When raising the tds of water I started out just adding a drop at a time (I use mosura mineral plus) and repeatedly checking the tds until I was happy. Now I kind of know how much I can add but still do tds checks so I don't go over. I guess you could use a tea spoon and slowly get used to how much you need on the spoon. I can't really talk about cherry shrimp as I have taiwans and taiwan hybrids but I just keep testing tds/gh until I'm happy. You can experiment with tds to see what your shrimp are happiest with. I don't use ro but do collect rainwater and re mineralise that.

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Cheers for the reply Lindy,

I'm a bit confused it sounds like mosura mineral plus is just a product to add more essential minerals and raise TDS? so what do you use prior to it? or do you just use mosura mineral plus on its own to achieve your GH/KH.

I'm still undecided on which re mineralising product I should buy, when my shrimp arrived the tank had a KH of 2 and a GH of 8, if I buy Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ and aimed for a GH of 6, I can only presume the KH would stay between 0-1 as it says the ratio is KH/°dH: 0.06/1.0) where as Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ ratio is °dGH/KH: 1.0/0.5 so 6 GH would give me 3 KH I think. So I guess its just down to the importance of KH which helps keep PH stable I think, so maybe I should go with Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ as KH can't be to important, as long as my PH is going to stay stable.

I find it interesting you use rain water, I know I've come across people who use rain water on here for there main tanks, but never looked into it much as never needed rain water for my main tank, I thought in regards to shrimp being so sensitive it would be quite risky to use rain water encase of bacteria etc? I just tested some rain water from my water butt and it read 18TDS, the colour of the water was not that nice either. Is there any chance you have a link saying how to prepare rain water? I'm just generally interested, but am most likely going to stick with RO, don't want to complicate things more.

Thanks for helping.
 
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Mosura mineral plus raises tds and gh. I find with my tap water when the gh reaches 5 my tds is only 120 and it was recommended that I raise the tds to a minimum 130 to avoid the occasional deaths I was getting. I have put a large container under the edge of the plastic corrigated roof of my wood shed to collect water. I can give the roof a wash if it gets a bit dirty. I can also give the container, a 120litre tuffy box, a clean too. Maybe if you gave your water butt a good scrub out it would be usable.

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Oh and I use a product called mosura tds 'up' to raise the tds from 120 to 160 without raising my gh farther but a higher gh shouldn't be such a problem for you.

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Thanks Lindy,

Looks like which ever product I buy, should at least work for Cherries. I guess I will just have to keep changing 10-20% of water each week with the new prepared water, till the tank gradually gets to where I want it.
Where do you buy your Mosura mineral plus, I had a look and could only find it on ebay from Singapore, or the ultra version from sharnbrookshrimp.

It sounds like the Mosura mineral plus is going to be the easiest as liquid is easier to measure, I also guess I don't need any other products, just pure RO and Mosura mineral plus.

Do you seem to have any problems with PH swinging? I read if you have a KH lower than 4 your going to need to keep an eye on PH a lot. Do you think I should be ok? if not what can I do to prepare my self as I don't want a PH crash and all dead shrimp lol.
 
I think I got my mineral plus from sharnbrook shrimp, its the ultra I use. My kh is 0-1 and my ph never moves.

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Thanks for letting me know, and once again thanks for yours and everyone else's help!

Hopefully we will get there in the end. Its obvious the shrimp don't like my current tap water.

I'm still not 100% sure what's the best way about changing the tank water, like I mentioned earlier I guess the 10-20% w/c a week with the new re mineralised RO water is the best route, as I don't want to change it to quick. I guess the shrimp substrates we use are designed to buffer the ph and help with the stability, hopefully my Ebi Gold still has some buffering left, as I've used it with my hard water for the last few months :(

I'm also going to buy a digital ph reader instead of wasting time with the API colour chart, so I can be more accurate and monitor it more quickly and precise.

I cant wait till the day I can see loads of berried females, and have a tank full of shrimp! We've wasted nearly 2 years with all this, I just wish we started with RO etc from the beginning. I guess we was just unlucky with our tap water, well lets hope that's the issue anyway. I can't do much more now surely.

Thanks again.
 
Alastair recommended the Waterlife ph test kit to me as my digital ph tester isn't reliable. You may have more luck with yours.

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Ha, my water spells certain death for shrimp as it is sooo soft. Found out the hard way.

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Hey just a quick update,

The Mosura Mineral Plus arrived today, so think I will give it a shot tomorrow, I have no syringe that can measure lower than 1ml so will have to try and find one that can as I was planning to stick to 10% water changes.
(3 litres)

However can I ask what percentage of water change do you think will increase my breeding chances, or overall what works best for you?

Since I'm now using RO hopefully I won't be as restricted, I was thinking maybe 20% would be better than 10%, and it may give me more moults so more chances of a female getting berried.
 
i measure by drops into a 5 litre water bottle. i find 15 drops takes me to around a tds of 122 to get gh5. i suggest you just add 5 drops at a time and keep testing the water and soon you will know how much to add just by drops to get perfect conditions for the shrimp.
I can't comment on water changes and percentages as my shrimp are quite different to yours but most of the time I do 10% changes but have done 20% changes with no ill effect.
 
I've just noticed that 'shrimpmyhome' is stocking salty shrimp products and are selling a remineralisation salt aimed at cherry shrimp.
 
Hey Lindy,

If your on about the "Salty Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+" I did mention that above, but I see it raises KH. I'm not sure of the importance of KH with cherry shrimp, I think its more to do with PH buffering. But maybe the salty shrimp has better minerals for cherries? I just don't know :(

Anyhow when you mentioned Mosura Mineral Plus, It looked overall a easier product to use, since its liquid and should be easier to use. I've purchased that now and today I used it for the first time.

Not sure how you make do with 15 drops lol, I lost count in the end I used around 50 or more, and got the TDS to 155, with the RO originally being 13TDS.
Lucky for me I measured GH and first time it was on 7 which I'm happy with, so hope that's ok. KH is around 2. Ph 6

I think 6.4 PH is the lowest for cherries, so not sure if that's going to hurt with my ph being a bit lower.

I hope we will still be successful with Mosura Mineral Plus, and hope we don't lose no shrimp.

Do you think I may run into problems? I have done research and cant find much information only some people noticed there red cherry shrimp got more red while using Mosura.

Hope I've not made the wrong choice :(
 
Sorry mate, don't know anything about cherries :(

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That's ok, you have helped me more than enough. I cant see the Mosura Mineral Plus doing much bad, surely its got to be better than my tap water.
If I start seeing deaths or anything, I can always go back to tap real slowly, then purchase some salty shrimp. I just hope it don't come to that.

If this is successful though, maybe one day we will get some CRS and then I can ask you again if we get stuck. :L

I've just seen another berried female, she is quite small, but wow so exited :D .... still we will be waiting months for the shrimplets now lol, but its another step closer to getting loadsssss of cherries :D

I also would of thought people would have said Mosura Mineral Plus killed all my neo shrimp, not sure how many years these products been around, but I would of thought someone would have mentioned something, hope I'm not that person. Anyway will see how it goes, I'm just a little concerned the driftwood in the tank might take the ph lower than 6, not sure if Ebi Gold can buffer up if that makes sense.
 
Hey thanks for letting me know.

We are over the moon and I think I spotted another berried female but her eggs not as yellow and more green. So fingers crossed. Thats 3 berried females in total now, so hopefully things are starting to look up!

Sciencefiction do you know if I will run into issues with the Mosura Mineral Plus and Cherries? Im just worried with PH dropping below 6. I will keep eye on PH though and prey it don't. It will take a few more weeks to get the tank balanced with the new RO.

The tank is 26c also, and thats in a cool room, my main tank been hitting over 30c on some nights. It gets very hot in my room.

I hope I was not to quick to go down the RO route, since these females have now become berried. But hopefully I will learn more this way and gain some experience for the day we move to harder shrimp.
 
As long as your Kh doesn't drop to 0, the Ph should stay stable as that's what buffers the Ph. You don't want your Ph to vary at all. Kh is used up in a tank over time by chemical processes going on, so if you see it dropping prior to regular water change time, you can just raise it a small bit with the minerals in the future water change until you are at a level that never goes down to 0.
I am not experienced at all with mosura plus so I have no idea if it's going to be ok or not with cherries. I keep mine in tap water.
 
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