TDS Discussion

[sai_786]

Hi Guys I Am New to this hobby and I am Holding 3 planted tanks at my home one for shrimp and one for betta and one for planted only first we talk about shrimp tank it was established by November 2023 with ADA soil and The Tank Parameters Are As Follows
RO Water 50 TDS
I Used Seachem Equilibrium 15 Grams To Raise GH to 4 Degrees .
PH 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Fertilizer Seachem NPK Fe And Trace As Per Instructions.
TDS After Adding Seachem Equilibrium Its 220 Is It OK To This TDS Or Will It Affect The Plants And Shrimp And Advice Me Is The Best TDS For Plants And Shrimp

 

[tam]

Your RO water with nothing added is 50? It should be zero or atleast under ten.

What type of shrimp? For cherry shrimp, you really want you gh atleast 6. Equilibrium only adds gh not kh - you might could consider a shrimp specific remineraliser if you are just keeping shrimp.

Alternatively you could mix the RO with a bit of tap water to act as a remineraliser e.g. if you tap water GH18 then to get GH6 use 2 parts RO and one part tap.

 

[John q]

TDS After Adding Seachem Equilibrium Its 220 Is It OK To This TDS Or Will It Affect The Plants And Shrimp

I'm not an expert shrimp keeper but a tds of 220ppm in and of itself isn't likely to harm them, or the plants. Most shrimp keeper's would suggest this should be lower though.

I Used Seachem Equilibrium 15 Grams To Raise GH to 4 Degrees .

The problem with Equilibrium, which has been mentioned in numerous threads is a) its expensive and b) adds loads of unnecessary potassium, around 46ppm K to reach 4 dgh.

"IF" you want to reduce the tds ditch the Equilibrium and simply remineralise the ro water with MgSO4 and CaSO4.

 

[MichaelJ]

RO Water 50 TDS

Assuming your TDS meter is correct (!), this is extremely high if it's straight out of the RO system. I can only imagine that could happen if your cartridges / membrane are faulty or long overdue for a replacement. This number should be in the single digit.

TDS After Adding Seachem Equilibrium Its 220

220 ppm is pretty high. Depending on the EC to TDS conversion factor (TDS=EC x k, EC = TDS x 1/k). Assuming it's 0.5 ( EC = TDS * 1.0/0.5) that would make your Electrical Conductivity (EC) 440 uS/cm (all TDS meters measures EC and the EC is really what we care about as it directly influences osmotic pressure). Some common conversation factors depending on calibration reference and measurement range are 0.5, 0.65, 0.7. IF your TDS meter happens to use x 0.7 (not very common) then your EC is actually only 315 uS/cm.

But let's assume your meter uses 0.5.

As @John q prescribe above just use food-grade Gypsum Salt (CaSO4) and food-grade Epsom Salt (MgSO4) instead. This will get you comfortably below 180 ppm (360 uS/cm). "Fixing" your RO will knock off an additional ~40 ppm ... that will make your water EC close to perfect for most dwarf shrimps.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[sai_786]

Assuming your TDS meter is correct (!), this is extremely high if it's straight out of the RO system. I can only imagine that could happen if your cartridges / membrane are faulty or long overdue for a replacement. This number should be in the single digit.



220 ppm is pretty high. Depending on the EC to TDS conversion factor (TDS=EC x k, EC = TDS x 1/k). Assuming it's 0.5 ( EC = TDS * 1.0/0.5) that would make your Electrical Conductivity (EC) 440 uS/cm (all TDS meters measures EC and the EC is really what we care about as it directly influences osmotic pressure). Some common conversation factors depending on calibration reference and measurement range are 0.5, 0.65, 0.7. IF your TDS meter happens to use x 0.7 (not very common) then your EC is actually only 315 uS/cm.

But let's assume your meter uses 0.5.

As @John q prescribe above just use food-grade Gypsum Salt (CaSO4) and food-grade Epsom Salt (MgSO4) instead. This will get you comfortably below 180 ppm (360 uS/cm). "Fixing" your RO will knock off an additional ~40 ppm ... that will make your water EC close to perfect for most dwarf shrimps.

Cheers,
Michael

Hi Michael at begining my RO water was just 90 what I have done to raise the GH to 4 Degrees I used seachem equilibrium of 15 grams so it went like this what can be done just say

 

[sai_786]

Your RO water with nothing added is 50? It should be zero or atleast under ten.

What type of shrimp? For cherry shrimp, you really want you gh atleast 6. Equilibrium only adds gh not kh - you might could consider a shrimp specific remineraliser if you are just keeping shrimp.

Alternatively you could mix the RO with a bit of tap water to act as a remineraliser e.g. if you tap water GH18 then to get GH6 use 2 parts RO and one part tap.

Ya that sounds good idea of mixing tap water

 

[Le duke]

Hi Michael at begining my RO water was just 90 what I have done to raise the GH to 4 Degrees I used seachem equilibrium of 15 grams so it went like this what can be done just say

How was your RO 90???


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