Lowering the ph in my RCS tank

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jim532

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Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
162
Location
Los Angeles, CA
I've got a 5 gallon Fluval spec shrimp tank with red cherries I've got some Java moss, peacock moss, hornwort, a Java fern and wisteria, 2 anubia nan petite, and some driftwood.
The plants are thriving.
PH is almost 8, TDS is 622 tonight. I've ordered a gh and kh test kit so haven't tested yet. I got a copper test kit and I'm at 0 ppm. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. Nitrate looks to be about 5ppm

It seems like if I add shrimp I lose about half within 72 hours after drip acclimating. I've had shrimp mate and give birth 2 times since the beginning of the year. Last week I lost 3 berried shrimp.

I'm beginning to think my tap water. is slowly killing them because of high ph. My tap water is only slightly lower ph and has a TDS of 418.
I have a container of RO from the water store ph is around 6.8, TDS is 9 ppm. I'd like to slowly and safely lower the ph in hopes of preserving and growing the population

What is the best way to safely lower the PH?


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I would do water changes and gradually increase RO and decrease Tap. The TDS may be killing them more than the pH.

If you end up going straight RO make sure you remember to re-mineralize the water.


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With a high TDS coming from the tap water I don't think I'll ever get it to a low level. Ill be happy if I can get from what I've read if I can keep TDS below 200 I'm in the safe zone. I'm going to cross my fingers and see if I can accomplish that with no more than a 50/50 mixture of tap and RO. I don't have an RO unit but in California we have water Stores that sell RO at 25 cents a gallon.

I started today I removed 1 cup of water and added 1 cup of RO. I just don't know how gradual I need to change or how often to lower the ph and TDS in a safe manner.

Basically I'm going to get it started and I'll need to have a step by step plan for my wife to follow up because in 5 days I'll be out of town for almost 2 weeks




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In a 5g in the future, you might look at ADA Amazonia or similar Shrimp substrate. I have it in one of my 5.5g tanks. Grows plants like mad. Annoyingly light. I uproot plants if I do anything with my hand in the tank. I usually have to use my scaping tools

It dropped my pH from 7.2 to 6.4 if I remember right.

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Right now i have plain old aquarium gravel from petco. This didn't start out as a shrimp tank. It was a refugee tank when assassin snails were bugging the rabbit snails and nerites. Now its evolved into a shrimp tank.
 
I just use distilled water to keep my tds between 200-250. Works great in all my shrimp tanks.

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