Water quality and additives.

[Mech]

Now I know everyone has their own opinions for the water in the opae ula tank, be it weekly, monthly or yearly water changes... But one thing I wanted to ask was, do any of you keepers remineralise your RO/distilled water before adding it to your tank?

[hardware_failure]

I think the general consensus when "topping off" with RO/distilled water is to NOT remineralize. (and certainly not add any new marine salt) If you are actually doing a full on water change then it would be RO/distilled water with the salt. Most people keep some sort of crushed coral etc in the tank to keep up the mineral hardness.

[Nexus6]

I add just a few tiny drops of chitin+vitamins when i do water changes. You dont need to remineralize unless you dont have any calcium carbonate rocks or use RO/DI. Even then, i would try not to supplement unless you see the shrimp having molting issues.

[Mech]

I have to remineralise my fresh water shrimp tanks water because I live in am area where my tap water is super soft, like 60TDS and I had moulting issues.


Edit : I don't use calcium carbonate blocks as I have ocean rock in my tank, pH sits at around 8.2 - 8.4 constantly.

[KenCotigirl]

Hello. Some basics. When water evaporates the minerals are left behind. If you remineralize when you top off you increase the mineral content of the water. If you follow Mustafa's low tech method water changes are not needed. Also most everything you learned about keeping freshwater shrimp does not apply to Opae Ula. One exception is to maintain consistant water parameters.

Ken

[Mech]

Yup that's how it works but initially do you need to remineralise your water?

[KenCotigirl]

No. The instant ocean adds all the minerals the shrimp need. Tap or ro does not matter.

Ken

[Mech]

Good to know Ken, thanks for the reply... It's always nice to be reasured

[Mustafa]

I add just a few tiny drops of chitin+vitamins when i do water changes.

Why exactly are you doing water changes? And why add any additives? In Supershrimp tanks that are fed every 2 weeks or less (with adequate lighting) you end up with 0 nitrates, phosphates etc.. Water changes are entirely unnecessary. And so are additives.