RO water good/bad?

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:10 am

Just make sure you don't feed *too much* spinach or might have "unexplained" deaths, days or weeks later. I've lost whole populations to spinach overfeeding. And yes, it was organic spinach. I personally do not recommend feeding spinach at all as it contains a lot of oxalic acid with interferes with calcium intake...not good. The effect of the oxalic acid seems to be cumulative as shrimp will gobble up spinach for days without any external effect, but start dying several days or weeks later. Just a warning.

Mikee · Post by **Mikee** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:46 am

thanks! i shall try some spinich sometime soon see how they like it ill keep u updated on how my crs do in the next couple weeks i hope to see eggs soon

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:58 am

I would feed them kale instead of spinach.

There's also some seaweed stuff (the stuff you wrap sushi in but I can't remember the name...Nor or something) which they are supposed to love nibbling.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:50 am

i had the same adventure as mustafa with spinach

now i used (from the great idea of badflash) "dandelion" and i have a very good result.

MoltenLava · Post by **MoltenLava** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:05 am

I feed my cherry shrimps zucchinis every 1-2 weeks. I cut zucchinis into small 1 inch cubes, boil them, and drop a couple of pieces in the tank. After a few minutes, it's a cherry shrimp town hall meeting! Every single shrimps come out enjoy the feast. And that's how I counted all 23 shrimps in my tank.

milalic · Post by **milalic** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:04 am

zapisto wrote:i had the same adventure as mustafa with spinach
now i used (from the great idea of badflash) "dandelion" and i have a very good result.

First time I hear this. Will have to search for the thread.

Cheers,
Pedro

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:26 pm

Lots of foods have oxalates. These can have problems if overfed, but don't get put off just because a food has oxalates. I'm running some experiments with shrimps & snails and what my early indications are is this: If the calcium levels are higher than the oxalate level, in general there will be no problems. Spinich has more oxalate than calcium so I don't use it. Dandelion has more (by a lot) calllcium than oxalate, so you can use it. Never feed exclusively on a single food. I never feed more than 50% of any food.

Just to put this in perspective, most green leafy veggies contain oxalates to various levels as do green beans and chocolate. While I won't feed chocolate to shrimp, I'm sure as heck not going to pass it up because ithas oxalates.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:14 pm

I think that the key here is moderation if feeding foods with oxalates! Less feeding amount and time whether we are tlaking about spinach or chocolate

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:11 am

Hey badflash & Neonshrimp you can give me the chocolate.

milalic · Post by **milalic** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:52 pm

badflash wrote:Yes, I have been for some time, but right now I'm just keeping Bamboo and vampire shrimps here. The fish food seems to add enough minerals.

What is the PH out of your R/O?

Thanks

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:56 am

The pH of R/O water doesn't mean much as there is nothing it it to hold the pH. Mine measures out at around 8, but as soon as I add it to the tank it is no longer even close as what is in the tank buffers it. My acidic tank runs about 6.7 and adding the R/O water doesn't change that.

Mikee · Post by **Mikee** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:22 pm

My R/O PH is 6.5 my dad when he did water changes on his discus tanks a long time ago he said he used a mix or tap and R/O and did about 50% or so
and the PH would drop down to 6 and lower sometimes the lowest it can almost go at times over a couple months.