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Shrimp Tank Water Chemistry Explained: pH, GH, KH, and TDS
Oct 2, 2023
Water parameters such as pH, GH, and KH remain a mystery for many hobbyists, especially those who are new to shrimp keeping. In this video, I share my experiences of keeping Neocaridina and Caridina Shrimp and discuss the optimum parameters for a large, healthy shrimp colony. š š š š š š š š š š š š š Be the first to know when my new Neocaridina Book is due for release https://fishkeepinganswers.com/bethefirst š š š š š š š š š š š š Links to products used in this video š API Copper Test Kit - https://amzn.to/3nOZpWX š Seachem Copper Test Kit - https://amzn.to/3plClzn š Fluval Stratum - https://fishkeepinganswers.com/a7ub (Amazon.com) š Hygrophila corymbosa - https://fishkeepinganswers.com/5rp6 (Amazon.com) š Twisted Vallisneria - https://fishkeepinganswers.com/j5md (Amazon.com) š Cryptocoryne wendtii - https://fishkeepinganswers.com/12no (Amazon.com) š š š š š š š š š š š š
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0:00
In recent weeks I've had an awful lot of people contact me to ask me for advice on water parameters
0:06
for near caradina and caradina shrimp. So in this video I thought I would share with you what I
0:11
consider to be the ideal water parameters for shrimp. Hello friends, welcome back to the channel
0:15
If you're new here my name is Richard and I'm a shrimp keeper based in the UK
0:19
So which parameters are we going to look at today? Well there are dozens and dozens of different
0:24
parameters we could measure but generally speaking the most important ones are water temperature ph
0:31
gh or general hardness kh or carbonate hardness and then we'll add on to the end of the list
0:38
tds or total dissolved solids so let's kick off with temperature now near caradina shrimp are
0:44
generally more forgiving of temperature than their caradina cousins near caradina shrimp your red
0:49
cherry shrimp your your black rose shrimp your green jade shrimp they can typically live in a far
0:55
wider temperature band than caradina shrimp your crystal reds your bees etc ideally near caradina
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shrimp want their water to be between 59 and 86 degrees fahrenheit which is roughly 15 to 30 degrees
1:08
celsius whereas your caradina shrimp they want to be between about 68 and 77 degrees fahrenheit
1:15
which is 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. In my opinion, this does mean that for most of us
1:22
we don't need to heat a near caradina shrimp. Certainly where I live here in the UK
1:27
which is not known for its high temperatures, I don't heat any of my near caradina shrimp tanks behind me
1:32
They typically run at around 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 20 degrees Celsius
1:37
During the winter, when it's cold here in the UK, we have our heating on and that brings the temperature of the room up
1:42
and keeps the shrimp comfortable. If you keep caridina shrimp, and unless you live somewhere really tropical
1:48
then I would suggest you do add a heater to the aquarium to keep the water temperature stable
1:53
Now, the great thing about temperature is it's probably the easiest parameter to measure
1:57
You literally take a two pound, a two dollar thermometer from Amazon
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pop it in the water, give it a minute or two and take the reading. You don't need any special equipment
2:06
If the temperature is too cold, you add a heater, you turn it up and you get the right temperature
2:11
If it's too warm it's a little bit trickier but you can do things like take the lid off your
2:16
aquarium and blow a fan across it and then evaporative cooling will take place and the
2:21
water temperature will drop. But typically temperature is easy to measure and easy to
2:26
adjust. Now one thing to bear in mind especially with your near caradina shrimp, the higher you run
2:32
the temperature the faster the shrimp's metabolism will run. So what does that mean in reality? Well
2:37
think of it this way. The higher the temperature, the faster the shrimp's metabolism runs. Think of
2:42
it like a car. Let's say I'm keeping my shrimp at 68 degrees Fahrenheit and imagine they're living
2:47
their life at 68 miles an hour. But if I'm keeping them at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, they're traveling
2:52
that much faster. Their metabolism is running faster. They will breed more readily. They will
2:56
grow quicker. But the trade-off is they will typically have a shorter life. At 68 degrees
3:02
Fahrenheit, my shrimp might live 18 months to two years. At 86 degrees Fahrenheit, they might live
3:08
10, 12 to 18 months perhaps. They do everything much quicker, but in a shorter space of time
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The higher the temperature, the faster their metabolism will run. So now we have temperature
3:18
sorted, let's look at pH. What exactly do we mean when we say the pH of our shrimp tanks? Well
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the letters pH stand for potential of hydrogen or power of hydrogen. And what does that mean in
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reality Well all that means is it a measurement of how acidic or alkaline your aquarium water is Now pH is measured on a scale of 0 to 14 with 0 being extremely acid and 14 being extremely alkaline
3:44
And in the middle we have 7. 7 is considered neutral. Now here's where we get the first real difference between our neocaridina shrimp and our caridina shrimp
3:53
Neocaridina shrimp, they want the pH to be in the region of 6.5 to 8
3:58
Somewhere in the middle of that is absolutely perfect. whereas your caradina shrimp they want their ph range to be between about 5.5 and 7 and again
4:07
anywhere in that range is absolutely ideal now anybody who's watched pretty much any of my videos
4:13
will tell you one of the most important things when it comes to selecting which shrimp you buy
4:18
is what is the ph of your water i keep near caradina shrimp why because my water comes out
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with a pH of 7.6, give or take it very slightly, but about 7.6. If I wanted to keep carradina shrimp
4:32
in that water for them to be happy and thrive and breed and become a successful colony
4:37
I would have to lower my pH, which is, it's possible, but it is tricky. Equally, if my water
4:43
came out at 6.0, I would be better off keeping carradina shrimp. And it's actually easier to
4:48
raise your pH than to lower it, but stick with the principle of knowing your pH means you
4:54
can select the right shrimp for your water. Measuring the pH of your water is relatively
5:00
simple. You can either use a liquid test kit, which are typically very accurate but take time
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or you can use test strips, which again typically tend to be less accurate, but it's very quick. You
5:11
take the strip, you dunk it in the water, shake it off, you normally give it 60 seconds, you've got
5:15
your reading. The reality is, as long as you're in the ballpark, you don't need to be absolutely
5:21
precise. If I use a test strip and it says my water is 7.4, well that's absolutely fine. I'm in
5:27
the right ballpark for my near-caradina shrimp. I'm happy with that. Personally, I use a combination
5:32
of test strips and liquid test kits. I particularly like the API master test kit for freshwater
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aquariums. It's a little bit pricey, but it does last for ages. If there's one tip you want to take
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away from this video, it's knowing what your pH is generally affects which shrimp will do best in
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your water. So the next parameter we want to look at, and probably the one where new hobbyists
5:52
really start to struggle to get to grips with, is GH or general hardness. And GH is essentially
5:59
a measure of the calcium and magnesium ions in your water. Now without getting bogged down in
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science, this essentially means how hard or soft your water is. And if you run your tap water and
6:12
you typically get calcium deposits around your tap or you find calcium deposits forming in a line
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across the top here then generally speaking that means you have hard water you have a high gh if
6:25
you find you don't get calcium deposits then often that's a sign you have soft water or low general
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hardness there are a low number of magnesium and calcium ions dissolved in your water when it comes
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to shrimp keeping, near Carradina shrimp, they want the GH or the general hardness to be between
6:42
about 4 and 10 degrees of general hardness, whereas your Carradina shrimp want the general
6:48
hardness to be between about 4 and 6 degrees of general hardness. Now unfortunately, just to
6:53
confuse the matter, we across the world use two different measurements for GH and for KH, which
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we'll come on to in a moment. We either measure in degrees of general hardness, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc
7:04
or PPM, parts per million. And this can become challenging when you're reading Facebook posts
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looking on forums watching videos The first person will give you the readings as I just did in degrees of general hardness Another person will then give you it in ppm or parts per million The great news is it relatively easy to convert one to the other and you just either multiply or
7:26
divide by 17.9. If you have one degree of general hardness, you have about 17.9 ppm or parts per
7:34
million, although we typically round up to 18. Knowing your GH is another crucial factor when
7:38
it comes to deciding what shrimp you should keep. I have hard water. My water comes out of the tap
7:44
with a high level of GH. Therefore, I keep near caradina shrimp. They love my water
7:50
If my water came out the tap with a low GH, I would keep caradina shrimp. Again, you can adjust
7:57
your water. You can run your tap water through an RO unit, which basically extracts the calcium
8:03
and magnesium and other things from the water. You can take hard water and make it soft. It's far
8:08
easier in fact to take soft water and make it hard because you just add crushed coral or another
8:12
source of calcium which will dissolve and break down in the water and and raise your GH. Now
8:17
shrimp need calcium both in their diet and in their water. Calcium helps them build strong
8:23
structures, a strong exoskeleton and is a crucial element when it comes to malting. Now if you try
8:29
keeping your neocaridine shrimp in soft water with very low GH with little calcium magnesium
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irons in it, you will have to add a source of calcium, otherwise they're going to struggle to
8:38
malt. You could end up with your shrimp suffering from what they call the white ring of death
8:42
which is essentially where due to lack of calcium in the shrimp's diet, in the shrimp's life
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it's exoskeleton when it comes to malting, it breaks in the wrong place and the shrimp gets
8:51
stuck. That often is put down to having a low GH or not enough calcium in the shrimp's diet
8:58
Now, fortunately, caradina shrimp require slightly less calcium, certainly in the water. They want to
9:02
live in soft water. Knowing your water is absolutely crucial when it comes to choosing
9:09
the right shrimp and for those shrimp to thrive and become a big, strong, colorful colony
9:15
So the next parameter I want to discuss with you is KH or carbonate hardness. Now carbonate hardness
9:22
although it sounds identical to general hardness, measures something different. Carbonate hardness
9:27
measures the amount of carbonates and bicarbonates in your water. And why is this important
9:32
Carbon hardness or KH essentially is your water's ability to buffer pH from swinging
9:41
As I've said dozens and dozens of times, shrimp love stability. Whichever type of shrimp you're keeping, they want their water to be stable
9:49
If your aquarium has a very low or even no KH, then your pH can swing wildly even through the course of a single day
9:58
Now, this can be detrimental to the shrimp and their health. The higher the KH, the greater the buffering capacity, the less likely the pH is to change on a daily or weekly basis
10:10
Corey from Aquarium Co-op has a great way of expressing KH, and that's imagine that your tank's KH is a trash can
10:18
And every time the trash can fills up, the pH swings. If you have very low KH, a very small trash can, very quickly that's going to fill up and your pH can then swing all over the place
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If you have a large trash can or a high KH, it takes longer for that to fill up before your pH starts to swim
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I think that's a great ogy, a great way of putting it. Now, Neoceradena shrimp, they want to live in water that has a KH of between about 1 and 8 degrees of carbonate hardness
10:48
Whereas your Neoceradena shrimp they really want the KH to be between 0 and 2 They don want any carbonate hardness at all Now for me again my tap water has a fairly high KH It perfect for near shrimp If your tap water has
11:02
a high KH, then maybe it's Neo's for you. If it has a very low KH and a very low GH
11:08
then maybe you look at keeping caradena shrimp. They will be happier in your water. And as with
11:13
with KH and GH, you can measure those typically with liquid test kits or with test strips. It
11:19
doesn't really matter which method you use to test, just make sure it fits your budget and the amount
11:22
of time available. If you have perhaps one or two tanks and plenty of time, you go for a liquid test
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kit. If you have dozens of tanks and time is a precious resource, then maybe it's test strips all
11:32
the way and you can do a dozen tanks in five minutes and you've got your results. What's
11:37
important is you know the KH of your tap water before you select and buy your shrimp. Now the
11:44
final parameter I want to touch on today is the one I like talking about the least because I think
11:48
it's the most widely misunderstood and that is TDS or total dissolved solids. Now if you take a
11:56
TDS reading from your tank it measures the total, that's the key word, dissolved solids in your
12:03
water. Now often people take that as meaning how much calcium you have, how much magnesium you have
12:08
but that's not all it's reading. It will also read if you have dechlorinator in your water
12:12
if you have fertilizer, if you have ammonia and nitrites and nitrates, sticking a TDS pen
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into this water here tells me nothing. It helps me in no way whatsoever. I've seen countless
12:23
YouTube videos where somebody's talking about their shrimp tank, they take their TDS reading
12:27
and they go, oh, TDS 100, fabulous. Doesn't mean anything. In my opinion, the only time TDS is
12:35
helpful is if you are running your tap water through an RO, a reverse osmosis unit, an RO
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unit strips all of the carbonate, bicarbonate, chlorine, chloramine etc out of your water
12:49
If you pass water through an RO unit and then you take the TDS, that's a useful piece of
12:55
information because then you know if you need to adjust that water for your shrimp. Let me give you a real world example. I have high GH, high KH, my water has chloramine
13:04
If I wanted to keep caridina shrimp, the only way I could really do that is to run that water
13:09
through an RO unit. That water would then come out pretty much damn near pure. I can then take
13:14
a reading off of that, a TDS reading, and work out from that TDS reading, what do I need to add to
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that water so that I've got a GH of 4 to 6, a KH of 0 to 2. I make that water perfect for my
13:28
Carradina shrimp. Just measuring the TDS of these tanks tells me nothing and it tells you nothing
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Now, typically, of course, your caradina shrimp want a low TDS in their water
13:40
and your neocaradina shrimp, they are quite happy with a higher TDS. In fact, I have no idea what my TDS is because I don't measure it
13:47
but I suspect it's pretty high. And my neocaradina shrimp, they love it
13:51
They do absolutely fine. Neocaradina shrimp thrive in my water. I have a pH of about 7.6
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I have a high GH, a high KH. I have no doubt I have a high TDS
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But you know what? For me, near-caradina shrimp thrive. And that's what's important, what works for me in my water
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Now when you're new to shrimp keeping, or even to fish keeping, getting your head around all of these parameters
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can sometimes prove challenging. It took me years to wrap my head around it
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I mean, I've been keeping shrimp and fish for 30 years. In fact, over that 30 years
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I've developed some really bad shrimp keeping habits. And if you wanna know what my four worst habits are
14:29
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