# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Invertebrates >  Cherry shrimp not surviving

## hydrophilic

Hi all,

We've recently discovered that cherry shrimp are unable to survive in our planted tank and suspect this could be due to the excessive hardness of the water (gH above 180). 

Whilst surfing the web for ways to reduce our tank's gH levels, we came across a across a product known as a water softening pillow. Would anyone know where this product is available in Singapore or where we would be able to obtain other products which could be used to reduce gH levels?

Any help would be most appreciated.  :Smile:

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## Shadow

What do you put in your tank? Not sure about gH, never measure it but many of us are using tap water without a problem. What is your tap water gH? Anyone ever measure the Singapore tap water gH? just for comparition.

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## Navanod

> What do you put in your tank? Not sure about gH, never measure it but many of us are using tap water without a problem. What is your tap water gH? Anyone ever measure the Singapore tap water gH? just for comparition.


Its very very low...almost zero for me (1 drop of the testing solution and color changes already). According to PUB, it can be 20-120ppm or 1-7 dGH.
1 dGH = 17.848 ppm

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## Starlett

Do u add any fertilizers in your planted tank? Any traces of copper, etc?

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## hydrophilic

Actually we don't think the issue is the tap water as shrimp could survive before. More likely the increase in hardness was caused by a rock which we put into the tank. It's gone now but gH levels are still very high hence this thread.

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## Shadow

do large water change that should help restart the water parameter but dont do it in one go, because that will cause shock to your fauna

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## avex30

Sg tap water gh is 1-2 immediately remove the rock do water change with pure drinkin water I said again pure drinking water not mineral water

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## lizhien

ie distilled water. Get those 1.5L ones from NTUC. 2 for $0.95

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## xconnect.

i use ice mountain for my fire reds i bought one box (12inside) 6$ so cfm no water problem but two weeks need buy one box to maintain

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## Jianyuan

> i use ice mountain for my fire reds i bought one box (12inside) 6$ so cfm no water problem but two weeks need buy one box to maintain


You're using mineral water to top up your tank water?

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## davincey

Ice mountain has mineral content, not exactly distilled water right?

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## Jianyuan

Mineral water are not distilled water. Distilled water does not have any mineral content at all.

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## hydrophilic

Wow thanks to all for the useful replies. We bought a bottle of blackwater essence from an lfs yesterday but may give the distilled water solution a try as well. 

Will likely take awhile though, it takes us more than 40(!) drops of the testing solution to get the required colour change. Guess I won't be getting any more shrimp any time soon.  :Sad:

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## marimo

I have not measure GH/KH
which one is more important?

What range is suitable for cherry shrimps?

How does a rock affect the GH? Or how will i know if the rock i am adding will affect GH? Does Lava rock affect?

One thing about the distill water i got call LIFE is acidic PH 6.0, just to take note !

Thanks!

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## xconnect.

ice mountian is drinking water so it has nothing in it not mineral water.mineral water will shoot up gh i think

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## avex30

> ice mountian is drinking water so it has nothing in it not mineral water.mineral water will shoot up gh i think


I think your ice mountian have some content inside pure water are those like JianYuan mention distill pure when you look at the label all is put as 0. All the supermarket have them some will lable is pure drinking water but when you look at the content it is actually more to mineral water. So got ntuc brand 1 carton i only use it to do top no water change. I still using age water to do water change.

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## xconnect.

> I have not measure GH/KH
> which one is more important?
> 
> What range is suitable for cherry shrimps?
> 
> How does a rock affect the GH? Or how will i know if the rock i am adding will affect GH? Does Lava rock affect?
> 
> One thing about the distill water i got call LIFE is acidic PH 6.0, just to take note !
> 
> Thanks!


gh more important i think as high gh will cause a molting problem which will cause your shrimps to die eventually

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## cheetf

> Hi all,
> 
> We've recently discovered that cherry shrimp are unable to survive in our planted tank and suspect this could be due to the excessive hardness of the water (gH above 180). 
> 
> Whilst surfing the web for ways to reduce our tank's gH levels, we came across a across a product known as a water softening pillow. Would anyone know where this product is available in Singapore or where we would be able to obtain other products which could be used to reduce gH levels?
> 
> Any help would be most appreciated.


What do you have inside your tank other than the plants? Any rocks? What is the substrate that you are using? Post a full tank shot of your tank, it might help identifying the source of the high GH.

Use PURE DISTILLED Water to reduce the GH not pure drinking water like ice mountain. Pure drinking water most likely means that it is tap water that has been filtered.

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## freshfish

> What do you have inside your tank other than the plants? Any rocks? What is the substrate that you are using? Post a full tank shot of your tank, it might help identifying the source of the high GH.
> 
> Use PURE DISTILLED Water to reduce the GH not pure drinking water like ice mountain. Pure drinking water most likely means that it is tap water that has been filtered.


bro any idea where to get pure distilled water? those found in supermarts are not 100% distilled ...

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## kermit13sg

Apparently NTUC has them...

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## cheetf

> bro any idea where to get pure distilled water? those found in supermarts are not 100% distilled ...


Hehehe, make your own? Yah think you are right, those at found at the supermarkets are not 100% distilled but those that are labelled distilled water are 'PURE' enough for our purposes. Our concern is not adding any more minerals into the tank. I tried the no frills brand and my TDS meter actually read 0, and to me that is pure enough. I will buy another bottle later to test again later to see if the readings are also 0.

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## eviltrain

life brand distilled water. 



7ppm in reading 



my tank water reading.

DISTILLED WATER = no mineral inside, low in TDS 

Drinking water / mineral water = with minerals inside, 100-150 in TDS

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## cheetf

Yup, that reading is 'pure' enough for me. My tap water reads 70 or so

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## freshfish

> life brand distilled water. 
> 
> 
> 
> 7ppm in reading 
> 
> 
> 
> my tank water reading.
> ...


i tested before also , cant remember the TDS , thanks for sharing

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## avex30

> Yup, that reading is 'pure' enough for me. My tap water reads 70 or so


same 70 from my tap also

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## Oliverpool

> What do you put in your tank? Not sure about gH, never measure it but many of us are using tap water without a problem. What is your tap water gH? Anyone ever measure the Singapore tap water gH? just for comparition.



Mine is around 3 the few times I checked.

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