New (Almost) Shrimper

[MarchHare]

Greetings:
Used to keep shrimps when I lived in Florida.
Interested in getting back to having a invert tank.
Checking my present tank parameters which pretty closely mirror my filtered well water I find:
PH: 5.70
DKH: 2
DKH seems a bit low.
According to the (SERA) test kit, ideal would be 5.0.
Really would appreciate your thoughts on this and the possibilities of my future invert tank.
Please let me know if more information is needed.
Thank you
March

 

[Munroco]

PH seems a bit low too.
 
I've only recently started keeping shrimp so I can't offer much advice but I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures.
.

 

[Baccus]

 What kind of shrimp did you keep in Florida?
For most of the shrimp that are commonly kept in aquaria I think both your levels (pH and gH) seem a bit low. Cherry shrimp being the adaptive creatures they are may acclimatise to your water without having to adjust the pH and gH with every water change or top up, but it would take time and probably a few losses. I am sure I have read about cherry shrimp being kept in basically a large outdoor tub that only received water top ups from rain, so I would imagine that the water they where in would be quite soft. You would probably also find that you would need to add either shrimp soil or shrimp balls to stablise the water and the balls to give the shrimp the necessary minerals they need for healthy growth and breeding.
 
Another thing to keep in mind with shrimp (and I have noticed this especially with cherry shrimp) is that once they are accustomed to your water they can be absolutely stunning, but if they are not happy with the water paramaters especially if newly purchased from some where with entirely different water chemistry then the shrimp can totally drop their colour or just drop dead for what seems like no reason. I once purchased some yellow cherry shrimp, they arrived beautiful bright lemon yellow, with in almost no time they had dropped their colour and then just disappeared. I know the seller had sent me the right shrimp, it was just that they didn't like my water. Thankfully Black cherry shrimp don't seem to have the same aversion to my water, and are looking beautiful with glossy almost blue black bodies.