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3-4 is perfect Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

if you have readings above 0 for ammonia & nitrites, your tank is not cycled or is going through a mini cycle. For most of us(there are exceptions) we do not change that much water nor that often. I do 10% once a week. I noticed when I do more my shrimp do not fare well and go into hiding. Keeping your ph stable is more important than getting it to a certain number. By getting to a certain ph number you have to introduce something(peat, active substrate, etc) that will burn out after a while and if you are not on top of it when it happens, it could stress your shrimp. I clean my sponge filters little by little (with old tank water) In my 20g longs I have 2 double sponge filters running. every couple months I will take ONE of the sponges out of four and shake it around and squeeze it in a bucket of water coming out of the tank during a water change. Then the next week I will do the same with a different sponge. I repeat this until all 4 sponges are done. It takes me 4 weeks to clean all 4 sponges from one tank. I do this so that I do not bother the bacteria colonies on all 4 sponges at the same time. Some times fish/shrimp are more active when their water parameters are bothering them. This has happened to one of my fish tanks before when I had an ammonia spike, all of my fish in that tank were much more active than normal until I corrected the situation.

Thank you for your time and the advice you have given! I really appreciate it as I have learned more. Cheers!

Shrimps are usually more active after a water Change and yeah just expect funny activity from these guys man . Those shrimp are so hardy they can be in people canister filters it's crazy. Don't worry too much just keep doing small water changes until you get to 0 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea, the ph has been bugging me so much. Ill look into peat or other ways to try to lower it. But, its been staying at 8.0 and has never changed. It is stable, but I would prefer it to be stable at a lower ph level ... Yes, my tank has been cycled. I havent done frequent water changes until this week, because I did not rinse out my sponge filter. I probably did around 20% water changes every 5 days or a week later. I was so confused about my sponge filter. I read a few people talking about making sure to not clean it so that the bacteria can stay alive. About 2 days ago I saw my tank get really cloudy, and it was because my sponge filter had a lot of stuff. Maybe poop? I barely squeezed it and a bunch of stuff came floating out. After that quick rinse (which I did with the water from the tank in a bucket), the tank got back to normal. So, they were quite active and always grazing on my moss and cholla wood for a long time. Until two days ago with the cloudy water. I am just confused as to why they are doing well atm with the current ammonia,nitrate,nitrite levels. Im just confused. sorry. Still have a lot to learn. Ill keep in mind about how they are less active than cardinas.

Little bit of both. Usually kept in soft water BUT can be acclimated to tap. If they're breeding, that's a great sign that their offsprings will become used to the water and they're doing fine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No pizza delivery?! I would contact the mayor or get a petition started lol.

Everyone get ready for big changes I got a lot going on and a lot is about to happen here shortly.

2 week old f3 batch. Looks like I'm getting closer or I got it right this time.