Fox690156 Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hello, I am relatively new to fish, invert.'s and tank animals of the such.. I have done quite extensive and in-depth research on many things to help me with the fish (not implying I know everything because I don't, but I'm also not dumb). Me and my father have recently got into trying to implement shrimp into 2 of our tanks. One (mine) has just recently been started, about a week ago, and has been tested with the Tetra brand Test strips(haven't gotten around to purchasing better/higher quality water testing kits), and the results were: Nitrate ppm (mg/l) - Freshwater: 20 (Marked as "safe") Nitrite ppm (mg/l) - Freshwater: 0 (Marked as "safe") Total Hardness (GH) ppm - Freshwater: around 50 (Marked in between "soft" and "Very soft") Total Chlorine ppm - (mg/l) - Freshwater: 0 (Marked as "safe") Total Alkalinity (KH) ppm - Freshwater: 200 (Marked in between "Ideal" and "High") pH - Freshwater: In between 7.8-8.4 (Marked as "alkaline") Also my water temp is about 78-79°F, and I drip acclimated the most recent Glass Shrimp at a rate of 1-2 Drops/Sec. for approximately 3.5 hours, before that I tried taking what was originally in bag, and adding 10% of that from my aquarium to their water every 15 or so minutes, until it was just over 50/50 water ratio. In my research I have read that shrimp (Glass, Red Cherry, Red Crystal Shrimp in my cases) prefer ideals of "60-80° F, KH 3-10, pH 6.0-7.6" (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=1075+1898&pcatid=1898). Is that correct parameters for the shrimp? If so, how should I go about lowering my pH and thus my KH to meet what they need? Any "quick fixes"? I do have some of Tetra's easy balance pH, but I have heard of that harming fish and shrimp. Which I have fish, and would like to be able to have shrimp in the tank as well. PS. If you need any more info, just reply with any question, and I will get the information you need A.S.A.P.! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hi Fox and welcome to our forum. Are you planning on keeping shrimp with fish? Are you using tap water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Yes I am planning to keep fish and shrimp. I am using well water. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibikaie Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 How big is the tank? What fish do you have in there? How many shrimp did you get, and how many have died? Keep in mind that if you got feeder glass shrimp from a pet store, they are often stressed, kept in poor conditions, and may not have been fed, so deaths are frankly to be expected no matter what you do. The suppliers expect that they will be fed to fish, not kept as pets, so they are only interested in keeping them alive just long enough to sell them to you. (And that's a pity. Not only do I want to have those shrimp as pets, even when being considered food, their nutritional value would be so much higher if they were healthy.) I definitely suggest acquiring the means to test for ammonia. A tank that has only been set up for a week may not have enough biofiltration to handle the fish load, and there may be ammonia. I have had problems with the Tetra ammonia strips, so I do recommend getting a liquid kit (I prefer strips for nitrite and nitrate due to the inaccurate color chart that comes with the API nitrate kit - it needs to be calibrated for anything over 10 ppm, which is really annoying). Seachem has a little in-tank alert for ammonia, but it can take a few hours to change color and you want faster results if you've got a crisis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 The tank is a 10 gallon, which has been running with no fish in it for a week or week and a half, I started with water from an already established tank, and have done approximately 30-35% WC's the last two days, to possibly remove any nasties in the water, and then added 3 Neon Tetras, and 1 Cory Cat. Then I added the shrimp the next day. The fish are still lively, and still okay. There were 4 small Glass shrimp(from a local store, and meant as pets, not feed.) that were drip acclimated for approximately 3.5-4 hours, at a rate of 1-2 drops/second, until the it was about 80% my tank water, and 20% their water(from bag). All the shrimp died by the following morning. Okay, I most certainly will. Which kind of strips? I've noticed some rank them on a scale of #'s, such as 3, 4, 5 and etc, or ppm? Should I worry about the pH, or alkalinity from what I listed up there ^^ which is in the range of 7.8 and 8.4pH, and approximately 200ppm KH. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 So the tank is not cycled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 I figured that with adding water from an already established tank that I would be able to let it run for a week, then add some fish, and see if I had any spikes from doing so, and I didn't notice anything(although I was only using the Tetra brand test strips..). Then I figured I'd be able to add shrimp? I guess not.. So do you know of a way for me to check and see if I have finished, or how far along my cycle I am? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inverted Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 You mentioned well water I think is that correct ? I know of a number of people that have problems with well water . Just a thought .25 a gallon for water from the water kiosk in grocery stores may solve your problem . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Yes, that is, not Tap water from the city, but Well Water instead. Okay, if not, I'm thinking about setting up an RD system.. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 I figured that with adding water from an already established tank that I would be able to let it run for a week, then add some fish, and see if I had any spikes from doing so, and I didn't notice anything(although I was only using the Tetra brand test strips..). Then I figured I'd be able to add shrimp? I guess not.. So do you know of a way for me to check and see if I have finished, or how far along my cycle I am? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk It can take 3-4 weeks to cycle a tank. Adding water from another tank isn't going to do anything. You need to cycle your tank first before adding any shrimp/fish. Do not use fish to cycle tank. You can get bottled Ammonia. I got mine at Ace Hardware. Make sure the Ammonia you buy doesn't have surfactants in it. Check this out link for doing a fishless cycle. It helped me so much when I was new. You need to know what parameters of your well water is to see if you can use it for keeping shrimp. I had to stop using my tap water because it was going all over the place in parameters. It wasn't stable and it was causing problems with the shrimp. I went all RO water. Check for these of the well water: PH GH KH TDS Test strips are not accurate. A lot people including me use this for testing. The kit does testing for: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH. For testing GH and KH, you can get this or this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Okay, well I did it that way because I read that you can kick start the cycle by adding water from an already matured process, because it already contains the bacterias, and such.. Is that incorrect? Okay. Well I'm in college now, and my tank is back home, so when I move it up I'm going to start using just RO water.. I ordered an API set, that is supposed to test for all of those. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Will the API test kits do okay? I've read that they're pretty good. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 I think those test kits should be accurate enough for your needs. You can speed up a cycle or avoid it completely by seeding your tank. The problem is though the beneficial bacteria isn't in the water it is on the surfaces of tank. You can move filter media or substrate or things like that from your old tank to the new one to speed things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Okay; thank you! Seeding my tank? I vacuumed my other mature tank, to get anything I could out of the substrate, then used the vacuumed water for the first 5 days in my tank. I heard using and old filter from an older tank would speed it up as well, could it? Or no? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Use the old filter will help as long as it was just in the tank (won't help if it was dried out or anything). The bacteria lives on the surface so vacuuming out the water won't really get many of them. You can always take a handful of the substrate though and throw it in a pantyhose or just drop it into the new tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 What kind of pH should I have? It's between 7.4-8.. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 You need a better PH test, but Neos do great with those PHs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 I have the API test kit. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Did you do both PH tests? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Yes. The strip indicated slightly higher than 7.6 The the api indicated slightly higher than 7.2, couldn't tell. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 The liquids are more accurate than strips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 On the API test, the 7.6 PH is a dark blue. For 7.0 and 7.2, I don't see a difference. Have you gotten anything for the GH/KH yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted February 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 @Soothing Shrimp: I know, it's the same thing we used to test for pH in AP Chemistry.. Like Bromothymol Blue. @GreenBliss: I was meaning that I couldn't tell if it was quite 7.6, or lower, and closer to 7.2.. Yet higher than 7.2... No, I've been putting it on hold here lately, because I'm fixing to have to change tanks.. I can't even have a 10g in my dorm room, so I'm getting the Fluval Spec V.. The 5g, or around there.. So once I'm done with that, I will start posting water tests again.. And then I'll have the ability to test when needed, rather than having my father send me results. Also, I apparently have had a crazy algae bloom here lately, I just found out about it, any ideas to remove the algae, or to prevent? I had read up on what causes algae blooms and all at one point, but seem to have forgotten, and figured I'd ask you guys rather than skim the web.. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenBliss Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 How long are you leaving the lights on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox690156 Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 My father cycles them with the other tanks, which is about 8 am, the lights get turned on, and about 10 they get turned off. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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