NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 So I recently bought 10 dream blue velvet shrimp 2 and a half weeks ago. For 2 weeks they lived in a 20g long that I set up for them with a random ass mixture of tap water and R/O water from the grocery store that I honestly couldn't tell you the parameters of. They lived perfectly and molted without issue and I had zero deaths. So I had 10 shrimp in a 20 long and a goldfish in a 10g so I decided it didn't make sense and I was going to switch the tanks. I took everything out of the 10g and put brand new substrate, plants, and driftwood and put the java moss from the old tank into the new one. I decided with this new tank I was going to try to get to better water parameters so I got R/o from the grocery store that has 0gh and low kh and decided to do another tap mixture. I did 8 gallons r/o 1 gallon tap and ended up around 6.3 ph so I went to the pet store to buy a ph stabilizer to get the ph around 7. I bought seachem neutral regulator and put it in the water. I acclimated them over a period of 2 hours. The water was and is still at gh 25, 100kh, ph 7. Ammonia, nitrates, chlorine all zero. Yesterday I found a dead shrimp in the new tank and today I found 2 dead shrimp in the new tank. Is there something wrong with my water or my tank? I used driftwood from a local lake. I boiled it for 5 hours then soaked it for 3 days then froze it for a day and let it thaw. Could that be the issue? I only had 2 males and I lost one today so I'm very anxious and want to get it fixed asap. I found that all the dead ones were chilling on the top of the hmf filter foam right by the surface before they died. Also I hadn't gotten my air pump in the mail for the hmf filter so I had an air stone on a worse air pump going the past 2 days. Also I'm playing around with a new heater (it's from ebay so it's off by a few degrees so I had to play with it to figure out what I had to have it turned to to be 76 degrees) so the water was switching from 76-78 slowly yesterday. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0pey Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Don't play with Ph... How are you testing your gh and kh? That looks ridiculously high.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Don't play with Ph... How are you testing your gh and kh? That looks ridiculously high.. Test strips. I work at petsmart so I just take some home. Would they have been fine in the 6.3 ph? It worried me. Our water straight out the tap here is gh 220 kh 170. In the 20long I know for sure the gh and kh were both above 100 and had no deaths. Now I start trying to get the water what the internet tells me to get it to and they die Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schaferaquatics Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I recomend never using tap water. I wouldnt even recomend drinking it. Buy ro and remineralize it yourself then you know exactly what it conposition is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I have another gallon of the r/o left and i tested it and it's 0 gh 20 kh 6.2ph. Should I do water changes with that??? The water the goldfish was kept in before I switched tanks was a way different ph so I'm assuming I just killed off all the bacteria from then and now it's basically an uncycled tank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I recomend never using tap water. I wouldnt even recomend drinking it. Buy ro and remineralize it yourself then you know exactly what it conposition is. With what should I remineralize it with? I don't have they money to buy an r/o unit right now and the r/o i have access to test 0gh 20kh 6.2ph. I read that kh for dream blue velvet should be 0-8. How would I lower it? And how would i lower it while also trying to raise the gh from 0? And also raising the ph to 7? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amyers22 Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Test strips are really inaccurate. The GH reading on the test strip isn't the same as the reading for the GH test kit. I would recommend purchasing an API GH test kit, an API pH test kit, and a TDS meter. If your shrimp were doing well in the other tank slowly acclimate them back to that tank until you get the smaller tank cycled and parameters stable. Petsmart carried a mesh breeder box that would work that way your fish wouldn't eat them. I wouldn't use tap water at all. NotKelly 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Test strips are really inaccurate. The GH reading on the test strip isn't the same as the reading for the GH test kit. I would recommend purchasing an API GH test kit, an API pH test kit, and a TDS meter. If your shrimp were doing well in the other tank slowly acclimate them back to that tank until you get the smaller tank cycled and parameters stable. Petsmart carried a mesh breeder box that would work that way your fish wouldn't eat them. I wouldn't use tap water at all. Just bought them. I put new water into the old tank to put my goldfish in it so basically I just costed myself some shrimp. I hope a few survive until I can get the water sorted out. All part of learning the hobby I guess. :/ Thank you for all the help I really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyana Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Test drips usually measure in ppm, so if that's what yours are, gh of 25 is way too low. Neos need at least 80 and are better with 120 + or around gh 5-9. I wouldn't worry about kh honestly. Stable prememters are more important than chasing some magic numbers. Also I know you say ammonia and stuff is zero, but taking everything out of the tank could very well have thrown the tank into a mini cycle. You need to test for ammonia and nitrite with a good test kit. Are you at least using the old filter? There are too many things going on right now to pin point one thing. You need to remineralize with shrimp minerals, I use Salty Shrimp gh+ but any one that's made for shrimp will work just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Test drips usually measure in ppm, so if that's what yours are, gh of 25 is way too low. Neos need at least 80 and are better with 120 + or around gh 5-9. I wouldn't worry about kh honestly. Stable prememters are more important than chasing some magic numbers. Also I know you say ammonia and stuff is zero, but taking everything out of the tank could very well have thrown the tank into a mini cycle. You need to test for ammonia and nitrite with a good test kit. Are you at least using the old filter? There are too many things going on right now to pin point one thing. You need to remineralize with shrimp minerals, I use Salty Shrimp gh+ but any one that's made for shrimp will work just fine. Man I wish I knew the strips were a different number... My old tank was probably fine :/. Anyway, I just bought an api test kit. When people say "gh 6" sorta thing, that's the reading for the api test kit correct? Now I feel dumb.. I was trying to go for like 14 gh.. so I thought 14ppm using my strips.. I guess it's all part of learning I appreciate all the feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 God now I can't get over how dumb I am for not knowing there are two different units of measurement for water parameters. I want to hit myself in the head with a book. I tried to "fix" the water thinking I was helping them but their water before was fine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyana Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Man I wish I knew the strips were a different number... My old tank was probably fine :/. Anyway, I just bought an api test kit. When people say "gh 6" sorta thing, that's the reading for the api test kit correct? Now I feel dumb.. I was trying to go for like 14 gh.. so I thought 14ppm using my strips.. I guess it's all part of learning I appreciate all the feedback. Yeah, anyone talking about gh 6 is going off of api or similar test. No need to feel dumb, pretty much happens to everyone starting out in shrimp keeping, in one form or another Lord knows I made plenty of mistakes . But you're in a great place to learn. Pretty sure everyone here has killed they fair share of shrimp trying to "fix" things. Amyers22, Wygglz and NotKelly 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wygglz Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 As a newbie to this forum, I have to say... isn't this a great group? Even with all of my silly questions, not one person has made me feel like an idiot, everyone has been helpful, and everyone admits to having made mistakes. Just stick with this group. I believe they can help anyone through shrimp challenges and the basic learning curve as well. Lyana 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amyers22 Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Just bought them. I put new water into the old tank to put my goldfish in it so basically I just costed myself some shrimp. I hope a few survive until I can get the water sorted out. All part of learning the hobby I guess. :/ Thank you for all the help I really appreciate it. We have all been new to this hobby and made many mistakes. I did the same thing you did. I thought the GH reading on the strip was the same as the GH reading everyone else got using the GH kit. I'm still making mistakes and learning something new everyday. It's hard to lose shrimp and it can be very discouraging. The good news is that everyone on this forum is here to help one another. I spent a lot of money learning by experience before I found the shrimp spot. I still spend money making mistakes, but the people here always help me figure things out and come up with a solution. Lyana and Wygglz 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Exactly - we were all newbies once. One thing about the gh in particular, is that people rarely use units. They assume everybody knows what they mean. Also, you might want to think about eliminating the heater. I was skeptical, but took a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKelly Posted August 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2015 We have all been new to this hobby and made many mistakes. I did the same thing you did. I thought the GH reading on the strip was the same as the GH reading everyone else got using the GH kit. I'm still making mistakes and learning something new everyday. It's hard to lose shrimp and it can be very discouraging. The good news is that everyone on this forum is here to help one another. I spent a lot of money learning by experience before I found the shrimp spot. I still spend money making mistakes, but the people here always help me figure things out and come up with a solution. I'm glad to know i'm not the only one that has made that mistake lol. No one really used units on anything I've read so I was just like... ok 14 ppm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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