Nuthatch Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 I need to know if I am doing this terribly wrong. The tank is a 9 gallon Eheim Aquastyle, 12x12x14. Inhabitants are CPDs, 2 Otos, and only 3 neo shrimp. And a ton of snails. The way I have been changing water is to suck out about a gallon, then replace it with a room temperature gallon of tap water treated with Prime. That's it. I don't match temperatures other than room temperature. I haven't tested the water in over a month (that's the husband's job, and life has been rough lately). I used to have more shrimp, so it is possible that my casual approach to water changing has done them in. However, there are many other reasons they could be gone, too, such as overheating early on. I'm not ready to analyze all the possibilities yet, I'm just trying to get a handle on my water changing. Here's a pre-emptive thank you to anyone kind enough to reply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaykidding Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Well we do need to know the water parameters to know what's going on tap water may be a part of it but we don't know for sure since we don't know your parameters. If you can get an ro di system that would be better for your shrimp and other invertebrates instead of tap and prime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revolutionhope Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 hi nuthatch, most advanced shrimpkeepers will try to match pH, TDS and temperature of the change water but none of this is likely to cause neocaridina too much stress, they are very hardy shrimps unless you have a more fussy one (in australia i know high quality YCS get stressed way easier than most other ones) In any case, even with much more sensitive shrimp than neos, breeders will top-up their tanks with RO or rainwater to replace evaporation and the rain/RO water has basically zero TDS and also usually has wrong pH as well. in my experience by far the most important factor when changing water (or moving shrimp from tank to tank or receiving a shipment of shrimp) is letting the water change happen very very very gradually. e.g. 2-3 hours if possible. in doing so it means the animals have lots of time to adapt and will hardly be bothered at all. there are a number of ways of doing this but a simple common method to drip the change water in is to use airline tubing and create a syphon to take the water into the tank. you can use a control-valve which costs a few cents or just tie a knot in the tube to reduce flow to a slow drip. you can imagine the aquarium water temperature is barely going to be affected by the water coming in so slowly in this way and it gives the tank inhabitants lots and lots of time to gradually adjust to the new conditions, much the same as they would in nature if there was a big downpour of rain / fast flow of water resulting in a change of parameters for example. no doubt someone more knowledgeable here will back me up or clarify/correct what i've said but imo the main thing with WC is definitely to do it very very slowly or else you will stress the livestock. as a sidenote - something comes to mind regarding the shrimps you have lost - were the ones that are missing small males or young females perhaps? hopefully they didn't become danio dinner immediately after moulting? love n peace will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpy Daddy Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I do 10% water change once every two weeks. Once I take the old water out, I just pour the new water straight in at one shot. The key thing you have to take note is the temperature of the new water and not really the rest of the parameters (provided you are using consistent remineralising method). Large temperature swing may kill shrimp. Hence, don't use water that has huge temperature difference. During winter, I will put a heater in my new water container to match the tank water temperature. RyeGuy411 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuthatch Posted August 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 in my experience by far the most important factor when changing water (or moving shrimp from tank to tank or receiving a shipment of shrimp) is letting the water change happen very very very gradually. e.g. 2-3 hours if possible. in doing so it means the animals have lots of time to adapt and will hardly be bothered at all. So it sounds like, if nothing else, I should be adding the replacement water slowly. In our 36gallon tank I just replace a few gallons with impunity (also there are no shrimp) so I never really thought about the speed/volume of the incoming water. Duh! Since I can't get an elevation drop on this tank I will have to add water one cup at a time. Maybe every 10 minutes? As far as the missing shrimp go, I never found any bodies. I just stopped seeing lots of live ones! I've got 2 original shrimp plus one born in the tank. Since otos don't kill shrimp that would mean that the Celestial Pearl Danios (CPDs) would be the culprits, and I don't think they can take down an adult shrimp. Their mouths are so tiny! Baby shrimp, yes, but not shrimp of any size. I'm afraid there is no rodi system in my future- mostly fish in our tanks- but I will see what I can do about learning my water parameters. Thank you, Will & Jaykidding, for your advice/opinions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revolutionhope Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 im surprised and fascinated to discover you pour your WC straight in daddy. but i guess if the water is remineralised exactly the same then that makes sense. one thing though in this case is they mentioned they were using tap water which i thought was not very consistent in many municipalities. i know where i live in a very dry climate it varies dramatically. TDS csn fluctuate by as much as 100% from season to season and pH ranges from approx 7.4 - 8.4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpy Daddy Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 The dripping water in slowly is a myth that was busted before. If you have permanent pH, TDS and REDOX probe in the tank that can record historical data, you will see their values just swinging up and down crazily even if you drip them slowly. The longer you drip, the longer the instability of the water chemistry process will be. If you pour in the water in at a shot (provided with matching temperature), all these values will stabilize very quickly. ANBU and colorfan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 "in my experience by far the most important factor when changing water (or moving shrimp from tank to tank or receiving a shipment of shrimp) is letting the water change happen very very very gradually. e.g. 2-3 hours if possible. in doing so it means the animals have lots of time to adapt and will hardly be bothered at all." From experience I agree with this statement. Of course there are those that advocate the drop and plop method of acclimation, and I don't agree with that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colorfan Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I have never had a problem with adding new water all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicpapa Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I change the 1/3 of the water in my tanks every week. I over feed a litle. Sometimes i change, 50% and 70 % of the water, because the water take the colors from tannins from the dry leaves. I never see any problems with shrimps, i keep neocaridinas species , crs and sullawesi cardinals. I one of my tanks, i use estimate index for ferts, and i change 70% of water every week , there i keep rcs . But always the parameteres of the water change is the same, and temps is +-1c. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuthatch Posted August 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 How important are the gh/kh levels? I just got an API test kit and they came out 5/1. The Kh at 1 was a bit weird, because the water never was blue; it just turned yellow on drop 1. I'm going to test again tomorrow (or better yet, get my DH to do it) and see if I get different results. We definitely need to do the large test kit, but that is 'his' thing. Perhaps after work I can coax him into it. techsmith 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revolutionhope Posted August 27, 2015 Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 gh at 5 is sweet. can go higher without issues. i dont know if kh at 0-1 is good or not. if the kh test changes colour with 1 drop it means there is 1dH *or less*. so (as SD had suggested to me some time ago) you can gradually add tiny pinches of a good quality brand baking/bicarb soda to your change water each time. (work towards a total of 1/8 - 1/4tspn or so for your whole tank) potassium bicarbonate is better again but less accessible. having a little kh has the added benefit of reducing any daily/nightly pH swings. test out your kh as you go and when kH tester takes 2 drops to change colour then you are on the money. love n peace will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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