Old Akadama

[Easystreet]

Hi all,

 

Been lurking on hear for a while. Really good source of information. Need some advice now.

 

I have a small CRS tank with sponge filter and Akadama substrate that's been up and running for a year and a half.

 

Started the journal here when I first set it up: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/crs-setup-is-there-anything-i-have-forgotten.34740/

 

I have regularly breeding although survival has been decreased recently. I probably have about 30-40 shrimp in the tank ranging from 5mm to adult. I started with 11.

 

However I have been finding it hard to keep my TDS down recently. It has now crept up to about 200 (started at about 160).

 

I top up with RO if the level drops due to evaporation and do water changes every couple of weeks, roughly 10-15%, with RO + salty shrimp mixed to TDS120 (to try and get the TDS down).

 

Two questions:

 

1) Do people think that the population of shrimp in a small tank will regulate itself (i.e. not get to large for the environment)? I ask this as my population seems to have been stable for the last 6 months.

 

2) Is it possibly that my Akadama has stopped sucking up TDS and has started releasing them? Regardless, what are peoples recommendations for dropping the TDS - can I do largish water changes approx. 30%) with pure RO or will this shock the shrimp?

 

Cheers,

 

Easystreet

[Mr. F]

Be careful with large water changes and make sure you do it very slowly. I wouldn't personally do it all at once (bad experiences). I would space it out over a week and do 3-4 10% changes. This will dilute your water slower and a few days will not likely be long enough for your population to severely decrease. You can also try switching out the substrate little by little to ensure water chemistry changes are slow and you don't accidentally scoop up shrimplets. But make sure you use a buffering substrate that doesn't cause ammonia spikes, or you'll have 0 shrimps.