Please assist me on my water quality..

[NeocaridinaPat]

Hi everyone,

 

I have a 5-6 month tank with different species shrimp (bees, cherries, amanos, etc.) in it and I just can't seem to get a grip on die offs. The following is all my water parameters. What can I be doing wrong here? Can lack of oxygen be an issue? They are very still before they die. Underfeeding? I was feeding once every 2-3 days, but now I give a bit each day since theres many shrimp in the tank. My most successful period of time was this last summer where many shrimp were berried and doing so well. Nothing has changed and I just don't get it.

 

5 gallon

Distilled water only

ADA Amazonia Aquasoil

No plants

Filtration- filter floss and Purigen

Nitrate- 0 (rarely goes to 0-5)

Nitrite- 0

Ammonia- 0 (rarely goes up to 0.25)

pH- 6.6-6.8

Kh- 0

Gh- 4-5

TDS- 171

Temperature- 72

 

ANY suggestions would really help me out here.

 

Thanks everyone

[Brolly33]

Hi everyone,
 
I have a 5-6 month tank with different species shrimp (bees, cherries, amanos, etc.) in it and I just can't seem to get a grip on die offs. The following is all my water parameters. What can I be doing wrong here? Can lack of oxygen be an issue? They are very still before they die. Underfeeding? I was feeding once every 2-3 days, but now I give a bit each day since theres many shrimp in the tank. My most successful period of time was this last summer where many shrimp were berried and doing so well. Nothing has changed and I just don't get it.
 
5 gallon
Distilled water only
ADA Amazonia Aquasoil
No plants
Filtration- filter floss and Purigen
Nitrate- 0 (rarely goes to 0-5)
Nitrite- 0
Ammonia- 0 (rarely goes up to 0.25)
pH- 6.6-6.8
Kh- 0
Gh- 4-5
TDS- 171
Temperature- 72
 
ANY suggestions would really help me out here.
 
Thanks everyone

Those parameters look good for your bees. A little low for cherries on pH and GH.

External contaminants? Do you use pesticides around your house?
Have you tested your incoming distilled water, are you sure it is pure?
What do you remineralize with?
When you water change, how big is the difference between new and old water?

Are dieing shrimp big/old and just aging out?

When one shrimp slows and dies, are other Shrimp active?

Pic of a dead shrimp?

Bacterial infection? Parasites?

Grasping at the obvious straws here.


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[NeocaridinaPat]

22 hours ago, Brolly33 said:

Those parameters look good for your bees. A little low for cherries on pH and GH.

External contaminants? No

 

Do you use pesticides around your house? No

Have you tested your incoming distilled water, are you sure it is pure? I haven't tested it, but I've used the same brand for many months now. In fact they all became much healthier and having babies a lot as soon as I switched to it from tap water and prime. 

 

What do you remineralize with? I don't at the moment. 

When you water change, how big is the difference between new and old water? I do 1 gallon water changes every 2 weeks or so. 

Are dieing shrimp big/old and just aging out? They are adults for the most part. However, some arrived as babies so they are only a few months old. 

When one shrimp slows and dies, are other Shrimp active? Yes, they are. 

Pic of a dead shrimp? Not at the moment. 

Bacterial infection? Parasites? Not anything I can see. 

Grasping at the obvious straws here.


Thank you for the reply. I lost 2 more today and I can't make any sense of this. Can the slightly low Ph and Gh really be the issue?

 

See answers in quote above. 

[Brolly33]

Low GH (or high GH) can cause moulting problems, which would happen 1 shrimp at a time.

I am leaning towards the change to distilled as the cause. You have a 5 gallon tank. Your water change is 20% (1 gallon) every two weeks.

Changes in water parameters, like that first time you used pure distilled, will frequently trigger breeding (survival instinct... water changing, we might all die off, better breed quick).

Sustained water variability will crash the colony.

Every time you take water out manually, you take minerals out with it. If you don't add them back in, you will eventually drive your GH all the way to 0.

If you are topping off evaporation, then use your pure distilled. Because evaporation leaves the minerals behind, you are restoring the balance.

On water change day, you might want to consider tap water, or remineralize your distilled with one of the fine remineralizers on the market.

Shrimp love consistency.

Slowly raise your GH back to about 5 or 6 and you should recover.

My opinion above is based on reading the internet and running a colony for about 2 years. I crashed a colony of RCS by switching to RO water and not remineralizing. I hope this helps you.

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