Help! Shrimp Tank Issues

[G-tail]

Right now, I realized that my shrimp tank is having bad parameters and shrimp keep dying left and right. ( lighting was bad on my in tank ammonia monitor so I thought things were okay and the nitrate reading was higher than I'd like (but does it always have to read as 0?)) To top it all off, upon closer inspection, they have parasites. I've been doing water changes but the water I have also has questionable parameters. I have some spring water which has a 0 reading of ammonia but about a 10-20 on nitrate. The city water is almost perfect to do changes with but the ammonia is at a lethal level and I haven't had time to off gas it properly. I use prime as my water conditioner but at this rate, I might have to keep dosing the tank until things stabilize or find some spring water with good readings. Of course, this doesn't help with the parasite issue, either. I haven't been finding very many molts. Should I be worried? One of my berried females died today so I extracted the eggs and put them in the back of my HOB in a filter bag in my betta tank (his tank has awesome parameters). I also have a few babies swimming around in my shrimp tank. It's a mess. I wish I didn't leave them for so long over Christmas break. It sucks that I'm unable to drive. I couldn't have traveled myself and my family didn't have time to let me properly care for them during break when coming back briefly to check. I didn't have time to look at parameters because my bro was impatient and only allowed me to check for any dead shrimp... so.... advice would help.

Notes on the tank:

Tank size: 3.5 gal

Substrate: Fluval

Plants: Hornwort, frogbit, java fern, java moss, moss balls

Currently, there are a handful of alder cones in the tank and two small pieces of cuttlebone

Last readings (Last night)

Ammonia - 2.5

Nitrate - 30-40 ppm

PH - 6.4

Water changes since last reading - 2 (one 50% with the spring water last night and another %25 recently with the last of the spring water but I had to use some of the city water because I ran out)

Shrimp deaths since return from break: 4

Shrimp deaths while gone: approximately 6 but the bodies were likely eaten

Shrimp alive: 5-6

Day I got back from break: five days ago

Time gone on break: two weeks

Likely parasite: Scutariella

There's also some daphnia swimming around. So far, it's just one that I've noticed. The daphnia is the least of my concerns right now. I will be posting this to other places so if this looks familiar, it was probably me.