All larvae die. HELP

[camaronqueseduerme]

Hello everyone. Since my last post this is what happened:

The last batch of larvae predictably died. I did a 50% water change and haven't fed anything at all since then (it must have been a month now). My last two water tests, done both at the store and home with the strips I bought, indicate no ammonia or nitrates, so I am happy about that.

The good news is that two days ago I found a new berried female. I am hoping this time there is going to be a happy ending.

I have a question: I am scared of ammonia levels going back up again. Should I not feed the shrimp at all? I know shrimp need close to nothing to survive and I would really like this last new litter to survive. Is withholding any food the best way to ensure parameters are not altered?

Thanks!

[Varanus]

Thing is you want some nitrates, as it means your ammonia is being converted into nitrite and then nitrate. I would keep testing on a regular basis (say once a week) and not feed until you get some nitrate readings to show your cycle is running properly. Indeed you might even wait until the next batch of larva hatches and metamorphoses successfully before you feed again.

Not sure how good my advice is though. I thought I was doing perfectly until some larva got sick yesterday and I found my tests detected small amounts of ammonia yet no detectable nitrates.

[Mech]

The one test that will make it obvious if your tank has cycled is when your ammonia drops and the nitrites shoots up high then drops off to zero.. You will end up with nitrates but as shrimp don't produce much waste you may only get trace amounts showing. Keep an eye on that nitrite level when it spikes.

[camaronqueseduerme]

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

Since I changed the water, stopped feeding and started the weekly tests i have seen no changes in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. They all seem to be very low.

However in today's test I have seen that both alkalinity (KH) and pH are extremely low. I am enclosing a picture with the results. Never a dull moment...
Should I be concerned? Is there anything I have to do in your opinion? Thanks

[Varanus]

If you haven't done anything to the water since your previous test I don't see why the ph would have changed, but I'm no expert in that area. My ph has always been pretty stable.

The problem could be the test strip being inaccurate. I'd test again and see if you get the same result.

[Mech]

if your PH is so low that means you have no buffer, what are you using to do this?

[JennyPenny]

You may have said already, but what substrate are you using? Do you have any coral skeletons in your tank? Crushed coral or aragonite sand/substrate is really important to help maintain a nice ph for these shrimps.

[Varanus]

And lacking that sort of sand, adding limestone (often sold as "holey rock" at pet stores) also works well.

That said, I am still confused as to how the ph could have changed so drastically (assuming it was still normal after the water change).

[camaronqueseduerme]

I was terrible at chemistry during my high school years, little did I know it would come back to haunt me!

After reading your comments I have decided to use egg shells as an emergency solution since I don't have aragonite or crushed coral handy.

When setting up the tank I used a big chunk of fossilized coral and several clam shells from the beach. At the time I started doing readings a couple of weeks ago, pH and KH were good and i didn't do or change anything at all apart from adding RO water. So in reply to Varanus, I don't have any idea either how the acidification happened. I hope the egg shells do the trick, I will keep updating.

Meanwhile I have been observing the shrimp and they seem normal. The berried female is one week into her pregnancy and seems alright. This is turning out to be much trickier than I initially though. Thanks everybody again.

[Varanus]

But have you tested since getting the low PH reading? Like I said before it would be good to try to rule out the test simply not being accurate.

I mean if you have a big piece of coral in there then it should be raising the ph.

[camaronqueseduerme]

Yes, I have tested four times with the same results. Tomorrow after 24 hours of egg shells I'll test again. Hopefully the results will be better.

[KenCotigirl]

What is fossilized coral? The clam shells from the beach were they clean. Is it possible the clam shells had some organic material on them which could be the cause of the ammonia spike. I never tested kh and rarely pH. The bio load of shrimp is very low unless you have hundreds. I cannot understand the change in pH in such a short amount of time. The buffers found in the artificial sea salt should not have been used up especially with the water changes. I am not a fan of the strip tests. Could you add another picture of your tank. If you are not losing any adults maybe stop testing and enjoy them. They seem to be doing very well.

Ken

[Mech]

They will raise the PH slowly, it won't be an over night fix with egg shells.

[KenCotigirl]

Mech I need to research this more. Not really sure why we add carbonate products. I thought that shells, coral and limestone buffered against going below a pH of 7 or neutral. The acid would react with the shells and neutralize the acid leaving a ph of 7. To increase the kh to say 100 you add to your koi pond baking soda. This increases the ph to 8-8.4. I would never do for shrimp. I do not know how salt water people keep their ph high. I guess with water changes since the artificial salts buffered with many minerals besides NaCl.

[Mech]

Here is the test for my main 17 gallon tank from last week,

PH is around 8.2 - 8.4? This has two large lumps of ocean rock.