Setting up my Hawaiian-theme Nano Tank

[Dch48]

Why are you using a filter? It is not needed not recommended.

[Bluemonk]

I use it for bottling backup water. Very convenient. The water bottles fits the sprout perfectly. But I’ve turned it off.

[sliphorn]

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Have you ever heard of the KISS principle? When it comes to keeping Opae Ula I highly recommend it.
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[Bluemonk]

Yes but it seems it’s not in my personality. I like to solve problems but yes I shall keep still. Just that for pandemic hobby to sit on your hands is quite the challenge. We all need problems to solve as a distraction. And we don’t need more work problems to solve . These scientific pursuits like opae ula tank chemistry challenges are much more interesting but yes I shall try to stay out of the way of the tank’s natural progression. Though with an ammonia problem I’m glad I acted on it than wait it out. Already had one death so not going to wait and see. By the way no one has eaten The Departed yet. I guess the tank has enough food.

Ooooh I see a speck of algae (in purple circle as pictured). So perhaps no need to feed these guys with the tiny shrimp pellet I’ve been placing on black platform rock (in purple square). Purple arrow pointing to one shrimp that’s not very red like the others. I guess we can call him The Gray One. I’ve seen as many as four shrimps at a time. There should be seven so I pray they’re just lurkers and have not died in the shadows.

Ever since I’ve further diluted the water and brought the nitrate down to 20ppm they seem to be out more zipping around the tank. At the 160ppm nitrate I can see them disoriented while swimming. Scared me half to death!!!

[Bluemonk]

All four shrimps are out and have pinked up. I’ll have to share a video on google drive for you all to see how happy they are zipping all around the tank. What a sight. I think my water chemistry is finally stabilizing. I’ve had to dose so many times the amount of Prime for this tiny 3 gallon tank but finally the ammonia is under control. The shrimps seem content. Since I’ve only seen four I’m going to assume the rest are all dead. :/

[Dch48]

You should have set up the tank using a good sea salt like Instant Ocean and distilled water. Tap water should never have even gotten near. A mix of 4 tablespoons of Instant Ocean to a gallon of distilled water is perfect. There's really no need to even check salinity if that formula is followed.

[Bluemonk]

Thank you for the precise measurement. I used this website’s salt to seed my tank out of abundance of caution. Premeasured by Petshrimp.com

Please read from the beginning of the journal if you think I’m just grabbing some kitchen idiodized salt.

Where did you get the idea I was using tap water?!? I said I used tap on the freshwater tank. For this shrimp tank I only bought everything off of pet shrimp website - sand, rock, moss ball, algae - then made sure I researched the option of Reverse Osmosis or Distilled Water. I used the prior with minerals added for taste the bottle label read.

Reading is fundamental.

Speaking of which I was reading on here if you increase the temperature in an EMPTY SHRIMPLESS tank to 80F it speeds up the cycle. I was actually thinking doing this but was too lazy to find my old heater https://www.opaeula.co.uk/water-quality

More research type of reading specifically on this specie https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/b ... 38-355.pdf (9MB paper so download and read on a desktop computer and not read on phone to save your eyes.)

[Bluemonk]

So true what Mustafa said about not using filters from other tanks here viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6524&p=44937&hilit ... igh#p44937

I’ve contaminated my tank with a filter pad I moved over to try to combat the ammonia spike as soon as the shrimp went into the tank. I’ve been battling it with water changes yet the nitrate still came back to 160ppm which is disastrous levels.

Nitro-zorb despite the label saying it only works on freshwater does in fact work in brackish (albeit mine is quite a tiny nano thing). The side affect I can observe (besides getting a little cloudy and then it clears up) is my PH went down from 8.2 to 7.8 but it could be the 50% water change (using distilled water) that brought it down also. Though theoretically I read putting the instant ocean salt should have raised it back into the 8-range. Oh well. I just better not make the same mistake as the first time trying to raise it with baking soda. I ordered potassium bicarbonate instead. 1 teaspoon for every 48G per https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/8-ge ... onate.html

[Dch48]

If the tank is set up correctly with the proper salt and true distilled water, (if it says minerals were added, it is NOT distilled water) the pH should never be an issue. Your attempts to adjust pH were what led me to assume you used tap water. However, what you did use is not very far from being tap water. You are doing far too much to set up an Opae tank and testing and adjusting things far too much. When done correctly, it is the simplest aquarium setup you can do. Opaes are hardy creatures and can tolerate a wide range of conditions. Salinity is not critical as they can live in fresh water as well as full strength seawater. They just do best and reproduce more in the brackish environment that is about half fresh and half salt.

[Bluemonk]

Kirkland water is Reverse Osmosis (with minerals added for taste) it is not tap water. I tested it. No nitrates. Very pure. Last few gallons of water change was done with distilled water and instant ocean so not sure why the PH is going down since what you’re saying and what I’ve read is that instant ocean keeps the PH high even though the distilled water will by itself lead to low PH.

My mistake was trying to seed nitrifying bacteria from a filter from the freshwater tank. But thank you for your concern.

By the way only use nitra-zorb once. Do not recharge as it involves aquarium salt and that will kill the shrimp. Save it for a second use with freshwater tank. So yeah very expensive mistake at $15 a bag you need about 5 bags just to fix a tiny 3 gallon.

Also a pic of Lee’s container as a temporary filter container that’s safe for the shrimp. The purigen bag of resin is sooo therapeutic to look at as the water fluffs up the resin particles. The Aqueon filter is pulling water from the back compartments that’s not passible for shrimp but allows water through layers of sponge that blocks the shrimp. Took me hours to think of a solution. Part of the learning journey in tiny shrimp keeping. My husband calls me Bubba Gump.

[Dch48]

Tap water does not always contain nitrates. Mine has none. If any minerals are added to distilled or r/o water, is is tantamount to contamination. The water is no longer pure.

The distilled water sold for 80 cents a gallon at Walmart is perfect.

It is not necessary for the pH of an Opae tank to be 8 or above. 7.8 is fine. I actually never test mine.

[Dch48]

Tap water does not always contain nitrates. Mine has none. If any minerals are added to distilled or r/o water, is is tantamount to contamination. The water is no longer pure.

The distilled water sold for 80 cents a gallon at Walmart is perfect.

It is not necessary for the pH of an Opae tank to be 8 or above. 7.8 is fine. I actually never test mine.

[Bluemonk]

Thanks for the reassurance. My PH is dipping to 7.6 due to my water changes to address the Nitrate which was 160ppm this morning but is 30ppm now. I read it’s much worst to drastically reduce the PH from 8.2 to 7.6 due to all the water changes than to have Nitrate at these levels but I keep reading the smaller the organism the more sensitive to Nitrate. I sure hope I’m making the right call to get nitrate to 30ppm and have the PH dip. I won’t use baking soda like I did the first time to bring up PH as it messed up my salinity and my KH went completely off the API test chart so I’m going to wait for my potassium bicarbonate to come tonight as it’s a better substitute for baking soda for bringing up PH without affecting salinity.

UPDATE: argh. Turns out I tried potassium bicarbonate and it is affecting salinity more than sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) so I ended up just using baking soda to bring the ph to 7.8.

[Bluemonk]

PH especially for shrimp is important. Low acidic ph melts their shells over time. https://www.ratemyfishtank.com/blog/pro ... r-aquarium

Loved all the detail here too. https://www.theaquaponicsource.com/the- ... quaponics/ But I couldn’t use potassium bicarbonate as instructed as I couldn’t see the ph rise like I saw with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).

[Bluemonk]

Coolest thing saw... they were walking upside down on the bio-film. The darn high nitrate is good for something. It seemed to have worked with the 72F slightly heated water to create the bio-film overnight.

Where the shrimps skimmed you can see the tracks in the bio film. Like Olympic Ice gliders.

Lost 5 shrimp through this one week. Darn. I guess I’ll need an order of ten shrimp. :/ this time no losses. Fingers crossed