Testing my water before adding shrimp

[theKittyLady]

I recently set up an environment in a crown royal bottle with lava I purchased here and the coral I got from Amazon. Everyone Died. I did another batch in a small mason jar "wineglass" and used this bacteria I purchased and they are THRIVING. I have an older, established environment in a "light brick" that I added to and they, too, are thriving.

How can I test my water in the Crown bottle - what kit do I use, etc. I followed the guidelines for the salinity but don't know how to tell if the water is safe for the shrimp. They are all 'gone" so maybe it has cycled the environment. Let me know what kit I should get for brackish water for ammonia levels, etc. Thanks. This computer is horrible. I type a paragraph and it doesn't appear for a half minute.

[Mustafa]

Testing the water will be useless because nothing (such as ammonia) will show up, as any ammonia levels that are capable of killing the shrimp over time will be too small to be detected anyway.

Before we start giving advice, can you describe your different environments or, better, also post pictures of them? We'd need to see what you put in them to be able to give advice.

From what you said so far the number one likely culprit is the "coral" (I assume it's some kind of dried "soft" coral) that you bought. Those can leach out all kinds of chemicals and slowly rot away, continuously releasing ammonia. I bet you don't have that in the other two environments. So, describe your setup and post some pictures and we'll go from there.

Also, I know it's appealing from a aesthetics point of view to use tiny bottles and containers for these shrimp, but in the long run something is bound to go wrong. With a smaller volume of water, disasters are much more likely to have a bigger, usually deadly, effect. And then, access through a bottle opening will be next to impossible (for example, to remove dead bodies or decoration that is leaching chemicals into the water). I would highly recommend something that is at least half a gallon, preferably a gallon in size.

[theKittyLady]

What kind of coral should I get? I didn't see any on your site for sale...I'll take pix. My "wineglass" guys are growing and thriving.

This is the coral I have:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z4 ... UTF8&psc=1

I had to soak it overnight to soften it so I could put it in the bottle opening. I also have a vacuum system I concocted with a syringe which I used to clean out the dead bodies.

Marian

[Mustafa]

The only "corals" that work for sure are hard coral skeletons made up of calcium carbonate. You may find some in pet stores, but they won't look like a fan like the one you have. The coral you got is almost certainly (99.9% sure) the culprit for the deaths. We've had many people here in the forum report deaths after buying the exact type of coral you bought. That is a dried soft coral which is *not* calcium carbonate, but just dried tissue that rots over time. That is exactly the reason we don't sell it.

I would take that coral out immediately, do a 90+ percent water change, and start over. Any new shrimp you stick in there will most likely die off too otherwise.

[Opaeula_mama]

Poof nm