My water looks dirty and my microalgae is dying HELP!

[sweetsiren]

I have had this shrimp tank for two years. It started with one gallon fishbowl, one micro algae plant, a few red lava rocks, and 10 supershrimp. I have at least 5 shrimp left, and the algae is turning brown, the water is getting cloudy. How do I balance out the ecosystem and make my shrimp healthy again?

Do I get a new algae ball? Put snails in? Replace the dead shrimp? More water? Mix a new batch of saltwater to replace the scummy water?

Be honest…How bad is it?

[CrimsonThornX]

That's unusual, there's a few possibilities but I can't say for sure which is the cause. Were there any contaminants that you know might've been introduced? What about the temperature or lighting it's usually kept in? Mabye the algae eventually ran out of nutrients causing it to die off in turn polluting the water, though its a hardy species. Adding a few snails shouldn’t cause any problems as far as I'm concerned. The volume of water shouldn’t be an issue either. In any case I normally wouldn't suggest it but perhaps its best to do a complete water change, and definitely replace the dead algae and shrimp to prevent further pollution and ammonia spikes.

[sweetsiren]

I removed the browner parts of the algae and the water looks a bit clearer, not much though. In the sunlight, I was able to spot 4 teeny-tiny shrimp smaller than a grain of rice that look as clear as glass. Are these young shrimp or dying shrimp?

I just looked it up, and these are apparently baby shrimp. I wonder when they hatched, cause I’ve only ever seen maybe one or two babies at a time over the years. So my shrimp are reproducing…but they’re also dying, since I started with 10 and now I have 5 adults and 4 babies.

[CrimsonThornX]

That's interesting, for them to reproduce yet die off at the same time. I'm still not certain what the cause of their death is though. Its interesting how there's shrimp larvae, generally I only notice them when the shrimp are comfortable enough.

[Mustafa]

Snails definitely help with removing excess organics from the substrate, which accumulate over the years and which the shrimp can't get to. I personally think snails are a must. The cloudiness is definitely caused by something decaying and causing a bacterial bloom. Other than that...I would take out almost all of the macroalgae and just leave a little bit in there. In a healthy tank, it will grow back once your tank has normalized. In the meantime, don't feed at all.

[sweetsiren]

Yep, I pulled out all the browning algae, so now there’s a small greenish bush left. The water is clearing up, especially now that there are new babies feeding. There are at least 10 shrimp in the bowl. I might consider buying a new algae bush if this one doesn’t perk up. Snails are a maybe (how expensive is the price now? Yikes)

[sliphorn]

Yep, I pulled out all the browning algae, so now there’s a small greenish bush left. The water is clearing up, especially now that there are new babies feeding. There are at least 10 shrimp in the bowl. I might consider buying a new algae bush if this one doesn’t perk up. Snails are a maybe (how expensive is the price now? Yikes)
image.jpg

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Snails are a must have.
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[sweetsiren]

How fast do the babies grow? How long until they reach adult size I mean?

[Rudiarose]

The Moss ball they sell on this site might help clean it up too and there snails.