spiked ammonia

[ValHolla]

Hello,

I've been keeping these awesome shrimp for a little over a month now. I got the tank setup beginning of January, let it cycle until the beginning of March. No issues, only topping off with RO water when evaporations occurs. after I got my shrimp, they all colored up nicely after a few days to a week or so. then they all started to turn pale and clear. I did a little poking and this appears to happen if they are stressed (which makes sense.) I bought a test kit and the ammonia was super high, not lethal(just yet).... so I did just under a 50% water change.

I have not fed these since I got them, letting them eat the biofilm that accrued before I got them.

2.5 gallon tank has live sand, black lava rock, macro-algae from Petshrimp.com, 10 snails and 20 shrimp. what caused the ammonia spike?
my running theory is the live sand had something to do with it, I know zero ammonia/nitrite and nitrate is the target, but what is "too high"?

I'm running at 1.010-1.012 for salinity.

Thanks all!

[Mustafa]

Sorry for the late reply, yes, the most likely culprit is the live sand, which we advise against since organisms that come with it are either already dead and decaying or will die in brackish water en masse since they are saltwater organisms. If the shrimp aren't dying, then leave things along until they normalize. If you see shrimp deaths, then do a 80+% water change and leave the tank alone.