I just tested I have no amonia or nitrite. My ph is 6.4 I changed some water on Sunday but I had let it set a couple days so it was the same tempertaure as the tank--I don't use a heater as my condo is very warm. And I used Prime
My set up is 5 weeks old. I may have overfed them as I didn't have any algae. .
I want to save the rest of my shrimp if possible. Do I change more water if it was overfeeding or just leave leave things alone and pray. I love these little guys and have really enjoyed watching them. The ones I have left seem to be doing their normal shrimp thing on the log going for the algae that is now starting to grow there. But everyone acted normal this morning when I went to work.
And do I dare order more shrimp and put them in this tank ?
Oh I forgot to mention the ones that were dead were not the babies I bought here. I bought 4 from another place before I found this site -- one of those big places with the Drs whoever. I had seen some fresh water shrimp and wanted to have some. These 4 shrimp were bigger and full grown
How are you testing the pH? If you are using stips and not a drop test or a calibrated pH meter, your readings may be way off. a Ph of 6.4 from conditioned tap water sound very strange. Possible, but strange. Cherries will tolerate this pH but not thrive. They like alkaline hard water. A pH of 6.4 is acidic and usually very soft.
If you are overfeeding, stop feeding totally. Shrimp can go for weeks without being fed. You should only feed a pinch a couple of times a week unless you have a LOT of shrimp. If you see any left over food 30 minutes after you feed, you are over feeding. Yes, do a 25% water change every day for several days to clear up the water. Just to be safe be sure not to use warm water as it could have metal ions in it.
Don't panic! Don't overreact and do stuff that isn't needed. Older shrimp can stress out and die very soon after you get them.
If you are using any sort of fertilizer for plants STOP! This is a variable you want to eliminate before going on.
No fertilizer . I put some in the first day I set up the tank but none since as I found this forum which said was a no no
I did test with strips but also have the drops so just did that. With drops it its 6.8 maybe close to 7 in color. Are the strips off on the other tests? They show hardness of 130 and no buffering capacity. Nitrate reading was lighter than the color for 20 and showed no nitrites
I have water sitting and getting to room temp. Put in Prime . Water is pretty soft here. Used to live where water was hard . Need much less soap here so I know it's soft.
Will want to try more shrimp even if I lose these . But I need to figure out the problem and stabilize the tank so I don't kill any more. It's a little 6 gallon tank . Bought 14 shrimp and shared them with my friend so we each had 7. Didn't want to overcrowd. So loosing 2 is pretty traumatic for me. It sits on my desk where I can see them while I am on my computer which is most of the time I am home. They were very pretty and bright red.
Get some R/O right, Electo-Right or other product for re-constituting R/O water. Add half the amount recommended for hard water and re-test after 24 hours. That should get you in the ball park. I use Seachem Acid Buffer and Alkaline buffer to fine tune the pH.
