Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Recently, my 4 Gal. tank's kH drop to 5 dkH from the usual 7dKH. My pH is at 7 - 8. So I topped up with NEW coral chip and discard the old.
At the same time, I give the clogged hang-on filter a wash in old water from the tank.

Strange but the kH just stay at 3 dkH afterward and just won't go up.
So I checked my water supply and found a gH of 1.
I put in a calcium carbonate pill but the kH stays the same.
To my dismay, my pregnant Red cherry shrimp died 2 days later.
The rest of the juvenile shrimps seem fine. But they are not 'molting' as often as they use to.

My questions are:
Is my water supply beginning to get 'soft' ? What is the gH of your water supply ?
How much kH is too much ? what is the kH of your tank ?

What kill the pregnant shrimps ? The drop in kH ? The lost of beneficial bacterial ?
I also found NO2 nitrite of 0.9mg/l in the tank, is this the cause ? Does the tank start to mini-cycle again ?

HG

I would suspect your NitrIte being the causative factor in the death of your shrimp. How long has this tank been running? Can you think of a reason why the tank may have gone into a mini-cycle?

Your Kh of 5 would be perfect, but I think you will still be fine at 3, especially as you are adding the coral chip and the calcium carbonate.

Is this a planted tank? Do you use CO2?

What is KH and dkh? i know that u whould need somewhat hard water to keep them alive.

KH is "carbonate hardness". dKH is "degrees of carbonate hardness". 1 dKH ~ 17 ppm

Piscesgirl,

The tank is running for about 6 mths. It has sucessfully bred 2 broods of red cherry shrimp.
I used a fertilize substrate at the bottom and covered it with 3cm thick gravel. I have some Java Moss in the tank without CO2.

I could have killed majority of the beneficial bacterial living in filter after the cleaning. The tank might have gone into a mini-cycle, else the NO2(Nitrite) would not be 0.9mg/l.

What is the ill-effect of overdosing Calcium Carbonate pills to raise the kH ?
Will I kill the shrimps ?
How about a low gH in the water supply ? Will it cause difficulty to raise the kH in the tank ?

HG

I'm not sure what the result of calcium OD would be, but I don't suggest making any large changes.

Has your nitrIte gone back down?

I just use the Testkits and did a water test.

kH = 3
pH = 8
NO2 = 0.9mg/l
NH3/NH4 = 0

Look like the tank is still mini-cycling... Any suggestion ?

My only suggestion would be if you have another tank to hang a bag of substrate from that tank in the filter of this tank to help with the beneficial bacteria and/or do a water change. It appears you will be over the cycle soon, but shrimp are not good at enduring cycling.

I wonder why your ph is 8 and your kh only 3. Hmmm. I'm not much of a chemist, but that seems a little odd to me.