Fluorite and Fluval Shrimp Stratum Contaminated?

[sammer021486]

Is it possible for Fluorite or Fluval Shrimp Stratum to become contaminated? I am asking because since May I have been having a lot of issues with keeping my shrimp and otos alive yet I have been using RO water and quarantining all new purchases for minimum of two weeks before adding to my tank.

When I originally set my 10 gallon up on April of 2011 it was with a sand base layer and Fluval Shrimp Stratum (FSS). I had to move in August so I took my two lone shrimp after a heat wave killed off my other 4 and moved them with me including my java fern and dwarf sag. Their new setup was a 3 gallon with the FSS, an Azoo palm filter with bio ceramics and a sponge, RO water and Prime. When I returned home in May of 2012 I emptied my 10 gallon which I had left the sand and remaining FSS in, rinsed it out really well and started it back up with Fluorite and a new Fluval 106 canister filter. Once it was established I added my original 2 cherries and oto back into the tank, along with some xmas moss, marimo balls, 10 CBS. About 3 weeks later I added 8 cherries and 3 Blue Bees to the tank. All was going well for about a month and then I lost my original cherries and oto. I added 2 more otos to my tank and slowly after adding the otos my cherries started dying off 1-2 at a time. The water was testing fine and nothing had changed for feeding, still fed the Hakari algae wafers alternating with Shrimp cuisine as much as the shrimp and otos would eat removing the rest. Water changes were 25% every two weeks with RO water and Prime.

By the beginning of August all but one of my cherries had died, 2 CBS and all 3 Blue Bees were gone, my water was still testing fine during this whole time. I ended up removing the Fluorite and placed Fluval Shrimp Stratum into the tank once again, cycled the tank and added the 8 CBS along with 4 otos. Everything was going good again, after a month I added 12 more CBS, some flame moss and mini pellia moss. Then about a week after adding the new additions my lone cherry died, two otos died and within the next week my CBS went from 20 down to 6. The 12 CBS were from the same breeder that I got my original 10 from. The only parameter that was testing way off after the massive die off of the last bunch of shrimp was the nitrate it spiked from 10ppm to 60ppm with in a week and no food was added to the tank during that time frame.

So to be safe I have purchased a new tank, washed my canister filter out, replaced the substrat pro and filter floss in the canister. I did not have new sponges or else I would have replaced those too, so I washed them really well under tap water and I have now setup a brand new tank with no substrate.

I was wondering if I should toss the Fluorite and Fluval Substrates or if they would be ok to add to the tank again.

The thing that is baffling me the most is that during all of these die offs that water has tested fine with Ammonia and Nitrite at 0, Nitrate was never higher than 10 except for this last testing, pH was at 6.4, GH 5, KH 0 and TDS 163. The only thing that I can think of right now is that some toxin got into the tank while I was away, there might have been too many plants or I added too many shrimp at once and the bio filter could not keep up.

[Mustafa]

Do you have any source of carbonate at all in there? Any type of calcium carbonate source? Nitrifying bacteria, shrimp, plants, algae, and pretty much most anything needs calcium carbonate. Your RO water doesn't have it, your substrate doesn't have it...well, that means your tank will never cycle properly and establish its biological balance. Throw some calcium carbonate in there, wait for some algae to grow on the sidewalls and/or substrate. That's the time to put some shrimp in there..or fish for that matter. I don't think anything is contaminated...

[sammer021486]

I've never had luck getting algae to grow on the substrate or walls of my tank even when I was using tap water for my tanks. I regularly have brown algae growing in the filters intake and outflow though.

I have started to use a shrimp remineralizing product with the RO water and have added some mineral rocks to the tank.

Right now my remaining shrimp are in a 1 gallon tank with an air stone running, while I have the new tank cycling, it has been cycling since my last post.

It is just a plain bare bottom tank with some Java fern, mini Pellia and flame moss in the tank.

[Mustafa]

If you keep your pH above 7 algae will definitely grow at some point, given there are enough nutrients (and there usually are more than enough). Algae and most bacterial colonies (they grow together in a matrix) do not like acidic conditions. If you have ramshorn snails, and, to a lesser degree, trumpet snails, then you may not see much algae either, as snails tend to be quite efficient at eating/suppressing most surface growing algae.

[sammer021486]

My tank before I started a new one had a pH of 6.8-7.0 and I kept otos and MTS in tank.

The new tank is sitting around 6.2 pH

[Mustafa]

At a pH of 6.2 you're going to have a hard time getting (and keeping) the tank cycled. Nitrifying bacteria have a hard time at a pH that low.

[sammer021486]

At a pH of 6.2 you're going to have a hard time getting (and keeping) the tank cycled. Nitrifying bacteria have a hard time at a pH that low.

Ah so this could be what has been causing the tank to act like it is always cycling. I will hit up the pet store tomorrow (hopefully) to get some coral chips to help raise the pH.