Help Needed!

[mracejay]

Hi,

 

I have setup a shrimp nano tank about 4 months ago and I am having trouble keeping them alive, but I don't know why?

It's a 50 litre tank with an eheim 4e filter, inline heater and co2 diffuser. The substrate is shrink king active soil. It is a heavily planted tank. I use neutro+ and neutro co2 as fertilisers. There is also an oxydator.

I use ro water remineralised with shrimp king shrimp salt gh/kh+. My tap water is very hard with an abscenly high nitrate level.

 

My water parameters are:

Temp = 24.2

Ammonia = 0ppm

Nitrite = 0ppm

Nitrate = 20ppm

GH = 6 dgh

Kh = 1.7 dgh

Ph (pre co2 infusion) = 6.4

Ph (during co2 infusion) 5.8

 I have got red rilli and tiger shrimp in there. There were others but they appear to have all gone. There is nothing else in there. I cannot work out what is wrong or what is killing the shrimp. The only thing I can think of is perhaps the pH is dropping too much during the co2 period. But without the co2 my plants suffer.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[jayc]

Moved to the Shrimp Health and Care section.

 

10 minutes ago, mracejay said:

I use neutro+

What fertilisers are in Neutro+ ?

If you don't know, you are taking a big risk adding it in your tank if you don't have a list of ingredients for it. 

 

Keeping Shrimps in a high tech planted tank is ALWAYS going to be a compromise. Either you have healthy shrimps and poor plant growth, or you have lush plants and the shrimp suffer. That's why you see a lot of low tech shrimp tanks. Not that it cannot work, it's just a lot harder.

The changing pH is certainly one other factor along with something in the fertiliser (Maybe. Might have copper in it). 

With such low pH values, you could try Crystal Red Shrimps (CRS) instead. Or any of the Caridina varieties. The Neocaridina rillis you have is not going to like those pH values. Whereas the low pH will suit CRS, CBS, TBs.

GH at 6 looks good.

Any idea what your TDS values are?

 

 

[fishmosy]

Nitrates at 20ppm seem a bit high, especially in a tank with CO2 - perhaps suggesting the fertilisers have high nitrate levels. What is the conductivity or TDS of your water? This may give an indication of what level of minerals/elements/chemicals are in the water besides those measured by the KH and GH tests. 

[inverted]

Shrimp do not like co2 or ferts...... They can survive but if you want success you need to avoid both

[mracejay]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

The neutro + contains potassium nitrate, monopotassium phosphate, iron, manganese, zinc all with an edta chelation and boron. It's a basic macro and micro nutrient all in one. I was recommended this one by two companies. I am not sure if I can mention specific names but one is a well known aquatic plant retailer and the other is a well known shrimp retailer who also sells this fertiliser. 

 

I use to dose ei but I wanted a shrimp tank and decided that ei was too much of a risk, however I have just found a fertiliser recipe online on a different shrimp website that cuts out the nitrate and the trace elements leaving mainly the phosphate potassium and iron elements on a much leaner regime, and see if that works.

 

My TDS starts of at about 180 at te beginning of the week and rises to about 215 by the end of week just before I do a gradual 50% water change. 

I appreciate all the advice.

[Zoidburg]

Maybe your water changes are too big??? And/or maybe the water is going in too fast?

 

Do you "drip" water back into the tank via an airline tube?

 

Shrimp also do better with smaller water changes... as in 10%. At 25%, you're pushing it. You either need to cut back on your ferts/foods, or do smaller, more frequent water changes.

[mracejay]

Hi zoudburg,

Yeah I use normal airline tubing and siphon it ba k in, it normally takes about 2 hours to refill the tank. 

I think if it's going to be anything it's going to the ferts. Feeding wise I feed every other day whilst there is detectable algae in the tank. I feed shrimp dinner one cube and remove what's not eaten by lights off as per the instructions. 

It does say feed them once or twice a day but I do think that's too much especially at the moment when they don't seem to be eating much.

Edited August 24, 2016 by mracejay

[jayc]

14 minutes ago, mracejay said:

I think if it's going to be anything it's going to the ferts

I agree, but not directly the cause. The ferts themselves are not killing the shrimp, but the constant & drastic change/swings in the water parameters from the ferts and large water changes.

You have a 35ppm TDS change in a week, whereas in my tanks for comparison, there would be no more than 10 TDS change in a week. Of course my tank is mainly low light plants like mosses and liverworts. My high tech tanks with lush plants on CO2 only have fish in them.

It would be a better idea setting up a small 10L tank with nothing in there but substrate and mosses. Go back to basics. Don't compromise the shrimp's health for lush plants. Besides, you'll be able to see the shrimps better in a low tech, low light tank with less plants.

 

Good luck with your next steps.