Ph problem or bacterial?

[Natasha Balkwill]

Hi Ladies and Gents, 

I need some help. Some of the shrimp in my PRL tank are starting to loose their colour and go translucent. I noticed this morning that the shell of one of them has changed to a light pink. He still has the thick white shell, its just the white part is turning pink. I'll attach a photo later on today. I know pink means internal bacterial infection but his "insides" look fine, its just his shell. By the time I went to get my phone to take a photo he ran to the other end of the tank ... typical.

My water prams 

Ph: 6.6

Gh: 6 

Kh: 0 

TDS: 241 

Temp: 22-24 degrees 

I  know my Ph and my TDS are a little high so I've been lowering it slowly over the last few weeks. I didn't want to change it too much and shock them. I do a 10% water change weekly and drip my new water in. I use a mixture of RO and tap water. I have fluval stratum in the tank and also have Indian almond leaves, subwassertang moss and cholla wood. I have green walls for them and I use a sponge filter. 

Is this a Ph problem or is this bacterial? I've attached a photo of one of the females that have changed colour and who have gone translucent. 

I appreciate all your help! 

[beanbag]

Maybe something in your tap water changed?  People with sensitive shrimp should not be trying to get their minerals from tap water.

I would get a GH remineralizer and do 10% water change per day (RO only + GH) to get the TDS down.

I dunno, could also be ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.  (test, and use Prime to temporarily fix)

Edited February 22, 2019 by beanbag

[Zoidburg]

How long has the tank been set up for?

How long have the crystals been in the tank?

Have the crystal been breeding and reproducing?

It could be a pH issue, a bacterial issue, maybe even stress from parameters not remaining stable?

[Natasha Balkwill]

I was thinking that maybe something has changed with the tap water. My ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 10 

The tank has been set up for over a year but these prls have been in there for 6 months. I've had prior crs in them before I put the prls in so the tank wasn't empty. 

The are breeding but the babies aren't really surviving beyond a few days old 

[beanbag]

Many people want nitrate to be even lower than 10ppm

[sdlTBfanUK]

I may be wrong but the PH looks fine.

Generally though it sounds like you are having the same problems I had years ago using tapwater. As beanbag says I would stay away from tapwater, use RO water and remineralise then you know what is in the water. As zoidburg says messing about with water parameters may also have caused them stress.

Simon

ps. (sorry every one else you must be a bit fed up of me linking this thread???) Here is the article I did about my problems and it may help, hopefully anyway?

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/topic/14025-tap-water-taiwan-bee-uk-zerowater/?tab=comments#comment-135328

 

[Zoidburg]

GH is kind of high... especially if they came from a tank with lower GH. GH should be 3-5 so lowering might help. Could also be a diet issue.

 

Agree best to use RO/distilled with GH minerals.

[Natasha Balkwill]

I only started lowering the tds and ph after they started to loose their colour otherwise the tanks prams have been stable. Maybe they have added something in the water here. My tank is 90% RO water at the moment and about 10% tap.

I thought it was diet related as well but they get such a variety of different shrimp foods and vegetables so I don't think it could be that. 

Maybe I'll switch to only RO water and use some salty shrimp and see if that helps. Its kind of frustrating not knowing what is causing the problem. 

Thank you I will have a read of that link 

[jayc]

2 hours ago, Natasha Balkwill said:

Maybe I'll switch to only RO water and use some salty shrimp and see if that helps

Yep. Do that as a starting point.

Stabilise pH and TDS. That is, keep it from rising and falling too much.

 

2 hours ago, Natasha Balkwill said:

Thank you I will have a read of that link 

You already use RO water, so that link might not help you.

[Natasha Balkwill]

jayc Thank you for that!