Crystal reds/black bee not breeding

[richiep]

heres the food i use along with regular bloodworm and all sorts of veg

[sdlTBfanUK]

Are you saying then that the red crystals (or any other Caridina shrimp) have bred in the 220L before ok? If so then it probably can't be the 'winter' process I guess. I would probably still set up the smaller tank for selective breeding and try the 'winter' on the bigger tank I think, relating to the original problem.

My 35L tank hovers around 100-120 shrimps, if I cull some, more come along and it stays at that level so I assume my maximum figure is that, thats fine with me as thats plenty enough! If it is down to maximum occupancy then I guess you need to cull the weakest coloured ones to get more good colour ones?

The slight TDS increase may be due to evaporation. When topping up you should use pure RO water, no mineralisers. Other option is to just adjust when you do the water change, which is what I believe you do now.

Simon

5 minutes ago, richiep said:

heres the food i use along with regular bloodworm and all sorts of veg

OMG! I hope you eat as well as your shrimps do?

Simon

[jayc]

4 hours ago, Kingo said:

what do you mean by properly?

 

2 hours ago, richiep said:

when you say reminerilise properly says to me I'm doing it wrong which I dont understand

I mean ... remineralise to a suitable TDS, GH, KH level for the type of shrimp you keep in the tank. 

I'm not saying you are doing it wrong.

 

2 hours ago, richiep said:

so how dose anyone know what the correct minerials are and whats lost

That's why I suggested changing most of the water. We don't know what is missing. So safer to just reset it.

 

 

[richiep]

1 hour ago, jayc said:

 

I mean ... remineralise to a suitable TDS, GH, KH level for the type of shrimp you keep in the tank. 

I'm not saying you are doing it wrong.

 

That's why I suggested changing most of the water. We don't know what is missing. So safer to just reset it.

 

 

ok jayc that's my crystal tank we are talking about, perameters are ph 6.6 gh5  kh1 tds 96 temp 23c are you saying this is wrong for that shrimp? the othe photo i posted was of black bee taken from the same tank a few months ago with water,plants,filter from my crystal tank, their perameters stand at ph6.5 kh1 tds 119 temp22.5c they are breeding like rabbits and this it what i dont understand at all . what do you suggest the perameters should be

[sdlTBfanUK]

The TDS if it is 96 may well be the problem, the usual range is about 120-180? Mine is around 160! If the blacks at 119 are breeding then maybe try increasing the tds to at least that, but gradually over several days to a week?

Simon

[richiep]

i think 119 is due to the tank size. when mixing gh+ to ro water for me to get a gh of 5 my tds is 96 in my cherry tank a ro water mix for a gh of8 results in a tds of 200, explain how to get a gh of 5 in ro water and tds between 120 180,

[jayc]

As sdlTBfanUK mentioned, try bringing TDS & GH up a bit. GH 6 and TDS 120-130, or around that. Your tank might be low on calcium. 

Edited April 28, 2019 by jayc

[sdlTBfanUK]

In purely mathematic terms if TDS200 is GH8, and that sounds correct, if you divide 200 by 8 you get TDS 25 per 1GH, again, about right with how mine calculates/runs. 5 (GH) times 25 (TDS) is TDS125 so would be perfect. Try remineralising just using the TDS figure, it will be much easier anyway, and the remineralisers are balanced for GH&TDS that the shrimp need . As JayC says you can try GH6 and that will be fine, mathematically that should come out at TDS150 - those are the figures at which my tank runs (checked yesterday and TDS158, GH6)!

Simon

[beanbag]

Can I ask again, what are the water parameters of:

a) tank where shrimp breed

b) tank where shrimp don't breed

c) freshly remineralized RO water