Help please

[Able]

So IV been Breeding Guppies for the past couple years pretty successfully. But I recently wanted to get into the shrimp hobby so I try to get my water parameters correct and I have added some cherry shrimp and oranges Sunburst shrimp and some cobalt blue shrimp as well as a couple crystal black and crystal red but unfortunately the crystal black and crystal reds keep dying so quickly.I have three separate 10 gallon tanks with hang on the back filters I have small pea gravel as substrate because I like the natural look. Here are my tank parameters hopefully this will help.

temp 76

ph7

gh 12

kh 3

tds 320

tanks had Tap water then I started using Purified bottled water to try and get my TDs down 

what am I doing wrong???

thank you

 

 

[jayc]

3 hours ago, Able said:

gh 12

kh 3

tds 320

I would say that your tap water parameters incompatible with Crystal shrimp.

Crystals need softer water.

So aim for GH lower than 5 and KH 1 or lower. TDS should be around 150 as well.

You might only be able to achieve that with RO or Rainwater.

[beanbag]

use Reverse osmosis water + shrimp specific remineralizer

Also, temperatures too high

[sdlTBfanUK]

Time for a rethink! The orange and blue shrimps, being cherry I assume are fine so you can continue using tap water etc as you are doing.

The third tank can either be used for another type of cherry shrimp, the simplest route/solution or you can make a few changes and get it ready for crystal/bee shrimps? Your water parameters are way off (double for gH/kH/TDS) for crystal shrimp!

You need to start at the beginning and that is the water source. You will need to use RO (or equivalent) water and remineralise it with a GH+ shrimp product. Being USA based you can easily get a zerowater jug (walmart and many other places sell these, also online) so that you can just use your tap water filtered through the jug (RO) so that is fairly easy and cheap, then you will need a shrimp GH+ product to get to the desired parameters. My zerowater jug drops the water to Ph5.5 so you may be ok to use the gravel still (as long as there is nothing (including the gravel) in the tank that will increase the PH) if you like that look, but most people prefer a soil substrate with plants. It would be a good idea to get some indian almond leaves for all of the 3 shrimp tanks. Even when you have drained the tank and filled with mineralised RO water you should probably leave it a month before considering getting the shrimp and this gives you the opportunity to keep an eye on the PH  and make sure that stays below 7 with the gravel etc, give the biofilm time to grow, and cycle the tank etc, though the cycle may not be as clear due to the lower PH!

Thats all you need to consider/do at this point. I would guesstimate the total cost of the water jug. leaves and GH+ to be a total of around $50?  Obviousy ask away if you have any questions?

Simon

edit - Did you drip acclimate the shrimps?

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by sdlTBfanUK

[Able]

Yes I drip acclimated all shrimp over 2 hours 

I don’t know what you Maenza by a zero water JUG?  Do you mean a RODI system that starts at $200?

i tried buying bottled spring water but the tds in it was 180 so I didn’t wanna use it. Looks like I have to buy a rodi unit 

I odrered gh kh salty shrimp 

I already have gh plus salty shrimp 

Update 

I also added one Indian Almond leaf to each tank 

and started to slowly lower the ph with shrimp  ph decreser 

 

I have a batch of newly hatched babies shrimp that I keep in a mesh breeder box with Java moss to raise them about 2 weeks now . 2 look red the rest look clear to yellowish  about 30 total

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by Able

[Able]

Oh and I lowered the temp to 72-73 degrees f

[sdlTBfanUK]

There is a website for www.zerowater.com, but you can get them widely in USA, ie walmart sell them.

You don't need to separate babies, they can just be left in the tank when born, though you should probably keep the ones in the breeder box in there now until they are a bit bigger. It will be good to see what colour(s) they end up being, I assume they were from the yellows tank?

Simon  

[Able]

I just ordered a ro di system 200 gpd 

hope this helps

i can’t get the tds below 290

I got the ph down to 6.8 -7 yesterday but today it read 7.6?

why is that ?

[beanbag]

You don't need the DI part

The way to get TDS down is with water change and not adding extra stuff, like your pH lowering chemical, which will fight the KH in the SS GH/KH.

U should keep the crystals and neos in separate tanks if possible, but if keeping in both, then I would  mix the SS GH and GH/KH until the final KH value is 1-2.

Edited May 12, 2020 by beanbag

[Able]

I thought that ro di is the best way to go?

[Crabby]

No, (I think) he meant it's just RO, not usually called RO DI because they do the same thing pretty much. From what I (a person who has never used an RO filter) can tell at least. 

[beanbag]

3 hours ago, Able said:

I thought that ro di is the best way to go?

DI is barely better, but not worth it

[sdlTBfanUK]

You are well on your way by the sounds of it. As beanbag states, those PH adjusters are probably not worth bothering with. At least you haven't got any shrimps in situ at the moment.

When you get the RO unit and prepare/change some water the PH and TDS will come down and you can do a big/full water change. The only thing I am unsure about is why the PH is rising so there maybe something in your tank causing that, rock is the usual suspect, but it could be the gravel I guess, though I haven't come across that before. Usually people use a soil substrate with bee shrimp (gravel with cherry) and that helps buffer the PH. If you don't have any shrimps it may be worth considering changing the substrate whilst you are doing all this water changing etc? I would wait until you have the RO unit, or iff you decide to do that in the meantime thats ok, but don't mess too much with the water with what you have as it is unlikely to work with your tapwater and bee shrimp parameter requirements.

Is there anything else in the tank than gravel?

I have re-read your original post and I note you have 3 type of cherry in (I assume) 2 tanks, this may explain the pale babies, mixing different colours in a tank and subsequent cross breeding usually causes them to revert to more wild type colouring, ie clear or brown!

Its great that th cherry shrimp are doing well so you only have to concentrate on the one tank and carry on as is with the others!

Simon

[Able]

I just want to thank you for all the help you have given...

I finally found distilled water and got the tds down to 220 

gh 6

kh 2

ph 7.4 ish

 

my question is how do I mix in the gh kh plus from salty shrimp into the new ro water. Do I mix 5 gallon jugs at a time?

cause when I add it mixed to my tank water my tds goes from 220 to 360 with just half a measurement cup full for a 10 gallon tank. 
was trying to raise it a tad.

 But the tds spiked

what an I doing wrong??

i added it to a gallon of the tank water.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Able

[sdlTBfanUK]

Assuming you are still talking about the crystal tank, you want GH+, the gh/kh+ is for cherry shrimp.

When you are mixing with RO water you will be starting with TDS 000 so in the same quantity of RO water with that same amount of GH+ you should get TDS 140 in the new water.

It will be up to you how much you mix at a time, it will be easier with larger amounts to fine tune to the TDS you want, but can be done with smaller amounts of water and you just add tiny amounts of the powder at a time. Some type of old water bottle/container with a screw top is the easiest/quickest way to mix and dissolve the powder (even a 1L bottle as a mixer) in the RO water as you can really vigorously shake the bottle to mix thoroughly quickly!

It will become a habit that you know how much to add and really the only way to get to that point is by experimenting yourself, but do it in tiny amounts of GH+ because it is easier to add a bit more than to have to adjust it downward by adding more RO water, or doing water changes in the tank etc!

I assume you will be draining most of the water and replacing with the RO water once that arrives anyway? You should probably stop messing about with the water until you get the RO system as you will need to change the water then anyway so IF (and you won't with your tap water) you do get the right parameters it will all be going down the drain, to be replaced with the RO water anyway! Hopefully the RO system arrives soon?

Simon

[Able]

[sdlTBfanUK]

Great photos, thanks!

I see why you use the mesh breeder box for the baby shrimp now?

Simon

[Able]

Yeah with the guppies in the tank it’s the only way I can keep the babies alive. So when I see one with berries I put it in there till they hatch.

its not in the picture but on both tanks I also have hang on side air assisted clear plastic breeder tanks also raising baby shrimp. With java moss in them. 

just had a green jade drop 20 or so last night.

im working on starting another tank to keep the guppies so I can have neos only in the tank with the pea gravel. I definitely got hooked on being Shrimpy.....

I noticed that 2 of my red cherries turned almost fully green over the course of a week, why is that?

aslo as an update in my third tank I changed the gravel to Aqueon shrimp substrate to prepare for cardenia only after the ro system comes next week. I’m glad I found you guys to help me in what I was doing wrong.

thank you 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Able

[sdlTBfanUK]

I saw a Jade green in the middle of your second picture!

Wow, you don't hang around if you have already changed the substrate for the caridina shrimps! I hope the RO system arrives soon so you can get the tank running?

I hope that the green that drpped, means babies and not that she dropped the eggs?

It will be a lot easier without the guppies sharing the tanks with the shrimps!

I don't know whether you know that mixing different coloured cherry shrimps will likely result in wild type colouring in a few generations. These are usually a dull brown or clear. Mixing crystals or other caridina shrimps doesnt pose the same problem of dull shrimp as you will still get CRS/CBS, or colourful offspring with these type!

It certainly isn't normal for a shrimp to go from red to green, are you sure they weren't green jade and had maybe moulted and are just colouring back up?

Simon

[Able]

The greed had eggs under tail then no more eggs and many babies swimming in mesh breeder box is what I meant.

and I’m not sure but the tank I had only orange and red cherries one day I noticed a green shrimp when we never had green in that tank..

weird 

 

[Frosty]

Just so you know if you have multiple cherry colours in one tank they’ll eventually convert back to their original brown colour.

 

-B

[Able]

as soon as I see eggs on a shrimp I put in the mesh breeder. Then I take the shrimp out when the eggs are gone and I see more newborns swimming. Am I doing this wrong?

i know I should not have guppies in the tank but I can’t change that as of now....

Eagerly awaiting the ro system tomorrow 

[Crabby]

I've been considering doing the thing with the net as well, so I think it could be a viable idea. How many shrimplets do you usually get through this method?

[Able]

I have about 50 or so as of now in the net from multiple drops.

 

They grow fast

 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Sounds like it is working well and you have sussed this out and got it down to a good routine! You won't need to keep doing this though once the guppies are gone!

Simon