Jump to content

New at this


Cosmo

Recommended Posts

Hi, just setting up my first shrimp tank. Checking water chemistry daily during tank cycling. Kh seems a bit lower than it should be but all else is progressing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome Cosmo.

What KH reading are you getting? And what are you keeping in the tank?

We can confirm if it is ok or if it is a concern.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Getting the tank set up for neos, probably cherry shrimp. Its a 10 gallon tank that been cycling for about a week. gh and kh are at about 120ppm but added some moss and cholla wood today so will read again tomorrow. ph is 7.8 and tds is 95. No shrimp in the tank yet,

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

, Well done for looking into everything BEFORE you get your shrimps, most of  us are not that patient or well organised!

From those parameters I am assuming you are using tap water (dechlorinated), and that should be fine with cherry/neocaridina shrimp. Your TDS is a bit low and the KH a bit high, as is the PH. As long as you acclimate any shrimps properly though (drip over many hours) I would think they will manage to live in that water. I would get some Indian  Almond leaves to help.

Just to be double sure, do the full set of water parameters again around midday to double check the readings. If you are using strips then they obviously jump in steps so it can be difficult to be precise?

Personally I would give it a go as you are as it will be very easy and cheap, but bear in mind tap water parameters can change at any time. If you would rather play safer, or if it doesn't seem to be working with the tap water, you do have the easy (cheap and widely available in USA) option of using a zerowater filter jug (produces RO alternative water, tds/GH/KH 000, will lower PH also) and reminerlise with shrimp products. It will obviosly cost a bit more and take a bit more work, but that will be for you to decide. I use tapwater with my neocaridina and they are fine but our water is probably a lot different to yours.

Simon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Simon and jayc!

Here are today's readings:

ph - 7.6-7.8;  gh - 120ppm;   kh - 120ppm;   ammonia - 0ppm;  nitrite - 0ppm;  nitrate - 0ppm and TDS - 121

 

I will try the zerowater filter but I want to give the tank to the end of the week to get more bacteria built up. Almond leaves are on order.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cosmo said:

gh - 120ppm;   kh - 120ppm

I'd prefer GH and KH to be lower for a shrimp tank personally. As Simon has said, Indian Almond leaves might help reduce slowly.

So definitely no need to add anything that will raise KH at this point in time. Certainly not until you use RO or rainwater.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The KH being about 7 is the main problem as the recommended range is 2 - 4 (36 - 72 on your test kit). GH is also 7 and that range should be 4 - 6 so thats a little over but not anything I would worry too much about, the shrimps should adjust to that with careful acclimarising.

Of coarse if you do go the RO + shrimp minerals, all the parameters will be in sync, which should make things easier and more consistent! All you will need to do when preparing the new water is mix to a TDS of 160-180 and you won't need to test the others very often as the mineral mixture is perfectly balanced for the shrimps requirements. With cherry shrimp you will want GH/KH+!

WHEN you do get shrimp thy should be drip acclimated over several hours.

Simon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the suggestions.

I though neocardinia liked gh between 4 and 8 and kh between 3 and 10? at least that was what I found online

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cosmo said:

neocardinia liked gh between 4 and 8 and kh between 3 and 10

Those are the extremities of the range where they will survive. You don't want to be near those extremes.

Lifespan will be greatly reduced.

 

Keeping it to the ranges we suggest will mean the shrimp are living in a more tolerable conditions. It also means you leave room for swings either way with enough time to catch it and correct it.

 

It's like saying "Humans like 10deg C to 50deg C." That statement is correct and incorrect at the same time.

Yeah, we might survive in those temperatures, but we certainly prefer it to be 20-26deg C. I certainly don't like 50Deg C temps.

 

Likewise with shrimp. 

When GH is too high, the excessive calcium content will make moulting more difficult, and the shrimp expends too much energy trying to shed their old shells. This is a number one cause of deaths apart from bacterial infection.

The high calcium content also makes the eggs harder and males trying to fertilise eggs becomes an issue.

When GH is at the opposite spectrum of the scale and is too low, their shells are not going to be strong enough and you might get deformities. 

 

KH impacts your water parameter like pH. When KH is too high, your pH increases. When KH is too low, pH drops. The key to to maintain stability wit your water parameter. Just enough KH to get the right pH reading with out it swinging wildly in a short amount of time. Settling on a value of 2-4 dGH for KH is the Goldilocks number. Just enough to get pH to the right value, not too much and not too little.

 

Keeping water parameters at the extreme ends of their tolerance will also result in a stressed shrimp, leading to lower immunity and increased possibility of catching diseases.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok, that is the BEST ANSWER I've ever seen! Thank You! is there an article post explaining this? If not, there should be.

Thank you so much for your time answering these questions.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Cosmo said:

ok, that is the BEST ANSWER I've ever seen! Thank You! is there an article post explaining this? If not, there should be.

Thank you so much for your time answering these questions.

Thank you. ?

 

There are a lot of useful information in the "Article" tab. https://skfaquatics.com/forum/articles/

There are also a lot of useful posts that have been pinned (sticky) within each topic in the forums.

I would suggest starting there. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...