Jump to content

be carefull where u source your water


honcho

Recommended Posts

well i thought id post this up ,so it may help someone else before they do the same mistake :cower:

i

i decided last week that i would go past an lfs the other day to buy some RO water 40L to be exact..

id bought water from this place and there was no issues before and it was gonna be quicker than making my own RO h20..

seemed like great idea at the time .. it was cheap and ready to use..

anyways i took water home and added salty shrimp mix..

stupid me didnt check out water parameters and just chucked it in as i would any other water clean..

unfortunantely this water made my tank go crazy kh went up to 6 ang gh to 10-13 EC also went upto 320..

at first i didnt realise but the next day a couple shrimp died with molting issues..

this went on for about 4 days before i thought i gotta check water parameters as some of my nice shrimp died :sorrow:

after a few watr cleans last night and chatting to BB..

i seem to have the tank parameters almost back in order

gh6-7

kh 2

EC 260

thanx to distilled water ,some salty shrimp, and my own RO water..

moral to the story be carefull where you source your water and if in doubt check it first....!

I had to learn the hard way once again......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear honcho. Before I got my own RO unit I used to buy my RO too, the first couple of times I tested all the parameters then got lazy. Out of the blue I don't know why but I decided to test the RO from the LFS and to my surprise 1x 20litre jug was off the charts while the other 2 were fine. I went out and purchased my own RO unit the next day.

Always test it especially when you are using there water containers as it may have had salt water or any combination of buffers added to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cheers guys..

@ heavyd, complacency is definantely something to look out for, its too easy ....

@ trav80 cant believe u got different readings out of same place ..

i suppose its always good to check everything..

im only gonna use my own RO now, at least i know i can trust it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 containers @ 0TDS, 1 container was @ 500+TDS. Tested it further and it was surprised to see the GH and KH were also very high. I believe the container had something else like a cichlid buffer or something in it before they used it for my RO.

They apologised and offered to replace it and give me a couple of free refills, I declined the free refills, took the replacement and tested the water right there in the shop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing this tragedy, and trust the tank's stable and within the right WP.

IMO, part of the success of a shrimp breeder (or any sensitive animals..), is that we must be an absolute control freak, so that we can learn and understand any issues that we no doubt will face....i.e., if you used tap water, no chiller, and/or no understanding of GH, TDS ...etc, and your shrimp dies, it'll be impossible to know why...BUT if you used RO water, and control the mineralisation/TDS, check you WP to ensure stability, Temp control with chiller/heater etc...immediately you've eliminated 80% of the known common issues, and we can then attempt to pin point the cause/issues etc...and learnt from it, and/or induce a safe guard for it not happening.

Again, thanks for sharing, as all experience good or bad, helps and reminds us all of the potential pitfalls....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Yeah mate.. i must say its taken a while.. and plenty deaths.. but everythings looking much better now , thanx for asking :D

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...