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Shrimpy Business


SUSS8

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Hey everyone,

My names Muss and from melbourne. I have been researching a fair bit on shrimp as far as habitats, keeping & breeding them for a little while and for Xmas was given a Fluval EBI shrimp habitat.

I set it all up and had it cycled etc and purchased some RCS as some people recommended to start off with and after a few days I noticed some algae (hair algae & BBA) and slowly my shrimp have continued to die off! I had one berried female and she has now gone too.

Also my floating fern ball I had to trim because of BBA and the long stringy plant in the back right I've had to pull out because of how bad it had gotten also.

2nu1x95.jpg

Ph: 6.4

High range Ph: 7.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 5.0ppm

kh: 89.5ppm

gh:107.4ppm

so hopefully with the knowledge of others here I can sort out my issue and maybe start over again with some success !

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Welcome to SKF. Thanks for sharing a pic of yir tank too.

----- Sent from my mobile so apologising in advance for any grammar or spelling mistakes.

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Hi Muss, your PH fluctuation from 6.4-7.4 is HIGH, I preferably would prefer a lower KH, but your cherries should be OK in those WP you posted, except for you PH fluctuation. Is that an internal filter ? Best to ensure future shrimplets do not get sucked up. 4 little suggestion.

1. 20% Water Change

2. Increase aeration (Air Sponge Filter ?)

3. Add a Catappa Leaf ..

4. Find out the reason for your 1 degree PH fluctuation ?

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Hi Muss' date=' your PH fluctuation from 6.4-7.4 is HIGH, I preferably would prefer a lower KH, but your cherries should be OK in those WP you posted, except for you PH fluctuation. Is that an internal filter ? Best to ensure future shrimplets do not get sucked up. 4 little suggestion.

1. 20% Water Change

2. Increase aeration (Air Sponge Filter ?)

3. Add a Catappa Leaf ..

4. Find out the reason for your 1 degree PH fluctuation ?[/quote']

hey Bluebolts,

yeah it's an internal filter but I'm wanting to purchase an eheim canister soon instead.

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Welcome to SKF mate. Theres little further advice I can give you other than what has already been said. Best of luck.

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G'day Muss...Welcome to SKF...You've already been given advice by Bluebolts...Try that first...With the algae hair problem try to get some natives Darwin Algae Shrimps(Caridina sp NTnilotica), they are great for clearing it up ... And finally, sorry to hear the lost of your cherry shrimps...Not nice to experience dead shrimps, but hopefully you'll learn from it and perservere to become a successful shrimp keeper/breeder...Best of luck mate...CJ

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Hey buddy I remember you ! :D

I'd also be very worried about your pH Swings.

You'd wanna get on top of that asap.

Any ideas on why it could be swinging so much?

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Welcome to SKF,

As you have already read, heaps of good advice and good shrimp luvvin people here. I hope the advice they give you will help you get things back to good. Sorry I cant give you any, just learning myself.

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just a question with your ph and high ph?

Its not 2 seperate tests is it?? my api kit has a normal ph range that does 6.0-7.6 and a high ph that tests 7.4-8.8 for higher ph range.

The first ph of 6.4 may be your actual ph and the High ph kit is just bottoming out in its test range, therefore displays 7.4.

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Welcome! Good to see another Melbournian on the forum.

I myself have recently joined and am a relative noob when it comes to shrimp.

I'm also looking to start up with some cherries, but my eyes are bigger than my wallet atm.

I recently turned down an offer that most others here would have been chomping at the bit for, but I'm not ready for them.

So far I've only kept some natives, which are known to be more forgiving but would love to put in a handful of cherries into my Dymax IQ5 for a bit of colour.

Let me know how you go with finding some cherries. So far I haven't seen any entry level ones in the classifieds here, or any "freebies".

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TRIGGS long time no speak bud !! I'm finally back lol

I have been using flourish excel lately to try and clear up my BBA issue. I have been doing regular water changes 50/50 RO water.

I have been retesting and my ph level has stayed as normal Nd everything else has been fine no issues what so ever. Out of 10 RCS (including one Berried female) i only have one male left and only noticed him because he was swimming around the tank.

i am thinking of removing my java fern from my driftwood and topiary ball and adding some fresh healthy plants hoping that will get rid of the BBA so if anyone has some mosses available I would be very much interested !!

also, my LFS sells RCS which is where I purchased mine from for $1 each but in saying that I don't believe it would have been a fault of mine from their deaths as everything was spot on before I purchased them and within an 2 hours they just started dropping like flies. So I may look at purchasing some from a forum member here ! hoping someone has some RCS available.

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Mate welcome to SKF I am sure that within a couple of days you will have all the info you need to sort out your problems

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