Crashed Tank

[JohnH]

So I get home from fours days away fishing and I find most of my red cherries dead. :crushed:

Luckily my other tank with my yellow cherries, red rillis and chameleons is ok.

I think the lady that was feeding our cat may have fed the shrimp too and perhaps over fed? Water changing the tank now so hopefully the remaining will survive.

[ineke]

Oh John thats terrible. Sorry for your loss. Hope you find a few alive!!!

Cheers

Ineke:encouragement:

[JohnH]

Yeah, there looks to be enough left to get the colony up and running again. Quite a lot of my big girls are gone and the swarm of shrimpletes that were in the tank when I left are missing.

I've ordered a RO unit, so I might strip this tank down when it arrives and start again.

[BlueBolts]

That's not great news :-( ..... when I head off for 2-4 days, I'll feed generously and leave a bunch of mulberry leaves before I head off.....I won't let anyone feed my tanks and/or will give VERY strict instructions......luckily, the survivors will bounce back and create that colony again !

[ineke]

Just watch out before you throw anything out the shrimpletes are good at hiding. I'm sure between us here we can help you out with a few Cherries if you have lost too many.

Cheers

ineke:encouragement:

[JohnH]

The lady also fed them when I was away for two Months over Christmas. But I had an auto feeder set up then so she just had to top the feeder up. I didn't ask her to feed them this time, but I guess she was trying to do the right thing. She must have thought there were lots of shrimp in the tank so she fed them lots. :sorrow:

It doesn't look like she even fed my other tank though? They can be hard to see, maybe she thought there were no shrimp in there.

I guess I better test the water parameters now. I didn't do it before, I just panicked and siphoned water out. lol :onthego:

[ineke]

Water changes first in an emergency always the best!!!:encouragement:

[CNgo2006]

Do you still have any of the old tank water you siphoned out, I would test that first to see if it was the water that killed them or something else...people are quick to jump to conclusions blaming it on the water because most of the time it is but there are times when it isn't and so you have to identify what it is by ruling out that it was the water that did it!

[Squiggle]

Oh no! That's devastating news, hopefully you can get your colony back on track. When I go away I leave post-it notes on each tank with detailed directions on how much to feed & how often. :dejection:

[JohnH]

Nar, the old water went straight on the garden. Everything tests normal now. It looks like I have at least 50 red cherries left so that should be plenty to get things going again.

There was a bit bunch of food pellets sitting in the tank (some was even looking all fury too) so I just assumed there was an ammonia/nitrate spike.

[ineke]

Do you still have any of the old tank water you siphoned out' date=' I would test that first to see if it was the water that killed them or something else...people are quick to jump to conclusions blaming it on the water because most of the time it is but there are times when it isn't and so you have to identify what it is by ruling out that it was the water that did it![/quote']

I agree with you in principle and always test the water to find out if there was anything wrong but when you have dead bodies going off in your water it needs a bit of fresh water regardless me thinks!

[CNgo2006]

I agree with you in principle and always test the water to find out if there was anything wrong but when you have dead bodies going off in your water it needs a bit of fresh water regardless me thinks!

What I meant is keep a bit of a sample of the siphoned water not wait until all tests until fresh water is added, water changes should be done first and then do a test on the siphoned water before dumping it out in the garden

[ineke]

What I meant is keep a bit of a sample of the siphoned water not wait until all tests until fresh water is added' date=' water changes should be done first and then do a test on the siphoned water before dumping it out in the garden[/quote']

Yes that's very important otherwise you have no hope of finding out if the water was at fault:encouragement:

[JohnH]

If it happens again, I'll try and remember to save the water to test. I use the same bucket to get the fresh water so I had to empty the old stuff to get the new water.

[CNgo2006]

I recommend 2 buckets one for water out and one for water in, this way you don't transfer any diseases/bacteria, contaminants between tanks.

[JohnH]

Two more deaths this morning :(

I may have to strip this tank down after work today and put the reds in a breeder box in my other tank.

[Heavyd]

Sorry for the bad news John. It is heart-breaking when things go wrong with our tanks.

I went away for 6 days in February and chose to leave my unattended, rather than risk someone stuffing things up. Just fed them heartily one day before, did water changes and made sure I had IAL in various stages of decomposition for them to feast on.

[Squiggle]

Oh no, that's devastating! Have you checked the WP? How old are the shrimp? :dejection:

[JohnH]

I didn't get time to do any water tests, I'll have to do that when I get home from work. One was a large old female and the other was a younger mid size female.

Maybe I should set up a temp tank and put the shrimp in there rather than in a breeding box in with my other shrimp? If they are diseased, I don't want to infect my others.

[JohnH]

Ok water parameters are as follows

PH: 7.6

Ammonia: 0.25 ppm (not sure if this is a reading from chloramine in the tap water. I dose with prime each time)

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 5 ppm

KH: 2 drops

GH: 5 drops

TDS: still waiting for my TDS Pen to arrive.

Doing another 20% water change now

[Squiggle]

Ok I'm stumped, can you get access to a copper test kit? I'd like to know the TDS but we'll have to wait for that one :encouragement:

[JohnH]

I don't have a copper test kit so I'll have to see if one of the LFS has one.

Hopefully the TDS pen will arrive tomorrow.

[JohnH]

I couldn't see any new deaths this morning when I left for work.

The TDS Pen I was expecting today has only just been posted even though I ordered in on Monday. :crushed:

Being Easter this weekend, I may not get it until Tuesday.

[Squiggle]

Doh! That's a bit annoying :dejection:

[JohnH]

No more deaths again today, which is great.

My RO unit arrived today :congratulatory: I ended up getting this one so it does drinking water too http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310485888484

It took about 25 min to produce 5 litres of RO water.

Once my TDS Pen arrives next week I'll start doing some water changes with RO water