Hi

[DeagonTheo]

Hi, I'm just a newbie to the shrimp world but I've been breeding and keeping fish for many years. First I heard about shrimp was when I bought some Peppermint Bristlenose and there were these funny little cooked prawns.

That was about a month ago, since then I bought some CRS and CBS and put them in rainwater with black gravel. Everything was fine for 3 weeks and then they started dying. Checked the PH and it was 8.2, put peat in stayed at 8.2, put in PH down, went down, then went back up.

I've tried all kinds of stuff and it just kept going back up. So I've gone back to tap water with Acid buffer, now I'm finally down to 6.8 and the shrimpies are looking fine again.

anyway, I joined the forum to see what I can learn about these little things.

Theo

[ineke]

Hi and welcome to SKF heaps to learn here . CRS are a little more complex than the cherry family and definitely need their water parameters kept in their safe limits. The forum will open up for you as you post so put up some pictures of your fish, shrimp and tanks. Ask questions there are plenty of people here to share their knowledge with you. Hope you enjoy our forum.

[BlueBolts]

Welcome to SKF Theo. WP and stability gets more critical as your shrimp journey takes you the the reaches of TB's. Using buffers, only temporarily drops the PH, and can cause more issues. Need to perhaps ascertain what's causing the PH to head towards the 8.2, alternativey , the next step is to get a shrimp specific tank, with buffering sand.. Etc Would love to see pics.

[DeagonTheo]

My Tank

This was my tank a few days ago, now it's just a hospital tank, while I'm trying to save the shrimp.[ATTACH]4102[/ATTACH]

[BlueBolts]

Important WP, are PH (<7), TDS (<300), GH 4-6, and a cycled tank with nitrates less then 20ppm, preferably 0. Many hobbyist may have different WP, but these would be safe parameters....temp 22-24 too.

[DeagonTheo]

The only thing different with my parameters to the ones you quoted would be PH 8.2. I ended up with a completely bare tank with aged rainwater which drops out of the sky at my place at 7.8 a small aged power head filter and plants, yet the PH still went up to 8.2.

I know this sounds silly but I think the aeration was causing the PH to creep up in this small tank. When I turned off all the aeration, the water went back to 7.8. Then I added CO2 and the PH went down even further to 7.4.

I'm now on tap water which started at 7.8 with chemicals added to bring it down to 6.8 and the shrimp are looking better. I'm hoping things stay stable till I can get some shrimp soil.

[newbreed]

Hey DeagonTheo,

Sometimes the colored gravels buffer the PH high.

I had a similar issue with one of my tanks sitting on 7.8 even with peat, water change, etc. Turned out it was the Iwugimi (spelled wrong) rock I had for display. Is that a rock in your tank in front of the driftwood, it might be a source.

[fishmosy]

Hey theo, welcome to the forum.

Aeration can increase the pH because it can remove carbon dioxide from the water (which forms a weak acid when dissolved in water, therefore reducing pH).

[DeagonTheo]

Hey DeagonTheo' date='

Sometimes the colored gravels buffer the PH high.

I had a similar issue with one of my tanks sitting on 7.8 even with peat, water change, etc. Turned out it was the Iwugimi (spelled wrong) rock I had for display. Is that a rock in your tank in front of the driftwood, it might be a source.[/quote']

I think the gravel was part of the problem, that is a piece of coral which I was hoping to keep the PH stable. In my Lake Nyasa tanks I keep Calcium Carbonate substrate with Coral and the PH sits on 7.2.

[DeagonTheo]

Hey theo' date=' welcome to the forum.

Aeration can increase the pH because it can remove carbon dioxide from the water (which forms a weak acid when dissolved in water, therefore reducing pH).[/quote']

Yep that's what I deducted after stripping the tank bare and the shrimp were still dying and the water kept going back up to 8.2 no matter what I did. There was only one thing left and that was the air stone.

Once I removed the air stone and supplied CO2 the PH started dropping. I decided to try tap water in the meantime because the hardness would give me more stability.

I woke up this morning and the PH is 7.2 and the remaining shrimp are looking happy again. It seems to me they can tolerate PH up to 7.8 but after that its all over.

Now I'll get into the rest of the Forum and see if I can learn something about these little critters, I already know what kills them.

[DeagonTheo]

One more thing, what is the best soil to use for CRS and CBS. I've got no idea where all the forums are so ill ask it here.

[2OFUS]

One more thing' date=' what is the best soil to use for CRS and CBS. I've got no idea where all the forums are so ill ask it here.[/quote']

Coral or anything that comes from the ocean contains calcium carbonate

which will raise your ph and gh

[Squiggle]

Welcome to the forum dude, good to see more QLDer's getting in to the shrimp game. As everyone has mentioned, stable WP is the key to keeping shrimp, one parameter that hasn't bee mentioned yet is KH & you want it to be between 0-2. Also I think the piece of coral will be a major cause of the PH rising, coral is used to buff the PH up for African Cichlids & is likely to raise the PH to above 8 as it is in saltwater. I think if you remove the coral & get some Benibachi Black Soil you will have a lot more success, a bed of between 3-5cm should give you a PH between 6-6.5. There is a link below to our sponsors site, hope you have as much fun here as we do :victorious:

http://www.bossaquaria.com.au/benibachi-shrimp-soil/

[DeagonTheo]

Funnily enough it wasn't the coral it was the aerator, because when I put pure rainwater in a bare tank it still went up to 8.2, no coral, no gravel, just a little filter. I'll look into that Benachi stuff.

[jayc]

I'll look into that Benachi stuff.

Benibachi.

While you are at it, get some mineral Salts for Shrimp - Like Salty Shrimp <--- see what I did there ;)

The problem with Rain water is that it is mostly devoid of any minerals and thus has almost no buffering capabilities. So any slight change in pH from whatever source like corals, will send pH spiralling. It could go the other way as well if you injected CO2.

[wayne6442]

hello Theo, Hope you enjoy your stay at SKF

[Squiggle]

Funnily enough it wasn't the coral it was the aerator' date=' because when I put pure rainwater in a bare tank it still went up to 8.2, no coral, no gravel, just a little filter. I'll look into that Benachi stuff.[/quote']

I agree, aeration will cause a rise in ph as you are removing co2 but I guarantee that the coral will be contributing to it as well, it will also cause a rise in KH which is not good for shrimp, as I mentioned before, they like it between 0-2.

Also, jayc was spot on, you need to remineralise the rainwater & SaltyShrimp minerals are the best. You will also need to get a TDS(Total Dissolved Solids) or EC(Electronic Conductivity) pen so you know how much salts to add to the water, they are pretty cheap on fleabay, they are worth every penny :victorious:

[Neo-shrimp]

Welcome to SKF Theo, hope all goes well with the pH dilemma...:)

[northboy]

Hi Theo

Its about time you started keeping shrimp, I thought you were getting out of fish? you were talking about it before I moved to Cairns, anyhoo welcome you will enjoy this forum even better than the Pleco one

Bob