Struggling a bit

[Wraithie]

Durro (Greg) was kind enough to gift me some black cherries a few weeks ago to boost my adventures beyond RCS.

They settled in well enough, drip acclimated over an evening to a breeder box in an established tank. They weren't terribly keen on my shrimp wafers initially but took to them over time.

After a while I started losing shrimp, not all at once, just 1 each day or two. I thought that perhaps my ph was too high as I know how bad brissy water is, but its within range of what should be acceptable at 7.5.

I have moved them this week into a smaller aquarium of their own using water from the main tank and a cycled filter so that I can have more control of the water conditions to try and halt the deaths (I'm down to about half of what I was given and feel terrible :( )

I suspect they may be moulting related deaths due to how it has been really spread out so after some reading I located a TDS pen and I'm fairly sure it's too high. I had Zeke set up his RO system today and I'm going to embark on a slow journey to reduce the TDS and lower the pH in the desperate hope that it helps.

:dejection:

[JohnH]

what is your TDS?

[Wraithie]

400 with Hanna meter -.-

[MrShrimp]

Can you give us your water par?

[durro68]

The tank they came from is about 420EC

[shrimpstan]

Yeah u probably want ur TDS about half of what it is. If u do it over the course of a month, maybe a bit less, u should be on the road to recovery :)

Goodluck!!

[MrShrimp]

Cherries are very hardy and tds about 400 isn't a big problem. I guessing it's something else in your water or your regular routine. We need a description of your water change and water quality. I use to have a tank with sunkiss that I neglect for months and the tds creep up to 450 with all sunkiss was breeding like flies.

[Wraithie]

Ph:7.5

kh:~40

gh:>180(need a better test for this)

no2: 0.02-0.05ppm

no3: 10ppm

tds: 416 (Hanna)

usually 10% weekly with conditioned tap water, moving towards RO with shrimp minerals now that I have the setup

[MrShrimp]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think your no2 ( nitrite) should always be 0. Anything above that is poisonous to shrimps. Your no3 (nitrate) is ok for cherries but the lower the better. I think you you may be over feeding to get this reading if you are doing a 10% water change. Please correct me if ive given the wrong info.Your ideal water should beAmonia - o, nitrite -0, nitrate less then 5, tds less then 300. Anything else can varie but those are the important ones.

[KiwiBigD]

I would also suggest for you Ph at 7.5 its slightly higher than I normally go myself. I found with higher Phs above 7.4 Cherry Shrimps didn't do so well so I keep mine around 7.2 - 7.4 as I found this ideal in terms of growth / survival rates. Also its a relatively easy Ph to keep where we live and I'm a bit lazy. The TDS though is high, even for my Cherries I keep it around the 150 mark, occassionally it'll climb to 200 but a water change normally corrects that pretty quickly. The nitrites shouldn't be an issue as that is low but does imply there may have been an ammonia spike in the last couple of days and its taking a bit longer than usual for the bacteria to process it. For nitrites the levels are perfectly acceptable, mine go as high as 20ppm but I've a lot of plants so I prefer a higher nitrate value for their benefit.

I think all you can really do at the moment is keep on with your water changes until you hit the idea values, I would also do a water change with say 5 - 10% pure RO just to bring down your TDS and Ph.

[northboy]

NO2 is a dangerous one and I would be looking at that hard and first, fix that and then play with the water. Water changes fixes that.

Also Ammonia at harder water readings and higher PH changes its make up to be many times more dangerous, even for short periods.

My water change schedule would frighten everyone, I water change 5 to 9 times a week and I do a minimum of 1/3 and a max of 1/2, But and its a big but, my tap water reads 7.0 to 7.4, hardness is KH 0 to .5 and GH 0 to 2 and the coldest it comes out of the tap is 22c.

Bob

[Wraithie]

So half litre changes daily with RO water and the tank seems much happier, no deaths for a few days and some obvious moults now. Slowly slowly!

[newbreed]

Great to hear things are getting back on track for you. Unfortunately, we have to have these situations to learn.

I am thankful we have many experienced members here to help us out and guide us when these things happen.

Keep us posted, hopefully more moults, saddles and berries soon!!!!!! :encouragement:

[liljohn_83]

hi wraith try the product i was telling you about ,can pm the details if need be ,

is the tank planted and how long is the light on for

id also sugest only feeding every 2 days and syphen out any left over food after an hour or so leftover food is no good imo

[Wraithie]

Aah yes I forgot about that! Just had a quick look, is it the vacation block thingy?