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No, the shrimp had normal coloration (apart from the brown spot) and seemed to be active and healthy right up until it died. The temperature has been fluctuating for the last few weeks as the weather here has been 102F and then gets cold at night. This morning the temperature in the tank was like 72F, but will usually hit 80F by the end of the day. I have three Taiwan Bees in a 5gallon tank.

Yes, it's totally possible that there was a buildup, but seeing the Salvinia Cucullata, I thought that's what it needed. With JayC's help, I've been educated. I have been using the wrong product. So, it seems you have about the same size tank as I. I actually did my water change this way when I was doing 10%. I purchased an IV setup which allowed me to easily adjust the drip speed. After a balancing accident which involved several gallons of water, I started changing quicker. With my new rack setup, it will be a lot easier to accomplish this. Second day and the reds still have no deaths. Thank you for your help and support, Rick

No it didn’t, it just had some brown spot on it (like the one in the picture). also I just tested my water- ammonia: 0 nitrate: 0 nitrite: 0 ph: 6.5 temperature: 80F

My apologies, yes I thought you meant Flourish Excel. 5ml of Flourish in 10gal is still too much. So please cut down. for the Salvinia Cucullata, yes. That will be the only major nutrient it is lacking in a freshwater tank. But do that in a separate bucket, as Potassium will alter the pH and TDS of the tank.

Thank you all for the advice. I bought two males for the tank a few weeks ago. Since then, I've checked every day for berried shrimp with no luck. But yesterday, I saw one of the females picking over what looked like tiny yellow dots in the substrate. Definitely nothing I feed them. I siphoned out a few to take pics and I'm leaning towards eggs. Do you agree? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QZHX4f5KxhW-DH_65vsZLmgHdrwvBg6g/view?usp=drivesdk

Did the other shrimp that died have any pitting in its shell? Brown spot or Rust disease eats away at the shell creating little pits like holes.

I also see 2-3 Cholla wood in there. Has that been in the tank since day 1 as well? Okay, if there was any reason for shrimp to die it would be an overdose of Gluteraldehyde , which is what flourish is. Read up on what Gluteraldehyde is - hint it's nasty stuff. I would stop using Flourish asap. The assumption that the Salvinia Cucullata is turning brown because it is lacking in CO2 is wrong. The Salvinia Cucullata is a floating plant, any CO2 it needs is taken right from the air, not from it's roots. All floating plants take CO2 from the air. It is much more likely that the plant is turning brown because it is lacking in Potassium. Your Blue Dreams would have been a lot more sensitive to Gluteraldehyde than the Reds. This will be the most likely reason. Even if I'm wrong, it won't hurt the remaining shrimps in the tank to stop Flourish dosing. The great thing about floating plants is that you can remove them easily. Take them out and add them into a bucket of water with some Potassium instead. Give them a week and see if the plant improves. 2.5ml each side is 5ml to a 10gal (40L) tank, that is way too much as a maintenance dose. That is the dose you use to a new tank. A maintenance dose is "Thereafter use 1 capful for every 200 L (50 US gallons)" - quote Seachem. So you have potentially given 5 times the dose in that last water change. Dumping the water into tank would have killed them instantly. 5ml per 10 Gal in a new tank is okay only for fish, not shrimps. Of the two things above, Cholla wood and Gluteraldehyde, the Gluteraldehyde is the most likely cause of mass deaths. It has happened before to other shrimp keepers. Gluteraldehyde would also be hampering the breeding process of your shrimps. Let's stop the Flourish and see if it makes a change to your shrimp's breeding. Perform a water change immediately without any added flourish to dilute what ever is in the tank now. And treat your Salvinia Cucullata separately as I said above. Put it in a separate bucket with flourish if you want. But if I know my plants, it's potassium that it wants.

My plan at this point is to set up both new tanks as totally new and not trusting anything from either side. If the red side does survive until the new tank is ready for them, they will be acclimated to the new tank and the old tank will be taken apart and sterilized. I never did want the water to be drawn through the foam as a filter. That would require regular cleaning, which would mean uprooting both colonies during maintenance causing too much stress. I basically just wanted 2 - 5 gallon tanks that for stability would act like one 10 gallon. Looking back in the history, I did use Flourish at the start of the colony hoping that it would help the Marimo Balls & Java Moss grow better, which I believe it did. I have about 3 weeks before I can put the new tanks in place on the rack. I do have an extra 10 gallon tank. I might start cycling (fishless, of course) that tank while it's on the floor now, with all the new filters, then just transfer the filters into the 20 gallon tanks when they're in place for a quicker cycle. This time when I start the 20 gallon tanks, I will have better lights & more plants to keep the Nitrates in check better. Live and learn. Just a quick question, how large of a tank do you have? You said that you do about 10% per week, how long does it take to refill your tank? When I was doing 10%, I would drip it in for over an hour for 1 gallon. Then I started increasing the amount and the speed and it never seemed to bother the shrimp as long as the water temperature was matched.

I called around local stores. I was hoping someone had some Amazonia, nobody does. Best I can get is some fluorite, but I don’t much feel like mixing substrate. Even if I did some divided substrate( IE a small area of sand that’s unplanted for ascetics), I’m not sure I’d have enough. Poop.

We definitely do!! Xmas moss is similar to Java moss, but prettier. The fronds grow in that Christmas tree shape, rather than long strands like Java moss.