Brolly33

Low GH (or high GH) can cause moulting problems, which would happen 1 shrimp at a time. I am leaning towards the change to distilled as the cause. You have a 5 gallon tank. Your water change is 20% (1 gallon) every two weeks. Changes in water parameters, like that first time you used pure distilled, will frequently trigger breeding (survival instinct... water changing, we might all die off, better breed quick). Sustained water variability will crash the colony. Every time you take water out manually, you take minerals out with it. If you don't add them back in, you will eventually drive your GH all the way to 0. If you are topping off evaporation, then use your pure distilled. Because evaporation leaves the minerals behind, you are restoring the balance. On water change day, you might want to consider tap water, or remineralize your distilled with one of the fine remineralizers on the market. Shrimp love consistency. Slowly raise your GH back to about 5 or 6 and you should recover. My opinion above is based on reading the internet and running a colony for about 2 years. I crashed a colony of RCS by switching to RO water and not remineralizing. I hope this helps you. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Those parameters look good for your bees. A little low for cherries on pH and GH. External contaminants? Do you use pesticides around your house? Have you tested your incoming distilled water, are you sure it is pure? What do you remineralize with? When you water change, how big is the difference between new and old water? Are dieing shrimp big/old and just aging out? When one shrimp slows and dies, are other Shrimp active? Pic of a dead shrimp? Bacterial infection? Parasites? Grasping at the obvious straws here. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Parameters you gave should work fine for Red cherry Shrimp - Neocardinia Shipping stress is my first suspicion. Did you contact the seller for advice? Toxin or pathogen in the tank? Copper treatments or medicines? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

pH reading will fluctuate due to stray voltage in the tank water. With your filter running, take a glass of water out of the tank, then measure the water in the glass vs what is in the tank... Also, if the pH meter is plugged into the same wall socket as your pump it could effect the meter. Test the water in the glass with pump running vs off. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I am right down the road from you in St. Pete. We have plumerias too. It is more the way that the shrimp pops when viewing in avatar size that made me like this one. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Leaf shape and rhizome looks like buce? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This one is by preference. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yummy biofilm! I usually keep my front glass clean, but the rest get a whitish cross between slimy and dusty looking. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

http://www.usashrimpcontest.com Looks like it is a contest inside of a larger, general aquarium convention http://aquaticexperience.org Our very own Grant Eder will be one of the judges. Chris Lukhaup is one of the headline speakers. Looks like an awesome weekend! Anyone going to Chicago in November?

So, it is a show produced on a micro budget about a show produced on no budget? Life imitating art. But what happens if you land a whale of a sponsor? Perhaps S2 needs to have one of the key players gain a large inheritance, which they invest in the theatre? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I took out too much water on one of my water changes due to a catlike distraction. I just put it back into the tank. If your pH is stable at 7.6, I would not mess with the KH of 2. Let the tank sit stable for a week and go back to your regular water change cycle. KH is effectively a buffer to pH, so your event may have pushed pH far enough to have lowered your KH to a new equilibrium point. Easy test. Make a new batch of RO and remineralize as normal. Test KH. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Great article. I love that you really go into some of the techniques that worked and those that did not. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Shrimpaholics anonymous? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Do you add KH when remineralizing? I would think high KH would "wear out" soil buffering faster, but I have not done the experiment. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks @MrF. I thought it was primarily inorganics that drove TDS. I might have to do a little testing with some pure RO and some glasgarten bacterAE. How do you think adding a product like TDS-up would benefit shrimp? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I must be missing something critical in my knowledge. Total Dissolved Solids, as measured by conductivity, includes The solids that make up General Hardness and Karbonate Hardness. I thought the GH and KH parameters had more to do with molting and metabolism of shrimp and were the primary desirable constituents making up TDS targets in shrimp tanks. TDS meter does not care I'd the dissolved solid is Good Stuff like calcium, or Bad Stuff, like Nitrite or Ammonia. I guess I always though of TDS as a "not to exceed" while keeping GH high enough but not too high for good molts. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Welcome Brian. I too used RCS Neos as my "starter shrimp". I still remember getting my first berries. For low maintenance plants, I would suggest Anubias species. Very common in pet stores and very slow growing. Java Fern is almost impossible to kill off and grows a bit faster. Floaters are also very easy to keep alive, like mini water lettuce, frogbit or giant duckweed. Since they float, they take CO2 from the air and have a huge growth advantage over submerged plants.

@Ahboram, I too am struggling with what to do when my controlsoil's buffering wears out. The most common solution I have heard about is to cycle a second tank with new soil and move the shrimp. I have not won the battle with the wife to acquire another tank yet, so I have been considering alternatives. Here is a proposed process to try to avoid a heavy cycle and killing off all the shrimp. Prep: Age/cycle another batch of substrate in a 5gal bucket with sponge filter for 1-3 months. On change day, siphon 75% of tank into a second set of bucket(s). Catch shrimp and move to buckets. Remove 1/2 or 3/4 or all of existing substrate (thinking here is to leave some undisturbed) Add aged substrate + aged substrate water to tank. Let set for 2-3 hours then test tank water for ammonia. Drain 75% of tank. Return the old bucket water back to the tank along with shrimp. Run Purigen for 2-3 weeks while testing for ammonia/nitrate/nitrate spikes. Alternatively, I guess the shrimp could live in the bucket, with filtration, of course, for 2-3 months while the tank cycles in the new soil... Would love to hear what the community thinks on this topic.

I love the islands of green. This balance between sparse and plants hits my personal aesthetic very well. I may have to steal this for my future rack. Are the 120x45x30 custom built tanks or prebuilt with dividers added?

I love that you are using floaters for nitrate control here. Since they are "up", I would expect they don't mess with culling operations as well as being super effective nitrate sponges.

My shrimp seem to love the BacterAE. I use a chopstick to scoop out a tiny bit and I put it right in front of the filter outflow about once a week. It seems to mix into the water pretty well that way. The bits that float, well the shrimp just swim upside down on the surface to gobble it up. Wet toothpick? I would worry about fouling my supply with tank water, but I also cannot argue with success.

Love those blue bolts.

For me, tank philosophy depends on your goals. For me, the top goal is to keep both shrimp and plants healthy and thriving. It's the balance of fertilizing the plants vs best fertility of shrimp. They seem to be contrary goals to me, which brings the fun of balancing. I like the ecosystem. Others are building a breed (or several). Others want the most beautiful environment in their tanks. Others are trying to maximize baby quality, output and health to make profit. Sparse tanks makes for easier culling but less tank beauty.

This shrimp is Batman!

Hard to tell from the pictures. Size? the nostrum does not look like Neocardinia nor Cardinina.