danielt

They breed only in brackish or saline water, although they will lay eggs the larvae that hatch from them does not survive the freshwater environment.

Indian Almond Leaves. Aka Catappa Leaves.

Use IAL and feed 2-3 times a week. Try to feed a smaller quantity and just leave it in the tank as they will eventually find it. Try to keep from feeding high animal protein content as that fouls the water quicker. I also use lots of dried leaves from various plants most of them from tea bags. Mulberry leaves, nettle leaves etc.

MTS is a good snail to keep in any aquarium, they seem to eat just about anything preventing gas pockets and aerating the substrate. This prevents anaerobic hydrogen sulfurous gas to accumulate and bomb the tank. I didn't had that happen to me but folks with lots of decaying matter in the substrate are particularly susceptible to this.

Better to raise it via water change schedule. Don't do it fast, don't do it all at once, don't put remineralizer directly in the tank. Just do the water changes as usual or once a week if you do them rarer than that. With the hardness set at the desired value it will increase over time in the tank as well. Don't do water changes in larger quantities than usual. The above applies in case you're not experiencing deaths.

I keep CRS/CBS with inert quartz sand. I still don't monitor pH.

Yup, it's a matter of perspective. My BKKs and Shadows did well from the start in fresh setups. Up until this point (2 months later), I still don't know what the pH value is. No deaths and the 3-4 berried females seem to confirm they're not doing that bad

Stop speculating. Without actual tests you can speculate about anything and that leads to myths in this hobby. I don't test for pH as much as I test for TDS, nitrites, gH. Ammonia is quickly absorbed, nitrites not so much. Both of them are deadly in low concentrations. Whether the bio filter is bombed or not it doesn't matter much as long as ammonia and nitrites are 0. Most of the bio filters are supersized when it comes to shrimp. It shouldn't be a problem if part of your bio filter dies as long as it still does it's job, keeping ammonia and nitrites undetectable.

I don't do that It's a waste of time to monitor pH. Do your water changes on time, remineralize according to the species reqs and that's all.

I do believe pH swings kill by the ammonia route. Poor water circulation + poor filtration + pH swing can cause a deadly ammonia(NH3) spike which otherwise stays in the ammonium(NH4) form if your pH value remains in the acidic range (<7).

That's a pretty good question. I'm curious if someone has a good argument.

Have you tested for ammonia? Nitrites? That's an indicator, not biofilm turning white and a couple of shrimp succumbing to what might have been age or weakness + peroxide exposure.

kH is bad for high spec Caridinas you need to keep it as low as possible. ADA substrate helps in that regard, Shirakura Red Bee sand is also a well established brand. Neos need kH in the range 2-4dkH and tolerate even higher.

Try a slice of cucumber. Do the same to have it sink.

It's important to know what hardness has the tap water. RO will be the same every time. Tap might vary when seasons change. I don't believe peroxide has anything to do with your problem. I've dosed 2.5ml of 3% peroxide in 10L of water without any noticeable deaths. I have around 60 RCS in this tank. Opposite to mulm bombing the tank you can add. Tetra Safe Start if it's available. Or any bacterial start culture. One thing to note, peroxide will attack any living tissue as it quickly reacts to living cells breaking the membrane. The deaths might have been because of that. Not because of a bio filter being killed.