Cape Shrimp
28th Sep 2011, 10:50 PM
I have lost several Tigers and a couple of RCS over the past ten days and would be very keen to find out what is happening here ? The tigers turn an orange colour for a few days before finally succumbing. The shrimp only tank was set up 5weeks ago. To speed up the cycling process I used for the most part already matured bacteria media from another running canister filter.
All shrimp seemed fine and happy for the first two to three weeks with several of them coming onto berry.
Tank specs - Igwami style 60lt, Aqua Clear 30 HOB filter with Biomax and Purigen. Temp 24’C
Substrate – Flourite Black sand. As I was initially planning to grow a glosso and HC carpet I added the following on the bottom glass below the Flourite, a very thin ‘conservative’ layer of earthworm castings, a minor sprinkling of Guanasol (less than half a tablet) and Osmocote, say thirty granules max. In the end I opted for a riccia carpet which covers over 90% of the floor surface and a small amount of HC in the front of the tank, so by and large no plant roots have utilised the substrate recipe, ... is this perhaps part of the problem with the enriching of the substrate going to waste ?
Water parameters - use a 70% well point and 30% tap water mix (with Kent Chlorinex)
I have used the same well point water for many years with tropical fish and a koi pond with good results. Well point water = Kh2 Gh7, Ph 5.5, TDS 320ppm, EC 480. Tap water = no Gh or Kh, PH 8.5, TDS 100, EC 160
Tank – Kh 1to 2, Gh approx 7 to 8, Ph 6.5, no levels of ammonia & nitrate and with minimal nitrite 0 to 1 mg/l. I don;t have the TDS and EC readings of the tank at the moment, as I do not own the test kit.
I have been doing a 10 to 20% water change every second day.
Being a shrimp newbie, any advice would be most welcome and going forward with how I should cater for my water shrimp-wise, given the water parameters I am working with or should I perhaps rather go with RO water and added minerals ?
All shrimp seemed fine and happy for the first two to three weeks with several of them coming onto berry.
Tank specs - Igwami style 60lt, Aqua Clear 30 HOB filter with Biomax and Purigen. Temp 24’C
Substrate – Flourite Black sand. As I was initially planning to grow a glosso and HC carpet I added the following on the bottom glass below the Flourite, a very thin ‘conservative’ layer of earthworm castings, a minor sprinkling of Guanasol (less than half a tablet) and Osmocote, say thirty granules max. In the end I opted for a riccia carpet which covers over 90% of the floor surface and a small amount of HC in the front of the tank, so by and large no plant roots have utilised the substrate recipe, ... is this perhaps part of the problem with the enriching of the substrate going to waste ?
Water parameters - use a 70% well point and 30% tap water mix (with Kent Chlorinex)
I have used the same well point water for many years with tropical fish and a koi pond with good results. Well point water = Kh2 Gh7, Ph 5.5, TDS 320ppm, EC 480. Tap water = no Gh or Kh, PH 8.5, TDS 100, EC 160
Tank – Kh 1to 2, Gh approx 7 to 8, Ph 6.5, no levels of ammonia & nitrate and with minimal nitrite 0 to 1 mg/l. I don;t have the TDS and EC readings of the tank at the moment, as I do not own the test kit.
I have been doing a 10 to 20% water change every second day.
Being a shrimp newbie, any advice would be most welcome and going forward with how I should cater for my water shrimp-wise, given the water parameters I am working with or should I perhaps rather go with RO water and added minerals ?