Shrimp tank PH keeps going up.

[magpie]

Hi, any bro got any suggestion other than setting up another tank to house my shrimps and reset my current tank due to space constraint, i can only have space for one 2 feet tank. It is such a pity that recently I have seen some genes shrimps in my tank and 2 pieces of King Kong shrimplets. I don't think they can survive with my tank ph at 6.7 (initial 5.9). If I were to replace my soil with the current livestocks inside, inevitably ammonia will shoots up and the shrimps will be dead eventually. Any bro can advise what can I do?

[yangqian]

I suggest you get Mosura resin. Place it in a filter bag and put it in your filter. It is effective in lowering GH and PH. So make sure you monitor your water parameters, remove the resin when you achieve your desired PH.

[Navanod]

Hi Magpie,

Here's some ideas:

1. Use RO water for water change.
2. Check your tap water's pH, and if high, do what Yangqian suggested and use Mosura's "softwater" resin to age the water first before using it for water change.
3. Identify what's causing the pH to go up in the tank. Do you have any rocks, corals or media that may be removing acid? Your tapwater?
4. Add some acidifying media or additives, SLOWLY. eg. peat, Powerhouse acidic media, humic etc
5. Carefully do small partial soil changes. Use the usual waterchange pump/sucker thing but without the bell/gravel vacuum attachment. Suck a small area of the soil directly out using that, taking care not to stir up too much dirt. Replace the soil with new soil and do a water change. Do this at your own risk though, and only if the pH is still below 7. Doing this when the pH is above 7 is more dangerous as ammonia is more toxic at alkaline pH.

I'm sure the more experienced breeders will have even more ideas, let see what the rest have to say.

IMHO, it is still not an emergency yet as long as the shrimps are still breeding and your filter is working well. It is still slightly acidic so you have some time to consider what to do rather than trying to get rid of all the shrimps in a hurry.
In the long run, you'll need to reset the tank eventually, especially if you're keeping more sensitive shrimps. It'll be good to start planning on how to do it now since you still have time.

ps: I removed one sentence from your post, I hope you can understand why.

[magpie]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will have to make do with my current water parameter and setup. I think my soil has lost it ph buffering capability.