Reply With Quote
remove the lead, if I'm not mistaken lead is poison to shrimp. Also make sure to wash your plant properly, sometime shop using anti snails or other fert that poison to shrimp.
Hi to all members out there, really need your advice. i have newly setup a 1.5 feet tank for about 4, 5 days
I ustilised old filter media and put some small guppies to age the water. Everything seems fine. then i intro some cherry shrimps yesterday. I did the proper acclimatization for 4, 5 hrs. Then next morning, most shrimp died.
I suspect is the lead weight that comes with the plant i brought from LFS emits some toxic material. Is this the possible reason. If this is so, why do the LFS always sell us plant with this !
So i intend to do water change ( water is super clear , not cloudy at all) now and probably risk the remaining shrimps dying also. How much water should i change ?
My new 60pcs of cherry shrimps are coming this weekend....help....
Sky
remove the lead, if I'm not mistaken lead is poison to shrimp. Also make sure to wash your plant properly, sometime shop using anti snails or other fert that poison to shrimp.
1)why the uncle from LFS never tell me must remove the lead strip? i already told him i am newbie and starting a cherry shrimp tank .....
2) Anyway i have made a 50% water change and wash clean the plant esp their roots. and the remaining few shrimps seems more active now. I will monitor furthur. should i do addition say 10% or 5% water change for the next few days to make sure all toxic residual is remove?
3) Also threw in some malayan shrimps to test water. They seems quite happy, swimming and feasting on my DEAD CHERRY SHRIMPLETS !
Regards
one more silly question...maybe i am just being paranoid... i brought from C328 few days some aquarium use ornaments ( looks like a broken barrel)...could this be the reason of the poisioning...cuz when i took it out...it feels quite slimy..
I won't change any more water if I were you, shrimp is also sensitive to water parameter change. let them adapt first.
I never use any ornaments, so can't comment. become slimy is normal, even your filter pipe become slimy after short while.
thanks shadow
Never create what you can't control
I am not going to jump the gun and point my fingers on the lead weight as the cause. Call me skeptical but I subscribe to ankank's line of thoughts.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...highlight=lead
That said, I think most aquarists would err on the safe side, so they don't use the leads in the tanks. And nobody uses lead weights to anchor the plants in a planted tank anyway.
I am not sure if a tank that is set up for 4 to 5 days is cycled long enough. It generally takes more than 2 to 4 weeks to have the tank fully cycled, so I would suspect that ammonia/nitrite poisoning could be the culprit instead.
The fact that you added guppies is not to age the water, but to start the cycling process. Their waste produces ammonia and beneficial bacteria will convert ammonia to nitrite. Ammonia/nitrite would rise during this stage and if not removed sufficiently, is lethal to shrimps.
Some may argue that with plants and old filter media, you may not need to cycle the tank. But there must be enough plants to do the job, and they must be growing well in the first place. Plants that are not doing well or decaying contribute to more problems instead. How you introduce the old filter media and add the water in the tank would also affect the cycling.
So to be on the safe side, allow the tank more time to cycle. Most would only start adding the shrimps after probably 3 weeks of cycling.
My 2 cents.
Hi Quixotic
Mine is a 1.5ft small tank, just wonder whether i still need to wait for 2 week to add shrimp? or this is not dependent of tank size?
Also when i remove the metal strip, i saw some rust on it, it really looks like a baddie for my shrimp
" The fact that you added guppies is not to age the water, but to start the cycling process. Their waste produces ammonia and beneficial bacteria will convert ammonia to nitrite. Ammonia/nitrite would rise during this stage and if not removed sufficiently, is lethal to shrimps. "
Sorry, just to clarify the proper way of properly removing the nitrite is to complete the cycle? how many fishes you normally add during this setting up process?
Do you recommend me to do :
A) change 100% of the water and start the cycle process for 3 weeks
B) leave everything as it is and continue to cycle for 3 weeks ( just did 50% WC and many..shrimplets dead bodies to kick start the ammonia.
Also how do we know whether the cycle is complete? Do you actually purchase test kit to test the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates level?
Thanks in advance!
Regards
Last edited by Quixotic; 18th Apr 2007 at 13:20.
Never create what you can't control
If there is rust on the weights, then this may be one of the cause. However, you can never rule out a combination of causes, so err on the safe side.
During cycling, two types of bacterias play an important role, nitrite-forming and nitrate-forming bacterias. These bacterias are present everywhere (including when you start setting up your tank).
To start off, you need to have an established colony of nitrite-forming bacterias. These bacteria need food in the form of ammonia. Where do you get this ammonia source? From the waste of the fishes that you introduced. For a tank of your size, probably one or two fishes should be okay.
In the initial stages, the ammonia levels will go up as nitrite-forming bacterias start to be established. As they consume more ammonia and the ammonia level goes down, nitrite is produced. Nitrite, like ammonia, is lethal to the faunas. As nitrite levels continue to go up, nitrate-forming bacterias will start to get established. Once the colony of nitrate-forming bacterias is enough to bring down the nitrite level, nitrate is produced and the levels will rise.
Nitrates are not highly toxic to faunas in low to moderate levels. It is consumed by plants and can be taken care by performing routine partial water changes.
Here is a useful diagram, courtesy of http://www.saltwater.8m.com, although the timing is shorter for freshwater...
So ammonia/nitrite is taken care by allowing the bacterias to establish in the tank. This is what the cycling process is about. Using old filter material (if set up properly) and established plants will help shorten the cycling. However, for someone who is new, I would suggest to be more conservative and have a longer cycling process.
As for your specific case, are the guppies still in there? I would suggest to leave things as it is, get the test kits and test for ammonia/nitrite every few days, to make sure it doesn't get too high. If it is too high and fishes are still in there, you can perform a water change not more than 20%, otherwise your guppies may succumb too.
Your tank is fully cycled once nitrates are being produced (and ammonia and nitrite levels are zero).
If you have time, read the "What Is the Nitrogen Cycle?" section of http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aquaria/general-faq/beginner/
Hi quixotic
I really appreciate you for taking your time to explain these valuable information to a newbie like me. I think most newbie would always fall under the same temptation of being over anxious and thus adding the shrimp prematurely
As for my case, i did the 50% WC last night and the remaining shrimps (4 cherries and 4 malayan) seems fine till tonight. Well, it could be because the toxic ammonia level has reduce and not the rust toxic has been diluted. i will go and buy the test kit( hopefully not too expensive..) to monitor daily . I left 4 very small guppies ( 1.2cm long only)..
According to the chart...seems that at 30days(saltwater), the tank is at a peak of being very dangerous
2 more silly question to ask,
1)if i add more fish, does it means => more waste=> ammonia higher =>>nitrite process start faster and so nitrate process also start earlier=> shorter cycle time
2)is pumping air into the tank at the cycle stage good for the cycle process? i didnt have it in the tank because i have always intend to make it a low maintainance one, but i will add it if it is beneficial
thanks
Regards
You can try to put in some ketapang leaves to "stable" the water.
I did it when I first kept Cherry and it work well for me.
My 2 cents
I don't think ketapang leave help stable the water, it just lower the pH. If the issue because of tank cycle, then it won't help
Never create what you can't control
More fish -> more waste -> more ammonia.Originally Posted by skysky
Problem is, nitrite-forming bacterias are not established yet. It takes time for the bacterias to colonise themselves.
Excerpt from http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aquaria/general-faq/beginner/
I don't know how true the above statement is but generally, it would definitely take time for the bacterias to get established. So...The cycling process normally takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks. At temperatures below 70F, it takes even longer to cycle a tank. In comparison to other types of bacteria, nitrifying bacteria grow slowly. Under optimal conditions, it takes fully 15 hours for a colony to double in size!
More ammonia + not enough nitrite-forming bacterias = excess ammonia -> dangerous to your fish
Don't know if pumping air has any influence on the cycling, I presume there may not be much added advantage. However, I trust that your filter is running throughout the cycle, yes?
Yes, is running.
i also did read from somewhere that the O2 will help the bacteria multiply because they need O2.
What is your opinion of using those off the rack bottled bacteria ?
Hmm, really??
Cos when i first kept Cherry, all died. The second before I add my Cherry into the tank, I put some ketapang leaves in the tank and the Cherry are happy with the water, breeding non stop.
A few of my friends are keeping Aro too, and they also use ketapang leaves when introducing the Aro into the tank.
Maybe due to these, it give me the impression that ketapang leaves can "stable" the water in some way, or rather it makes the water more "natural".
Anway, ketapang leaves are really useful even if they don;t have "stable" the water.
@ aquastuff.org
Hi skysky,
I would suggest to let your tank fully cycle itself before adding more fauna in.
Its good that you're asking these questions now, better now than later yeah.
For those bottled bacteria. Up till now I don't quite understand how those actually work. Why I say this is because, for example, since beneficial bacteria colonies die off when the canister filter is accidentally switched off due to the lack of O2 supply to them, do these bottled bacteria come with a limitless O2 supply to them when they're bottled?
Best to let the tank get stablised naturally in my opinion.
visit my photo albums @ flickr!
Hmm, really??
Anway, ketapang leaves are really useful even if they don;t have "stable" the water.
where can i buy these ketapang leaves ?
Yeah, am trying to learn something more from the forum !
Last edited by Quixotic; 20th Apr 2007 at 12:04.
@ aquastuff.org
I've seen some ketapang trees around Singapore at residential areas, can't exactly remember where at right now so you don't need to buy them.
Here's a photo of what a dried ketapang leaf looks like. (photo courtesy of wirbellose-nrw.de)
visit my photo albums @ flickr!
Never create what you can't control
O2 will probably help, but I don't think the gain is very much. I certainly won't expect the bacteria colony to sky rocket, so it helps the colony to establish faster by 2 to 3 days perhaps.
Not realy sure of the bottled bacteria products. Like grey_fox, I can't tell if it works how it is supposed to work (we can't see them, can we?). We can only observe and speculate, but again, there are a lot of other factors involved in a tank set up.
So I would say, as good as they are made out to be, using them is more just for assurance and I would try to let the tank cycle as long as possible.
Bro, think those bigger LFS should sell them. I got mine from Kranji area, cycled there and pick them up. You can also go to fish farm to pick up, most fish farms has that tree.where can i buy these ketapang leaves ?
Yeah, am trying to learn something more from the forum !
One thing to take note, there's one more type of leaves that look almost the same as ketapang leaves, only remember that its layman name is very crude, but think they are harmful, so when you are picking them, do look out for it.
So if you really want to pick them, best is you go into a fish farm and look for it.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks