Is water change necessary for shrimp setups?

[owk688]

i do a 20-30% water change every week. so far so good.

[boxedfish]

i have a 19 litre tank and after adding substrate, rocks and so on, i think it;s effectively about 14 litres(estimation). i have a fan blowing at the tank 24/7. However everyday i have to replenish the water due to evaporation. The amount i have to replenish is about 0.8litres everyday. Is this harmful to the crs in my tank?

[imke]

The amount i have to replenish is about 0.8litres everyday. Is this harmful to the crs in my tank?

No, it is not harmful to your shrimp as long as your (tap?) water parameter do not differ to much from your tank water. If you fill up osmosis water it's not problem but check GH from time to time - it shouldn't be too low.

[jetset]

All along I have been using Seachem Prime- Good stuff but have to be careful how you use it. Im using sodium thio-sulphate crystal form for water change at the moment, reason being they are slow to dissolve in water. Still observing how shrimps react after certain amount of water change.

I'm surprised to hear that you have problems with Prime. I've read that Prime contains binders contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic.

Using sodium thio-sulphate solely can be risky as it only reacts against chlorine and not chloramines.

I do 20-30% w/c two times per week. Half of the refilled water comes from water treated by Prime overnight (1-3 days). The other half is treated by Otto conditioner with water straight from the tap.

I have tried doing 50% w/c in the past to fix hair algae issues. That plus Excel killed all my CRS and BDS. So not sure if it was the Excel or the large w/c.

[Spid]

Hi Spid, may i know what soil are you using? Is your tank a 2 feet?

Mainly 2feets for those I use to perform large water changes. Soil wise I have mainly ada soil type 1, nisso custom black and Master soil. Have been for around 6months-3years. However most soil would have lost its ph-down abilities due to my frequent water changes.

i have a 19 litre tank and after adding substrate, rocks and so on, i think it;s effectively about 14 litres(estimation). i have a fan blowing at the tank 24/7. However everyday i have to replenish the water due to evaporation. The amount i have to replenish is about 0.8litres everyday. Is this harmful to the crs in my tank?

Use distilled water if afraid of any changes in your tank.

I'm surprised to hear that you have problems with Prime. I've read that Prime contains binders contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic.

Using sodium thio-sulphate solely can be risky as it only reacts against chlorine and not chloramines.

I do 20-30% w/c two times per week. Half of the refilled water comes from water treated by Prime overnight (1-3 days). The other half is treated by Otto conditioner with water straight from the tap.

I have tried doing 50% w/c in the past to fix hair algae issues. That plus Excel killed all my CRS and BDS. So not sure if it was the Excel or the large w/c.

Hi jetset, yes Prime contains these binders of which is a certain type of chemical that holds and breaks down chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. However what Im afraid is these chemicals are the one that is harmful for shrimps. Thats a reason why I change to just sodium thiosulphate crystal form at the moment.
50% water change plus excel... Hmm ...any C02 input? Anyway whats your dosage like? I used to try half of the dosage as recommended and shrimps at my side still not able to take it.

[jetset]

Hi jetset, yes Prime contains these binders of which is a certain type of chemical that holds and breaks down chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. However what Im afraid is these chemicals are the one that is harmful for shrimps. Thats a reason why I change to just sodium thiosulphate crystal form at the moment.

So far no casualties from using Prime. 5ml per 2 liters of water, thereafter left overnight for a minimum of 24hrs. However, note that my replenishment of water is only 50% of this. The other 50% comes from fresh water treated by another water conditioner that is not aged.

50% water change plus excel... Hmm ...any C02 input? Anyway whats your dosage like? I used to try half of the dosage as recommended and shrimps at my side still not able to take it.

No CO2. I used about 10ml Excel to 10 liters of water. Another point that was left out was that my 50% Excel dosed w/c regime was done daily. Perhaps, too aggressive and asking for trouble but the Hair Algae was really getting on my nerves. On hindsight, I should have moved the shrimps to another tank first.

[Spid]

Hi jetset,

Nice feedback about the Prime usage. Your dosage of excel seems a bit too over. Thanks again for the input.

[Biofeedback]

Mainly 2feets for those I use to perform large water changes. Soil wise I have mainly ada soil type 1, nisso custom black and Master soil. Have been for around 6months-3years. However most soil would have lost its ph-down abilities due to my frequent water changes.

Do we have to clean the soil after so many years?

[Spid]

Bro Biofeedback, probably you want start another thread about soil keeping over at this invertebrates section then we discuss.

[mopa]

I use jbl biotopol, added to the change water in a bucket at least 1 hour before i put into the tank. This might be what is giving you problems? There is a specific water conditioner for shrimps the new jbl biotopol c . regards from spain

[globalcookie]

I do regular water change, averaging 10% a week. In recent times, I have started to reduce the amount. I siphon the base (not whole base, but maybe about 30%) once every few weeks.

From my understanding, a mature tank with a good filteration system (eg canister) is good enough to do without, or to hv minimal water change. The colony of bacterials in the canister will help breakdown nitrate/nitrite (whatever is correct).

[jetset]

I do regular water change, averaging 10% a week. In recent times, I have started to reduce the amount. I siphon the base (not whole base, but maybe about 30%) once every few weeks.

From my understanding, a mature tank with a good filteration system (eg canister) is good enough to do without, or to hv minimal water change. The colony of bacterials in the canister will help breakdown nitrate/nitrite (whatever is correct).

BB in the filter will take care of the nitrites but not the nitrates. However, as shrimps do not poop so much, the base ammonia-to-nitrite-to-nitrate would not be at a high level.

If the amount of plants in the tank can consume all the converted nitrates, theoretically, no w/c is required. However, that is still a theory and that balance is difficult to maintain. Also, other trace elements may be exhausted and require top-ups.

Overall, I agree with you. If the bioload is not high in a matured tank, I would think that w/c requirements would be minimal.

[Spid]

After about a month of poll, it seems majority of people here still prefer a small weekly water changes and very few would actually opt for a distilled water top up.

[Crfan]

Spid hows your water change monitoring coming along? You using the crystals or seachem prime still?

[chromes03]

Hey Spid,

Nice subject to touch up on...
I use to use Prime when I first started shrimp keeping and whenever I did I remember my shrimps would die here and there...I think Prime raises the ph of the water
About water changes...I give my tanks at least 10-20% every 7 days...I find that after 7 days I will then start seeing shrimps die one here and one there...
For water changes for CRS, I use 100% Ro water w/ some liquid to raise the gh/kh up to about 4 or 5 degree....no dechlorinater needed..

Email wanna check out some of your shrimp products...

[Spid]

Spid hows your water change monitoring coming along? You using the crystals or seachem prime still?

Im using sodium thiosulphate crystal form with carbon prefilter fixed to the incoming water. So far so good ill say.

Hey Spid,

Nice subject to touch up on...
I use to use Prime when I first started shrimp keeping and whenever I did I remember my shrimps would die here and there...I think Prime raises the ph of the water
About water changes...I give my tanks at least 10-20% every 7 days...I find that after 7 days I will then start seeing shrimps die one here and one there...
For water changes for CRS, I use 100% Ro water w/ some liquid to raise the gh/kh up to about 4 or 5 degree....no dechlorinater needed..

Email wanna check out some of your shrimp products...

Hi Henry, thanks for the info. For me I used distilled water for minimal water change or top up in CRS tank. These sensitive ones are real headache at times.

[tsunamisurfer]

I think it is essential to do water changes. I do fortnightly water changes without fail but only 20% of the water max.
Large swings in parameters = shrimp death.

I also use gravel vaccum, I think its a must to remove waste.

[neon]

I am keeping cherry and CRS in a 2ft tank.

The following are my routine :
- No WC , but simply top up water (overnight water kept for weeks)
- No CO2
- No dosing of fertiliser
- 35W PL light , 6 hours
- chiller temp set to 25 deg C

[Numbskull]

I had Diamond filtered water (if you guys know what i mean) installed at home. First 5 months i had used only tap water with Prime. Seems good a few deaths to my crs and few berried. Death of my shrimps is not caused by my water condition (i measure my ammonia-nitrite-nitrate-gh-kh almost once every 2 weeks). And i only change my water 20% once every 1 month.

Coming to 1 month now since i had changed to using the Diamond filtered water. Seems like my shrimps are chasing each other after moulting everytime. And i had 4 berried mamas already. (1 died off as my mum accidentally off my chiller while i am at work).

I think filtered water are better since they remove some of the harmful elements (iron??) and purified the water. But not sure whether they remove some of the useful elements require by the shrimps as well.

[cheetf]

Bro according to the website the filter does makes the water alkaline.

Filter F : High-density activated carbon combined with natural magnetic stones help balance the water to a mild alkaline level and increase the number of calcium ions to further enhance health.

That may be a problem for low ph shrimps.