CRS Dying, Please Help.

[mabchesq]

Hi,

I usually change 10% water bi-weekly, adding shizhen and mosura mineral plus to the water to be added. Mineral plus was added until the TDS of the “new” water matches the existing TDS level in the tank.

Recently, I noticed 2-3 deaths since my TDS reading reached 241 ppm, I heard that this TDS level is likely to be unhealthy for the CRS. Therefore, I did a 10% waterchange with only shizhen added, without mineral plus (1 part tap water to 2 parts distilled water).

Although I managed to bring down the TDS to 226 ppm, the CRS started dying at a faster rate. It has been 4 days since the water change and 9 more CRS have died!

Can anyone advise me what could be going wrong? My TDS has risen to 229 ppm till date.

I have 2 mineral rocks, cabomba plants, pelia, mini moss balls, 2 matured mini fissidens, 1 seriya rock, japanese hair grass. I only have CRS in the tank and one horned nitrite. Using Ehiem 2211 and chiller maintaining at 24 degrees.

My water volume is 12.8 Litres

Water parameters are:

PH 6.4
GH 8
KH 0
Ammonia 0
NO2 0
NO3 10

[Guppy77]

Hey bro, ur GH is way to high, usually 4 would be nice, i suspect its the molting problem, also what is the temperature and the TDS of the water?

[Guppy77]

try to keep the TDS between 150 to 199, temperature should be 24 to 25 degree, higher temp and ph leads to ammonia spikes

[mabchesq]

bro, i have read that the ideal GH would be 6-8 although comparing with many CRS owners out there, me too still find it quite high. Seems like the remaining stronger ones are rather vulnerable to the next change in water parameters. 229 ppm for TDS.

Will changing of water again anytime soon be a solution? casualties rate at least 1-2 per day since after water change.

[Humble]

Hi Bro

Your water parameters (less TDS and GH) and temperature seems okay. GH of 4 - 6 and TDS of 150 - 200 would be good.

[Humble]

bro, i have read that the ideal GH would be 6-8 although comparing with many CRS owners out there, me too still find it quite high. Seems like the remaining stronger ones are rather vulnerable to the next change in water parameters. 229 ppm for TDS.

Will changing of water again anytime soon be a solution? casualties rate at least 1-2 per day since after water change.

Hi Bro

I'm no expert and may not be right, i guess you should try to alter the water parameters to the recommended condition. And it should be done in a gradual manner and not a drastic decrease.

I believe any sudden swing in water parameters are no good for CRS.

[xconnect.]

Actually tds can mean alot of other things like nitrates etc.. am not sure of all the tds stuff .your bi weekly method is a bit wrong you should not add mineral plus till the tds will be the same as mineral plus will increase the gh of water.You can use bi weekly twenty Percent water change with distillted water.just slowly add the water into the tank and your gh and your tds comfirm will drop to safe levels.and in addition Remove one Of the mineral rocks for now till your gh falls to about 3-4 then you can put the mineral rock back agian.btw your shizhen is it the powder version or the yellow liquid version? Yellow version expire fast if Yu are using it may already be expired so that may also be another factor.even you know your water parameters are wrong you cannot just everyday change the shrimps will be strongly affected by the water change so no matter what every week water change would be better. Hope this helps

[reiner09]

Take out seiryu rock,mineral rock and stop dosing mineral plus...do not use mineral plus to up your tds like that it is a terrible mistake as it also raises your gh.If you want to raise tds you can use mosura tds up instead as it does not alter other parameters...considering your tank of 12L, having all those paramter flauctuations(mineral leeching from your rocks and you trying to lower it in such low volume of water) it will slowly kill all your crs in no time.. what you should do now is to drip water change about 10% every 3days to slowly lower the gh..(using distilled water)
Are you sure your kh is 0? if it is then you are prone to ph flauctuations..you might encounter a ph crash which may shock and kill your shrimps..
keep your gh to 3-5 as 8 is already very high..

[mabchesq]

Actually tds can mean alot of other things like nitrates etc.. am not sure of all the tds stuff .your bi weekly method is a bit wrong you should not add mineral plus till the tds will be the same as mineral plus will increase the gh of water.You can use bi weekly twenty Percent water change with distillted water.just slowly add the water into the tank and your gh and your tds comfirm will drop to safe levels.

Bro, this is almost exactly i have done except of 1 part tap ,2 parts distilled water with shizhen without mineral plus. eventually led to the deaths of the shrimps due to the drastic drop in TDS.
yep, i'm using the yellow liquid shizhen.

[mabchesq]

Take out seiryu rock,mineral rock and stop dosing mineral plus...do not use mineral plus to up your tds like that it is a terrible mistake as it also raises your gh.If you want to raise tds you can use mosura tds up instead as it does not alter other parameters...considering your tank of 12L, having all those paramter flauctuations(mineral leeching from your rocks and you trying to lower it in such low volume of water) it will slowly kill all your crs in no time.. what you should do now is to drip water change about 10% every 3days to slowly lower the gh..(using distilled water)
Are you sure your kh is 0? if it is then you are prone to ph flauctuations..you might encounter a ph crash which may shock and kill your shrimps..
keep your gh to 3-5 as 8 is already very high..

Hi leefhker, tds input is mainly to either retain the last measured tds or plus minus 3 after water change. i do agree on the tds hand in hand with the gh values. but honestly, no intentions to up the tds in the first place.

Ph is about 6.4 range and i'm pretty sure Kh is 0.

[cheetf]

Clean your tds meter probes with a wet cotton bud and check the tank TDS again. You might be surprised at what you find.

A 12L tank is really way too small. How many shrimp did you originally have?

[mabchesq]

Thanks all of you for the advice.
I have decided to do a 10% drip water change in every 3 days using only distilled water (without mineral plus), removing 1 mineral rock out of the 2 and seiryu rock for now , until tds and gh are lowered.

Is everyone good with this idea?

[mabchesq]

Clean your tds meter probes with a wet cotton bud and check the tank TDS again. You might be surprised at what you find.

A 12L tank is really way too small. How many shrimp did you originally have?

Hi cheetf, haha i always leave it aside and dry its own after each time. ya i will try doing that and see how much difference thereafter.
I had about twenty odd close to 30

[cheetf]

20 to 30 in a 12litre tank is quite a high bioload for sensitive shrimps like CRS.

[gryphon]

Thanks all of you for the advice.
I have decided to do a 10% drip water change in every 3 days using only distilled water (without mineral plus), removing 1 mineral rock out of the 2 and seiryu rock for now , until tds and gh are lowered.

Is everyone good with this idea?

Yes do that. Make sure you get distilled and not drinking water. You can get Life brand distilled at NTUC.
TDS is not that critical, shrimps can survive in a large range, typically 100-200. But GH is important, for CRS keep between 3-5.

[mabchesq]

Yes do that. Make sure you get distilled and not drinking water. You can get Life brand distilled at NTUC.
TDS is not that critical, shrimps can survive in a large range, typically 100-200. But GH is important, for CRS keep between 3-5.

gryphon, I have tested Life brand and indeed is a better stuff than the NTUC's. I'm using NTUC in-house brand all along so propobaly will get it after i'm done with my current batch of distilled water. my TDS is way too high previously (241ppm) that I really got to do something about it. I have to say that what triggers me that time was to see one of them struggling really bad at a corner during that time but it was ok the day after. Its now 229 ppm after i did that drastic fall to them .

wish me luck. Thanks!!

[ZackZhou]

Take out seiryu rock,mineral rock and stop dosing mineral plus...do not use mineral plus to up your tds like that it is a terrible mistake as it also raises your gh.If you want to raise tds you can use mosura tds up instead as it does not alter other parameters...considering your tank of 12L, having all those paramter flauctuations(mineral leeching from your rocks and you trying to lower it in such low volume of water) it will slowly kill all your crs in no time.. what you should do now is to drip water change about 10% every 3days to slowly lower the gh..(using distilled water)
Are you sure your kh is 0? if it is then you are prone to ph flauctuations..you might encounter a ph crash which may shock and kill your shrimps..
keep your gh to 3-5 as 8 is already very high..

Mosura Tds up will not up your gh? Who said so and have you tried?

[reiner09]

Mosura Tds up will not up your gh? Who said so and have you tried?

Mosura website said it ... with internet I don't have to use it to know heheh...

here it is ..
Mosura TDS Up is formulated to increase TDS of water by restoring the minerals in water to be used in shrimp tank. It is does not increase GH (general hardness) and has slight acidic property which is highly suitable to be used in shrimp (crystal red shrimp, red bee shrimps, king kong shrimps, wine red shrimps and many other species except Sulawesi shrimp) tanks that are required to maintain in acidic water range.
This product is highly recommended to use concurrent with Mosura Mineral Plus to restore tap water, RO water and distilled water to a desired GH and TDS level.
To measure TDS, Mosura TDS pen is recommended.

[Navanod]

Mosura Tds up will not up your gh? Who said so and have you tried?

http://www.assaaqua.com/mosura-shrim.../mosura-tds-up

Mosura TDS Up is formulated to increase TDS of water by restoring the minerals in water to be used in shrimp tank. It is does not increase GH (general hardness) and has slight acidic property which is highly suitable to be used in shrimp (crystal red shrimp, red bee shrimps, king kong shrimps, wine red shrimps and many other species except Sulawesi shrimp) tanks that are required to maintain in acidic water range.

[ZackZhou]

Mosura website said it ... with internet I don't have to use it to know heheh...

here it is ..
Mosura TDS Up is formulated to increase TDS of water by restoring the minerals in water to be used in shrimp tank. It is does not increase GH (general hardness) and has slight acidic property which is highly suitable to be used in shrimp (crystal red shrimp, red bee shrimps, king kong shrimps, wine red shrimps and many other species except Sulawesi shrimp) tanks that are required to maintain in acidic water range.
This product is highly recommended to use concurrent with Mosura Mineral Plus to restore tap water, RO water and distilled water to a desired GH and TDS level.
To measure TDS, Mosura TDS pen is recommended.

"GH which mainly measure the content of Calcium and Magnesium ion. Conductivity measure the overall presence of electrolytes in water." by silane.

So mosura Tds up does not contain calcium and magnesium ions basically. But what is in it, I don't know.