Root cause for my dead shrimp

[foxngn]

Hi All,

My 1ft tank been 2 years old, using hang-on filter with bio-ring filter media inside.
All this while got fauna inside, until yesterday i remove all except for the otto.
ADA Malaya soil as substrate, no co2, no fert.
Plants only got 1 small crypts which just been planted from 2 weeks ago, & 1 mini fissiden.
Got rock & a driftwood with java moss attached[the driftwood newly bought, been soak in water for 3 days with hot water] But only been placed in the tank 2 day agos
PH 2 days ago tested was around 6.6.

First day i get my shrimp, the next day I found 3 casualties in noon, 2 more casualties at night.
I had done a 30% of water change after that. Now I had tested again my ph level, but it had been dropping from 6.6 to now the value is 5.5 - 6, as the color is already off the chart(such as yellowish green).

Not sure what's will happen next, saw some shrimp is hang around at the top corner of my tank there.

Any advises? Should i get some coral chip to raise back my ph ?
Why does the shrimp behave as such? Btw, I had fire red, orange, & yamato shrimp.

[rascal]

hmm Ph 6-6.8 is good enough what about your ammonia level? Try not to do alot of WC as your readings may not be accurate and its hard to find the cause of it. try not to add coral chip first wait for a few days may be the ph level will rise back.

[foxngn]

hmm Ph 6-6.8 is good enough what about your ammonia level? Try not to do alot of WC as your readings may not be accurate and its hard to find the cause of it. try not to add coral chip first wait for a few days may be the ph level will rise back.

GH: 7
PH: 6 & below
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0

I just tested the PH again, it is off the chart with yellow color

[Noobz]

Bro your GH seems high.

[foxngn]

Bro your GH seems high.

you see, that's the part confuse me, cause I read a few pages of other site, that mention cherry & yellow shrimp able to tolerate wide range of GH.

[Draka]

Hmm bro, at first didn't really see anything that you possibly needed to change, you seem to have everything done correctly! But what I do understand is that if your pH is 6 and your GH is 7, something would definitely be wrong in your water chemistry, assuming your test kits are fine. Generally speaking, a low pH would have a correspondingly lower GH; a "safe", generally speaking, guideline would be for shrimp tank, pH 6 the GH should be maximum 5, otherwise do a water change or remove anything dissolving.

They can definitely tolerate higher GH such as 7, I have a tank of them reproducing in GH 8. But the pH inside that tank is 7.5, even up to 8 when I haven't done water change for a while. The issue here isn't really the values from your test kits, but more of whatever chemical imbalance inside your tank that gives you such a weird set of values. I have a suspicion the offending material that is skewing your values is the rock. Could you let us know what type it is? Sometimes the type of Iwagumi rock can interact with tannic acid in a way that would make your water parameters fluctuate, and that stresses and kills the shrimp. You mentioned the driftwood is newly bought, I'm assuming it had never been wet until you used it, so tannic acid would still be leaching from it, causing the low pH, and the tannic acid might dissolve your rock, resulting in the high GH.

[foxngn]

Hmm bro, at first didn't really see anything that you possibly needed to change, you seem to have everything done correctly! But what I do understand is that if your pH is 6 and your GH is 7, something would definitely be wrong in your water chemistry, assuming your test kits are fine. Generally speaking, a low pH would have a correspondingly lower GH; a "safe", generally speaking, guideline would be for shrimp tank, pH 6 the GH should be maximum 5, otherwise do a water change or remove anything dissolving.

They can definitely tolerate higher GH such as 7, I have a tank of them reproducing in GH 8. But the pH inside that tank is 7.5, even up to 8 when I haven't done water change for a while. The issue here isn't really the values from your test kits, but more of whatever chemical imbalance inside your tank that gives you such a weird set of values. I have a suspicion the offending material that is skewing your values is the rock. Could you let us know what type it is? Sometimes the type of Iwagumi rock can interact with tannic acid in a way that would make your water parameters fluctuate, and that stresses and kills the shrimp. You mentioned the driftwood is newly bought, I'm assuming it had never been wet until you used it, so tannic acid would still be leaching from it, causing the low pH, and the tannic acid might dissolve your rock, resulting in the high GH.

Ya, the driftwood only been soaked in hot boil water for 3 days.
Btw I had already removed the mini fissiden & the dw out from the tank 2 days ago.
As for the rock, here i attached it, the rock is not newly bought, it had already seated in my tank for quite some times.

[Draka]

Haha just a conjecture cause the values are really not right bro. It's possibly the new driftwood leach tannic acid, which wasn't in the tank before so your rock didn't affect parameters that badly. You could try doing more than 1/2 water change, full if you are able, and check the pH and GH again after minimum 2 hours since water change, preferably a day after water change. If the values are stable at pH 6-7 and GH around 5 you can be quite sure the driftwood was the culprit. By the way, check that the GH of your tapwater isn't too high either. Last thing you'll want to do now is raise the pH, because the amount of acid in your water is high and raising the pH definitely will drive the GH even higher.

[foxngn]

Owh.
Forgot to add up that I had do a round of 70% of WC on last friday.
Tomorrow I will try to do another round of water change. Full? you mean until the water level is approx on top of the shrimp is it?

I got some coral chip at house, how to Justify how much i should add in, as my filter media space is very limited.

[Draka]

Owh.
Forgot to add up that I had do a round of 70% of WC on last friday.
Tomorrow I will try to do another round of water change. Full? you mean until the water level is approx on top of the shrimp is it?

The 70% was with the driftwood still in right? The water change should be done after the driftwood has been removed, otherwise if it is the one affecting your tank, then it will still give you the same problem. Yep full, the water level approx on top of the shrimp, as low as you dare go. Remember to turn off filter! Otherwise will spoil.

I got some coral chip at house, how to Justify how much i should add in, as my filter media space is very limited.

Er paiseh bro, I meant you don't want to/ cannot add coral chips, will just make the problem worse. Reason as stated above.

[foxngn]

The 70% was with the driftwood still in right? The water change should be done after the driftwood has been removed, otherwise if it is the one affecting your tank, then it will still give you the same problem. Yep full, the water level approx on top of the shrimp, as low as you dare go. Remember to turn off filter! Otherwise will spoil.



Er paiseh bro, I meant you don't want to/ cannot add coral chips, will just make the problem worse. Reason as stated above.

Haha, alright I won't add coral chips.
& Nope, the water changes was after I took out the driftwood.

[foxngn]

Shit, I forgot previously i did add a few not an inch more of coral chip into the filter media, around 5 tiny pieces.
Should i take it now?

Just now i test, PH remain at 6, GH drop 1 degree, which is 6dgh now

[Draka]

Haha bro don't worry. I still suspect the driftwood, so once you have changed out most of the water again and filled it with water without large amounts of acid the thing should stabilise. GH dropping is already a good sign. Since its tiny pieces just leave it I guess, I always buffer my tank with a few coral chips as well and find the need to replenish them once in a while.

[foxngn]

Haha bro don't worry. I still suspect the driftwood, so once you have changed out most of the water again and filled it with water without large amounts of acid the thing should stabilise. GH dropping is already a good sign. Since its tiny pieces just leave it I guess, I always buffer my tank with a few coral chips as well and find the need to replenish them once in a while.

LoL... Alright, tomorrow i will try to do a big water change & see how it goes.

In order for me to use that driftwood again, shall i try to boil it for a few weeks before able to start to used it again ?

[Draka]

Haha sorry, never treated driftwood myself, after something similar happened for me I only ever used those already soaked and planted from shop.

[foxngn]

haha, is ok then. I might boil & soak it for few weeks first, then use on my old tank:P
usually those lfs over my place here, if want those soaked driftwood, only those that tie with plant.

[Draka]

Haha yea, good luck!

[foxngn]

Yup, need to pray for the best.. haha
Anyway, really big thanks for your help & advises. Hopefully you don't mind if i got more question up ahead for u next time.

[Draka]

Haha no problem! Just hope I'm right and it works for you haha, otherwise would have put you to unnecessary trouble ><

[foxngn]

Ok, today I had changed about 90% of wc.
After 2hours+ I do some test, below are the result:

GH: 4 - 5
PH: 6.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0

Should coral chip be remove on this stage?