Might be molting problem, need help

[argv1900]

I believe my fire red got molting problem.

I have a new tank setup about 3-4 months back.
About 1 month ago, I purchased 8 fire reds.
1 disappeared within a week.
3 died in past 2 weeks, I noticed the shell seemed to have cracked.
Unfortunately, I can't get a nice picture.

My ph is around 6 - could be lower, but I don't have the kit to measure it
Ammonia and nitrite = 0

I just purchased gh & kh kit, gh=10, kh=2
I noticed my tap water the gh=9 (did I measure wrongly ?)
I don't have tds kit, can't measure it.

Temperature around 27-28 and i use fan when I on the lighthing.

Is my gh too high for fire red ?
Hope someone can advise me. Thanks

[argv1900]

FYI, I also have 4 red nose shrimps + 2 Ottos.
1 red nose went to heaven because got suck inside my filter.
The rest seems to be fine and I've seen the molting's skin.

[cheetf]

Try lowering your gh gradually with distilled water.

[bluebubbles]

I believe my fire red got molting problem.


My ph is around 6 - could be lower, but I don't have the kit to measure it
Ammonia and nitrite = 0

HOw come your PH so low? I thought Singapore tap water usually have PH exceeding 7.5. Everytime I top up the tap water or do a 20% WC, I will see a lot of neatly molted shells everywhere the next morning.

[seudzar]

Your gH is quite high, but I suspect low pH is the cause for your shrimp death. I experience many deaths of fire red in my tank and my gH is at 4 and pH is 6.2. I advise you to check your pH. After that i increased my pH to 6.5 and the death stopped.

Your gH is 9 is probably due to topping up of water using tap water. I tested our tap water in Bedok and Punggol, both give a constant gH result of 4. I did not measure kH but TDS is around less 100. pH is around 7, it never went above 7.2.

As what Cheetf mentioned, you can reduce your tank gH by doing water change using distilled water, probably 20%-30% using dripping method for every 3-4 days. Also top up those water which evaporated caused by the fan using distilled water so as to maintain the gH level. As for pH, i am not sure how you going to increase it, there are a few methods and the common method is to add coral bits but adding of coral bits will also increase your gH, kH and TDS, so if you want to maintain your gH at 4 all the time, it will be pretty headache. But then i believe fire red can survived in water of gH from 4-8.

Once your gH reaches the desired value you want, just do WC with aged tap water and topping up of water caused by evaporation using distilled water, this way you won't burn your pocket.

[argv1900]

Cheetf,
Thank's just bought distilled water, hopefully will decrease my gh.

Bluebubbles,
I use advanced oil substrate, it causes ph to drop low.
Maybe a bit too low for fire red, i might purchase lower api kit to measure it and try to increase it a bit.
(maybe try to remove some of the substrate - no idea if that could work ?)

seudzar,
I wonder if i tested wrongly for gh.
I tested directly from my tap water & it was 9.
Hopefuly, how i did it was wrong, i'd better check the manual & test again.


Thank's all