[chevisc]

Hi everyone so I have been having a problem with my tank since inception regarding shrimp. They look happy as a clam for the first 48 hours then bam they lay down and die. I keep other inverts in the tank with no problems.

The first shrimp I ever added was a CBS and drip acclimated over 3hrs and then added to DT where it started scavenging for food and was all over the place, two days later I wake up to feed and notice its just sitting still so I went to work and when I got home it was still there so i pulled it out gave it a sniff and it had a slight odor so I could tell he was already dead when I saw him in the morning. I chalked this off as being to new of a tank and maybe an amm spike had taken him out.

The second batch of shrimp I added was 2 peppermints added 6/12/15. This morning dead and dead.

I checked all of my parameters today:

Amm - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate- Less than 5ppm the color was so close I almost could call it a 0 reading
ca - 700ppm I already did a big water change to bring this down to 450ppm
alk - 9dkh
temp 79-81

 

[dmb326]

Could be copper... have trouble with any other inverts? From what I understand is that when you or someone else treats a tank for ich or other such problem it can leach into the rock the sand... and supposedly the silicon seals and other hardware

 

[gouch]

Could be copper... have trouble with any other inverts? From what I understand is that when you or someone else treats a tank for ich or other such problem it can leach into the rock the sand... and supposedly the silicon seals and other hardware

I also have heard that some freshwater tanks gets treated with copper and it gets into the silicone. I heard that it turns it a somewhat blueish color.

 

[seanj]

are you using RODI water to mix SW and for top off?

I had a similar problem in a 5 gallon freshwater tank, basically any shrimp I bought would seem totally happy for about a month and then I would wake up in the morning to find them dead with no obvious reason.

I set up my reef tank and purchased an RODI unit, so I started using RODI water for top off as well as about 50% of the water I use for water changes (in the 5 gallon freshwater tank not the reef tank) and since I started doing that the last shrimp I purchased has now been alive roughly 3 months and is molting every few weeks and seems very happy. I suspect my tap water had some heavy metals or something that was accumulating in the shrimp over time. if you don't have an RODI unit I would recommend one.