# Blue Velvet Shrimp Dying



## Mr Panda (Nov 9, 2014)

Hey guys one of my blue velvet shrimp died a few days ago during the night. I saw another one laying on its side this morning and barely moving. Any ideas on what is wrong? Also is there a way to save the little guy?

My tank is a 6gal Fluval Edge moderately planted with dhg and christmas moss. I dose 0.5ml of Flourish Comprehensive every 3 days and do a 15% water change every Saturday. I use a sand substrate and also have a small ryuoh stone in it. I'm currently just using tap water for the water changes.

My parameters:
6.8ph during the day with CO2 on
7.4ph at night with the CO2 off
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
GH = 10 drops to turn green with an API kit
KH = 5dKH


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

The pH swing from your CO2 might be doing it. Shrimp don't usually do well with a CO2 setup.


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## Mr Panda (Nov 9, 2014)

Is there a way to fix the pH swing? I thought my dKH would have been enough to prevent a big swing like that.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Chemically, the cause of pH drops with CO2 is the formation of carbonic acid. I'll let someone more experienced than me answer that, though.


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## maylee (Feb 26, 2015)

I'm no expert but it could be the comprehensive? I know it says you can dose twice a week but I feel like every three days could be a little excessive.

What about dechlorinating your tap water?


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## Mr Panda (Nov 9, 2014)

I keep out a 5gal bucket of tap water for water changes to dechlorinate naturally. I also throw in a bit of dechlorinator during a water change just to be safe


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## Blue8989 (Jan 13, 2015)

Why bother with tap might as well get RO with mineral supplement


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## EDW (Feb 25, 2015)

Blue8989 said:


> Why bother with tap might as well get RO with mineral supplement


This. You can buy a good one for $60 off amazon. And a $10 faucet adapter for the kitchen sink and youre ready to rock. I just got one myself and its a purewaterclub brand 50gpd unit ro/di. 0ppm.

This will help you keep water where it needs to be, and is almost a requirement for most shrimp keepers. But I understand not everyone has the extra cash or even the required psi if you're on a well.


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## imcmaster (Jan 30, 2015)

Mr Panda said:


> I keep out a 5gal bucket of tap water for water changes to dechlorinate naturally. I also throw in a bit of dechlorinator during a water change just to be safe


Do you know if your water supply has chlorine or chloramine? If the supply has switched to the latter, there is no 'natural' way to dechlorinate it (like chlorine that evaporates). Understanding you also put a bit of dechlorinator in, it would be good for you to know (maybe you would dose more if you knew).

A pH swing of 0.6 is not really that high, many have swings of 1.0 (due to CO2 injection) or more even with shrimp.

I'm not a shrimp expert - does TDS matter much, and is your TDS getting too high (your gH seems quite high).


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

tds matters, but I'm keeping shrimp in 8-10 gH right now with no issues. Tds, feeding schedule, food types, and dechlor dosage would be good to know. You need more than the regular dechlor dose to get rid of chloramine.


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## Loumeer (Feb 13, 2012)

EDW said:


> This. You can buy a good one for $60 off amazon. And a $10 faucet adapter for the kitchen sink and youre ready to rock. I just got one myself and its a purewaterclub brand 50gpd unit ro/di. 0ppm.
> 
> This will help you keep water where it needs to be, and is almost a requirement for most shrimp keepers. But I understand not everyone has the extra cash or even the required psi if you're on a well.


This advice right here cost me a few hundred dollars. First of all, you have the unit which you should spend more than $60 for one that is decent. Second of all, you need to buy a resevoir and fittings to fill it up. That adds at least $50-$60. Then you get the whole damn thing just to realise that your houses water pressure just doesnt cut it for an RO/DI system. Well there is another $100 for a booster pump. I am not saying an RODI unit isnt worth the money but lets just tell people setting one up is cheaper then it really will be.


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## benealing (Jan 9, 2015)

Yukiharu said:


> tds matters, but I'm keeping shrimp in 8-10 gH right now with no issues. Tds, feeding schedule, food types, and dechlor dosage would be good to know. You need more than the regular dechlor dose to get rid of chloramine.


Just to help clarify for anyone who happens upon this, TDS and gH are not the same thing. There are a large number of things that can impact TDS other than the gH (fertilizers, aquarium salt, wastes, decay etc).


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## Loumeer (Feb 13, 2012)

Mr Panda said:


> Hey guys one of my blue velvet shrimp died a few days ago during the night. I saw another one laying on its side this morning and barely moving. Any ideas on what is wrong? Also is there a way to save the little guy?
> 
> My tank is a 6gal Fluval Edge moderately planted with dhg and christmas moss. I dose 0.5ml of Flourish Comprehensive every 3 days and do a 15% water change every Saturday. I use a sand substrate and also have a small ryuoh stone in it. I'm currently just using tap water for the water changes.
> 
> ...


I believe you are too much in your tank. I would do water changes every other week. If you ware feeding a lot feed less. I would stop dosing every 3 days. I would stop dosing CO2. You want a shrimp tank you should make a shrimp tank, you want a planted tank with pearling you should make a planted tank. Some people pull it off, most do not. If you want to try and start doing these things you need to introduce it a little bit at a time. Barely dose CO2, barely dose micros and macros. 

After a month or two you can up it a little, etc. etc.

A few notes: Your hardness seems high. Not out of the range where neos can be but still a bit high. I would use less remineralizer or whatever you are dosing that is making your hardness so high I would use less of it.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

benealing said:


> Just to help clarify for anyone who happens upon this, TDS and gH are not the same thing. There are a large number of things that can impact TDS other than the gH (fertilizers, aquarium salt, wastes, decay etc).


+1 TDS is important for knowing there's "other stuff"

Also agree you shouldn't mess with your water too much. Shrimp hate change.


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## Mr Panda (Nov 9, 2014)

Alright I turned off the CO2 and will leave it off for a few days to see if that is the cause. I will also cut back the Flourish to maybe once every 5 days. Since CO2 is the reason for the pH swing, can't I just leave it on 24/7 and just use a air pump at night to keep the water at 6.8 pH?

As for the dechlorinator, I am just using close to whatever the dosage is for 1 gal of water. Is there a way to test what my TDS is aside from those digital ones on Amazon? They seem to be hit or miss in terms of quality control.


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## benealing (Jan 9, 2015)

I use the HM TDS meter. I got it from amazon for ~$13. It works very well and definitely has helped keep my water consistent!

What dechlorinator are you using. If it is Prime, just use 2 drops per gallon.

If you keep the CO2 off, your pH will return back to the baseline pH of your tank. You pH will be affected by a lot of different things though (plants, substrate, driftwood etc.) However, with your kH being 5, it is unlikely to go through any dramatic shifts unless it is during your water changes.


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## Mr Panda (Nov 9, 2014)

I am using the API Tap Water conditioner:
http://www.petsmart.com/fish/water-care-conditioning/api-tap-water-conditioner-super-strength-aquarium-dechlorinator-zid36-18142/cat-36-catid-300006?var_id=36-18142

Since I only change out 1 gal a week, I didn't think it would cause a big shift in my pH. My tap water and tank water have the same 7.4pH. Is there a way to lower the baseline pH in the tank permanently without dropping dKH too much? Getting an RO unit is out of the question since I doubt my water pressure could handle it. I should also mention that I'm located in Seattle so my tap water is very soft. 

Tap water parameters:
7.4pH (after sitting out for 48hrs)
GH= 3
dKH= 2


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## benealing (Jan 9, 2015)

There are certain things that lower the pH of the tank, peat moss, driftwood, leaves (really anything that would leach tannins into the water). I am not well versed enough to know how much of a drop to expect from adding those things to a tank. I do know that if the kH doesn't decrease, the pH will like not decrease either. As far as I know, the only way to decrease kH is to use a RO unit or buy distilled water.


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