# Dead shrimp



## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

This morning i woke up and found a dead cherry shrimp laying in my moss..all the others seem to be doing fine and eating and i have many cherry shrimp with eggs also with 6 CRS in the tank. None that i see of are swimming around wildy am a bit confused all seem to be acting normal. Last night i did a 20-30% water change and then woke up and found this . I use 100% pure R/O since im trying to lower PH for my water changes and I use sponge filter only like the hydro sponge and am using DIY CO2 which i just started 2 days ago.

My water parameters are:
PH = 7.8 ish
KH = 3dKH (50mg/l)
GH = 2-3 dGH (40-60)
Ammonia = 0
NO2 = 0
Temperature = 24-26 C


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

AHHH i just noticed another dead one this ones a CRS maybe the other one was a CRS and its just a little hard to tell cus they go all pale but this one i just noticed this is for sure a CRS grr.. must be the PH? could it be that whenever i do water changes and use 100% R/O to change 20-30% that the PH swings? and this causes the stress. My R/O water PH is 6.5. I have done 2 water changes before since i got them and none died then just now i see deaths from CRS..If i use tap water for my water changes and use dechlorinator then my PH will still stay high. So confused.. I took off my CO2 even though i dont think this is the problem but i dont know what else it could be so i took it off because a day or 2 after i had it on my shrimp are dying..sigh.


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## Andrew-amano-wannabe (Jun 29, 2005)

I would say that it is the CO2 level, CO2 also has an effect on the acidity of the water, the more you inject the lower the PH. 
Shrimp are sensitive to CO2 levels, i have cooked many shrimp in my time lol.
I have the amano shrimp, and when i accidentally let the KH slide up my computer injects more CO2 to keep the PH down. This killed my shrimp.
I would say its the PH based on my own experience but others may disagree with me. I hope you find the source of the problem quickly.
If you need to drastically lower the CO2 levels in an aquarium then use an airstone.
If you need any further information let me know. Good luck.


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## Shrimp&Snails (Mar 27, 2006)

What's the N03 reading and how long's the tank been set up for?


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

I will go with the high PH if all your deaths are CRS shrimp. It is too high for their liking.

Pedro


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

Ammonia, NO2, NO3 all 0 tank has been running for a month or so when i set it up i used about alot of water from a tank that had been running for 6months or so plus R/O water and a used sponge filter. Could be the CO2 but usually if theres to much CO2 shouldnt you see the shrimp near the top? they seem to be acting normally and eating around. I have some floating Riccia on the top which i saw some go on but not sure if it was because of the CO2 level or that they just were eating because whenever i saw them up at the riccia i saw them eating around on the riccia.


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

Ya seems to me like the CRS are doing not so good they dont have as good of colors i see one of my biggest CRS in there about 2.5 cm not showing good colors. None swimming around the top..must be the PH any ideas on what the best way to lower it?


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## aquaboyaquatics (Feb 22, 2006)

Peat moss or bog wood work well. Stay away from the chemicals.

Mike


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

K it wasnt the CO2 that caused the deaths. I added the CO2 back on and added another 2L generator bottle and no deaths must of been the PH for sure. I will continue using R/O but doing half/half of tap and R/O and doing 40-50% water changes weekly or every 2 weeks. PH has dropped with the CO2  all going well 
as of now.


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## h20 plant (Feb 18, 2006)

If you use too much RO that can kill them but you should be fine with 50%.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

What? I've never heard of RO water only being bad for shrimp. The only reason I'd see that being a problem is if there're 0 electrolytes in the water, which is supposed to be the reason why you have to add products such as Seachem Equilibrium. I use RO water almost exclusively and do a 50/50 RO/tap water change every two-three months and have had no problems. All the other water changes are weekly with RO.

Anyone who is using RO exclusively having problems with keeping shrimp? Also, for the purposes of the discussion, most of the shrimp that aquarists keep seem to prefer softer water (I assume gH not kH) from what I've read.


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## h20 plant (Feb 18, 2006)

Ok you did not have 100% ro h20 in your tank you still have the tap water from the other changes in there. Dont get me wrong I love using ro water to make the water softer but if you do 100% all the time it will kill them since this is what happened to my friend.


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## Neon Shrimp (Apr 26, 2006)

How long after using 100% RO water did you friend's shrimp die? Did they all die or just a few?


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## h20 plant (Feb 18, 2006)

I think he said it was the next day and it was all of them.


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

Must of been something else other than R/O water that killed them. I used R/O water for 3 weeks for my 20% weekly water changes all my shrimp did fine the only ones who did worse were the CRS.. i think 3 died. It was not because of the R/O it was because my PH was way to high but slowly with using R/O and DIY co2 im at 7.5 and hopefully going to be down at 7.0 after a while. My PH was 8.0 and i guess the CRS did not like this. I still have about 3-4 CRS in the tank and they seem to be doing fine as well as all of the cherries. I got lots of babies everywhere and pregnant females. I am now using 50/50 tap and R/O now mainly because i dont want to use equillibrium and rather use my tap for minerals etc. Last night i did a 50/50 R/O / Tap about 40% and used prime for the new tap water i put in. Everything seems to be doing great right now so i will continue doing it this way and see how things go. I dont think 100% R/O is bad for shrimp at all but when i rescape my tank im goin to put all cherries in a 10 gal then when i introduce them to the newly rescaped tank i will leave some shrimp in the 10 gal and just use R/O for them and use them to test if R/O changes anything and see if i notice a difference.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

Well this is what has worked for me and my CRS population has exploded:

Water changes with RO water or Distilled water. No additives or anything. It is my understanding the wild form of the CRS(diamond shrimp) comes from streams that are mainly made from rain. They love very acidic water. You might add some equilibrium, but in my opinion not needed. They get their calcium and all that is needed from their food.

Good luck,
Pedro


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

Agreed.


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## billionzz (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi Pedro,

What substrate are you using with your CRS?

Bill


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## Mikee (May 8, 2006)

erijnal said:


> What? I've never heard of RO water only being bad for shrimp. The only reason I'd see that being a problem is if there're 0 electrolytes in the water, which is supposed to be the reason why you have to add products such as Seachem Equilibrium. I use RO water almost exclusively and do a 50/50 RO/tap water change every two-three months and have had no problems. All the other water changes are weekly with RO.
> 
> Anyone who is using RO exclusively having problems with keeping shrimp? Also, for the purposes of the discussion, most of the shrimp that aquarists keep seem to prefer softer water (I assume gH not kH) from what I've read.


Hey erijnal im doing 50/50 tap/RO for my weekly 30% w/c and no problems too  use to do RO only but decided to use tap now to mix with it instead of using equillibrium. Last time i did a water change though i noticed my water was very dirty but used it anyways with R/O  no problems..R/O is good though because its very soft and most shrimp like that.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

billionzz said:


> Hi Pedro,
> 
> What substrate are you using with your CRS?
> 
> Bill


Bill,

I am using eco complete, old susbtrate. THe tank has been running for more than a year


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

There shouldn't be anything magical about RO. When mixing it with water, it just dilutes non-H2O components to achieve lower hardness and pH. Or you can use it as a base to have near total control of what's in your water by using it as a base and adding stuff from places like GregWatson.com.

I use deionized water with a minimal addition of Barrs GH booster and Baking Soda. I think this would be similar to an 80 percent RO water and 20 percent tap water mix from my area.

So far, no major die offs with my cherry shrimp since I got them in January.


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## Ankit (Dec 9, 2006)

I've been reading this thread quite a bit and need to know what you guys might recommend now that it's been about 2 months since this thread came up.

I want to breed CRS and will go with an all R/O based setup if need be, it'll add another week before I get started though because I'd have to order the equipment. I'm going to have at least 1 other tank side by side with this one and so it might be worth it.

I'm reading around, but want to know if R/O water will affect plant growth. I'm also going to be growing *Utricularia graminifolia*, however in another tank, which is a grassy plant that feeds on small microorganisms. Would R/O water be a bad choice for water like that?

Edit: The one thing I have noticed and read is that many are doing a 50% tap water and 50% R/O water combination, this sounds like a good idea but still want opinions. Setting up something for R/O will be a bit more effort, but if it makes a better environment for CRS, then I'll do it without complaints.

Edit again: I've been reading some more and people are saying that plants *like* hard water. We have a water softener at my parent's home where the breeding will be happening because the water in the area is hard, I'll be testing the pH of it this weekend so I can get a good idea where things stand.

*If the pH level is fine within the range that CRS prefer, do I have any reason at all to use R/O water?*


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

I would reccomend not using the water softened by a water softener. It doesn't technically soften the water, only makes it feel soft. 

btw, i'm not stalking you. I have been going to every post w/Utricularia graminifolia in it...


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