Lost a Peppermint Shrimp after 3 days

[Vanphyre]

Tank has been up over 4 months now, been doing RO/DI water changes, testing every week, yada yada. I don't understand why things die in my tank.

Lost a fish already, and now a peppermint shrimp. My snails, hermits, emerald crabs have been 100% fine. Some of them have been in there the entire time. Any ideas? This is so sad, thought I was doing everything right and can't even add fish or shrimp into the tank.

Temp - 77
PH - 8.4
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 10

 

[TheRealFF]

Might be ur test kit giving u wrong readings. Also 8.1 - 8.3 PH is recommended. Those are the only 2 things i could think of that might have killed ur fish and shrimp

HTH

 

[pkremer]

The pH does seem a little high. Also, what is your specific gravity? What are you using to test it?

Paul

 

[Vanphyre]

Specific gravity is about 1.024, have a Seatest tester for this, with the lever that moves.

What can I do to lower the PH down?

Thanks so much, I'm not putting anything else in until I figure this out.

 

[pkremer]

OK, this is just my advice, but one idea is to take your hydrometer to your LFS and have them compare it to theirs. I have a Deep Six hydrometer, and I found that it was giving me inaccurate readings. My LFS keeps their tanks at 1.021, and my Deep Six read 1.018 in their tanks. Knowing this now, I can keep my tanks at 1.021 or 1.022 by keeping MY hydrometer in the 1.018 or 1.019 range.

If your hydrometer were off a bit, your specific gravity could be 1.026 or 1.027, which could cause you the problems. That's just one idea to rule out. I'll let someone else answer the pH question...I don't have a lot of experience playing with it.

Paul

 

[TheRealFF]

I think u can lower ur PH with PWC's. Do them daily til the PH is within 8.1 - 8.3

 

[Vanphyre]

Thanks Pkremer, I'm going to do that! Man, I hope I can fix whatever this is fast. I may even buy a new tester, have had that one for a long long time.

 

[Nøjo]

I bought one hydrometer new and had another one come with the fish tank I bought, and they had seperate readings by about .04. Having one that you can rely on is critical, as I am pretty sure that shrimp are pretty sensitive to high salinity.

 

[hackteck]

how did you acclimate did your shrimp?

 

[Tex]

Hydrometers can go bad. My old Seatest failed after being storage for 10 years. I bought a refractometer for $40 on the advice of this board. I also bought a new hydrometer for grins. They read the same.

 

[neilster1]

This will sound funny but I'll ask anyway... are you sure the shrimp is dead?

When i first got my peppermints within two days one was "missing" and I saw his empty shell.. he reappeared a few days later after having molted. I do hope this is the case for you..

 

[revhtree]

Yes, how did you acclimate the shrimp?

And, yes it very well could be a molt.

 

[Vanphyre]

Wow, I sure hope it is a molt. I looked all over the tank and can only count one though. They do hide very well, so hoping for the best!

As for acclimating, I followed the LFS directions. Float bag in tank for 20 min, then add a little tank water, then wait, then a little more, then wait. etc. Took about 45 min or so before I put them in.

I also had one of those tentacle things growing on my live rock, pretty big, I guess they are the nuisance guys that sting corals and such. Well, a couple days after adding the shrimp, this was gone. I hope my guy didn't get sick and die from eating it!