Help!! Lost my whole colony of (rcs)

[rocsmvp]

I recently just lost a hole colony of shrimp 15-20 all of my water levels were fine no spikes nitrite or ph I had the tank up for about 6 months..

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[treemanone2003]

Well first, sorry to hear. That really sucks. Now let's get a little deeper. To say your parameters were "fine" is not much to go on. What test kit are you using ? Liquid, paper strips, or your LFS ? Of the three, there's only one (IMO) that's very accurate. Also what's your temp, any new additions, anything else in tank ? Did you treat for anything recently, done a WC, what kind if filtration ? Anybody else been near your tank ? Where is it located in your place ?

 

[rocsmvp]

I use the paper strips, water temp sits at a steady 77 f , I do a weekly 10% water change (always done that) it's located in my pond room in the basement were I grow plants and have a pond I use no ferts in that room at all and I added a new plant to my tank about 6 weeks ago (pogostemon erectus)

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[rocsmvp]

And I use 2 good size sponge filters

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[Krogman]

From almost everything I have read, paper test strips are not very reliable. Most everyone here seems to agree that liquid tests are the way to go. I have only a month or so of RCS experience and have had just 2 die. So hopefully someone else can comment and help. But IMO a colony death like that seems like it would be a large spike or large enough spike in some toxin
PS: condolences :/

 

[rocsmvp]

Little update guys and thank u for the advice i went out and got the liquid test kit It turns out I had a big ph problem so now Ive added some crushed coral to the tank and all levels are right on the money ... I'm going to wait about a mo th or so before I put any shrimp in I want to make sure it's got a good cycle and 100% ready . Again thanks for the advice will post pics once it's running with the shrimp in it

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[ScotJudd]

I have my RCS in a community fish with 50 tetra fish. The tank is very heavily planted especially with mosses. Despite the obviously losses of baby shrimp the colony seems stable at between 50 & 100 of differing sizes. I did have problems until I set the Kh and Gh to 6. The Kh avoids Ph crash and the Gh I believe helps with shedding. I think the success of the RCS is the fact that they are just part of my overall Eco system. I don't feed the shrimp. They take what they can and seem to be doing well with their scavenging skills. I think the success is down to a massive amount of plant material.
Good luck with the restocking of your tank.