Magnetic Soil and shrimp. Very Worried.

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kashif314

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I have been keeping Caridinas in my tank which were dying for no apparent reason. My water parameters were perfect and no sign of any disease as well. Yes I know Taiwan Bees are delicate but I had everything perfect.

Now I wanted to continue with neocaridinas and some crystals in same tank as thought that they are easy to keep. However today I accidentally found out that my soil is magnetic. It was stucking to magnet and very heavily it stuck to magnet. I bought tank from a store which use high quality stuff only. I was told its Amazonia soil in the tank. Please let me know if this magnetic soil is harmful for shrimps? Anyone of you used such substrate and kept shrimps healthy and thriving? If its harmful what shall I do? I am very worried. I am expecting my neos package tomorrow and its expensive orddr. Please help.
 
They use soil I believe from volcanic eruptions which is natural it might contain iron from the earth. That said, what you are describing seem like maybe too much, and possibly not best for shrimp.

Tmaier had tank problems likely from using Black Diamond Blasting Sand / sand blasting media and lots of magnetic.

You can always try bare bottom for a bit until you can decide what you might want to do about it. I like Garnet sand, a natural earth mineral, literally sand from Garnets. There are kinds from different regions which can be purple to rose to mauve to orange and russet/sunset colors as depends on the minerals found with the gems.

Garnet sand is fairly inexpensive, and can usually be found in varying grain size.

There are many other substrate options, but you already know that.

As for the possibility of iron being an issue with shrimp it is completely possible as shrimp are sensitive to heavy metals, and with light to medium pwc there is certainly a chance of heavy metal accumulation.

If you can get Poly Filter Bio Marine Inc.
It can help you see if there is copper or iron in notable amounts - It will be red/pinkish rusty color for iron and blue green for copper
https://www.amazon.com/Poly-Bio-Mar...?srs=9011156011&ie=UTF8&qid=1529541714&sr=8-1
 
They use soil I believe from volcanic eruptions which is natural it might contain iron from the earth. That said, what you are describing seem like maybe too much, and possibly not best for shrimp.

Tmaier had tank problems likely from using Black Diamond Blasting Sand / sand blasting media and lots of magnetic.

You can always try bare bottom for a bit until you can decide what you might want to do about it. I like Garnet sand, a natural earth mineral, literally sand from Garnets. There are kinds from different regions which can be purple to rose to mauve to orange and russet/sunset colors as depends on the minerals found with the gems.

Garnet sand is fairly inexpensive, and can usually be found in varying grain size.

There are many other substrate options, but you already know that.

As for the possibility of iron being an issue with shrimp it is completely possible as shrimp are sensitive to heavy metals, and with light to medium pwc there is certainly a chance of heavy metal accumulation.

If you can get Poly Filter Bio Marine Inc.
It can help you see if there is copper or iron in notable amounts - It will be red/pinkish rusty color for iron and blue green for copper
https://www.amazon.com/Poly-Bio-Mar...?srs=9011156011&ie=UTF8&qid=1529541714&sr=8-1
Thanks a lot Autumn for the detailed reply. This link has this filter but i am sure this can't be filtered as the grains of soil are big. If I remove it then all tank will be ruined because i have aquascaping in half of the tank including carpet. What if I grow carpet on the remaining soil portion? Shrimps wont reach to substrate than but that will need some time.

What you suggest for now as tomorrow I am expecting neocaridinas delivery. Shall i try to cancel it or just add them and then later plant carpet on soil?
 
Yep. Had over 70+ shrimp on garnet sand and slowly converted to BDS and massive dies off. Invested in Tahitian Moon Sand and it was just as bad. Moved to quartz PFS and a year later shrimp live again!
 
Yep. Had over 70+ shrimp on garnet sand and slowly converted to BDS and massive dies off. Invested in Tahitian Moon Sand and it was just as bad. Moved to quartz PFS and a year later shrimp live again!
Thanks. But if I cover it up with a carpet? Or what if i cover it with some other soil which is not magnetic. Like putting a layer above the magnetic soil?
 
The metals would still be leaching.

The Poly Filter is an addition to filtering, to see if you have contaminates how it changes colors to let you know.

As for the new shrimp coming now. If you have time to do a smallish pwc like normal, and then again a small pwc before the new shrimp arrival or putting into tank. The decision rests on you. It may help dilute the possible bad things in the water.

If you have a water conditioner which neutralizes heavy metals you could use that as well. And on a regular basis.

I feel like there is likely to be continued issues if the substrate is leaching.

There is some room for a few things to be not perfect in keeping a shrimp tank. Heavy metals is not something which the shrimp can get used to however.

A change in the substrate may be needed.
 
The metals would still be leaching.

The Poly Filter is an addition to filtering, to see if you have contaminates how it changes colors to let you know.

As for the new shrimp coming now. If you have time to do a smallish pwc like normal, and then again a small pwc before the new shrimp arrival or putting into tank. The decision rests on you. It may help dilute the possible bad things in the water.

If you have a water conditioner which neutralizes heavy metals you could use that as well. And on a regular basis.

I feel like there is likely to be continued issues if the substrate is leaching.

There is some room for a few things to be not perfect in keeping a shrimp tank. Heavy metals is not something which the shrimp can get used to however.

A change in the substrate may be needed.
Thanks a lot dear Autumn for detailed reply again. I did a water change yesterday. Getting shrimps today and can do a partial water change as well and i ll consider changing substrate as well. I have Seachem prime. I read it detoxify anything harm in water including metal particles too. Shall I use that on regular basis for now?

Another question is that I have substrate in my fish tank which is not magnetic. Can i take that and cover the shrimp tank substrate with it? If I do will it disturb any water chemistry in shrimp tank? The soil i will put is like two years old so must have good bacterias if nothing. But I am not sure if doing that is safe. I understand leeching into water but i want to protect shrimps from grazing the soil granes directly. Please suggest. Thanks.
 
The shrimp are always digging through the sand. I think water changes help a bit but because they are in contact with the metals it doesn’t help in the long run. I used Cuprisorb and it did not turn color for metals. But the sand obviously was loaded with it.
 
The shrimp are always digging through the sand. I think water changes help a bit but because they are in contact with the metals it doesn’t help in the long run. I used Cuprisorb and it did not turn color for metals. But the sand obviously was loaded with it.
Thanks a lot but for now if I put soil from my fish tank just to cover for temporary is that ok or will it change water chemistry of water?
 
Yep, I would recommend removing the old substrate. Active soils will break down over time and lose buffering capacity. Plus the magnetic part does not sound healthy (metals). I would not trust substrate they I did not remove from the package myself.
Is the soil from the other tank an active soil or is it inert?
I believe the primary purpose for active soil in a Caridina tank is for its buffering capacity. If you are keeping neos then you should use an inert substrate.
 
Could also be high in say sulphur and arsenic if anything like some of the iron deposits here. So the iron itself wouldn’t be an issue but indicates unweathered material whereas if weathered, any sulphides, arsenic, copper maybe - would have been weathered out.
 
Thanks a lot everyone for the suggestions. I found out its pretty common for substrate. Controsoil and Fluval Stratum have such properties as well. One guy on another forum confirmed that. I actually never knew such a thing about soil. Need to do something now.
 
That is a good point that it isn't uncommon. I need to buy new substrate and reset my shrimp tank so it will be interesting to see if my old one is magnetic, Amazonia Light. I forgot I have one new 9 pounder in the supply closet which was from the vendor from the Aquatic Gardeners Convention, CaribSea Samurai Soil.
 
That is a good point that it isn't uncommon. I need to buy new substrate and reset my shrimp tank so it will be interesting to see if my old one is magnetic, Amazonia Light. I forgot I have one new 9 pounder in the supply closet which was from the vendor from the Aquatic Gardeners Convention, CaribSea Samurai Soil.
I found out that mostly many soil have these properties. After my thread in another forum some guys who had shrimps breeding like crazy and they found there soil is sticking to magnet as well. Really its strange to me still but will see or change soil. In case of changing i ll start a new tank instead of ruining the aquascaping in this one.
 
I don't suppose they did any water tests in the other thread? Like copper or iron. Haven't done either for some time but the copper test from memory was fairly easy API one.
 
I tested for iron and copper. Copper was always 0 and the iron was there, the poly filter turned orange/brown after a month.

I used snail test pilots. They were fine for a few days or a week. But then they started showing symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. As soon as I removed the substrate, no more snail deaths. But then I had to wait for the tank to age a bit before the shrimp could survive. The ones I added right after the substrate change didn’t thrive. It took about a year for the tank to recover. I have a berried female now.
 
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