Intermittent shrimp deaths

[Tate]

I began with 6 blue dream shrimp and they have since dwindled down to one surviving shrimp. Water quality is good with the normal parameters at 0. My water is pretty hard and was wondering if this is the cause of the deaths. My light is very powerful for the 10 gallon and has spurred a lot of algae growth. What I'd the cause of these deaths?

 

[TheDude]

I've been having similar problems with my red cherry shrimp and its due to water hardness from the public tap water. I live in an old apartment building and I came to the conclusion that even though I have been using water conditioner for heavy metals and chlorine, it wasnt enough. I would suggest having a few gallons of spring water for water changes if your tap is too hard. After awhile, evaporation and water changes with the tap will solve the problem as long as the water conditions are maintained still.

 

[Tate]

Will my rodi soften the water of the tap? I have been using it lately. Also, there is so much algae in the tank, is this just from my powerful light?

 

[rostick555]

Yes RODI would soften the water but with out knowing your parameters there is no way of knowing if your water is hard or not. If you have test kits for TDS, KH, GH, and PH this will help in really narrowing down your problem. As far as an algae bloom it could be the high light and an excess of nutrients that plants are not using up if you have plants?

 

[Kazin]

Sorry to hear about your shrimp losses. They can be very frustrating, especially when you out of your way to test the water and cannot find any discernible problem. Truth is, neocaridina shrimp can survive in most water conditions. When they start dying off one-by-one, in my own experience it is most often because they were not acclimated slowly to their tank, from overfeeding, overheating the tank, or from poor filtration. Do you have a TDS meter? My own RCS are doing ok in the 450 TDS that comes from my tap, so it is possible for RCS to adapt to hard water.

 

[Tate]

No TDS meter. Maybe it was the acclimation process. Bummer