Red Cherry Death, insight welcome.

[BlueMoonFox]

I have a 10g planted tank with about ~25 RCS and 1 Oto. Saturday I did a 20% pwc as per weekly maintenence. Sunday I did about 20% battling BBA. I also boiled the driftwood.
This morning I was horrified to find 7 red cherries dead. 5 were freshly molted. I found 1 more struggling during a molt. I removed her and (hopefully) helped. She was having troubles with her carapace. It's now off as far as her rostrum and she's swimming fine.
I was hoping to find some insights onto what killed ~ a quarter of my tank. My parameters are:

Tank:
pH 7.0
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
gH: ~215ppm (12 drops!)
kH: 35.8ppm (2dkH)
CO2: is a pale green, but has been for months.

Tap (w/ AquaLife Complete):
pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrates: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
gH: 35.8ppm (2 drops)
kH: 53.7 (3dkH)

I dose with Flourish and the readings were taken after the dose. The RCS were dead before the dose. I am at a loss. Could the boiling of the wood release something? All of the other shrimp are fine, swimming and feeding normally. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheresaM]

Ugh, wish I could help but I posted here about a similar situation!

Where did you get the driftwood? I have cholla and indian almond bark in my tank but they were boiled and added long before the issues with my RCS started.

Really hope you can get some answers!

 

[BlueMoonFox]

I got the driftwood from my lfs, but likewise, it's been in there for about 4 months... I did notice a drop in the pH after everything was put back together but everything evened out so I attributed it to things settling in.

 

[tali931]

Do any of the shrimp have white dots around their eyes? I just went through the same thing and turned out they had parasites..

 

[Coursair]

Shrimp like a stable tank. I don't know what killed your Shrimp. But any sudden changes can be an issue.
I do part tap/part distilled on some of my changes. That helps lower TDS.




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[BlueMoonFox]

I'm not sure either. The tanks seems to have settled out and the shrimp I helped is swimming happily. I don't think it's a parasite issue as it was an acute event. Well, regardless, I've got some ideas of what not to do...

 

[Tbox]

Was this new driftwood or was it in the tank for 4 months then boiled? If the latter, id say that dw sterilization didnt need to take place.

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[BlueMoonFox]

It's been in for about three of the four months. It got sterilized due to the BBA on it. The algae got to the moss on it first, spread to the wood and started into my pellia. Moss was tossed, 90% of the pellia gone and the wood boiled. I just noticed some on the sponge filter (to be boiled of tossed) and some strands on the intake. This stuff is driving me mad.

 

[Tbox]

Have you decreased the length of time your lights are on? Also just increase your partial water change regiment.


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[Tbox]

Sterilizing everything in the tank will create a mini cycle and make the tank more prone to ammonia spikes.

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[taernster]

Most likely due to a mini spike from the excess cleaning