Why do my coral banded shrimp keep dying?

[bigfuzzymonster777]

Why do my coral banded shrimp keep dying? Is it my nitrates? They are 40 ppm, but one died when there was zero. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?!?!

 

[54seaweed]

how do you acclimate the shrimp
40 ppm is high for a coral band shrimp
they are fragile and cant handle any big parameter changes
is this a new tank
how often do you do water changes
Fowlr or Reef
I always try to keep my Reefs parameters as close to 0 PPM as I can
Fowlr they say you can go to 40 PPM but to me thats a bit high try to keep it around 1/2 that

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

FOWLR tank it's very new It's two weeks old.

 

[54seaweed]

establish your tank a little bit than try to add another sometime down the road
getting all your parameters in check

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

By the way, I know I should drip acclimate them, but I just now learned how. Before I was just floating the bag for half an hour.

 

[bskerrichard27]

Is the tank cycled ? I really doubt it two weeks old... Have you tested your water parameters?

 

[54seaweed]

get your trates down a bit and be sure there stable
before you add another cb shrimp these guys are very fragile any big changes to fast will cause another loss
and like Richard just said be sure your fully cycled

 

[bskerrichard27]

40 ppm is high but I'm thinking the tank is not cycled

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

I have four live rocks and live sand...Also two dead coral banded shrimp, possibly a dead hermit crab. Oh, gosh. I'm an invert murderer! But, anyway, shouldn't the dead stuff help?

 

[bskerrichard27]

You did not say if your tank is cycled

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

I dunno. I never saw a nitrite spike for some reason. Could I have missed it?

 

[bskerrichard27]

Two weeks in my opinion is not gunna be cycled did you check the ammonia level

 

[bskerrichard27]

If its not cycled any invert you put in the tank will likely die.... Tell me your tank size and exactly how you set it up ..as in did u set it up add sand water and fish in one day ? Or did you set it up add some sort of ammonia source and cycle the tank?

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

I DID NOT PUT SAND, WATER, AND FISH ALLL IN ONE FREAKING DAY, NO SIREE BOB. I am insulted. Lol. I read a whole book on saltwater tanks and various Internet articles. I bought salt and live sand. I mixed it with tap water. I know. I shouldn't have, but I am not buying forty gallons of mountain spring water imported from who knows where. Besides, I don't even know where I could even buy that. I put in two bags of live sand, then some stuff to help the tank become less cloudy. I bought some live rock. I bought more. I got a shrimp and snails. The shrimp died in three hours. I found aiptasia. I bought Joe's Juice. I got rid of the aiptasia rock. I bought more live rock. Throughout all of this, I used my API test kit to test the water.

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

It's forty gallons, btw.

 

[bskerrichard27]

Ok the tank is not cycled and the tap water you used can contain heavy metals and chlorine which both kill fish and inverts that's why in salt water you need a rodi filter or atleast use some prime to clear out any chlorine...you need to cycle your tank or you will keep loosing live stock and get some prime to make sure there is no chlorine..btw was not insulting you I'm trying to help you and that type of info is what I need...so the tank not being cycled and the possibly the tap water is killing your live stock

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

Why are my snails surviving? Also, what's a rodi filter?

 

[comets55]

I want to add some point to speed up the process. I used Bio-digest and it is worked!!

I cycled my tank very quickly. Within 3 weeks. But Nitrate still around 40-50 ppm. (My skunk, banded purple head also died)

But week 4, i did 25% water changed, it became 25ppm and now it had been 0ppm until now. I tried to put Bio-digest every 2 weeks when I do water change. In the 3rd week, you could use 1 vial if Bio-tim, but I did not because I use bio-pellet.

My tank is 120 gallon.

 

[bskerrichard27]

A reverse osmosis and deionizer filter to clean tap water of the impuritys...

 

[bigfuzzymonster777]

Where would you get such a filter? Hmm...*Strokes chin*