Low ph, dissolving ahrimps and snails but only some, healthy live tank.

[Comlem]

Hi everybody! New to the forum pretty new to aquariums.

Have a 60 gl live tank with mixed strata
Lava rock, fluval stratum, potting soil, sand, pebbles.
Tank is 14 months old, with happily growing wisteria, fire moss, spiral grass, anubis, some Java fern. No c02.
I did a DIY co2 this summer, worked great but kicked off our great snail dying. That ended 3 months ago

We melted several full grown golden incas, blue mystery,and maybe two dwarf lobsters. Our nerites and invasive trumpets seem fine. Our shrimp persisted fine till recently.

Big community: cories, tetras some raspboras and danios, two big golden yoyo loaches. Many over a year old now.

I tried baking soda, ph neutralized, a couple water changes (usually we just add conditioned water and clean the filter) tank is crystal clear, we have one spider wood branch.

Any thoughts? We love the variety of invertebrates. Did not intend to kill them, thought we'd need co2 for the moss but it's going gangbusters.

 

[Comlem]

 

[Andy Sager]

What is the full panel of water tests currently? pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, General hardness ( GH) and Carbonate hardness (KH).
Do you do regular water changes or just the recent ones?
Let's start there.

 

[Comlem]

Thanks for the reply

Gh_180 always
Kh<40
Ph >6 <7
Nitrite<1
Nitrates >80 <160

Used to do them every time
Add conditioned water and clean filter every 1 - 2 weeks
Change water recent one and several after first co 2

 

[Comlem]

Filter has been on the fritz. Impeller keeps locking up. As of last month (last water test) nitrates aways comes back 0 or slightly elevated but well below 20 (bi weekly to monthly testing when tank is humming along). Very little algae. Have a secondary impeller to maintain full tank circulation and a little surface agitation. This last impeller stop seemed to kill off a bunch of the little trumpet snails. No obviously dead, sick, or distressed fish.

 

[Andy Sager]

Well nitrite at 1 is a problem. That is toxic to fish and especially to shrimp. Same with the nitrates. Shrimp are very sensitive to nitrates too. It shouldn't be more than 20 ppm. So these need to be addressed before you try to add anything new. Water changes are the best method for doing this.
As for the stuck impeller, as the filters run, they accumulate gunk around the impeller so it's always a good idea to clean them out every couple of months. For most HOB filters, you can remove the impeller relatively easily and take a q-tip or cotton swab on a stick and really clean out the impeller chamber and the impeller itself. Pay attention to the metal rod the impeller sits on ( if it has one) as well because over time, they too will warp and cause the impeller to freeze up or not spin freely. In canister filter styles, the impellers are usually inside the motor head and may be a bit more difficult to disassemble but if necessary, contact the manufacturer for instructions on how to clean the impeller. The bottom line is that they do need to be cleaned for the filter to function correctly.

Hope this helps.