My shrimp hide and are slowly dying!!!

[andrewcul]

Would it be possible for the aquarium to stabilise itself?

yesterday I did a huge water change, about 50%. I replaced the carbon in it which was only 2 weeks old and when I put the water back in I made sure I used a lot of the stress stuff that gets rid of heavy metals and the other which has bacteria in it followed by another ammonia + nitrite bacteria supplement which I have been using since I set up the tank ( no reason I keep using it but you have to get rid after 6 months so I thought I might as well use it all up )

Since then the tank has been at a stable 7.0 - 7.1pH level. Some shrimp did die ( two ) but that was no surprise because of the huge pH jump as it dropped down to 4 over night after I previously got it back up to 6.

but yeah now the tank seems to be stable, the fish are much happier, the shrimp are far more active and no longer hiding. Don't know what has changed inside the tank but if its stable I won't question it.

 

[Autumnsky]

You will need to have enough calcium /KH to allow it to buffer.

 

[andrewcul]

Coral has been in since tuesday and the pH is stable at 7.2 and drops to 6.9 at night but I googled it and that is normal apparently. ( never used to check the pH is regularly so I didn't know any of this )


Thanks for all the help

 

[GreenGo]

Coral has been in since tuesday and the pH is stable at 7.2 and drops to 6.9 at night but I googled it and that is normal apparently. ( never used to check the pH is regularly so I didn't know any of this )


Thanks for all the help

I read that once in a book, threw me for a loop as well I think it has to do with the plants taking up O2 at night instead of CO2 like they do during the day (they can't photosynthesize without light, and that's why they use the CO2). However, don't worry about the O2 dropping too much, they produce more than enough of it during the day! (and I suspect the plant metabolism slows down at night as well to reduce the amount of O2 needed, but don't quote me on that )

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Odin]

What PH are you aiming for?

 

[andrewcul]

What PH are you aiming for?

anything in the 7s is good for me, as long as its stable. My pH was previously crashing down into the 3s every night, killed almost all my shrimps

The remaining shrimps seem to much happier now, as you can imagine. Didn't lose any fish but they are far happier as well.

 

[Autumnsky]

Sounds like things will be back on track now. So sorry to about the losses.