RCS die after week or two

[fishcrazee]

Like the title says, I keep having mystery deaths of RCS in my tank... It's a fully cycled JBJ pico tank ~3gal. It's heavily planted and the plants all seem to be doing fine.

I also have a bunch of blueberry shrimp (sp? unknown) babies swimming around that all seem to be fine and I don't think I've noticed any deaths from them.

I'm running an AC 70 on the tank with purigen and sponges/filter media.
I dose EI every other day with K2SO4, KH2PO4, half dose of KNO3 and CSM+B. I also have a 2L DIY CO2 set up with a cheap bamboo chopstick diffuser (my glass one requires too much pressure before it ever starts releasing CO2)

I'll make a list of the parameters

Temp: 76-78
GH: 4
KH: 3
pH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
TDS before ferts, right after a water change: 253
TDS after ferts: 293

I know the pH is a little low but I'm hoping to eventually get RCS and CRS in the tank together. If I need to raise the pH for the RCS then I can always just only have neo's in there.

If anyone has any idea what's going on please let me know, I feel bad for my cherries...

[wicca27]

nitrate level, low ph, and high temps could all be playing a part in them dieing. depending on how old the shrimp are that might be who is dieing the older ones. could be possible bacterial infection, or if you just got them could be stress. it can take a few weeks for them to die from shipping stress some times. any way for you to get a pic of the tank and shrimp?

[pearldanny]

Originally Posted by fishcrazee

Like the title says, I keep having mystery deaths of RCS in my tank... It's a fully cycled JBJ pico tank ~3gal. It's heavily planted and the plants all seem to be doing fine.

I also have a bunch of blueberry shrimp (sp? unknown) babies swimming around that all seem to be fine and I don't think I've noticed any deaths from them.

I'm running an AC 70 on the tank with purigen and sponges/filter media.
I dose EI every other day with K2SO4, KH2PO4, half dose of KNO3 and CSM+B. I also have a 2L DIY CO2 set up with a cheap bamboo chopstick diffuser (my glass one requires too much pressure before it ever starts releasing CO2)

I'll make a list of the parameters

Temp: 76-78
GH: 4
KH: 3
pH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
TDS before ferts, right after a water change: 253
TDS after ferts: 293

I know the pH is a little low but I'm hoping to eventually get RCS and CRS in the tank together. If I need to raise the pH for the RCS then I can always just only have neo's in there.

If anyone has any idea what's going on please let me know, I feel bad for my cherries...

I know peronally I had problems with unexplained red cherry shrimp deaths when I had DIY c02 I don't know if it had to do with the ph fluctuating to much or not as I ended up removing it and the deaths stoped... also did you just get the shrimp? Because your ph is rather low if they came from a tank with significantly higher ph and didn't acclimate long enough that could certainly be your problem

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[fishcrazee]

Well I bought them at my LFS and they seemed like they were adult age already. I've had RCS in my 10gal at home before and they bred like crazy until I added fish to the tank then they slowly died out... I can take pics of my tank and shrimp tomorrow and post them up but they'll be from my phone so I can't promise good quality pics...

I hope it isn't my DIY CO2 cause I do want my plants to grow well as well but now I fear that may be harming them... But I got the first batch of shrimp about a month ago and then I got a second batch about 2 weeks ago. Two survived from the first batch of 5 and then the second batch seems like 2 lived out of 8 as well... It might be that I'm not acclimating them slowly enough. If the pH difference is really high, how long should I acclimate them for?

[82nd_Airborne]

Why are you running an ac 70 on the tank? I don't mean that in a bad way, but is there a reason? I have the same tank with an ac 20 and my yellows are thriving. When I clean my pre filter and have the flow on high, the shrimp get blown around a little, I can't imagine what the 70 is doing to yours. I would say to much flow, the only thing I can't figure out is why your blueberry babies are doing fine. Just my 2 cents.

[fishcrazee]

Oh haha the AC 70 is running with lowest flow setting and an AC 30 impeller so the flow actually isn't too strong, the Blyxa leaves flow a little but not crazy. I use a bigger filter mainly to hide my heater but also to put in more media for bio and mechanical filtration.

I'm also puzzled over why my blueberry babies are doing fine since they've been in there for the same time as the first cherries I got. It might have to do with the fact that they were born in the tank? Idk for sure cause I got a berried mother who actually ended up dying :[ but her babies are all fine and dandy

[fishcrazee]

Here's a FTS


and this is a pic of three of my shrimp, they tend to hide


sorry for the bad quality, I only have my phone on me. Does anyone else have any ideas what might be happening? I wanted to try to get some more to build my colony but I want to try and figure out the problem before attempting adding anymore.

[PuddlesAqua]

Originally Posted by fishcrazee

Here's a FTS


and this is a pic of three of my shrimp, they tend to hide


sorry for the bad quality, I only have my phone on me. Does anyone else have any ideas what might be happening? I wanted to try to get some more to build my colony but I want to try and figure out the problem before attempting adding anymore.

Pictures aren't showing up for me.

[fishcrazee]

Sorry about that, do the pictures show up now?