Copper problems?

1044 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Talnesa, May 7, 2020

Talnesa

Discussion Starter · #1 · May 4, 2020

Hoping to get some advice from those knowledgeable here. Haven’t had much success yet at the shrimp-keeping game. I’ve had a cycled 10 gallon, planted tank for about six months. Cherries and carbon rilis only, along with a somewhat largish population of ramshorn snails and two small apple snails. The snails are doing fine, but the shrimp have died off at a rate of a couple per week. I’ve restocked twice from two different breeders with the same result.

Death seem to occur a few days after a water change, which I do weekly (10%). All of my parameters are fine in terms of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Ph of 7.6, Kh of 5 & Gh of about 7 (maybe 8). I use Prime treated tap water for the changes. I did look up our water report & copper is at 1.3ppm. Could that be causing it? Dead shrimp appear fine. I’ve noticed some darkening of the cherries shells while alive but nothing else.

Any help would be appreciated!

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deeda

· Registered

Joined Jun 28, 2005

2,014 Posts

#7 · May 4, 2020

Can you look and see if you have copper plumbing, maybe where the water line or meter enters your home?

Another thing to try is to let your tap (faucet) run for 3-5 minutes and then use the water for water changes. Sometimes water setting in the pipes, especially newer copper ones, haven't built up the coating inside that normally reduces the amount of copper leaching.