Joe Torg

Hello Everyone! Thank you for all the advice. I think I figured out the problem is a handful of little things like high nitrates, the tap water and the coral are compounding on each other to throw the tank balance off. Based on your recommendations, I am going to do the following steps 1. Order a TDS meter 2. Remove the Coral 3. Buy RO water from the grocery store for my water changes and test it prior to use 4. Use Equilibrium GH (or salty Shrimp), and API tap water conditioner to re-mineralize the RO water before the water change 5. Start doing weekly water changes via the slow-drip method to keep the nitrates down 6. Monitor the water daily for adjustments as needed Thank you again for everyone’s help with this! I am looking forward to getting the tank back on track!

Thank you for the help James! I have been advised by others to do a weekly water change (via the drip method) which I will start doing. Do you think this would lower the nitrates consistently - it is currently at 20 ppm. I feed the Tetras API Mini Tropical pellets which I ground up and the snails/shrimps eat the leftovers. I also feed the snails/shrimp the occasional Algae Pellet and boiled zucchini to give them something a little more in their pallet and to mix up the feedings.

Hello everyone, I would like your expert insight on what has been happening with my Red Crystal Shrimp. Sorry for the long post, I’ve been researching and haven’t found anything that exactly matches my situation. I’ve been keeping 8 Red Crystal Shrimp for about 2 months successfully. Two weeks ago, I had two red crystal shrimp die. They got stuck in their molts and couldn’t get out. After researching what happened I figured my tank might not have enough calcium. I have since added crushed coral which has brought up the calcium. Since adding the coral the remaining six shrimp all molted no problem (I haven’t seen them do it but I have seen the old shells and the shrimps running around). What is weird is this past two days, I had two more shrimp pass-away. One was one day, and I noticed the Nitrate level was at about 40 ppm which is no good. I did a water change to lower the nitrate level back down to below 20ppm and the next day another shrimp died. I only started with 8 and am down to 4. I love these little guys a lot and want to make sure the rest keep on living after having some initial success. I’ve looked online but haven’t found anything additional problems that it could be. What else besides the lack of calcium the first time could have caused the shrimp to die? I know the nitrate was slightly high but I don’t want to do weekly water changes because I know that limits the nutrients needed for the planted tank and can also stress the red crystal shrimp. TL;DR: I have been keeping the shrimp alive for 2 months, but in a month half have passed away. Some background on the tank: It has been running for about 3 months total Equipment: 5 Gallon tank, with a light running 10 hours a day, about two inches of Fluval stratum substrate (with root tabs for the plants), and once a week fertilizer with aquarium co-ops easy green. Water: Ph: 6.6-6.8, KH: 40 PPM, GH: 120 ppm, NO2 (nitrite): 0 PPM, NO3 (Nitrate): 0-20 PPM (all in mg/l) Community: 5 neon tetras, 4 Nerite Snails, 4 Red Crystal Shrimp, and a handful of bladder snails Added in tank: Spiderwood Plants: Frog bit (floating plants), Subwasstergang, Staurogyne Repens, Marimo Ball, Java Moss, Amazon Sword, Crypts Thank you all for the help and let me know if I need to provide any additional information!!