How do you warm your water - do you vaccum your gravel?

L

leighasnana

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May 10, 2005
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Ontario, Canada
I posted the other day about problems I'd been having in my shrimp tank. I'm new to shrimp but have kept fish and plants for years. From everything I'd read here I assumed cherry shrimp would be very easy. I'd get juvies - male and female and become over run with shrimp. Well, I had alot of problems and I'm sure thanks to that I'm learning alot.

I dealt with things which I thought could be causing the problem. Gave the filter a good clean. Reduced feeding. Took out a brick which I didn't think would be a problem just in case. Added more floating plants to keep the water perfect. Finally, I came to the conclusion that it may be copper in my water. I'd been waming my water with hot from the tap. I now warm a big bowl of cold water and add that to the pail to warm the water. So far, so good. I'm also adding 3 new females on Monday. My problem was only affecting the females. My daughter has brought me a berried female. If those babies survive I'll know the problem has been resolved.

2 questions: How do you warm your water? Do you vaccum the substrate?

If interested here's the link to the thread describing the problems I was having. I found another site describing the same problem. What caused it was something in the water which the shrimp didn't like. I'm thinking in my case it's copper. Have any of you had problems with copper if you've heated your water with hot from the tap?

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152302
 
Thanks for the reply. Is that in a fully planted tank?

I didn't word my post properly. What I meant to ask is how do you warm the water which you're adding during a water change? I'm wondering if people using the hot from the tap have had a problem with copper?
 
I vac my shrimp tank. I do put the vac end deep into the gravel and try not to vac any of the smaller shrimp up.

My shrimp tank is small so I simply mix hot-cold water from the tap in a bucket and pour it in. I haven't had any problems.
 
Copper shouldn't be an issue here in the states unless you have an extremely old water heater and plumbing system. As in older than from the 50s.

Taking water from the tap and aging it in a bucket will not rid you of a copper problem. It will allow you to adjust pH and other conditions if your inverts require it though.
 
Why not try using cold water and letting it sit until it becomes room temperature. I think an hour would be sufficient no? Then you can put it in the tank? I dont have copper in my tap atleast thats what it seems so far.
 
I use straight tap water heated to the correct temperature for my tanks (by using hot water). I DO gravel vac almost all my invert tanks except for the ones that are too densely planted to do so. I either rubberband a brine net of the suction end of the siphon, or take the siphon off and just use the tubing and go very very slowly.
If you think its your source water, you could try aging the tap water in a bucket with a spare heater. Many people who use peat/crushed coral to adjust their water hardness will keep a seperate holding container with heater and powerhead (or airstone, etc, just need surface agitation) to prep the water. I hope you figure out what is happening with your critters!
 
if you are unsure about the copper in the lines of your house or heater then just let it run for a while to rid of water that has been sitting in the pipes overnight you should be fine unless you are using very old heater, i have a manablock system installed in my house no metal pipes but a water heater 80gal, new 5 years ago, and have had no problems so far, i have well water so i just use prime for reducing heavy metals and ammonia control if any,..

at times i vac whereei can but have way too many plants to do effeciently.. no problems...
 
Thanks for all the replies. It's been 3 days now with no problems. I added some charcoal to my filter. The shrimp are out and about and 3 of the males are showing more colour - pinkish instead of totally clear. I'm picking up 3 new females, some prime and a sponge filter on Monday. Hopefully, I then get to sit back and way for the population explosion. lol
 
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