Well as many of you may know I have been having issues with my RCS tank. I have had leeches in the 20 gal long and I suspected them of eating the baby RCS.
There are about 100 adult rcs in this tank but I never saw any baby shrimp, so the other day I removed all of the substrate, and waited 2 days saw nothing adverse.
Cleaned the tank up. everything was fine. I mived some of the big stones around by hand and the shrimp didnt mind heck they even rode on the stones while I moved them. all was good.
Yesterday I added the new substrate, Top fin black aquarium gravel, I bought it new from petsmart. I rinsed it well in non chlorinated water, and added it tot he tank. about 2 inches.
There is a sponge filter, and a small internal filter in the tank. they are both working fine and were never removed from the tank. I never did more than a 50% water change in one day.
Today I woke up to find about 10 dead shrimp, and 5-6 more looking like they are ready to die. some look like they were trying to molt, and died in the process.
My water params are as follows.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Gh 14
Kh 8
ph 8.8 (I was surprised it was this high usually its mid 7)
temp 78F
the water looks a little cloudy, and has no plants in it yet. was going to add them today.
the gravel bag says it may raise PH and I think it did.
Maybe I just stressed them out too much?
Maybe the Ph Spike killed some?
The water params are all fine.
I use no buckets so there is not really a possibility of contamination from soaps and stuff like that.
Any help?
There are about 100 adult rcs in this tank but I never saw any baby shrimp, so the other day I removed all of the substrate, and waited 2 days saw nothing adverse.
Cleaned the tank up. everything was fine. I mived some of the big stones around by hand and the shrimp didnt mind heck they even rode on the stones while I moved them. all was good.
Yesterday I added the new substrate, Top fin black aquarium gravel, I bought it new from petsmart. I rinsed it well in non chlorinated water, and added it tot he tank. about 2 inches.
There is a sponge filter, and a small internal filter in the tank. they are both working fine and were never removed from the tank. I never did more than a 50% water change in one day.
Today I woke up to find about 10 dead shrimp, and 5-6 more looking like they are ready to die. some look like they were trying to molt, and died in the process.
My water params are as follows.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Gh 14
Kh 8
ph 8.8 (I was surprised it was this high usually its mid 7)
temp 78F
the water looks a little cloudy, and has no plants in it yet. was going to add them today.
the gravel bag says it may raise PH and I think it did.
Maybe I just stressed them out too much?
Maybe the Ph Spike killed some?
The water params are all fine.
I use no buckets so there is not really a possibility of contamination from soaps and stuff like that.
Any help?