I have been having a lot of cherry shrimp deaths lately in my new Fluval Edge tank. I checked the water params and everything seemed fine except the nitrates were around 15, the tank is planted and I dose. CSM+B, NO3, KH2P04, and Pottassium (KS something). I also use root tabs. I figured it was from the high Nitrates and it seemed to be the worst after I dose fertilizers. So I read this article.
http://www.planetinverts.com/Dosing Fertilizers with Shrimp.html
Learned some great stuff and think I can add to it. See the shrimp used to be in a 3 gallon eclipse that I dosed with the same stuff and never had deaths, they all breed like crazy and now the shrimp never have eggs and are not as active. I think I figured out the reason. The 3 gallon eclipse had mostly stem plants, the edge has mostly root plants. My theory is the stem plants took all the ferts from the water column and it never effected the shrimp. Now with mostly root plants the ferts stay in the water and effect the shrimp. My 29 also had problems with shrimp. Back when I was in a apartment I dosed my ferts every other day on a schedule and I had 3 out of 4 shrimp die, and a low population of pond snails. Now I have the tanks in the basement and only dose on water change day. I now have 4 healthy amanos, 2 filter shrimp, and 4 nerites and many pond snails all healthy. There are some stem plants in there but not tons. I think one dosing a week was such a small amount the stems could take care of it where as frequent dosing was to much and left some to kill the shrimp.
So I am going to try to stop dosing CSM+B and monitor the Nitrate levels closer and only does NO3 when needed. I will still use root tabs in all my root feeders since I doubt the root tabs will really add that much into the water column since they are under the gravel.
Any input is appreciated and open for debate. Just wanted to share and hope it helps.
http://www.planetinverts.com/Dosing Fertilizers with Shrimp.html
Learned some great stuff and think I can add to it. See the shrimp used to be in a 3 gallon eclipse that I dosed with the same stuff and never had deaths, they all breed like crazy and now the shrimp never have eggs and are not as active. I think I figured out the reason. The 3 gallon eclipse had mostly stem plants, the edge has mostly root plants. My theory is the stem plants took all the ferts from the water column and it never effected the shrimp. Now with mostly root plants the ferts stay in the water and effect the shrimp. My 29 also had problems with shrimp. Back when I was in a apartment I dosed my ferts every other day on a schedule and I had 3 out of 4 shrimp die, and a low population of pond snails. Now I have the tanks in the basement and only dose on water change day. I now have 4 healthy amanos, 2 filter shrimp, and 4 nerites and many pond snails all healthy. There are some stem plants in there but not tons. I think one dosing a week was such a small amount the stems could take care of it where as frequent dosing was to much and left some to kill the shrimp.
So I am going to try to stop dosing CSM+B and monitor the Nitrate levels closer and only does NO3 when needed. I will still use root tabs in all my root feeders since I doubt the root tabs will really add that much into the water column since they are under the gravel.
Any input is appreciated and open for debate. Just wanted to share and hope it helps.