[Wet Thumb Forum]-Shrimp Toxin???

[Sockfish]

Okay.

I had 4 amano and 2 cherry shrimp in the 12Nano. Everybody was fine until I did a water change and--having nothing else on hand--I used Amquel to dechlorinate the water. I'd not used it before. Chems okay.

3 shrimp are left and they're staying on the very tops of the tallest plants. I read on another site that Amquel is becoming a prime suspect in shrimp casualties. Could be just a bit too much copper in the stuff, not sure.

Anyone else have this happen? Figs

[Sockfish]

Okay.

I had 4 amano and 2 cherry shrimp in the 12Nano. Everybody was fine until I did a water change and--having nothing else on hand--I used Amquel to dechlorinate the water. I'd not used it before. Chems okay.

3 shrimp are left and they're staying on the very tops of the tallest plants. I read on another site that Amquel is becoming a prime suspect in shrimp casualties. Could be just a bit too much copper in the stuff, not sure.

Anyone else have this happen? Figs

[imported_Piscesgirl]

I've heard of others having shrimp deaths with Amquel -- I think it uses Formaldehyde to break the cloramine bond. I could be wrong. I'm not sure however, what types of declor you can use safely. If it kills brine shrimp, it will kill our pet shrimp.

[Sockfish]

So far the last 3 shrimp are alive but living in the tops of the surface plants. Since I have access to R/O water at work, I changed out 1 gallon last night. [It's a 12 gal tank]. I'll keep this up until all the water is changed over.

Why didn't this knock off my babillion snails?

Figs

[imported_Piscesgirl]

Shrimp are much more sensitive than snails. If you are going to use RO water exclusively, you will probably want to add some minerals back in.

[Margolis]

Don't use pure ro water. You need to remineralize it first for it to be safe for the animals and plants.

[Sockfish]

Many thanks! Glad to know that---there's a lot of conflicting advice out there but this makes sense to me. Slowing down with the r/o.

Figs

[Margolis]

I use seachem equilibrium to remineralize the water. It is for remineralizing ro water for planted tanks. And some arm&hammer baking soda to get the kh up to a stable level.

I use 45grams of equilibrium and 20 grams bicarb in 35 gallons of water when I mix it. That yields approximately 110ppm gh and 75ppm kh. I think you may have to adjust that slightly if you decide to go that route If you are using co2 you will probably want to increase the bicarbonate a bit.

[Sockfish]

This is SO danged embarassing! I was watching the fish after the r/o water change and realized I was seeing ammonia toxicity in their behavior. I had done every chemistry EXCEPT ammonia and they were fine. Bingo: ammonia off the map.

I realized I'd washed out the filter sponges a LOT and may have trashed what biofiltering I have in the back. I also took out a couple fish and changed the water [non-r/o] again. Then everything started to look normal right away...

Gonna do another non R/o water change today and keep watching.

Here's the current fish list:

1 Dwarf blue guorami [2 inch]
4 Rasbora [emerald green-eyed @ 3/4 inch long]
2 Dwarf Corys [Each 1 inch]
3 shrimp left.

It's a 12 gal Nanocube.....

Figs [Hanging my head... ]

[Ben C]

why be embarrassed? look at everything you've learned about RO water since posting this question!