Water change equals death

[TomTomTom]

Every time i carry out a water change i get 2-3 shrimp die the following day. I have had shrimp for over a year and never had trouble before. can anyone point me in the right direction?

[lillith112]

Hi, I had this same problem, after water changes I lost 2 of my shrimp. Do you use any de-chlorinator in the water you are replacing ?. There are many reasons death could happen, chlorine is one of them, if you sit the water for 24 hours the chlorine is expelled from the water, or you can use a dechorinator. Also if you use water from the hot tap it can contain copper, to bring the water temp up always mix a bit of water from the kettle. PH of your tap water might also be different, get some test strips and check it out, nitrates should be ok they are usually low straight from the tap.

[Dane]

Giving your current water parameters will help

lillith112: what are your nitrates like out of the tap? i am lucky if mine are ever below 40!

[MisterB]

hi

@tom: as muji said, providing your current parameters will help alot.

what water are you useing to add back to the tank? if its RO water, are you adding minerals back to it?

what shrimps do you keep?

@lillith112: chlorine will evaporate out of the water you are correct, but chloramines wont these can be dangerous i belive.

@Muji: wow, i feel lucky, my tap water is almost perfect for CRS. the ph is a little high, 7.1 , but the GH is 3.5 and kh 1 and i use a hma filter.

[lillith112]

I have tested my tap water, it amazingly has no chlorine in it, it was tested with brand new Tetra test sticks, , nitrate level is 10, however my PH has risen, it was 6.8 from the tap, now it is around 7.0.

[MisterB]

i find it very very hard to belive that you have no chlorine from the tap. where do you live? you can go on your water companys website and that will tell you the content in the water. the test strips, unfortunatly, are a waste of time. the liquid test kits are better, but the test strips, are about as good as a chocolate kettle.

your pH and nitrate sound ok.

if your not treating the water with tap safe ect i think that could be your problem

[Dane]

Have to agree with MisterB, the test strips are useless. If you take a water sample to your LFS they normally test it free for you, might help a little until you get a proper test kit.

[TomTomTom]

If i am honest i never check parameters. Since reading the replies on here i have had someone check for me, they are as follows:

ph7.2
kh 5
gh 12

[MisterB]

what shrimp are you keeping? and what water are you useing when performing water changes?

[bartash]

This is what i got from my suppliers website:

Aluminium 200 ugAl/l<7
Free Chlorine Nolimit mg/l as Cl20.24
Coliform bacteria 0 Number/100ml0
Colour 20 mg/l Pt/Co<1.1
Conductivity 2500 uS/cm737
Copper 2 mgCu/l0.207
Fluoride 1.5 mgF/l0.115
Iron 200 ugFe/l<5
Lead 25 ugPb/l<1
Manganese 50 ugMn/l<2
Nitrate 50 mgNO3/l44.87

i understand nothing from it lol

Carl