Shrimp and Nitrates

[julielynn47]

I was reading about shrimp and saw that the nitrates are not good for them. I am wondering, for those of you that have shrimp tanks, do you have a lot of issues with this?

I was thinking that maybe something like Seachem Purigen might take care of the nitrates.
But then again if it "takes care of" the ammonia and nitrite as well, would that pretty much destroy you bio filter media? I know it says that Seachem Purigen does not effect the bio media in a bad way, but that makes no sense to me. If it eradicates all 3 of those things then the beneficial bacteria are going to have nothing to eat. So...

Just wondering how others deal with this. I know water changes help with nitrates. I just don't know how sensitive shrimp are to certain levels of nitrates. At what levels do nitrates become an issue with shrimp?

 

[julielynn47]

I found this website. http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/articles/ it seems to have a lot of information on shrimp

 

[StevenF]

I was reading about shrimp and saw that the nitrates are not good for them.

This brings up the question what are your nitrate levels? Also what variety of shrimp are you thinking of. Some may handle nitrates better than others. So for anyone to answer this we need the above answers. in my case my tank has low nitrate levels and i have not seen any affect on shrimp that i can blame on nitrate. Others with higher nitrate levels and the shrimp you are thinking about would be more qualified than me to answer this question.

I was thinking that maybe something like Seachem Purigen might take care of the nitrates.
But then again if it "takes care of" the ammonia and nitrite as well, would that pretty much destroy you bio filter media?

The Purigen is only located in your filter. The bacteria however are everywhere in your aquarium. Due to the bacteria being everywhere they will generally get the chance to consume ammonia and nitrite before it gets the filter. So the bacteria in general will not starve. Additionally Purigen will fill up and become ineffective and will have to be removed from the filter. During that time when Purigen is less effective the bacteria will become more effective because they will multiply due to more abundant food. It is very hard to starve out bacteria because they can go into a form of hibernation. If food gets scarce they go to sleep and then wake up when food is available.

 

[julielynn47]

The nitrates are between 10 and 20. Even if I change the water they will go right back to that very quickly. It is hard to tell on the color chart just exactly where it is at, but it is between those 2

As for shrimp, I now have some ghost shrimp. I do not have anywhere local to get any other type of shrimp, so I am planning on ordering some. I know I will get some red cherry and/or crystal red shrimp

I only plan on using the Purigen if I have no other choice. So I have not gotten any yet