Skunk Cleaners And Peppermint Death? And How Many Of Both Do You Have

[dazussdj]

Hi All,

Can you anyone give me a rough guide in numbers of cleaner shrimp needed please in a 4ft tank setup approx 284 litres UK.

I had 4 skunk cleaners and 3 peppermint what was all put into the tank at once recently i lost 2 skunk and 1 peppermint. Have replaced with 3 skunk and lost 2 so i have 3 skunk now and replaced peppermint with 2 so have 4 but have not seen them. All shrimp what have died have been looking great and active so i dont know whats going on anyone share some light on the subject please.

Thanks for help.


Water Stats

Salinty 1.025
PH 7.9/8.0 before lights 8.4 after lights
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Mg 1290
ca 420
phosphate 0
temp steady at 27c

Refuge + Sump with over min required liverock

 

[AndyS]

The only deaths i have had in my Nano are two cleaner shrimp, both died with black marks on their body. From what i have read on this forum it could be shell disease, though i am unaware what causes it im sure i read somewhere that excessive light can cause it, and there is no method to cure it in the aquarium.

Did your shrimp have any black marks on their body? How were they acclimatised, shrimp are sensitive to PH and salinity changes so if they werent acclimatised slowly this could be a cause of death.

Andy

 

[tmreynolds]

Hi All,

Can you anyone give me a rough guide in numbers of cleaner shrimp needed please in a 4ft tank setup approx 284 litres UK.

I had 4 skunk cleaners and 3 peppermint what was all put into the tank at once recently i lost 2 skunk and 1 peppermint. Have replaced with 3 skunk and lost 2 so i have 3 skunk now and replaced peppermint with 2 so have 4 but have not seen them. All shrimp what have died have been looking great and active so i dont know whats going on anyone share some light on the subject please.

Thanks for help.


Water Stats

Salinty 1.025
PH 7.9/8.0 before lights 8.4 after lights
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Mg 1290
ca 420
phosphate 0
temp steady at 27c

Refuge + Sump with over min required liverock

Thats a fairly large ph swing. Have you got enough surface water movement, I've heard that can help stabilise ph levels.

 

[SkiFletch]

What's your input water source? RO? Tap? Distilled?

 

[dazussdj]

[quote

 

[dazussdj]

What's your input water source? RO? Tap? Distilled?

OKay well i have RO unit which is used for the tank water.

The shrimps were all done for 45 mins in a fintro device which is made for and sold by maidenhead aquatics in uk. but they was floated first to warm the water to temp but they was not the new shrimps have had them in the tank for few months.

tank water is circulated 15 times the volume with sump adding oxygen into the water so no water is becoming stagnant.

But from more chatting to lfs i am not adding oxygen back into the RO water which i mix for waterchanges anyone can they tell me what that means please.

 

[tmreynolds]

What's your input water source? RO? Tap? Distilled?

OKay well i have RO unit which is used for the tank water.

The shrimps were all done for 45 mins in a fintro device which is made for and sold by maidenhead aquatics in uk. but they was floated first to warm the water to temp but they was not the new shrimps have had them in the tank for few months.

tank water is circulated 15 times the volume with sump adding oxygen into the water so no water is becoming stagnant.

But from more chatting to lfs i am not adding oxygen back into the RO water which i mix for waterchanges anyone can they tell me what that means please.

Hi,

You haven't mentioned your water surface movement, you have a large ph swing which could be the cause, your other params are fine.

You should be aiming for at least 20x water turnover per hour. So maybe get another powerhead and aim at the water surface.

I can only assume your LFS means that when making new saltwater for water changes, its a good idea to have another powerhead running in your mixing tank/bucket etc and let this run for a few hours if not overnight before adding to the tank. I don't think this would have caused the deaths though.

 

[dazussdj]

Hi,

You haven't mentioned your water surface movement, you have a large ph swing which could be the cause, your other params are fine.

You should be aiming for at least 20x water turnover per hour. So maybe get another powerhead and aim at the water surface.

I can only assume your LFS means that when making new saltwater for water changes, its a good idea to have another powerhead running in your mixing tank/bucket etc and let this run for a few hours if not overnight before adding to the tank. I don't think this would have caused the deaths though.
[/quote]


Hiya okay so you know about a powerhead in a bucket or something okay is it something which has to be done then i never knew about this before what else do you do with the fresh slat water. I am waiting for the Tunze nanostreams to be available in the lfs which are the programmable ones so that will increase the water circulation by alot. Been waiting for them since December should be here by end of june. Hope that will help solve a few problems with pushing water around the rocks.

 

[tmreynolds]

The water change water should be heated to the same temperature as the tank, should be mixed with fresh RO water and with the correct amount of salt to bring it to the same sg as your tank and have a powerhead running in it for a few hours at least. Then it can be added to the tank.

 

[dazussdj]

OKay well only thing i have not been doing is using a powerhead have been shaking it up myself. Ph swings should also be sorted out with the addidtion of the refuge to the system its only been in operation for less then a week so needs time to settle in.

Thanks for comments though and info.