Help with shrimp!

[drummerboy]

My shrimp are dying and I don't know why!! I've lost two peppermint shrimp, and one cleaner shrimp now! I have a
29 gallon reef tank with about
30 lbs of live rock,
50lbs of live sand,
2/55 watt power compact,
bakpak protien skimmer,
an ehiem canister filter,
a power sweep power head.
2 percula clowns,
one fire fish,
7 hermit crabs
12 turbo snails
2 peppermint shrimp (now)
one dead cleaner shrimp
2 emerald crabs
14 mushrooms
My ammonia is at 0, my nitrites are at 0, my nitrates are at 10, my ph is at 8.2. Why the heck are they dying? All my other inhabitants seem fine. They are still under the six day garuntee from this site, but I'd still like to know why they're dying. Can anyone help? The only thing I've done is raised the ph with baking soda yesterday.

 

[drummerboy]

Not only that, but the remaining shrimp seem fine, and the cleaner shrimp was perfectly fine before I went to bed last night. He was moving normally, and didn't seem to have anything wrong with him. He did molt in the bag on the way to my house, could that have anything to do with it?

 

[kdlbem]

How much/fast did you raise the Ph? How long has the tank been set up? Have you checked the alkalinity? Do you use any additives(Iodine, Calcium, etc)? What is the water temp.?
Let us know.
B

 

[drummerboy]

The tank has only been set up for three months. The alkalinity has been at perfect at 3.5 ever since I've had it set up. My water temp stays a consisten 78. Someone in another post suggested adding 3 teaspoons to a 55 gallon, so I added 2 teaspoons last night. It brought it from 7.8 last night to 8.0 this morning.

 

[drummerboy]

Well, I just pulled him out, and it's definitly not just an exoskeloton. I'm almost positive he's dead. One question, should I give him some more time just to see if he's molting again? Could he do that again already? He's just not decomposed at all (and with the life I have in my sand and rock, that usually happens very quickly). He doesn't smell at all either. It makes me so frustrated because I really liked him, and even if I do send him back to swf.com, I still have to pay like thirty dollars for them to ship me a new one.

 

[drummerboy]

Sorry, the 8.0 was a mistake, it is 8.2. And my salinity is 1.023. And yes I know my ph is low, I've been trying to raise it for a very long time, baking soda is the first thing that has acctually worked to raise it (could have saved a lot on miricle products, that's for sure).

 

[predator]

And how are you acclimating them? Some inverts, especially crustaceans need a very slow acclimation. It can kill them and do it fairly quickly.

 

[drummerboy]

Nope, I acclimated them even more carefully than the instructions said. I really took my time. Not only that but I'm very sure the cleaner shrimp didn't die from the acclimation, it was acting very normally for two days.
And was that to drastic of a ph change? I really though it was too. I only added two teaspoons of baking soda. Why would it change so much? And maybe it didn't change that much, my test kit has a gap between 7.8 and 8.2, there is nothing in between, so it could be the test kit? And yes, I use RO water.
I also know that my ph is really low, but why? And why can't I get it to come up? My alkalinity is great, and I have 50 lbs of argonite sand in the bottom, isn't that suppose to help keep the ph up? Why would it be so out of whack? And everything else in my tank seems to be thriving. These are the only fatalities I've had since I've begun.

 

[uncle fester]

Anthem, in my experience (no disrespect intended, please) but a pH swing from 7.8 to 8.2 is not that drastic. pH will be depressed first thing in the morning because of CO2 concentration generated overnight from respiration of all organismas in the tank. A climb to 8.2 over the course of the day as CO2 level drops as a result od photosynthesis should be expected. I agree that a swing from 8.0 to 8.4 might be better but time of day of pH reading is very important.

 

[uncle fester]

Just to clarify, that pH swing was over the course of an entire day. Not as a result of changing pH due to addition of baking soda. In that case, absolutely correct that change should not be that quick.

 

[drummerboy]

That was over the course of the night, it didn't just jump to 8.2 right away. But do you think that would have been enough to kill the shrimp? What safer ways are there to raise ph? I couldn't get anything else to work.

 

[uncle fester]

First of all your system could be holding CO2. Take a cup of tank water and measure pH. Then aerate it for an hour or so and re-check it. If pH rises, your system is building up excess CO2. Unfortunately, my books talking about this are not here w/ me. Find out if THAT is the problem first. John

 

[drummerboy]

That is a good idea uncle, I'll have to try that. Could c02 be increased by a protien skimmer going crazy and spiting hunreds of micro bubbles out? Because that's been happening all the sudden too. Obviously some sort of parameter that can't be tested that is out of wack.
Oh, and swf.com has taken good care of the issue, they said they'll refund them and not to worry about sending in a water sample. I really thing (I think they do to) that it may have had more to do with the water quality in the bag during shipment. I can't even imagine what the ammonia in there was as bad as that shrimp was decomposed.

 

[joe's reefer]

check your ph and temp

 

[heavenly damsel]

I am confused about your Ph before you added the baking soda....could you clarify?

 

[drummerboy]

My ph before adding the baking soda was 7.8, and that was late at night. I think it was usually lower in the begining of the day. Yes I know, that is way to low!!

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

Hey, Grand Rapidians rule.

 

[drummerboy]

Thanks ed, yes, I guess you are right. From what I had learned up to this point (and from my lfs) that ph was not that abnormal, and in fact was acceptable. It was not until I had this problem that I realized that it was that big of a deal. I do have it stabilized now (the protien skimmer sure does work a lot better), the baking soda did it (just too fast). Thank you for all your help, and thanks to this board I learned two things:
1. don't listen to the lfs when they test your water and tell you not to worry and that they don't even test their ph.
2. to find these things out for myself, and not to listen to the lfs!
Ok, guess that was really kinda one. It's just frustrating, because he told me that ph wasn't very important-it takes care of itself, and to focus on other things like ammonia and nitrates. And I've done my home work on a lot of other things, but I was stupid enough to take his word on this.
And yes, G.R. does rock! Just curious, why do you say that from East Lansing? Are you from around these parts? I love Michigan in general, but this is a great town to live in.

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

Technically, i still live in GR. I live in East lansing all year though (MSU), but sadly my aquarium still resides in GR with my parents. Trying to find some help on how to move it here . Hey, by the way, which LFS do you go to? I've been to most all of them in GR, and there is only one i like. There is one out here in lansing that is really nice...good advice too, amazingly enough. Props to our beautiful state!

 

[drummerboy]

I pretty much go to vi pets all the time. I liked the coral reefs selection, but their prices were very high, and the guy was a jerk to me. They are closing in a couple of weeks though (I guess the guy is going to australia to work on a reef restoration project). I guess even though the guy can be a jerk, I have to give him credit for that. Where do you usually go?
Feel free to email me at drummerboy201981@yahoo.com if ya don't feel like taking up any more message board space.