Water stability
What constitute to water stability? Every time I get a question asking why would my shrimp die?
There are a range of possibilities to that question but we can be sure for one we will need water stability. First off, the bigger the water volume the better the water stability is the general rule. Think of it this way, since the tank is a close loop system the smaller the water volume, any changes will be drastically amplified. Here is an example:
A tank with 100 litres and a tank with 40 litres. Both have 200 shrimps in there, what do you think the nitrate levels will be if all else are equal? It is safe to say that the level of nitrate in the 100 litre tank is lower than that of the 40 litres. Why is this so?
Nitrate is a by product of the nitrification process and cannot be remove without either having plants or water change (there are some filter media that temporary remove nitrates but need to be change). With that does it mean that everyone need to start a big tank? Not really.
Keep in mind if you have a 40 litres tank and the tank is already cycled, keeping a right number <100 shrimp will technically still be able to get by. However, water change and lots of plants to remove the nitrate on a weekly basis will keep them happy.
When you get busy and you forgot to look at your tank for a few days to weeks or when you go on vacation. What happens if during the course of time when you are away, 1-2 shrimp die ? In the best case scenario the rest of the shrimp will consume it the natural way but what if you don’t have that sheer number of shrimps to do so? The dead shrimp will release ammonia which is a deadly. if your nitrifying bacteria isn’t able to handle the process well, your water will foul quickly causing death to your shrimps. There is also a high chance that you will probably have ammonia burn on your moss as well since the decomposing body emits ammonia and other substances. Given the above, will a bigger tank help prolong such a catastrophic event? Yes but not exponentially.
Water stability is a balancing act of feeding proper amount and type of food, do your water change, measure your tds and nitrate and certainly remove any dead shrimp as soon as possible.
My regular routine when I get back from a busy schedule is to first test for tds. 99% of the time the tds would have gone up a few points but doesn’t cause for an alarm. I will then feed the shrimps some pellets and look if there are any dead shrimp. After which I will allocate a time to do water change and since it is fairly quick with about 10-12 tanks i usually get it completed by 30 mins which include a bacter ae feed(for baby shrimp)after reminerizing the water. Once a month I will test for all parameters on a few important tanks using a test strip which I know isn’t the most accurate but the fastest way to get an indication of the water. Most of the time nothing change month to month if everything is kept in order.
It’s all about control and discipline without adding too much of this and that.
Hope you guys enjoy the post!