About done trying with shrimp

Just yesterday, after six months of fighting water parameters and snails, I finally got my shrimp. Well today four of them are dead and the rest aren’t doing great. So I want to know if I did something wrong or just have bad luck.
Anyway here’s everything I have done with this tank for the past 6 months.

10/2/21 - purchased sand, lava rock, Christmas moss, and red root floaters. Washed 2.6 tall tank, rinsed sand in dechlorinated water, and alum treated plants for pest snails. Tank appears to be leaking.

10/3/21 - Rinsed Christmas moss and red root floaters in dechlorinated water. Tank is not leaking. Treated rotala inca and Java moss in alum. Rinsed rotala inca and Java moss in dechlorinated water. Added Christmas moss, red root floaters, rotala inca, and Java moss to aquarium.

10/28/21 - 7.5 PH, .50 PPM ammonia, 0 PPM nitrites, 3 PPM nitrites

11/2/21 - cleaned algae, topped up water. 7.5 PH, .30 ammonia, 3 nitrates. Did not test for nitrites.

11/11/21 - 6.5 PH, .50 PPM ammonia, 0 PPM nitrites, 0 PPM nitrates. Tank confirmed cycled

11/12/21 - KH 2, GH 1. Removed algae and did a 50% water change. Low KH caused 11/11 PH crash. Re tested KH/GH with no difference in results.

11/13/21 - blackout to remove Cyanobacteria begins

11/17/21 - blackout for Cyanobacteria ends

11/20/21 - washed crushed coral and filter media in dechlorinated water. Added filter media to the filter and mixed crushed coral to the substrate. Found pretty shells.

11/21/21 - KH 1, GH 3.

11/24/21 - KH 3, GH 3.

11/26/21 - lost pipette. Acquired new syringe. KH 3, GH 4.

12/2/21 - KH 5, GH 5-6. Cleaned algae. Blackout for algae begins.

12/4/21 - KH 4, GH 4.

12/9/21 - blackout ends. KH 4, GH 4.

12/11/21 - purchased new 7.13 gallon and 20 gallon filter. Cleaned and transferred everything to new tank.

12/12/21 - added salvania minima to the tank.

11/13/21 - KH 5, GH 6, PH 7.4-7.6,

12/17/21 - KH 8, GH 7.

12/19/21 - GH 7.

12/21/21 - added Bacter-AE, ordered shrimp.

1/2/22 - bladder snails. Deconstructed tank. Boiled sand, lava rock, and intake sponge. Immersing plants in 5 TBS : 1 GAL of dechlorinated water for two days. Prepared 10 GAL quarantine tank. Added sand back to tank. Cancelled shrimp.

1/3/22 - filled up tank with dechlorinated water. Added cycled and uncycled filter media.

1/9/22 - added crushed coral and lava rock to tank. Ammonia 1.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 2.0.

1/29/22 - KH 5+, GH 8, nitrate 30, nitrites 0. Added Amazon frogbit, ludwigia rupens broadleaf, ludwigia repens, and rotala inca.

1/30/22 - added bucephalandra pygmaea ‘green wavy’ and hydrocotyle tripartita.

2/18/22 - KH 5+, GH 8. Purchased shrimp

1/23/22 - received shrimp, 1 casualty. Drip acclimated for 6 hours. Added to tank at 6:10 PM.

1/24/22 - 4 casualties. Other shrimp no doing so well.

I have no idea what I did wrong. Perhaps they are just delicate but with the recent loss of my other fish I really want to know if I just have back luck or actually did something wrong. Either way if I lose these guys I’m gonna be done trying for a while.

 

If you bought the shrimp and they got mailed to you.. their treatment through the postal service can impact how they thrive. Just give them time to adjust to the tank. Monitor the water parameters and dont fuss to much with the tank. Dont over feed them. I was sure all my shrimp were going feet up when I put them in the tank. Yes a few died but some survived and now I have loads in my tank.

 

Oh wow.... I think there needs to be a different approach to shrimp tanks. Snails and algae are beneficial to shrimp, and may even be necessary. The poop from snails are a valuable food source for shrimp. There is growing evidence of symbiosis between rabbit snails and sulawesi shrimp, just as an example.

In february your tank had 30 nitrate? Seems like accumulated from the cycling process...which is fine for fish, but I would get that down to <10 before adding shrimp. Ammonia and nitrite need to be 0.

 

Don't give up just yet! You've taken terrific notes and tried a variety of remedies, but try not to over-complicate it. I have a 'skittles' tank of reds and blues that is getting over stocked.

 

Oh wow.... I think there needs to be a different approach to shrimp tanks. Snails and algae are beneficial to shrimp, and may even be necessary. The poop from snails are a valuable food source for shrimp. There is growing evidence of symbiosis between rabbit snails and sulawesi shrimp, just as an example.

In february your tank had 30 nitrate? Seems like accumulated from the cycling process...which is fine for fish, but I would get that down to <10 before adding shrimp. Ammonia and nitrite need to be 0.

Wrote that wrong… 3.0 nitrate, our ammonia and nitrite is 0. The tank has been cycled for quite a while now.

the algae was mainly Cyanobacteria mixed in with algae, and I just wanted to tone it down a bit, didn’t actually get rid of it.

 

Wrote that wrong… 3.0 nitrate, our ammonia and nitrite is 0. The tank has been cycled for quite a while now.

the algae was mainly Cyanobacteria mixed in with algae, and I just wanted to tone it down a bit, didn’t actually get rid of it.

Hmm most test kits can't measure 3.0 nitrate, was it nitrite? Either way, the testing process is tricky, easy to make mistakes. Hopefully your tank has stabilized and cycled by now and you'll have better luck with shrimp