nano tank problem

[fredyk]

I have a few nanos. I know that there's something wrong because the shrimp died, and the snails died in two Petco things. There is a betta in a 2 gal hex who seems to be enjoying life. : ))

I don't really know what the problem is, but since I got a new NO3 test kit, I can give a full report on water quality, exceptin' that it's hard to discriminate between the red colors to determine if it is 50mg/l or 45 or 65.

Evaporated water is replaced with RO water; no water changes.
Amonia is zero and I figure that the tanks are cycled. Two have a mini-filter and one does not.

One is about 2 gallon hex with a betta.

Other two are Petco thingies.

Parameters of the Petco tank are as follows
It has no filter. Amonia is zero so I figure it's cycled. I just added a pinch of Phosphate so that may be on the high side.

ph= 6.5
kh= 6.5
gh= 7
no3= 25mg/l
po4= 5

Hex nano has a filter and also evaporated water is topped off with RO water. I figure this is cycled but has very high nitrates.

amonia = 0
ph= 6.0
kh= 6.0
gh= 5
no3= 50mg/l it's hard to get an accurate reading on this tetra NO3 test.
po4= 5

Tetra test kit says:
"between 25 and 50mg/l conditions still tolerable for fish but partial water change is recommended."
"above 50mg/l ...harmful effects on fish health...25% water change becomes necessary."

Any help is appreciated.
Mark

[Aaron]

No water changes may be your problem. Try getting the nitrates down a bit.

[SCMurphy]

What plants are in these tanks, what substrate are you using, have you added anything else to the tanks, i.e. excel. My little 2 gallon gets topped off everyday with tap and only gets water changes once a month. Then again I break lots of rules. What kind of shrimp are you watching die?

[Jamie G]

What kind of shrimp are you watching die?

Ouch

[fredyk]

Shcultz Aquatic Plant Soil. kind of low light, fluorescent under-counter light. exel once in a while. The plants live, but don't grow alot. have a few small java ferns, dwarf hair grass.

I'll do water changes to bring nitrates down.
a picture tells a thousand words; it's hard to picture this using words. ignore the lawn ornaments; they're gone. and the plants are slightly changed from this picture
Those white snowball shrimp died. just slowly one by one. and the snails are gone missing.

Mark

[Ben Belton]

Ugh... I hate these problems because they drive you crazy when you can't figure out what is going wrong.

I have thought and thought for weeks on why my KH keeps dropping in one tank, but I can't figure it out. There are not enough plants in it to absorbe the carbonate and I'm not adding iron.

Anyway, in your case, could there be a source of copper you haven't thought of? I have killed shrimp and fish with too much iron too.

Good luck,
Ben

[SCMurphy]

Copper, thanks Ben.

Mark, what were you feeding the shrimp?

[fredyk]

They were getting shrimp pellets, but mostly algae.

[SCMurphy]

Wardley shrimp pellets? They have copper in them. I loose a couple shrimp every time I drop them in the tank.

[krisw]

Wardley shrimp pellets? They have copper in them.

Seriously? Sheesh! That might explain a few things for my tanks over the years too.