Opaeula.co.uk

A dedicated forum and online store for the Opae ula shrimp! 

This section is to discuss anything Opae ula shrimp and brackish water related. e.g Nerite snails, algae etc..
 #91  by odin
 
Id of done the same thing! 8ppm ammonia is insane! just do small water changes if your big tanks ammonia starts to creep up. Keep testing every 2 - 3 days for ammonia and nitrites it will start dropping soon! Putting them in that clean brackish water would of been a real life saver!

Its a shame that the water is so bad in the echospheres :(

p.s don't Apologize you are doing everything right.
 #93  by Kanuha
 
Hi again Odin :)

Well, we suffered an almighty PH dip over the weekend (7.4) - am suspecting the Seachem Stability may have been to blame. Did a series of water changes over the last 3 days to get it back up, am suspecting I may have lost quite a lot of my good bacteria with it, but can get another bottle of the stuff the LFS sold me if tests show anything bad going on.

Have ordered a new heater - the one that came with my tank isnt up to much (would be OK in a steaming hot room no doubt, but my studio isnt heated at night) Poor little guys are huddled around it and water is only coming up to 17 now.

Algae & Spirulina food I ordered Thursday STILL isnt here, despite 'next day' promises - so there's some empty tummies in there as the algae hasnt really got going yet. Other than that, they seem happy enough. They're grazing (as best they can) and swimming now & again - they really can't believe their luck I don't think! I also cannot imagine in ANY way that these poor creatures are put into those prisons with cycled water of any kind - not judging by how bad mine deteriorated once opened? Maybe I'm totally wrong but I can't see much other way to help these poor souls (esp once they start dying as mine did) other than taking a flyer and transferring to an uncycled tank and watching like a hawk & adding as much good bacteria where possible. God knows, there must have been so much ammonia in their little bodies from the sphere.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Odin - I SO want to make their lives a dream now rather than the nightmare they must have thought was all they would ever know.


Will report back again very soon with pics, hopefully :)
 #94  by odin
 
When your PH drops it can stall the cycle of your tank, it should naturally raise when you have the ocean rock in your tank, be aware of having wood/bogwood as it will lower your PH. I know yours is artificial so it doesn't apply but just putting that out there. The PH wont jump strait back to 8.0 over night so just keep an eye on it.

Id love to see some photos!
 #98  by Kanuha
 
A few days on ....

New heater installed and set to 23 (thought they could do with a decent treat!) partial water change, ammonia now showing def lighter than the original .25 readings (too scared to hope its 0) Everything else all A OK. Fed teeny amount of spirulina powder on end on cocktail stick yesterday - finally lovely little green tummies today!

So here's the tank now and with some (hopefully) happy Opaes - HUGE change in their life from 2 weeks ago sealed in that cruel sphere...:) All down to you Odin! THANKYOU
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 #103  by odin
 
Oh wow they look nice and happy! and Red! compared to your profile image they have really changed colour. A job well done :)

Keep us posted with how it progresses and put up more pics for us to see!
 #106  by Kanuha
 
Thanks Odin,

Still having issues with PH dropping, no idea what's causing it - have temporarily removed the ocean rock as water was getting almost like milk, and done a partial water change. The crew seem happy enough, and spotted a large complete moult this morning (am hoping that's a good sign not bad?!)

Have added some sea shells till I can get some crushed coral. Learned more about chemical/water balances this past two weeks than ever I did at school... :roll:
 #107  by odin
 
Kanuha wrote:Thanks Odin,

Still having issues with PH dropping, no idea what's causing it - have temporarily removed the ocean rock as water was getting almost like milk, and done a partial water change. The crew seem happy enough, and spotted a large complete moult this morning (am hoping that's a good sign not bad?!)

Have added some sea shells till I can get some crushed coral. Learned more about chemical/water balances this past two weeks than ever I did at school... :roll:

It will take a while for the water to raise its PH, as the water becomes acidic it causes the ocean rock to break down and buffer the water, the ocean rock will need a good soak before it stops making your water look dirty. The cloudy water may be just benificial bacteria growing.

If you dont have somthing to buffer the water you may run into problems in the long run, you could use a calcium carbonate block for fish tanks.
 #109  by Kanuha
 
Its me again! :)

Ok PH now finally settling down. The gent at my LFS has added some minerals to my RO and its worked a treat! Am working on basis that my cycle now has to possibly restart, but the Opaes seem fine and am soaking the ocean rock in another bucket of RO till it calms down a bit.

Can't believe when I look at my tank that its only been a little over 3 weeks since I opened the 'sphere. I know I'm a LONG way yet to go, but they're all still fighting in there with me & they really do seem happy (Easter) bunnies! :lol: Even the guy at the LFS is interested in my Opae rescue story now - I hope if it gets the message out there, many could be saved... :D

Here's one of my tribe enjoying life, quite a bit I'd say. Thanks again Odin!
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 #110  by odin
 
Great photo! what camera are you using? ive just gotten into cameras and bought a 2nd hand sony nex-5n. Its an entry level camera but im hopeing it will be fine for shrimp photos. What salt level are you running in your tank?
 #111  by Kanuha
 
I've got a Fuji FinepixS - had it about 2 years, bought it for photographing my artwork really. I think its 16 Mega pixel. It's got a kind of macro feature on it for closeups but its not stunning. For this photo I just took a large file size image & zoomed in on it then tweaked the colours up a bit with 'picmonkey' which is an online image tweaker.

Salt level is between 1.010 & 1.011 I read somewhere (but can't remember where) that a lower salinity helps encourage breeding (I should be so lucky!) I finally put an end to my PH nightmare & bought some Seachem marine buffer. Not ideal I know, but 3ml has brought it gently back to 8 and it says it will stay there - one thing less for me to panic about....!
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