[Chieza186]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the hobby and am glad to have stumbled onto the forum as the info here is super useful. I established a 3.4L cube aquarium about 8 weeks ago with a couple of shrimp and since it seemed to show diatom and algae growth I thought it was a good sign that the tank was cycling. The problem I encountered was I had an ammonia spike due to 2 dead shrimp (foolishly did shrimp-in tank cycling) and I wound up doing numerous water changes (4 daily 25% WC while dosing with Seachem Prime and Stability). This brought my ammonia down to 0.25ppm (0 nitrites and nitrates). I bought new shrimp recently and in spite of my better judgement, already added them into the tank. I will continue dosing with Prime and Stability but wanted your opinion on putting in a mini air-driven filter that I made which has a fine sponge, zeolite and carbon. I have made these for my Betta tanks and they have worked well. Would it disturb the shrimp too much in the long run? Or should I just continually change the water? Unfortunately when I started with water changes the shrimp got stressed and lost color. I really would like to bring the ammonia to 0ppm. Any help you guys can shed is deeply appreciated.

[Pikashel]

I’m new to the hobby as well, so don’t have any advice unfortunately, but wanted to say we have the same tank! Did your algae growth come just from the led light the tank came with? I don’t have algae growth in mine yet, but most of my water was from the bag the shrimp came with, otherwise I would’ve done in tank cycling too since I’m impatient.

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[Chieza186]

I’m new to the hobby as well, so don’t have any advice unfortunately, but wanted to say we have the same tank! Did your algae growth come just from the led light the tank came with? I don’t have algae growth in mine yet, but most of my water was from the bag the shrimp came with, otherwise I would’ve done in tank cycling too since I’m impatient.

4E7D6E53-1D76-487A-9AFA-A7D34A90B958.jpeg

Hi,
Yes, it grew over time just from the LED lights that came with the CUBUS but I also used some of the shrimp water that came with the first order of shrimp so the tank probably got seeded with good bacteria. I think it took about 6 weeks before the biofilm and algae started showing. Your tank is so clean! Coming from having fish tanks with filters and all the hoopla to avoid algae, it takes all the discipline not to clean the glass, rocks and coral as that is what the shrimp love! I wish you lots of luck...new like you, but they are so much fun to watch.

[Pikashel]

It’s only been 2-3 days of having them for me and I don’t know if the clean tank is good or bad since I didn’t cycle it the proper way i added the snails and macro algae prior in hopes it’ll speed things up. I keep reading about bio digest on here to help with the bacteria but it seems like it’s a UK product so it’s a bit pricey to order it here to the states. Not sure if the sea chem does the same thing as bio digest? I hope someone can answer your question!

[Opaelover]

I have the same tank as well, just rescape the tank by glueing the small rock to form a more secure rock stack, you can add an small sponge filter inside if you want.
There are 6 opae inside but they all hiding inside the rock now, that normal for a new setup.
I lost the marina original led light, so currently sharing a small fluorescent light with another mini tank sitting side by side with this tank.

Sent from my LIO-L29 using Tapatalk

[Chieza186]

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at that same filter on eBay and glad to see it in the same tank. Seems like your shrimp aren’t bothered by it so I will put a mini sponge filter in as well. The lava rock caves must be such a playground for them.

[odin]

Are you feeding the tank? Where did you get the substrate and rocks from?

Maybe the ammonia spike isn’t from the shrimp and snails?

[Chieza186]

Are you feeding the tank? Where did you get the substrate and rocks from?

Maybe the ammonia spike isn’t from the shrimp and snails?

I am no longer feeding the tank as there is tons of green algae and biofilm on the walls and coral pieces. The sand came from the pet store fish section and is inert. The rocks and decor came from previous freshwater betta tanks but were all boiled before being placed in the tank.

The die off and ammonia spike is recent as I started the tank in early March with no problems in March or April (I figure I pick up a new hobby during the pandemic shutdown). I think I figured out the culprit as to why my shrimps were dying and causing an ammonia spike. The top of their tank has a sizable hole that is part of the tank cover. It most likely died of contamination as I have an oil aroma diffuser not so far away from them. Also, I kept constantly checking water parameters and adding Seachem Prime and Stability—all with good intention but seemed like I was killing them with kindness.

I redid the whole tank with almost a complete water change and new marble rocks. I left the substrate and side of walls untouched because of beneficial bacteria. I slowly changed out their contaminated water by drip acclimation and dilution. I also covered the hole and installed a sponge filter with carbon/zeolite. The shrimp lost color but hopefully this remedies the die off problem. I have resolved to let them be as to recover from stress.

[odin]

Ahhh yea that will definitely be it, fish tanks act like a sponge to air fresheners and smoke etc. I banned my wife from having them next to our tropical fish tank for that reason, it went in the spare room and got spilt on the window sill and I don’t know what’s in it but it stripped the white gloss paint off the wood!

[Chieza186]

Ahhh yea that will definitely be it, fish tanks act like a sponge to air fresheners and smoke etc. I banned my wife from having them next to our tropical fish tank for that reason, it went in the spare room and got spilt on the window sill and I don’t know what’s in it but it stripped the white gloss paint off the wood!

Yikes...scary to think what’s in these things...lesson learned the hard way and hopefully they can recover. They are much more active and grazing ferociously now that they aren’t dying. Would you have any advice on how to tell dead from molt? I think I may have mistaken the whitish molts as dead shrimp before that maybe decomposed. I know with the recent die off the shrimp were still red or pink and not clear, but I figured I just saw them quickly after they perished and not weeks after. It’s so hard to count them even in a small tank to make sure no one is dead. Thanks for any info you can shed!