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Ann wrote:Hi Odin,Hey Ann, salt creep is usually always where the water line has dropped and left a salt line, you can get it from something splashing the water like a pump/air-stone but when its perfectly level all the way around the tank its definitely going to be an evaporation thing. These shrimp can handle Salinity swings no problem so long as its not incredibly large but you wont get breeding.
Great information. I have a question. Does salt creep occur only because of evaporation, or could other factors contribute?
Thanks,
Ann
odin wrote:Very cool tank! ive noticed a few things which i would check and take care of first, it may not fix the issue but stands out a little.I used distilled water to top up. thank you very much odin!
1. You have salt creep around the rim of your water surface, this means evaporation is reducing the water levels and in turn will be changing the Salinity of your water constantly, you need water parameters that are stable and don't change so you will need to keep the water topped up or buy a lid for the top of your tank to reduce the water evaporation. You can draw a line on the side of the tank and this will let you know where the water should be kept at when it drops. Don't let it go too long below the required measure line!
2. What water source did you use for the brackish water? If you didnt use RO water, ditilled or bottled water you may have somthing that is having a knock on effect on your waters bacteria and health which leads me to my next point;
3. You have brown algae which is a sign of a newly setup tank, yours isn't new but 2 years old so something must be killing the good bacteria in your tank and the 'nitrogen cycle' is being reset which could be your water if you are using tap water of other stuff that has chlorine/chloramine in it etc. This makes your tank grow the brown algae again before the green algae appears showing a fully cycled tank. I would of said it could very well be a tank crash (PH crash) but if you have aggregate sand this should buffer your tanks water, have you tested the PH level? if that's OK look at the waters source you have used like I mention in point 2.
4. Check the waters temperature, I've found water around early 20's to mid 20's deg C to be good for breeding.
5. Don't scrub the brown algae away and leave the tank to mature and settle, it looks gross but that stage will pass, you could add 1 or 2 nerite snails that will eat it if you cannot stand the sight of it though
Try these things to stabilise the tank and im sure you will get breeding, the tank size seems good and its not over populated. Let us know how you get on and if you have any more questions just ask
Good luck!
With 7, there should be one of the opposite sex in there. 
