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RCS Losses after Filter Change!

AverageWhiteBloke

AverageWhiteBloke

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Joined
27 Oct 2009
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2,906
Location
Cumbria
:(Just lost a load of RCS after changing my filter. Switched from an internal to an external so I could use some lilly pipes I bought. Not sure what's went wrong. I did a 50% slow water change with water that was brought up to the same temp and the sponge that was in the internal I put in the new canister with new sintered glass and floss to seed it. Got in to work today to find about six stuck to the inlet dead with a couple motionless. Rest are huddled in a corner.

What you think more small water changes over the next few days? Don't think it's the bleach I cleaned the pipes with I rinsed them really well.
 
Not my finest hour! Lots of deaths, not sure whether they died then got sucked towards the filter or the filter actually sucked them in too powerful that they couldn't escape. I've put a carbon filter sponge over the inlet for now. Hopefully that will suck out some toxins if there are any and stop sucking the babies into the external canister until my mesh guard comes from aquarium plant food. Just going to keep doing some small water changes over the next few days. Epic fail, ever had one of them days!
 
Oh mate I wish I had dropped them off yesterday. What a nightmare, I got into work today to find my carpet soaked and death of biblical proportion. I've had the lily pipes since before Christmas and the filter lying around for years. Had a quiet day at work so thought I'd sort it out, been waiting for the chance for ages.
The intake of the filter was covered in dead shrimp and all the others were all piled on top of each other in one corner. Not sure if it was the shrimp died then got sucked to it or died by getting stuck to the filter. Either way things went wrong quick. Managed to rescue some babies from the canister. Still can't get the canister to seal though, keeps weeping where the tubing joins the taps. I've had to leave it in a bucket. Had four paracetamol and my head still pounding. I'll have a run down tomorrow and see how they're getting on. Up to press looks like I lost about 20 adults not sure about babies. On the bright side they were starting to move about again when I left.
 
Poor things.

These things happen though. That was one of my concerns when I first set my external up, leaking. Basically your syphoning your tank and pumping it back in.

So you've lost nearly half pal? That's terrible. Least they were moving about when ya left. Ya checking on them tomorra?
 
Sorry to hear your bad news! I know how you feel though. I started with 6 yellow shrimp about 6 months ago and I gradually got the population up to around 25-30 and now I only have about 6 again. I still don't know to this day why they died. I thought it was because I used a bit of hot water from the hot water tap, but surely the prime will take care of any copper in the water. I have 3 females with saddles at the moment but only one male in the tank so hopefully they will all be berried soon!
 
Yeah ill pop in and do another water change I think. Problem with it being only 5 gallon is it can go sour in no time. I didn't manage to get all the corpse out. Hopefully the remaining ones are Ok and I can get my colony back up to full strength.
 
Copper in water from the boiler, never thought of that you know something to remember. I usually bring my water up to temperature with water out the kettle. I still have berried females and males so should be Ok. I hope you have more luck than me mate.
 
Well from now on I'm using only cold water and adding it slowly. I was also slacking on water changes too. Back to 20% a week now. I hope you don't have any more losses!
 
I'm keeping positive, the whole colony started from about 10. Just need to sort these bleeding pipes. I maybe try the lfs and get some rigid tubing. Thought soft stuff would have better for lily pipes. Was one of them days when you think you've cracked it then after staring at it for 30 mins you see a drip again. It's went on all day.
 
I hadn't just bought it mate it was a prime 10 hydor I've had lying about for years. I gave it a good clean and used the dirty sponge from the internal I was using as well as some sintered glass medium I had lying around with floss. That's the best thing about this tank. I made it from stuff I already had in one of them boxes we all have full of bits and pieces. Only thing I've bought was the lily pipes from the board. Ordered a mesh intake today though. Lessons learnt never throw stuff out or sell your gear, you never know when you might need it. I found in the same box two little activated carbon sponges from a little internal eheim from 15 year ago I never used, bag was Still sealed so I hollowed one out and put it over the inlet until my mesh comes. No more sucking up babies and hopefully the carbon will absorb some nasties out. Do you think there could have been traces of copper in the sintered glass? I've never used copper meds in this tank but probably did in the one that filter medium came from.
 
I don't think it was the sintered glass was the problem. It's so frustrating when shrimp die and you can't figure out why!
 
Most likely the cause!
Click to expand...
do you think that the sintered glass medium may have traces of copper? It hasn't been in an aquarium for probably six months since I got my new filter!

Brace yourselves, this is what greeted me today. Viewer discretion! This post may contain scenes some people may find upsetting.

8583449088_13236bf8b7.jpg
IMG_00000040 by AWB70, on Flickr

8583450116_500e8deb99.jpg
IMG_00000043 by AWB70, on Flickr

8583449550_4a9240ced5.jpg
IMG_00000044 by AWB70, on Flickr

Hardest part is syphoning out bodies while trying to save the young shrimp that seem to be feeding off them!
8583450742_0c1b25f44b.jpg
IMG_00000042 by AWB70, on Flickr

Some survivors seem to be just hanging on one corner or hanging at the surface. They don't seem to react unless I try and touch them then they take off.

8582347913_d5f2ca4d17.jpg
IMG_00000041 by AWB70, on Flickr

I've did a 40% water change with warmed up to temp water for the last three days. Not sure if I'm doing more harm than good. I had promised 10 of these each to Alistair and Martin, was going to sort it out last week but was away working. If I had most of these corpses would have been living the dream by now! Even bitterer pill to swallow. Can we make an exception and let me use foul language in this post?
 
Jesus. That looks terrible Neil. How many do you have left now? Have you lost even more than you did the other day?
 
Hard to tell if I've lost more or with the swirling action of the filter bodies that were tucked in behind scape have just eventually ended up around the intake of the filter. At a rough guess I would say I still have about 20ish adults and there a still some babies knocking about. Odd thing is I thought that the babies would have went first being the most sensitive and the females are still berried. I though they ditched their eggs when stressed.
 
Maybe just the filter and increased current and flow that's killed them pal. As, like you say, if it were copper, the egg carriers and babies would go first.
 
It's an idea, not sure they would be unhappy about that. A couple of them are sitting right in the path of the outflow now. Makes me wonder of a few ventured too close to the intake, got stuck to it and died and the water went nasty quick with it being a newly set up filter. 5 Galls is not a great deal of water.
 
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