poly filter

[anttthony]

Hi has anybody ever used an arcadia poly filter?
Ive had problems keeping shrimps all my cherries and armanos never last more than a month usually I just see the odd one dead every week. I've never used any plants other than tropica pots from the green machine or my lfs. I asked in my local shop and they said it could be from a white spot treatment I used about 8 months ago before I had shrimp and advised me to use a poly filter to remove any copper from the water I would have thought that if ther was copper in the water It would cause instant death?
I run two filters so I was going to use the poly filter in one of them for a month and just see what it comes up with as it says It changes colour depending on what it picks up.
Will fitting one cause me problems with my ei dosing as it says it can remove phosphates and nitrates
Or has anybody got any suggestions what iam doing wrong with the shrimp I always acclimatise them over about a hour with the c02 off
Cheers
Ant

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
It may be the copper (Cu), dependent upon the plants (including algae), they may be concentrating the Cu in the plant tissue ("hyper-accumulation") and then it can build up to toxic levels over time in the shrimps.

You don't need the polyfilter, you can just use a dechlorinator like Prime (that contains EDTA) or similar chelator, or you can add some humic compounds with something like sphagnum peat, Indian Almond leaves, Alder cones etc.

These will tint your water, some water tint should = shrimp safe.

I'd always have dead leaves with shrimps, partially for this reason, and also as browsing surfaces. Have a look at this one <catappa leaves | UK Aquatic Plant Society> & Basil's posts in this thread <What other novel fresh foods do you feed your shrimp? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

Have a look at this post and links for some more humic compound details: <Is Purigen safe? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

cheers Darrel

 

[anttthony]

Cheers Darrel il have a read through them

ant

 

[Nat N]

Hi Ant,
I totally agree with Darrel. Loosing Amanos seems to be extreme to me – I am under the impression that these are tough little things not giving up when all other types of shrimp cannot stand it. Some time ago and on another forum, I managed to help with problems related to overdose of Micros. These were actually leaching from too much of Laterite type substrate layer not cupped with enough of inert medium. I don’t know what substrate type you use but this is a possibility. Polyfilter was used by the person I helped on the other forum to detect extreme levels of Cu. She had this Laterite – very-very generous layer –and a thin layer of inappropriately sized gravel on top and used a siphon every week to “clean” which brought particles of Laterite up saturating the water with Micros.

 

[anttthony]

Hi Ant,
I totally agree with Darrel. Loosing Amanos seems to be extreme to me – I am under the impression that these are tough little things not giving up when all other types of shrimp cannot stand it. Some time ago and on another forum, I managed to help with problems related to overdose of Micros. These were actually leaching from too much of Laterite type substrate layer not cupped with enough of inert medium. I don’t know what substrate type you use but this is a possibility. Polyfilter was used by the person I helped on the other forum to detect extreme levels of Cu. She had this Laterite – very-very generous layer –and a thin layer of inappropriately sized gravel on top and used a siphon every week to “clean” which brought particles of Laterite up saturating the water with Micros.

Hi nat thanks for the input ive ran the poly filter since Sunday pulled it onThursday and it was a slight blue/green colour which indicated ionic copper. ive left the filter in and added a few cherries yesterday hopefully they will be ok
My substrate is ada malaya. when you say micros is that micro nutrients. as I discovered a few weeks ago I was double dosing my cheated trace by mistake when making the mix, maybe this could be contributing to my problems
Thanks for the help

ant

 

[Nat N]

Hi Ant,
Yes, I mean Micro nutrients. I must admit: I never used ADA substrates (yet) but from what I read I believe that most of them leach some NH3 at first. Depending on how old your substrate is this could be another possibility of a problem (sorry if you posted before elsewhere on the forum and I just did not see that post). Double dosing chelated trace should not be that much of a problem to my opinion - certainly not to kiil the Amanos - as long as you have sufficient plant mass... I have to return to Darrell suggestion of using dechlorinator containing EDTA - I would use opulous amounts (like 5+ the recommended dose). I would also dose the tank with it daily adding some 1-2 doses for the tank, not only at water changes... at least for a few days.

 

[anttthony]

Hi Ant,
Yes, I mean Micro nutrients. I must admit: I never used ADA substrates (yet) but from what I read I believe that most of them leach some NH3 at first. Depending on how old your substrate is this could be another possibility of a problem (sorry if you posted before elsewhere on the forum and I just did not see that post). Double dosing chelated trace should not be that much of a problem to my opinion - certainly not to kiil the Amanos - as long as you have sufficient plant mass... I have to return to Darrell suggestion of using dechlorinator containing EDTA - I would use opulous amounts (like 5+ the recommended dose). I would also dose the tank with it daily adding some 1-2 doses for the tank, not only at water changes... at least for a few days.

Great cheers nat il have a go with that
Thanks

ant