Cleaner Shrimp and Nitrate

I know ideally nitrates should be undetectable however I tested at 20ppm last night after I noticed that my cleaner shrimp had died. Can they tolerate this? He was fine in the morning and when I came home around midnight last night he was laying on his side under a rock. The only other inhabitants are a Foxface and 10 small blue leg hermits. Could the hermits have gotten to him? Ammonia and Nitrite tested at 0 also. It's a 75 gallon with a lot of rock and one GSP so far. Thanks.

-Brett

 

I have seen shrimp tolerate levels of 20ppm but in all reality your levels could be worse... What test kit are you using?
What are your other parameters?
How long did you have the shrimp?

 

are you sure it's not just a molt?

 

I actually read it wrong, my fault. It's a Red Sea kit and it's the one on the right that says 5.0 PPM. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 PH 8.2 Cal 430 ALk good (this one according to my friend who works at the LFS I trust) Salin 1.024 Temp 79...had the shrimp for 4 days...pretty sure it's not a molt. I have a order of Cerinth and some macro John is holding for me until I tell him I have everything in order. I don't want the new snails to come in and die due to nitrate but I guess my 20ppm was higher than I thought and the 5.0 means it's 5ppm, correct?

 

My cleaner shrimp (2) live and have lived in since I got them,20-30ppm on nitrates and have grown like a weed as well as everything else in the tank (got macro in fuge working on nitrates), so I would say it wasn't you nitrates that did him in.

 

What makes you think it isn't a molt? It is really hard to tell the difference between a dead shrimp and a molt. The molt will look exactly like a dead shrimp on the outside. It will have all the legs, antennas etc. After they molt they will hide out of sight until their new shell hardens. It is not uncommon for shrimp to molt soon after being added to a tank.