Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i bought a new powersweep power head yesterday and i was adding about 7 pounds of LS to my 15 and i changed the rocks around to fit the my needs.

water was couldy when i mixed the new sand in with my old sand bed, but everything was good.

i wake up this morning and my skunk cleaner is belly up at the bottom... im in shock and heart broken.

was this because of the stress of the rocks moving, or from the sand bed being stirred up?

 

how deep was the old sand bed? Have you tested your water levels? and what were they if you did!

 

no i havent, i left my test kit at my girlfriend's mom's house...

the sand bed was 3 its about 4 now...

im so sad.

 

well, sigh, it was my params. it was the nitrate at 40ppm and the ph at 7.8... it had to be the addition of the sand and the stirring of the sand and rock... DARN IT!!!

 

Shrimp, as is the case with most inverts are very succeptible to changes in salinity, pH and alkalinity! Changes have to be made slowly and over time...

 

yeah that and i think that im getting the mini cycle from changing the tank from the 12 to fifteen...

maybe thats why my nitrates were so high, ive never had them that high. i only feed 1 every other day, and sparingly

but the ph what was that from?

amonia was 0
nitries were .25

 

At the end of the day 3 to 4 inches is not either fish or foul. By that I mean its not a DSB or a Non DSB its just enough to give you a problem. And what you did I would speculate is to release some decaying matter that that had a build up of sulfide in a pocket . But with a true DSB of 5 + inches when they roll or boil up its just as fast. Never disturb the bed. Sand beds well they are very unforgiving . You are lucky thats all you lost I'd say. Nitrate of 40 would kill little that soon and I'd guess they where released when you opened the cap on the sand . Also i think if I recall correctly Hydrogen sulfide is exposed to lime rock or limestone you get hydrochloric acid But i may be wrong on that its been awhile..

 

thank you. so should i do a water change? or should i let it cycle out like i think its doing.

 

IMHO, you should continue to do regular, moderate water changes -- 10%-20% each week. It's especially important if your nitrates are climbing.

 

I'm with SAW, and be sure to monitor your pH closely as you are doing the changes to keep it stable. I recommend SuperBuffer dKH as it has Alk builder and a pH buffer to keep it steady.

Yeah, it was definetly the nitrate spike and pH drop that killed it. Shrimp are very sensitive to any type of spike.