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littlemutt · 11-21-2005, 06:36 PM

i've added 1 fire shrimp, 1 pistol shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 1 procelan crab, and 6 snails. i've also added two zoanthids and two small ricordia's. these have all been added in the last two weeks.
i took new water tests last night and got theses readings:

ph 2.8
ammonia: 0.25
nitrate : 0
nitrite : 0

the ammonia reading is up, is that due to the additions? and is that a problem? do i need to do anything or will it go down by itself? one problem i'm having is with feeding the 2 shrimp, i got some frozen meaty seafoods - 4 types and this is where i am having trouble, i bought a plastic clip with some plastic mesh designed to hold the frozen food but it doesn't work well, when i put a piece of food in it it seems to work it's way out before it hits the bottom with food floating all over the tank. and if i'm lucky and get it down there the fire shrimp has no problem and he comes zooming out and grabs what he can, but the pistol shrimp who also comes running out doesn't seem to be able to deal with the mesh and i'm not sure he's getting anything, he usually will come out only once and then seems to give up where as the fire shrimp will make repeated trips and take as much back with him as he can. a lot of the food ends up floating around the tank which i know is not good, could this be the reason for the ammonia spike? does anyone have a better method of feeding these guys? also how do you figure out exactly how much to give them? i keep hearing to feed them what they will eat in 3 minutes but this doesn't seem to apply to these guys especially the pistol shrimp and when i add fish it would seem like the problem will grow worse for them. any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

also the algae is still a problem with a lot of film as well as hair algae
growing in one tank, which is the tank with the shrimps and crabs in it, the other is much better with just some algae on the glass and small amounts growing over some of the sand. is this pretty much normal or is it the result of the ammonia readings? i keep cleaning up what i can but it makes a mess in the tank with floating debri, etc. i keep seeing photos of other tanks and they seem to be algae free and crystal clear. am i doing something wrong here or does it just take time to work itself out? thanks for any input.

11-21-2005, 06:36 PM	#46
littlemutt Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 26	just getting started i've added 1 fire shrimp, 1 pistol shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 1 procelan crab, and 6 snails. i've also added two zoanthids and two small ricordia's. these have all been added in the last two weeks. i took new water tests last night and got theses readings: ph 2.8 ammonia: 0.25 nitrate : 0 nitrite : 0 the ammonia reading is up, is that due to the additions? and is that a problem? do i need to do anything or will it go down by itself? one problem i'm having is with feeding the 2 shrimp, i got some frozen meaty seafoods - 4 types and this is where i am having trouble, i bought a plastic clip with some plastic mesh designed to hold the frozen food but it doesn't work well, when i put a piece of food in it it seems to work it's way out before it hits the bottom with food floating all over the tank. and if i'm lucky and get it down there the fire shrimp has no problem and he comes zooming out and grabs what he can, but the pistol shrimp who also comes running out doesn't seem to be able to deal with the mesh and i'm not sure he's getting anything, he usually will come out only once and then seems to give up where as the fire shrimp will make repeated trips and take as much back with him as he can. a lot of the food ends up floating around the tank which i know is not good, could this be the reason for the ammonia spike? does anyone have a better method of feeding these guys? also how do you figure out exactly how much to give them? i keep hearing to feed them what they will eat in 3 minutes but this doesn't seem to apply to these guys especially the pistol shrimp and when i add fish it would seem like the problem will grow worse for them. any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. also the algae is still a problem with a lot of film as well as hair algae growing in one tank, which is the tank with the shrimps and crabs in it, the other is much better with just some algae on the glass and small amounts growing over some of the sand. is this pretty much normal or is it the result of the ammonia readings? i keep cleaning up what i can but it makes a mess in the tank with floating debri, etc. i keep seeing photos of other tanks and they seem to be algae free and crystal clear. am i doing something wrong here or does it just take time to work itself out? thanks for any input.