Black Algae Growth okay? No green algae?

[Mustafa]

Oh yeah...*don't* remove the substrate while the shrimp are still in the tank, especially not a shrimp soil (which can make a huge mess). Take water out of your tank and put it in a different container. Put the shrimp in there while you change the substrate. These shrimp are fragile and tend to hide in nooks and crevices and the chance of them being thrown out with the substrate or just being squashed to death is rather high.

[blubird101]

Thanks so much for the replies, I really appreciate it!

That sand was one that I was looking at, so that's good to hear.

Yeah, the only thing I really tested was the ammonia and nitrates, and salinity, I didn't think the PH had to be in a certain area.

Okay, lets see if I can wrangle the two little guys into a cup and we can get started!

[Mustafa]

That sand was one that I was looking at, so that's good to hear.

You're welcome! You mean you were looking at the reptile sand? If so, yeah, stay away from it.

[blubird101]

technically the sand I was talking about was hermit crab sand, but the one that someone else talked about was my second choice, so I'll just do that.

[blubird101]

Alright, substrate has been changed out. The tank is still a little cloudy because of the change, but the shrimp are already turning red again. They're out exploring. (also, I tried scrubbing the rocks and a little bit of black residue came off, but it seems like the rocks are stained. (so i think the oxidation or something similar is what happened. )

I tested the water, and the PH is probably only 7.0 or 7.2, so its good we changed it out! Should I just let it sit and slowly rise? I have API PH Up from a previous freshwater aquarium, would that be good to dose with to bring the PH back up?
The shrimp should be fine, but I just wanna make sure I'm doing what I can to get the PH back up to what it should be.

[i<3Opae]

I like the new look! Hopefully you can just sit back and enjoy your shrimp now.

[Mustafa]

Good job! You can either put a source of calcium carbonate in there to buffer the pH to a higher level over time, or (better) change about 50% of the water with newly made up brackish water, then *then* put the calcium carbonate rock/pebbles etc. in there. One way or another you need the calcium carbonate. I'm not sure what's in the ph up product, so I can't give any recommendations about that. It's probably just baking soda, but one never knows.

[blubird101]

Okay, my salinity is at 1.009 now, will doing a 50% water change with new brackish water add to that? Should I mix up a brackish mix with less salinity to account for that?
Sorry for all the questions haha.

[Mustafa]

No need to change anything about preparing the water. Just mix up the brackish water (in a separate bucket) as described in the step by step instructions here (half the amount as on the package description) and then change the water. No need to measure salinity even.

[blubird101]

Okay, so I had to move desks at work so I figured it was a good time to do the water change. I mixed up the new water, and after adding and letting the tank sit for a day or so before testing, the PH is now at 8.2. Yay! Now that everything seems stable I'm going to buy some more shrimp and we'll see how it goes from there!

On a side note, I flipped over some of the lava rock when I was changing water so it shows more of that bright red color and I haven't seen any new black coloring. *shrug* so it may have been a kind of oxidation or caused by the PH after all.

Anyways, thanks for all the help!

[Mustafa]

No problem at all! Glad things worked out! How is your tank doing?

[blubird101]

The tank is doing great!
The rocks I've flipped over have stayed their orange color and haven't gone black, so I'm not sure what caused the rocks to do that in the first place. Maybe it was because of the PH?

I recently bought some new shrimp (around 12) and I spotted my first berried shrimp last week! So excited! I haven't noticed any algae still, but the shrimp seem to be constantly picking at the rocks and sand so I assume they've got a lot to much on. I put two of the nerites into my freshwater tank instead and kept just one in there with the opae ula. I've been feeding one small flake of fish food to the opae once every month or every other month and they seem ravenous for it, but I know I shouldn't feed to much. Besides that, they seem content. Most have darkened back to red, and I have one little orange guy in there too! I can't tell which two shrimp are the ones from the ecosphere, but they definitely seem happier now and don't hide like they used to.

[Mustafa]

Glad to hear/read!