water changes on shrimp tanks...

[Magnum Man]

just curious for ideas how you change water, without sucking up shrimp???

I pump my water out, so there is no "going through the bucket" looking for them afterwards... I've not been vacuuming the bottoms, on the shrimp tanks and I have a mesh screen over my syphon... it could still suck up baby shrimp, but I put the screened draw tube right next to the front glass, ( my shrimp tanks are all 10 gallons, turned sideways so the shrimp have the whole length of the tank, to get away from the suction ) and that seems to limit my losses....

I also pump my water in, and that really stirs up the small tanks...I've been considering doing a half water change right after each other, so after stirring up the water, with the fill water, I'm doing a 2nd draw, to try to suck out more of what got stirred up??? and then to complicate, I'm now getting baby live bearers in most of my shrimp tanks, and new born Enders are pretty tiny... but then, I also expect the shrimp eat half of what gets stirred up, so eventually that will clear up???

anyway, do you guys do anything special for water changes on your shrimp tanks???

 

[Back in the fold]

If it was me I would have a sponge on the intake side of the hose .

 

[seangee]

My Shrimp are in a tank that has a rear compartment for the filter. I had to put mesh on the inlets so the shrimp can't get through and I just pump from the rear compartment. That's also where I put water in so it doesn't affect the substrate. If I am only doing a 50% change I don't even turn the pump off.
In the other tanks I direct the incoming water onto strategically positioned driftwood to minimise disturbance. You could use a saucer or bowl too I suppose.

 

[gwand]

I hose or pour incoming water onto bubble wrap temporarily layered on water surface.

 

[Back in the fold]

I hose or pour incoming water onto bubble wrap temporarily layered on water surface.

And here I’ve been using a plastic coffee can lid to pour the new water onto so I don’t stir up the substrate . Yours is a way better idea ! I’m going to try it .

 

[MaloK]

Most of the time I do a water change it's going to be 50% or more. I use an intake sponge on the siphon and add the water at the same time I draw.

The water level doesn't move and the water change is transparent. never noticed.

With water slightly warmer that you poor in you filter on top and the siphon hose near the bottom.

The new warmer water remains at the surface the old colder water goes out at the bottom.

This way I was able to do repetitive 50% water changes with creeping nitrate without losing a shrimp.

Just a lot's of RO and minerals.

 

[Naughts]

This way I was able to do repetitive 50% water changes with creeping nitrate without losing a shrimp.

To clarify, water changes don’t kill neocardinia shrimp. Unless you rarely do them. Then drifting parameters followed by the water change reset might kill them. But that would be the parameters causing harm, not the water change.

 

[Uberhoust]

I only did shrimp for a short time but when I did, I would siphon into a bucket, for my fish tanks I siphon into the outside garden. Then I would scoop out any shrimp from the bucket. Because my water is extremely soft I would have to mix the replacement water. I would put the bucket of mixed water above the tank and use air hose and a single air valve to top up the tank over about a 5 to 6 hour time frame to ensure that the shrimp had some time to acclimatize to the hopefully small change in water chemistry.

I found that I had to siphon the bottom pretty thoroughly because the shrimp seemed to poop a lot. As a side note the shrimp seemed to do much better after pond snails got introduced into the tank.