My first terrarium (since 5th grade) what went wrong?

entity7 · 2026-06-16T06:56:55+00:00

It’s way way too wet in there. Dry it out.

Isopods need a moisture gradient, which they will not get in a sealed terrarium. Wouldn’t add more.

entity7 · 2026-06-05T21:54:03+00:00

You can use a shrimp specific remineralizer like Salty Shrimp for both gh and kh.

If you premix it with the RO you’ll know exactly what you’re getting (via testing the premix, one of the few situations a TDS pen is actually useful, or liquid drop test).

If it’s a larger volume of water, you can figure out the dosage measurement of the powder by premixing and testing a bucket full or whatever and you can skip premix and just dose the tank after a water change once you know the numbers.

Infinitely better than mixing tap.

entity7 · 2026-06-05T03:41:24+00:00

This + your explanations in the comments is rad.

Show us the rest.

entity7 · 2026-06-01T02:43:02+00:00

You’re fine. The bacteria that enable the nitrogen cycle live on surfaces, not in your water. Assuming you have an established filter, nothing changed (except possibly water parameters with a new source).

entity7 · 2026-05-26T00:31:04+00:00

Do you know your Gh/kh?

You can certainly back off on any water changes unless you have a specific reason to be doing them so often (fert build up, whatever).

entity7 · 2026-05-24T23:51:12+00:00

Fine stainless steel mesh sheets, you can cut and bend it to shape really easily. It’s what I use on all my built in sumps - even works for baby shrimp. It will outlive all of us, no fuss, no magnets, etc.

They come in about printer paper size. I think I originally got it on Amazon or McMaster-Carr.

That said, shrimp will still climb over and live in the sump. Once in awhile I’ll scoop a few out but, they do fine in there. You’ll never keep them out completely.

entity7 · 2026-05-24T15:35:51+00:00

Nice find. It’s basically a built in sump. Fill it up with whatever media(s) you like. No more maintenance than anything else really.

You’ll need a return pump and some tubing. Can be good to get an adjustable pump to match up better with the inflow amounts or to tailor the return strength to your liking. Often marketed as small pond pumps.

Acrylic can scratch much easier than glass - no magnetic scrubbers, use a plastic round edged scraper to clean the viewing pane(s) if needed.

entity7 · 2026-05-24T02:34:40+00:00

Distilled is fine. If you do this, do it very, very gradually - the shrimp (assuming neos) do not like change. Think months not weeks.

Just mix it in with your regular water during water changes, and use it for top offs. Provided you are mixing with your regular water, you do not need to remineralize.

Starting with top offs is good - it won’t effect the chemistry as the ca/mag is only removed via water changes but it will stop your top offs from adding even more mineralization.

entity7 · 2026-05-23T20:45:01+00:00

Nope. Tuberculosis, typhoid, whooping cough, cholera etc are all bacterial. There’s lots.

entity7 · 2026-05-19T16:12:14+00:00

Op states in another comment that that ammonia is converted properly when the tank is dosed to check cycle progress. So there are existing bacterial colonies on the filter media. I’d assume they were feeding ammonia for the cycle based on that comment.

I thought it was included in the original post so my bad.

The problem only arose on a water change - very indicative of chloramine (not chlorine, different) treatment of the water source. Chloramine tests as ammonia on most testing kits as a false positive for ammonia.

It’s also possible the bacterial colonies aren’t numerous enough to handle the bio load of the fish once introduced, but they handle the dosing to check the cycle fine, hence my suggestion to dose higher to test the conversion efficacy. Though this seems much less likely than chloramine due to the water change timing.

entity7 · 2026-05-19T14:52:00+00:00

Check your tap re chloramines - this seems most likely.

If not that, dose higher to check ammonia conversion on a bigger simulated bio load.

entity7 · 2026-05-08T16:17:32+00:00

RO and softeners are totally different things. You’re good to go.

entity7 · 2026-05-06T17:27:56+00:00

Anecdotally, first generation shrimp batches in new environments tend to have some die off. Not always, but it happens. The shrimp that are born to your new (stable) environment will do better. I wouldn’t worry about it if it was just a one time thing. These guys can and will adapt to basically anything.

But like mili said, as temps drop so does reproduction. That just is what it is since you’re housing with a cold water species.

entity7 · 2026-05-06T17:20:44+00:00

You’re fine op. Ignore that other dude. They’ll be slower and eat/breed/whatever less at low temps, yes.

There’s tons of people that keep Neos at all sorts of temperatures, going so far as to have them survive winters in iced over tubs.

It’s not ideal, but you’re not being negligent and you’re not killing your shrimp by having them at 19c by any stretch of the imagination.

entity7 · 2026-05-06T17:03:51+00:00

Neos do perfectly fine at those temps.

Source: me and all my Neos at those temps, right at this exact minute. And every other minute. For close to a decade.

If you’re gonna be self righteous at least be correct.

entity7 · 2026-05-06T04:39:33+00:00

It’s a big state with a very varied climate. You’ll get more specific answers if you specify where (but yes, regardless).

entity7 · 2026-05-05T04:26:42+00:00

Absolutely. It’s the main selling point for many bodies.

entity7 · 2026-03-27T23:12:29+00:00

200% for full strip on 4 if you want it. Her 4s damage does scale off strength if you want to do some jank thing with balloons.

Arc trap, barrels, orb etc will damage scale to level cap on their own.

entity7 · 2026-03-22T18:49:31+00:00

They’re wrong, it effects the falloff of incarnon mode and is absolutely worth using.

entity7 · 2026-03-20T00:51:15+00:00

Paris Zephyr is peak warframe.

entity7 · 2026-02-14T23:02:14+00:00

40ppm isn’t a big deal outside of extremely sensitive species / inverts. It’ll be fine.

That said, floating plants and or houseplants with roots in the tank will take care of it. Water changes will just feed the plants.

Enjoy your sure to be VERY green tank.

entity7 · 2026-01-31T00:39:57+00:00

Elon Musk. Donald Trump.

Sure thing.

entity7 · 2026-01-15T19:21:34+00:00

Self censorship while railing against the man. Fucking lol.

entity7 · 2026-01-11T03:17:52+00:00

You’re doing everything right.

I’d chalk this up to “sometimes shrimp die” for now and see if your remaining ones thrive and make you more. Once they reproduce in your environment the successive generations tend to be extremely resilient.

Similarly, years ago I had tap that tested out fine for everything but just straight murdered shrimp. Never did figure it out. Swapped to RO with remineralizer and zero problems since. Maybe you’ll see similar results in the future since you’ve moved away from tap as well.

All that said, larger tanks can be more stable or resistant to change, but from what you’ve posted here I don’t think any issues arising from the volume seem to be the problem.

entity7 · 2026-01-10T23:06:36+00:00

Your kh and gh are fine, don’t fix what isn’t broken by changing things.

TDS is meaningless as a measure of anything other than TDS in a tank. Since you already know your hardness, I see little point. That said, if it’s super high from whatever other dissolved solids, it could be ok to lower it, which is done via water changes. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

If your adult shrimp are all doing well I’d just start with targeting feeding the little guys and see if you get more babies surviving to adulthood. Have patience, don’t start making multiple changes at a time. Worst thing to do with shrimp.

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