THE SHRIMP JOURNAL: Shrimp Deaths+Tank Updates

During the past several weeks, I've had 70% of my blue pearls, 50% of my orange bees and another adult wild tiger shrimp die on me. I checked everything, nitrite, GH, KH, pH and everything was fine. So I kept thinking, is it because there isn't enough filtration? I increased filtration to 2 HOB filters and 1 sponge filter but the deaths continued. Since only 1 adult tiger shrimp died I figured it was because of old age so I compared the differences between my CRS tank and Tiger shrimp tank which had all breeding and healthy shrimp versus my Do! aqua mini-L and 10gal orange bee shrimp tank which had shrimp dying almost everyday. I thought to myself what did I do differently between the 2 tanks that had dead shrimp and the 2 tanks that had healthy shrimp, then I remembered both of those tanks had flourish root tabs in the substrate and were probably releasing too much copper or other micro nutrients that the shrimp did not like.

So I finally decided yesterday that I was going to redo my 10 gallon and the 2 gallon as the 2 gallon had root tabs in the substrate also. I just got started today by giving all my blue pearl shrimp left away to a friend and moving all the bee shrimp into a guppy breeder box in my 12 gallon and tearing all the plants out. Tomorrow I'm going to replace the soil in the 10 gallon and 2 gallon tank and setup my old 5 gallon plastic tank for some sulawesi shrimp I'm going to trade my tiger shrimp for. The guy I'm doing the trade with said the sulawesi shrimp should be here by the end of the month and I'm getting pretty excited! I hope everything goes well!

Now for some pics an current water parameters of my tanks. These pictures were taken before I tore out the plants in my 10 gallon and moved all the shrimp.

20gal CRS tank

high grade baby

The shrimp are breeding like crazy(have some for sale) but I'm having a bit of algae problems. Last time I counted there were 9 berried CRS. I'd say about 5-6 batches hatched so far and I'm suprised by the S/S+ grade to SS grade ratio in the offspring of SS mothers its almost 1:1. Currently doing a black out.
water params:
pH-6.4-6.8
GH-4-6
temp.-73-74

12gal Wild tiger shrimp tank

Breeding Like CRAZY! I'd say they're more prolific than cherries(maybe because they are wild caught). This tank is has a population of about 300 wild tiger shrimp with only 10 adults.

adults

pH-6.4-6.8
GH-4-6
temp.-76-77

10gal orange bee shrimp tank

Just tore it down and took out the shrimp.

2gal iwagumi
looks the same as it first started as I took the eleocharis belem and planted it in my Do! aqua mini-L. Got 3 shrimp from ocean aquarium called blue bee shrimp but slowly turned brown after about a month in this tank. I was told it was a wild type cherry but the change in coloration was extremely dramatic maybe too dramatic to be a wild cherry. 2 died and 1 berried female was left(guessing it was wild caught) eggs hatched but were sucked into the HOB filter. The adult female was moved into the mini-L several hours ago. About to be torn down tomorrow.
shrimp when it was berried