Water Softener causing BBA outbreak?

IE Water Softeners

Many water softeners utilize cation exchange resins that may contribute substantial Phosphates. Cease all use until you can run a fresh PO4 test. Without any factual test results you're flying blind at this point. Please consider an R/O unit or just purchase R/O water to mix your makeup.

Test kits are highly overrated but there is a time and place for them. Likewise the phosphate blather that is widely marketed is a bit of a stretch as well. Yes excessive phosphates can contribute to the problem, but they are more than likely not the root cause. High Co2 doesn't kill shrimp Low oxygen and heavy metals will though. Your lighting is a bit high (Almost Twice, How deep is this tank ?), and drop your cycle to 10 hours. HTH Prof M

 

In my opinion 3.8 watts per gallon is way too high except for a 10 gallon or smaller tank. And, even a reasonable 2.5 watts per gallon should only be on for 8 hours a day. Also, I think too high CO2 will prevent shrimp from getting rid of the CO2 in their blood just as it does fish, and that would be fatal.

 

For the sake of discovery please define too high a level of Co2 ?

30 ppm ? 35 ppm ? 40 ? I suspect that if the Co2 were indeed too high you wouldn't be observing the algae growth unless there were a conspicuous lack of plants.

and while I agree about the excessive lighting we often fail to recognize Deep Show tanks. If the lights were say 30" from soil line the actual illumination reaching the surface would be considerably less, and just about breaking even at 2W/2.5W per gallon would it not ?

It's pretty difficult to diagnose water quality 3rd. person on the web so lots of qualifiers come into play. Personally I think that's alot of light for too long a cycle, and if phosphates did run high under those conditions algae would be fairly certain. If Co2 on the other hand were over 35 ppm I'd be surprised to see little or any algae, but your shrimp might begin to suffer for it. I personally average 33 to 35 ppm Co2, and I just found another 50 or so new Cherry Shrimp peaking out of the Java moss on Saturady so they seem to be O.K. with it ? Mi Dos Centavos, Prof M

 

Test the hot water affluent 1st.

Allowing the water to equallize to room temp prior to the test.

A hot water tank would act as as a resevoir for the phosphate if it were indeed present and phosphates like Nitrates seemingly exhibit a half life for lack of a better description, but don't worry too much. If that were actually the case the tank will blow soon enough, and you can go to a tankless hot water heater, and your problem is solved !!! Right ? At least that's what happened here any way !

Never the less you can still reduce the light cycle, and either use fewer bulbs or raise the lights. Personally I'd lose that 5500 K and keep the 6700K. Good Luck, Prof M