Aiden123

Been planning some more shrimp tanks for a while now and can't quite decide on the set up. I have got a spare tank stand that is 77cm wide. I have seen some very cheap 24 litre tanks at petsathome (England's equivalent to Petco I think?) and 3 would fit perfectly next to each other on the stand. In an ideal world, I would have red tbs in one tank, blue tbs in another and black tbs in the last. Would 24 litres be sufficient for a small breeding colony? Culls or excessive would just go into my 90 litre mixed tank or be sold off. Tank dimensions are: 40(W) x 25.5 (D) x 28cm (H) Thanks in advance

Thanks for the reply Noobshrimp. The price for shrimp stuff in the UK is ridiculous compared the other countries. I guess its because the hobby is still relatively new in the UK with not many aquatic shrimp retailers. I currently use the Shrimp King Active Soil. Its also made by Dennerle, is this the one you mentioned? I have found it to be very stable and not as aggressive in terms of PH lowering as other substrates I have tried. Will definitely be using again in this proposed tank. I also use a sponge filter in combination with a HOB filter which gives me the opinion of additional chemical filtration (purigen) if required. Good shout on the mironekuton powder. I use this at water changes and like you, no failed molts for a while.

Hi Guys I am in the process of planning my second shrimp tank. My current tank is a 90 litre custom made cube tank which houses a large colony of crystal red, black, mischlings and a couple of TBs. I would like to set up a second tank for shadow pandas (my favourite) with the goal of it being my first selective breeding project (breeding for strong colour mainly). Any culls would go into my main tank and/or be sold off. I do have a couple of questions. Is 35 litre enough to start a project like this? The main reasons for the size is space and costs. Here in the UK a decent shadow panda costs around £15.00 each (around $19.50).I would imagine that 5 would be a good starting point for a 35 litre tank but any bigger I feel would need a bigger starting colony. All the usual shrimp specialist products (e.g. substrates, minerals and supplements) are also quite expensive in the UK so the bigger the tank, the bigger the start up cost. How much harder would it be to keep the water stable? I keep my water in the main tank at a constant 160tds, ph 6.0, GH 6 and KH0 and the colony is going very strong. The only issue I have is temperature in the summer and on hot days. I keep the temperature usually at 22.5c but this can crop up to as high as 25.5c on hot days. Any tips you guys have for my second tank to be successful? Thanks in advance!

http://www.aquael.com/en/products/akwarystyka/filtry-wewnetrzne/75-turbo-filter Has anyone used one of these filters before? If so, is it any good? i like the idea of having the media compartment above the sponge filter. Also so I assume I could remove the sponge it comes with and replace it with my current spong filter so I don't loose any filter bacteria/ undergo a mini cycle?

R/O remineralised to 150 tds Tank water is 160-165 but after change I add mineral powder and bacteria

Same way with large changes too.

I add the water by slowly dripping it back in over about an hour for 5 litre

My mini-cycle is over and I am reading 0.00 ammonia and nitrites. Unfortunately, due to the cycle I am left with a nitrate reading of 40ppm. I would be a bit worried doing a big water change as in the past, I have had deaths following a big water change. No I usually do changes of 5 litre for the 90 litre tank once a week. Would I be better doing big water changes to get the nitrate down sooner or doing lots a space changes with the nitrate going down over a longer period of time? I am also looking into getting some amazon frogbit to help keep the nitrates down in the future.

I dose Bornewild Enlive after water changes. and I also put in some Dennerle FB7 BactoCLean straight in the HOB filter on set up. Substrate is Shrimp King Active Soil. It doesn't leach any ammonia, etc. Bacteria are as above. I think the sponge filter is rated for between 100-200 litre and the HOB filter is rated at up to 120 litre. The tank itself is 90 litre so I hope that there should be sufficient flow;

Hi everyone I recently changed over substrate in my tank and did a bit of re-scaping. My tank went from this: To this: The whole transfer process itself went well, however since I changed the substrate and took out one sponge filter (replaced with a Dennerle Scaper's Flow) the tank seems to have gone into a mini-cycle. The tank parameters are: Ammonia: 1.0ppm Nitriate: 0.0ppm Nitrate: 20ppm TDS: 160 GH: 6-7 KH: 0-1 PH: 6.0 Temp 22.5c The ammonia level has stayed the same for around a week and I have been doing daily, small water changes (5 litre dripped back in over 1-2 hours) to bring the nitrates down. I had also been dosing active bacteria after water changes, I have had a couple of deaths since I set the re-did the tank just over a week ago but in generally, the shrimp seem healthy, active and feed well Is there any way I could speed up the mini-cycle or anything that means it has a small impact on the shrimp? Thanks in advance. .

I put them in the tank three days ago and I used about 6 cones. I have read the articles by Tannin Aquatics before and they are very helpful and informative. I concede that the leaves could have reduced the ph but would the amount of leaves and the time frame be enough for the release of chemicals to drastically lower the ph. I'm talking about a big change of 0.5-1.0. Even if this was possible, I would have thought that such a quick change would have effected the shrimps as well and caused some deaths, to which I have had none. If only a small PH change had occurred (say 0.1-0.4) that still means that the original ph was below 5 which is still dangerously low for my shrimps. Unfortunately I do not have a reliable ph reading before adding the leaves (as I only got the low range ph test kit today) so my submissions on the effects can only be theoretical. May be it could have been 'old tank syndrome'.

Hi everyone Like quite a few people here in the UK, when Borneowild produced its own substrate I joined on the band wagon. I always suspected that the soil had buffered my PH very low indeed compared to the desirable parameters for my TB's, CRS and CBS. I do know a few people who have had success with the substrate and I know others who didn't. My API liquid test kit only goes to 6.0 ph at the lowest and I was a bit wary of the accuracy of the ebay PH pens which you can get for between £5-£10. Today I picked up a JBL test 3.0-10.0 ph test kit, amongst other things in preparation to swap over the substrate after two years of being in the tank. I have tested the water and the result is an astonishing 4.5ph. The below PH range comparison chart really puts into perspective how low this is. My tank water is comparable to an acidic lake and all fish apparently die at 4.2 ph ( I am not sure of the accuracy of this). I do have 3 medium sized Indian Almond Leaves and some alder cones in the tank but I doubt they contribute to the PH level much in a 90 litre tank. I have always had difficulty with shrimp survival in this tank and always suspected that the PH was too low. Finally I have the evidence to back up my suspicions. The scary thing though is that the water reads 4.5 at the end of the substrates life when its buffering powers are very weak. I dread to think what the PH would have been after only a few months of set up. The issue I now have is that I have got a much less aggressive substrate (Dennerle Shrimp King Active Soil) which will buffer the PH to around 6.0 - 6.5ph. Even if I match the TDS, GH and KH of the new water to the old water, I envisage a very long re-acclimatization period due to the massive difference in the ph levels. I must stress that I am not trying to scare monger people into not purchasing Borneowild substrate in the future. As previously mentioned in this post I know people who have had success with it. I just wanted to share my experience and I feel slightly vindicated that at least some of my struggles with this tanks were down to the substrate and not my own personal failings at the hobby.

After increasing the flow yesterday and seeing the jump in activity levels of the shrimp I decided to try something. I had an old 1000LPH water pump not being used so I have connected it up to one of the sponge filters for an inlet and added two spray bars for the outlet flow. The water is now circulating from the back and reaching the front of the tank as can be seen from the bubble movement from the below Youtube video. However, I am worried that this might now be too much flow and should I put it back the way it was before with two aid driven sponge filters at the back and the eheim diffusers at the front? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ0svK84Uf0&feature=youtu.be

Thanks It is Windelov Java Fern mixed in with weeping moss. The wood is actually two pieces that I placed together in the desired shaped. It didn't take too long to get to that size and density and requires regular pruning. This is what it looked like on initial set up:

After reading through the forum some more I noticed that there has been quite a lot of discussions on aeration and flow and the importance of the same on shrimp survival and breeding. I had both sponge filters and the eheim diffusers on the back wall of the tank as this was the most convenient place to put them and I thought the flow would be ok. I have now moved the eheim diffusers to the front of the tank and instantly the shrimp have become more active and the flow does seem a lot better at the front. I'm guessing the mass of wood and moss in the middle was disrupting the flow to the front quite a lot. Maybe the improvement in flow will help with breeding since the shrimp do seem happier now?