waterbear

Beautiful shrimp!

Thanks again @dazalea ! Lighting was one of the things I forgot in the original post so thank you for reminding me. I planned to just mount a single light to the bottom of the shelf above the tanks. Be it T5 or LED. Do you have any links to the type of strip light that you are talking about? I love to save money! I kind of had my eye on Current USA satellite and satellite plus because they sell them locally. I also had my eye on the Finnex Stingray and Planted Plus 24/7 but they don't sell them in Canada and I'll have to order online. The prices on these LED units aren't all that much more than a single 36" sunblaster nanoshade reflector t5ho but if there's a better option I'm all for it! As for open tops it gets really really dry in the midst of winter here in Alberta. Under 30% rh. That's as low as my meter goes. So evaporation will become a bit of a bugger! Evap is quite noticeable on my 20 long when I leave the lid open. Then again r/o top offs aren't exactly difficult nor time consuming. I'm also a little worried about escapees though. Thank you for the offer to sell me some shrimp! Are you in Canada? If so I may have to take you up on that.

Also I picked up a GH/KH test kit yesterday. I did some water tests on various mixes. Here are my results. Tapwater- pH 7.0 PPM 170 KH 8 50/50 Tap/RO- pH 6.8 PPM 90 KH 4 I'm wondering if I should just go with straight RO and use something like SS GH/KH+ to get it exactly where I want it instead of relying on a tap/ro mix. It seems as though the tap water fluctuates a bit in pH. Last time I measured couple weeks ago it was 7.2.

Thank you for the input @dazalea ! Very much appreciated. I am sure already that I want to have more than one shrimp tank. Actually I figured it's necessary to have more than one tank to separate stud males, culls and whatnot. I've been keeping fish for over a decade I'm no stranger to doing maintenance. I'm going to fill this rack with tanks no matter what they house, fish or shrimp, so might as well be fancy shrimp. They are so small and cute and this way I can eventually have more than one species and it will relieve my desire for more tanks! I'm definitely going to start with only 1 type of neos though. I really like the yellow sakuras. Yellow is one of my favorite colors. Here's a peek at the ones that are available to me locally. I won't be going with the 5.5's after all. Partially on your recommendation and also I went to the LFS yesterday to browse around and the glass tops for the 5.5's were priced at $20! jeez that's more than the tank itself. At that price it only makes sense to go with a custom built. I don't want to do any DIY. Maybe I will just grab a single 10 to start with. I have some very mature breeder sponges that been running in the community for 4 years. I added a HOB filter to that tank about 4 weeks ago so I can swap one of the breeder sponges over and get it going in a jiffy! Hmmm decisions decisions.

Thanks for the welcomes all! Thank you for noticing the name. Yes I am very fascinated by Tardigrades. They are amazing little creatures. I've also read they have the most foreign and unique DNA in the animal kingdom and it is said that they can steal DNA from other organisms in their surrounding environment and incorporate it into their own for survival. They are kind of cute too in a strange way haha.

Thanks ohmiko!

Hey all, another shrimp rack thread. My MTS was in remission for years but it's coming back full swing! So I'm in the process of planning a shrimp rack. They are irresistible! I am new to fancy shrimp but I have kept Amanos in my community tank for years in the past and I just added 3 to the community again. Such great cleanup crew. I'm hoping I could get some insight from people who have done it before. Mainly on tank sizes. For now I plant to start with hopefully 4 tanks on one shelf and one or two species max. Yellow Sakura Shrimp and later Crystal Black Shrimp if I am successful with the Sakuras. I already have the rack, air pump, manifold and 10 or so breeder sponge filters as well as a 9kg bag of Tropica Aquasoil. So I think I'm half way there with equipment. All I really need is tanks and lights. The shelves on the rack are 36" x 18" and rated for 1000 lbs each. I need help deciding what is the best route to go for tanks. I'm undecided and I feel this is where guidance is needed most. In my mind I really only have a couple options but I'm open to new suggestions. First option would be 5.5 gallon tanks as they are super cheap and I can fit 4 of them nicely on a shelf. It will only cost a whopping $64 for 4 of them. That is not including lids. So I estimate closer to $84 with lids. Is this highly recommended against? What are the maintenance regimen on a tank this small? I'd prefer not to have to do water changes more than once per week. How bad are the temperature fluctuations?(my 20 gallon long community is heater-less and stays around 70-75) Do people highly recommended against using tanks this small?? I see all sizes of tanks on peoples shrimp rack so I'm really not sure. I want to because but my gut is telling me no. Next option would be to get custom tank(s) made locally. This will have a 1 month wait. It will look much better(rimless) and give me a full footprint of the shelf but cost about double the price. I got a quote for custom built 36" x 18" x 12" tank with 3 dividers spaced 9 inches apart for $164 and that includes a glass lid. Really not too bad. That would give me 4 segments at ~8.5 Gallons or 32 Liters each with a footprint of 9" x 18". Is the extra 3 gallons per tank going to make a massive difference in water quality and regimen? The aesthetic value is cool but I'm more concerned about shrimp health and not burning myself out with insane water change regimen. 10 gallons are out of the question as they will overhang the shelf by 2 inches and my wonderful girlfriend is not cool with that. She's already allowing me to have this in the living room so it's gotta look clean. lol Now a question about substrate. Should I stick with inert gravel or sand for the Yellow Sakuras and reserve the aquasoil for the Crystal Black/Red? Or is there some other benefit from using the aquasoil for this type of shrimp because I do see people keeping neo's with aquasoil. From my research the neo's prefer slightly alkaline water is this correct? My tap water seems perfect. pH 7.2 and 160 ppm last I checked. I will have to get a KH test kit to determine but I have a reverse osmosis unit already so I can mix with tap if need be. Last major question is about products. I see so many different products when I watch videos and read it makes my head spin because I'm new to this. I don't know what half of them are. Are there any products that are absolutely essential or even extremely beneficial to success and recommended for everyone besides IAL and Mulberry leaves? How about mineral supplements or something for molting? Or bacteria products. I'm so confused on that. All comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello friends. I've been reading the site for a while but I decided to join because I have started a shrimp rack project and I am in need of some guidance. I've been keeping aquariums and fish for over a decade but I am new to fancy shrimp. However I have some amanos in my community tank and I kept them in the past as well. After lots of research I'm ready to dive in head first but I still have some questions. Looking forward to becoming a member of the community. Peace!