Toads74 Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 Soon I'll be getting a tank set up for neos once again, after a rather frustrating journey of shrimping over the last couple years. It took a few attempts to get a colony going at first and finally succeeded about 2 years ago. Shortly after I had a disaster (plastic reservoir leeching) that killed off all my inverts in 3 separate tanks. Since then I've had a hard time getting a colony going, never self sustaining after that. I wish my logs went far enough back to see what I was doing, so I don't really have a benchmark to go by for what worked. So I need to prove to myself that I can keep them thriving, so it's time to try again. I have a reef tank also and the corals are doing well, a bit of a paradox it seems. That said, I'm on a private well with a water softener (NaCl). I use r/o water for everything . The nearest couple of town water reports don't look bad for heavy metals, etc. The ro comes out under 10tds, 0gh,0kh, 0 no3, etc. Tank #1 will be inert substrate (gravel or fluorite) with a few plants, low light, no co2. Neos for this one. Tank #2 will be Ada Amazonia, medium light, ferts, and co2, and planted fairly thick. Neos for now, but would like to replace them with something else like crs or tigers later after I prove I can keep neos alive in it. I'm planning on using SS GH+ to remineralize, and maybe some baking soda for kh. how much do you recommend for neos? Do I need the kh, or is it just complicating it more as long as the ph is reasonable? Should I use different amounts because of the substrate differences? I think one of my biggest issues in the past have been the water chemistry, help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElevateShrimp Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 I would not add excess KH. I run neos with just a reminaralizer and RO/DI water. You shouldn't experience pH swings unless you plant heavy (or inject co2) with inert substrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesHe Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 ADA AS is bad choice for neos. too acidic. EricM, Duff0712 and gillznglass 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted August 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 I would not add excess KH. I run neos with just a reminaralizer and RO/DI water. You shouldn't experience pH swings unless you plant heavy (or inject co2) with inert substrate. Ok cool. I'll nix the added kh except maybe a pinch if the ph starts wandering. I'll have a few plants and leaves/driftwood in there. Wasn't sure if they really needed any kh with an inert substrate. ADA AS is bad choice for neos. too acidic. I was undecided about the rcs in as, I've heard of some success with it if the substrate is well aged. You've convinced me not to. . Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 After reading up on some issues concerning infections, I scrapped the first tank I was cycling and bleached/replaced everything. So here's the new setup. It Finished cycling mid November, just letting it mature a while before adding shrimp. i have not done anything in regards to a neo tank, this one is for caridina, not sure what to pick right now - bee, tiger, crystal... Tank is 5.5g (20g long is in the works but will be a while) I'm using SS GH+, 1.5 grams per 5 gallons of ro water. (Gh ~3) Controsoil Ph 5.9 Temp 75F Anubias, Java moss, and crypt parva. 13w cfl 2700k Huge sponge filter Ammonia, nitrite 0, nitrate below 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuri Posted December 15, 2015 Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 what happend to im getting neocaridina's??? hihi looking at you ph i know for sure your getting taiwan bee´s (taiwan bee´s like lower ph more then crystal bee´s, i have my taiwan bee´s on ph= 5,7) 1 question..... are you sure that your GH is 3? it is prety low and can cause molting problems....... what GH+ product are you using ? what is your US from PURE RO and what is your US from RO mixed with GH+ ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted December 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 Thank you nuri! I'm still planning on doing some neos also, just don't have a tank for them. I had a nice big glass jar set aside for the desk but the wife stole it.... lol I had to calculate uS from ppm, but these are the current readings: tap: 550ppm 0.860uS pure ro: 15ppm 0.0234uS tank: 110ppm 0.172uS I'm using Salty Shrimp Bee GH+. The instructions say to use 3 grams per 20 liters (5.28 gallons) for a gh of 6. So 3g should be just over 3gh for 5 gallons. I used this value just for cycling and i have no problem with changing it. I planned to adjust it for whatever shrimp i put in and confirm via test strip to make sure i'm where i think i am. I'm not sure how high gh should be other than 4 to 6. Should i just follow the label and go for 6gh? nuri 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuri Posted December 15, 2015 Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 if you are using TDS-meter (ppm) and want to calculate what the EC-meter (uS) is dont use the internet (engineersite) hihi to know the uS goes as ...... ppm x 1,56 = uS (15x 1,56= 23,4 uS dont see a problem here for the pure RO now lets talk about the tank it is 110 ppm now if i use my calculator is will be 171 uS this explains why your GH is low your ppm/uS is low cause of low amount of gh+ in the RO most of the breeders will keep caridina´s on 150-200 ppm or 250-300 uS i keep my shrimps on 300 uS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted December 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2015 Ah I see, I was off by a factor of 1000.... Mili vs micro. I'll adjust to the that uS range with a huge water change and retest after a few days. Thanks for you help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted December 16, 2015 Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 Toads, can I ask what you were using to get a 1.5g scoop of Salty Shrimp? (or were you using a scale)? I'm looking for a way to have a 1/2 scoop measure for my remin and was wondering if you or anyone else had any ideas....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted December 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2015 I'm using a gram scale. It goes in 0.01 increments so it works out pretty well. It was like $15 and more consistent than the scoop. Yesterday I mixed up a batch of water and measured a level scoop at 2.5g, a half gram off what the bottle says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 Woohoo! I got some shrimp! My order from DETAquarium came today. Opened the box and let them come up to room temperature, then drip acclimated for a few hours. Within seconds of putting them in, they were looking for munchies and exploring. Never had a shipment where they were so active on arrival! svetilda, Wygglz, DETAquarium and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted February 11, 2016 Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 They look great my friend! Glad they came in safe and sound even with the cold snap we have had here. That is definitely a noticeable difference between domestically bred, and imported. h4n 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Definitely! They are still running around more than any I had before, which is very encouraging. Much better quality (Thanks DET!). I also counted 9 today when I got home (out of 11 total), so I'm not having massive losses either - also encouraging! Had one molt. There's a lot of hiding places in there so I'm sure they are fine. I'm just paranoid, having failed with neos a bunch of times over the last two or three years. On arrival, I adjusted tds to match what they shipped in , so here's my current parms with the arrival parms in parenthesis where significant. 20g long SS GH+ Controsoil EC 260uS Temp 71F gh 5 Kh 0 Ph 6.0 (arrived at ph 7.0, meter) Ammonia 0 (arrived at 1ppm, Api liquid) No2 0 No3 < 2 Please double check those for me... Also received some GlassGarten Bacter ae and shrimp dinner. I'm giving a small pinch of Bacter each day, maybe 1/8 scoop to replace the fish fry powder I used during cycling. Some of them ate about 5 pellets of hikari shrimp cuisine, but haven't touched the shrimp dinner yet. I'm assuming this means they are feasting enough on the biofilm. The dinner pads are quite a bit easier to remove if they don't eat it all. Any suggestions welcome, I'm in full paranoid learn mode! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuri Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 I keep my neo's on tapwater. We in the netherlands have the most cleab water in the whoke EU. My ph at tapwater is 8.0 (neo's like ph 7+) They are breeding non stop I had put some neo's on akadama + osmosewater and it took 7 months until i had my first neo berried! lol You should had been using gh and kh + This is fir neo's it raises kh which will lead to raise the ph.... Like i said it is possible to breed on low ph but it is thougher then high ph and you will need a lot of pation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Lol, I guess I never mentioned that these are caridina... Blue bolts. My tap water here is pretty bad (limestone soup) and I have a water softener that I can't bypass. I get better results in my tanks using ro since I can control the parameters much better, and less seasonal variance. Even the guppies get ro and they breed like crazy! . I hope they don't take that long to breed. They are mostly juveniles, so I'm expecting a few months at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuri Posted February 15, 2016 Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 sorry my bad i had only read the first comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 So I've got a couple questions/observations. Haven't lost any this tme! So first I've noticed the coloration seems to have changed slightly. The underside flesh seems more yellowish than they stared with. Not milky at all. I don't remember that initially. It's kind of a bad pic, but maybe someone can tell me if it is normal or not. It's easier to see on the larger ones. I'm thinking that it is either diet or lighting. The shell coloration is still awesome. Second is that they have yet to take any comercial foods except Bacter AE (they go into a frenzy when I put it in). There is plenty of biofilm available, enough that the glass is getting pretty dirty since getting the shrimp, and the snail population is on the rise. Last time I cleaned the glass it was...ohhh...December? I've cut back on the Bacter to a 1/4" dip of a bamboo skewer every 2 to 3 days. For food I've tried some GlassGarten shrimp dinner, hikari shrimp cuisine, and low keys hiden no esa, and they haven't touched any. Snails however...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 So I've got a couple questions/observations. Haven't lost any this tme! So first I've noticed the coloration seems to have changed slightly. The underside flesh seems more yellowish than they stared with. Not milky at all. I don't remember that initially. It's kind of a bad pic, but maybe someone can tell me if it is normal or not. It's easier to see on the larger ones. I'm thinking that it is either diet or lighting. The shell coloration is still awesome. Second is that they have yet to take any comercial foods except Bacter AE (they go into a frenzy when I put it in). There is plenty of biofilm available, enough that the glass is getting pretty dirty since getting the shrimp, and the snail population is on the rise. Last time I cleaned the glass it was...ohhh...December? I've cut back on the Bacter to a 1/4" dip of a bamboo skewer every 2 to 3 days. For food I've tried some GlassGarten shrimp dinner, hikari shrimp cuisine, and low keys hiden no esa, and they haven't touched any. Snails however...... image.jpeg How many shrimp are in the tank? I've noticed that shrimp prefer bio-film over commercial food so as long as you have enough film they wont have much interest in the food. If you have leaf litter that will also be a source of food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 There are 11 shrimp. Bunch of leaf litter also, maybe half dozen oak leaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokeshrimp Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 When it was only 10 TB in my tank they ignored food 90% of the time. My snails were enjoying the all you can eat buffet. I recently added 10 more and i noticed them showing more interest in commercial food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 There are 11 shrimp. Bunch of leaf litter also, maybe half dozen oak leaves. Thats probably the reason why they have little interest in the commercial food. I have a tank with 13 BTOE and they have very little interest but my tanks with a couple dozen or more are pigs when it comes to commercial food. Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Ok, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted May 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2016 So here's a question. How is long from hatching to breeding age for blue bolts? Seems that it is taking longer than when I had rcs going. I'm not sure how old they were when they arrived, I'm assuming they were juvies. Every so often I see the males in the tank swim around like crazy for a day or two, which I understand is normal breeding behavior. Still no berries yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toads74 Posted June 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I think the shrimp answered the question for me. Over the past week or so, one is finally berried! Looks like a smallish clutch of eggs, but it's a very good sign. . Also one has turned a really nice blue head to toe, err, tail, and about half the remainder are starting to color up as well! I'm getting giddy! Lol Mr. F 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.