Memphis118 Posted December 28, 2017 Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 This is my first low tech tank that I've done that wasn't using Co2, hopefully all goes well. Equipment: Tank: ADA 60p (17 gallons) Filter: Eheim 2215 with Lily Pipe return and inflow Heater: Hydor 200 watt inline heater Substrate: 8L SL-Aqua Nature Soil Lights: Twinsar 600e with Dimmer Complete Apex monitoring system Parameters PH: 5.8-6 Temp: 69-70 fKH: 0-1GH: 4TDS: 81 (still cycling I will up this before shrimps get in) Plants: Christmas Moss Flame Moss Staurogyne repens Fissidens fontanus (coming soon) So far everything has been quite stable, and just waiting for the cycling to finish before I add some PRL Shrimp in this tank. Shrimporama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted December 28, 2017 Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 Very nice. A couple things I would be careful of. 5.8 PH is on the very low end. That SL Aqua should buffer the tank to between 6.2 to 6.4. I have mine in at 6.3. Also do not worry about upping the tds. Mine are in tds of between 90-110 and are absolutely thriving. I see absolutely no need to raise the tds, my PRL are very happy with low tds. The tds of the water I add to the tank is 80. Temp should be fine but I find that the closer to 72-73 the more active they are and more breeding. When at 69-70 that I had them in for a bit they were not very active and not wanting to breed much. Now after just having my PRL for 3 months I now have 4 berried and it seems every other day another one is getting berried out of my 14 that I have. Very nice scape btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted December 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 Thanks for the information! As far as the PH goes, I believe online it says that the soil buffers from 5.8 to 6.0 (correct me if I am wrong) in terms of 5.8, I don't think I have anything that is lowering the PH except for the soil. Temperature wise, I thought that 69-70 would be a good range, but I can easily up that to 72-73! ClownPlanted 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted December 28, 2017 Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 2 hours ago, Memphis118 said: Thanks for the information! As far as the PH goes, I believe online it says that the soil buffers from 5.8 to 6.0 (correct me if I am wrong) in terms of 5.8, I don't think I have anything that is lowering the PH except for the soil. Temperature wise, I thought that 69-70 would be a good range, but I can easily up that to 72-73! Think I saw somewhere where it said 6.2-6.4. Reading a thread posted by discobee though they said it buffers from 5.8-6.0 and the same even after a year so you are right. I will know soon as I am setting up a new tank with the same stuff. My others I am using Controsoil and that buffers 6.2-6.4. Should be fine with 5.8 as obviously they(discobee) use it for their shrimp and have great results. Was going off their site as far as what optimal parameters are and they mention 5.8-6.4 so just on the low end of that for PRL. https://www.discobee.com/blogs/news/17030569-dwarf-shrimp-water-parameters Actually just PH tested my PRL Controsoil tank and its at 6.4. They are seriously breeding like rabbits. I have only had them for three months and they were tiny but now full grown and 4 out of the 8 females are berried. If you have not I HIGHLY recommend the Lowkeys Doublespeed. That stuff stays true to its name as they grew like fast from babies to adults and breeding. I also use the Bacter AE as well with great results. Another one which I alternate with Bacter AE is Shrimp King Biotase active. First two pics is them exactly 2 months ago. Last two pics is them 1 week ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted December 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 Very nice! I can't wait for this tank to finish cycling, I plan on getting a few PRL and jump starting the tank. I never heard of Lowkeys Doublespeed, but I will def. check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted December 28, 2017 Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 Great start Memphis! Looks great, I need to look into that Apex monitoring system! As far as PH goes, most of my tanks reside in the 5's, so don't sweat it to much. Sometimes we get so bogged down on the .01 difference because someone references that where they MUST be when in fact most of these shrimp are quite resilient and as long as they are acclimated accordingly will adjust quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted December 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 On 12/28/2017 at 5:40 AM, DETAquarium said: Great start Memphis! Looks great, I need to look into that Apex monitoring system! As far as PH goes, most of my tanks reside in the 5's, so don't sweat it to much. Sometimes we get so bogged down on the .01 difference because someone references that where they MUST be when in fact most of these shrimp are quite resilient and as long as they are acclimated accordingly will adjust quite well. Thanks man. Apex system is great, I use to use it for my reef tank, but since I tore that down, this was perfect. All my timers, temp monitoring, PH, etc, all in one spot, and can be monitored from any web browser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted December 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Probably won't do much, but for $5, figured it couldnt hurt. MK Breed Life balls came in today! Will be placing in the tank soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted January 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 Time to add some shrimp! @DETAquarium Thanks for the recommendation! I ended up getting 12x Ellen Wang PRL E2 Crystal Red Shrimps. Convenient for me, since Joe, who I got it from, lives about 5 minutes from me, so I was able to drive and pick these guys up. Fingers crossed these guys stay alive and thrive! DETAquarium 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenster Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Nice setup Memphis. I'm also a new ADA 60P owner and its in the 5th week of cycling with ADA soil. How are E2's doing? I would love to get my hands on some but they only have the E3's in stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted January 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 @zenster Thanks! I had to move the E2's to another tank for now. When I was initially testing the tank, it said everything was perfect, then I realized my test kit was reading incorrectly, so it seems my cycle still had .50 ammonia in it. Currently the E2's are fine, and I am just waiting for this system to finish cycling. I am on the 3rd/4th week using SL'Aqua soil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenster Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 Wished I had used SL Aqua soil instead. My ADA soil after 5 weeks of cycling is buffering the pH at 4.75! Don't know what I'm going to do. Looking forward to see how your E2's look after you put them into your 60P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mishiri Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 On 12/27/2017 at 4:40 PM, ClownPlanted said: Very nice. A couple things I would be careful of. 5.8 PH is on the very low end. That SL Aqua should buffer the tank to between 6.2 to 6.4. I have mine in at 6.3. Also do not worry about upping the tds. Mine are in tds of between 90-110 and are absolutely thriving. I see absolutely no need to raise the tds, my PRL are very happy with low tds. The tds of the water I add to the tank is 80. Temp should be fine but I find that the closer to 72-73 the more active they are and more breeding. When at 69-70 that I had them in for a bit they were not very active and not wanting to breed much. Now after just having my PRL for 3 months I now have 4 berried and it seems every other day another one is getting berried out of my 14 that I have. Very nice scape btw. When you were cycling your tank with SL aqua soil, and PH around 6.2 ish, how long did it take you to complete your cycle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mishiri Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 On 1/10/2018 at 4:53 PM, zenster said: Wished I had used SL Aqua soil instead. My ADA soil after 5 weeks of cycling is buffering the pH at 4.75! Don't know what I'm going to do. Looking forward to see how your E2's look after you put them into your 60P. How's your cycle going? I am on my 3rd week, and still see 1ppm ammonia with no nitrite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenster Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 6 hours ago, Mishiri said: How's your cycle going? I am on my 3rd week, and still see 1ppm ammonia with no nitrite With my pH at 4.75 I'm pretty sure my cycle has stalled or may have never started at all. There is still a bit of ammonia leaching (0.25 ppm) from the ADA soil and I haven't done a water change in over a week. Whatever ammonia in there will turn to ammonium anyways which apparently is safe for shrimp. I'm going to put some more moss in the tank to see if that will help take the NH4+ levels down to zero. One good thing out of this is that I won't have to worry about ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as long as my ADA soil keeps the water buffered below a pH of 6. My plan is to put PRL's in there so the low pH environment works out well for everything including the mosses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 13 hours ago, Mishiri said: How's your cycle going? I am on my 3rd week, and still see 1ppm ammonia with no nitrite Been going for a few months. 0 Ammonia and am getting between 6.1 to 6.2 PH buffering. Really like this SL Aqua. I am using about 2.5" deep of substrate. Trick to getting the cycle going is use tap water. Once you see it going then go back to RO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mishiri Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 15 minutes ago, ClownPlanted said: Been going for a few months. 0 Ammonia and am getting between 6.1 to 6.2 PH buffering. Really like this SL Aqua. I am using about 2.5" deep of substrate. Trick to getting the cycle going is use tap water. Once you see it going then go back to RO. Oh? How long did you use tap water for? Wouldn't the substrate just bring the PH back down within a day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 22 minutes ago, Mishiri said: Oh? How long did you use tap water for? Wouldn't the substrate just bring the PH back down within a day? I just used tap water twice the first week. I think it has to do with the PH being higher for a short time along with other nutrients in the water that tap gives that RO does not. Yes you are right it would go back down in a day or so but it seems it is enough time to get the BB going. At least in my experience. Once the BB gets going you can go back to Remineralized RO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mishiri Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 2 hours ago, ClownPlanted said: I just used tap water twice the first week. I think it has to do with the PH being higher for a short time along with other nutrients in the water that tap gives that RO does not. Yes you are right it would go back down in a day or so but it seems it is enough time to get the BB going. At least in my experience. Once the BB gets going you can go back to Remineralized RO. I will def. try it out! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted January 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 On 1/15/2018 at 3:28 PM, ClownPlanted said: Been going for a few months. 0 Ammonia and am getting between 6.1 to 6.2 PH buffering. Really like this SL Aqua. I am using about 2.5" deep of substrate. Trick to getting the cycle going is use tap water. Once you see it going then go back to RO. My tank looks like it finished up cycling and PH stabilized around 6.3 / 6.4 ( as you mentioned above). For your PRLs, which lineage are you breeding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted January 24, 2018 Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 7 hours ago, Memphis118 said: My tank looks like it finished up cycling and PH stabilized around 6.3 / 6.4 ( as you mentioned above). For your PRLs, which lineage are you breeding? Excellent. So you used some tap water to get the cycle going? As far as I know I have the Benibachi which I was given by a good friend. I am not 100% for sure though. Is there a for sure way to tell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted January 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 6 hours ago, ClownPlanted said: Excellent. So you used some tap water to get the cycle going? As far as I know I have the Benibachi which I was given by a good friend. I am not 100% for sure though. Is there a for sure way to tell? I actually took the others advice and used some media from my friends tank, and I believe that might have helped push the cycle faster. As far as seeing lineage... Not sure if there is a real way to determine whats what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted February 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 Took some new pictures today of the tank with my Samsung S8. Shrimp are looking healthy and happy. Hopefully babies come soon! All shrimp are from Joe's Aqua, Ellen Wang PRL E2 afeather 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 10, 2018 Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 Beautiful shrimp @Memphis118 ! You let me know if you want to get rid of any of those babies when you have them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis118 Posted February 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 1 hour ago, wyzazz said: Beautiful shrimp @Memphis118 ! You let me know if you want to get rid of any of those babies when you have them! Will do! I am def. waiting for them to breed, gotta up the colony size to fill out the tank... haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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