# How often do you guys clean your shrimp tanks and how do you do it?



## Ryan83 (Feb 6, 2015)

Since my first shrimp only tank has now finished cycling I was wondering, how do you guys clean your tanks? Do you use turkey basters etc? How often?


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## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

Once the water levels go down in my 10 gallon, I top it off, and do a water change...about once a month or so. Although, I do have a bad algae problem...

I use airline tubing, and siphon out 5 gallons at a time. Or I use a regular vacuum hose (the ones for aquariums, not houses!), with my finger close to the siphon to keep out shrimp.

Every 3rd cleaning or so, I take out the sponge filter, and squeeze it in some of the waste water.


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## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2010)

I keep four otos 1n my 20g long , so they pretty much keep any debri suspended long enough for the 2 hob filters to get it . I have the fluval edge prefiters which I alternate cleaning every 4-5 days . top off daily with ro water and a 2-3 gal water change every 2 weeks > I use tap for the water change my tap waters pretty good around 45ppm tds Just use prine and bump the tds up to 160 using fluval shrimp mineral supplement


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I got maybe thirty or forty cherry shrimp in 20 gal with plain pea gravel,a couple anubias on some wood,and gobs of floating anacharis.
I change about half the water every week or couple week's ,and have not vaccumed the gravel for goin on four month's.
I feed the shrimp a couple times a week maybe three.
Not much bioload,not too much food,= less need for cleaning substrate.
Anacharis good at soaking up ammonia,good oxygenator.
1/4 tsp Macro-micro package from aquariumfertilzer.com once a week day after water change. 
Oh yea,one tiny baby Bristlenose.


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## Ryan83 (Feb 6, 2015)

Thanks everyone, yeah Ive always had fish but this is my first dedicated shrimp tank so I was wondering how often and how to go about it! I have a bunch of floaters ( frog bit and water lettuce) which seem to help keep nitrates in check.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

My unintended shrimp tank is a 12g long (they were tossed in as food... dwarf puffer won't eat them). The tank aslo has some otos. I use to do 2x a week water change when nitrates were higher than i wanted, until plant mass got big enough to absorb it. Now I do once a week, no more than 30% but try to do 20%. I siphon carefully but use a light colored bucket and scan it for a half hour + after with a flashlight to net out shrimplets (no matter how hard I try I always get some). Recaptured shrimp go in a cup (with the removed tank water) and float on the tank then get a little tank water put in the cup and released over 1-2 hours time.
For putting new water in I draw cold tap and heat it in a bucket with a tank heater over night then dechlorinate and put the bucket on a stool on a desk next to the tank (so its above the tank) and gravity feed water back into the tank with airline tube. I find the slower add in of water through the airline is much better than dumping cups of new water in rapidly, not such a swing in tds. I usually am hunting shrimp-lets in the water removal bucket while gravity does the work of putting new water in the tank.
Since the tank has shrimp I have a cut out piece of filter sponge/foam over the canister filter intake so they don't all get sucked into the filter. Ever few weeks as I notice flow getting weaker I'll turn off the filter and pull off the foam 'sock' to ring out in the removed tank water, then start up the filter once its back on.

I also have a 2g betta tank I tested some shrimp in-they're breeding but not as fast (betta doesn't eat them). I also use a siphon and check with a light for sucked up shrimplets but mostly they cling to the fissendens in that tank so I don't get any at water change time. I draw mix warm-cold tap to get tank temp (using the tank's thermometer to check), dechlorinate, and use airline tube to feed back into the tank. No more than 30% but try to stay closer to 25%... once a week.


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## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2010)

your not keeping crs correct ?

Bump: rcs is a whole nether ball of wax


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## DevilDogDoc (Dec 12, 2014)

With my shrimp I run an Filstar XDM on a 30. Heavily planted with snails about 100 shrimp and 2 baby BN I'm growing out. I change 20% a month or so now since I have the fish but prior to that I never did. I top off as needed and don't feed either. Everyone seems happy. 

Old pic it's waaaaay more overgrown now.

As of today.


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

All my shrimp tanks are shrimp only tanks with some MTSs and mini ramshorns. All are heavily planted. I do a roughly 20% water change every other week. I feed most of the tanks every 2 to 3 days depending on how many shrimp there are and if there are shrimplets. If I have young I feed shrimplet food every day but just a tiny amount.
I syphon out the water with a small gravel vac and suck up some baby shrimp every time. I use a magnifying glass to locate the sucked up shrimplets and return them to the tank. Very time consuming but worth it.


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