# 33g shrimp playground! Pics!



## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Quick info, 

Here's is just a demo of my future shrimps rack plan. Hope I would learn many things from this tank. Please note that this is my first attempt keeping these little guys, so if you see whatever I'm doing wrong, please let me know. Thanks first.

Here's the plan: I put this tank in my bedroom, so I want something that looks ok but not a planted tank because this is for shrimps. 
*
Day 1*








Water parameters: Air pump is on 24/24.
-pH: 6.3 (after 12h running air pump)
-gH: 0
-kH: 0
-TDS: 55
-Temp: 20-22
-NO3: waiting for test kit.
-Lighting: 10-12h
-Co2: running solenoid a little more than 1bps with light 

*Equipments: * here's my first tank and everything I'm using is based on people that have great shrimps tank setup from all over the world.
_ - Tank:_ Mr Aqua 33g rimless tank.
_ - Filter: _Eheim 2217 and UGF run by air pump, quite not sure about bio sponge filter, looks ugly to me.
_ - Substrate:_ around 14l ADA new Amazonia over 1 layer of small red java rock.
_ - Substrate additive:_ ADA bacter 100, ADA clear super, Mosura Old Sea Mud Powder, Mosura BT-9.
_ - Lighting system:_ DIY 12x3w cree xp-g cool white and 4 cree blue moon light.
_- CO2:_ around more than 1 bps, I know crystal shrimps don't like CO2, I use this to let my moss, ferns grow as fast as possible before I'm done with cycle. After that, I will lower the CO2 amount less than enough for the plants.

*Plants:* fissident, java ferns, peacock moss, moss ball, needle java fern, some rare crypt and some Buces. Those plants don't require much care but they are still nice and are perfectly for shrimps setup.
....

I wanted a 30x17x14 tank but don't wanna pay extra money to custom built it, so I decided to go with Mr Aqua 24x17x17 33g tank

The good thing is I'm living 3 blocks from Marine Depot, so I don't have to pay or waiting for shipping. the bad new is the tank I want is out of stock, and I have to wait for 2 more weeks.








Got the Eheim 2217 from MD too.








I ordered 2 9l new ADA bags with some ADA bacter 100, clear super and also 2 bottles of bacter ball and some ADA bee shrimp food. Crystal shrimp like to EAT ADA aquasoil and bacter ball, so I bought 2 of them.
I know many peoples will think I'm crazy on spending money buying them but I just do what I've heard from other high grade shrimp breeders and I just wanna give my shrimp the best playground. BTW, I can use those for my future setup also.








Here's the tank with UGF I got from 3bay








That's it for now, still waiting for my shrimp foods and water conditioners and other stuff.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

That's an interesting UGF filter. I guess the only thing that comes to mind is to utilize the height well since shrimp normally only stay near the bottom of the tank. Maybe with either tall driftwood or some moss walls.


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## Mike Hawk (Mar 9, 2012)

very nice, you should post a journal about this tank in the tank journal section of the forums.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

wow. nice investment... you better have some SS+ grade tankmates in there ...


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Looks good Vincent.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> That's an interesting UGF filter. I guess the only thing that comes to mind is to utilize the height well since shrimp normally only stay near the bottom of the tank. Maybe with either tall driftwood or some moss walls.


The UGF I'm using is just a regular one. I prefer this type than the pipe one.
I really want a 30x16-17x14 size, the 20l is quite small for my DW that I already ordered.


> very nice, you should post a journal about this tank in the tank journal section of the forums.


I think it's better to post it here because shrimp tank quite less updated, and I think I can get more opinions from other shrimper here.


> wow. nice investment... you better have some SS+ grade tankmates in there ...


Yeee...eaaap. I'll start with some SS grade and go up later. 

*Quick update:* substrate and additive 
I'm not sure about using lava rock. I can use more ADA instead of lava. Some people says it will raise pH but many guys here have been using them with great result. So, lets give it a try. Another reason I wanna use lava rock is first, they are good house for bacteria. Moreover, I'm gonna tie moss, scape tank with lava rock anyway. So having a layer off it is just fine.








I cut a plastic window screen and place it on top of the lava rock to separate it with ADA because I don't want ADA gets between the lava rock, and this also raise my substrate a little more, so more flows go through my substrate---> good for shrimps.

Over it is a thin layer off ADA, just enough to cover the entire substrate before I sprinkle additive









For the additive, I'm using ADA bacter 100, ADA clear supper, Mosura old sea mud and BT-9. I wanna give my substrate plenty of good bacteria.
Look like salt, pepper, chilli powder to me


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## Mike Hawk (Mar 9, 2012)

Are you just running the UGF with air pump?


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

While there might be small tweaks to the set-up that some of us would make it looks like you have all of the key ingredients in this set-up and you should be good to go.

Pretty well thought out and put together shrimp tank.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

Isn't there some sort of coating on window screening that isn't good for aquatic life?


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Are you just running the UGF with air pump?


Yes, just let the air stone go all the way down, touching the UGF. 
By using UGF (doesn't matter how you set it up, pipe, this type) you will turn your entire substrate into a huge biofilter. You can also connect your filter inlet to the UGF but doing this may decrease your substrate's using life. Using air pump is enough and you're good in 12-18 months depends on its thickness. As long as it can keep low pH, it's still ok to be used.


> While there might be small tweaks to the set-up that some of us would make it looks like you have all of the key ingredients in this set-up and you should be good to go.
> 
> Pretty well thought out and put together shrimp tank.


Thank you, sir. I'll try not to mess it up too much. The simpler, the better, less maintain, less stress and better result.

This setup is just for letting me know some basic information about crystal shrimp and help me to repair for my future shrimp rack.



> Isn't there some sort of coating on window screening that isn't good for aquatic life?


I'm using the fiber glass one and I think it's ok. If there's any coat, I think it's just epoxy and I think epoxy is ok when it's dry. There's a thread discussing about this I they said it's ok.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Having screwed around a bit with shrimp tanks I keep becoming more and more convinced of the value of just doing it right to begin with. Get the proper substrate and filtration options and don't screw around.

There are all sorts of ways to have success keeping bee shrimp but if you have the ability to do a high quality (and stable) set-up then it seems to pay for itself via shrimp health and reproduction down the road.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

madness said:


> Having screwed around a bit with shrimp tanks I keep becoming more and more convinced of the value of just doing it right to begin with. Get the proper substrate and filtration options and don't screw around.
> 
> There are all sorts of ways to have success keeping bee shrimp but if you have the ability to do a high quality (and stable) set-up then it seems to pay for itself via shrimp health and reproduction down the road.


Exactly. I have been doing online searching for few months before I decide to do this.

There's many ways to keep these shrimp. One of them is choosing the right products that are proven. At least, it will give your shrimp the idea environment, the rest is your experience. 
One thing I have learned is keep them alive is a thing, grow them, breed them successfully is another thing. So, I'll try my best. Failing is the beginning of your success.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

What is your water change plan?

With a larger tank like that and great filtration then hopefully you can do smaller water changes in order to increase stability with water parameters.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

So the shots of the tank with the substrate, you ended up moving the uplift tube off to the back right instead of having it dead center in the tank right? Or do you have two seperate of these tanks ?


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

this is very similar to a tank i built a couple months back.
I used a more typical UGF not the individual blocks like yours, I also did a layer of lava rock, then thin layer of substrate additives before final layer of substrate.
BUT I did connect my Eheim 2215 to the UGF. 

good luck!


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> What is your water change plan?
> 
> With a larger tank like that and great filtration then hopefully you can do smaller water changes in order to increase stability with water parameters.


I'm gonna do fishless cycle during the first 2 weeks, and I think I'll let it cycle for one month.

*Here's the step I'm gonna do:*
-Will take around 1-2gallon water from another tank, put in the eheim 2217 some old filter to speed up cycle. I know 1-2 gallon is nothing but this is just a plants-holding tank and I use tap water in this tank, not a mature planted tank, so this 1-2g will give a little help to the cycle progress. 
-I also want to take a look at the parameters, how they work, how the ADA hold pH, is there and any pH, gH, kH raising source in the tank or whatever.
-I will leave the tank like that in the first 2weeks, after that, I'll do a 15g water change. Leave it like that, if I want, during the second 2weeks (at the 3rd week), I may add some otto fishes. 
-Will do the final 10-15g water change and then check all the parameters. Put in some mineral rock, dose Mosura Mineral Plus and gH up (if needed). I'll start to find shrimp during the 3rd week.

For water change, I will try to do 5g per week. Not much, but I think that's a good amount of new mineral, and other stuff.



> So the shots of the tank with the substrate, you ended up moving the uplift tube off to the back right instead of having it dead center in the tank right? Or do you have two seperate of these tanks ?


At first, I just wanna see how this works. But after that, I realize that I may place the pipe on the right side comer, the left side Conner will be for inlet and outlet.

UGF this type (not connected to the inlet) is for long term. You start using UGF since the first day, and this is not your main filter systems. Without this is just fine, having UGF in shrimp tank is better. More flow through system to avoid dead air blocking in substrate. Using UGF, and feeding dish also help to get rid of planaria. 



> this is very similar to a tank i built a couple months back.
> I used a more typical UGF not the individual blocks like yours, I also did a layer of lava rock, then thin layer of substrate additives before final layer of substrate.
> BUT I did connect my Eheim 2215 to the UGF.
> 
> good luck!


You mean the pipe one. That one would work as same as this. It's just more expensive  32 plates like this, 2 pipes and air stones set was just $25 shipped.

For the substrate, I read some where there's a guy who (sorry I don't how to say this step, English is not my mother language) poured his ADA is to a basket with many small holes to keep the big soil in the basket, the powder and small soil will fall through the holes. So, layer of lava rock-big size ADA-powder and small size. The main reason for doing this is you guys know shrimp like to dig and pick stuff in the substrate, baby shrimp may got stuck between the soil gap.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Switching over water will do nothing. You're better off taking a sponge or filter floss from your current tank or some bio media nad putting it in the new tank. Water contains almost no bacteria. Taking a sponge and squeezing it in with give loads.

The ADA is going to leech ammonia for anywhere from 2-6weeks, so that will provide an ammonia source for the filter but jump starting with filter media from your other filter will help.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Vincent, just a forewarning....even if you used established filter, water and add bacteria...it won't matter with the New Amazonia....it'll take you a full 2-3 months to zero out the ammonia. I'm 6 weeks into a cycle and ammonia is still between .50ppm and 1.0ppm....That's with running two established canisters and two sponge filters (one established)


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Looks like you are planning this very well, and I have no doubt you'll have success as well as a learning process. I think your state of mind is key in learning and setting up a successful shrimp tank. Too many people cut corners in the initial planning only to run into problems later. I can't wait to see everything when you end up getting it 

And



GeToChKn said:


> Switching over water will do nothing. You're better off taking a sponge or filter floss from your current tank or some bio media nad putting it in the new tank. Water contains almost no bacteria. Taking a sponge and squeezing it in with give loads.
> 
> The ADA is going to leech ammonia for anywhere from 2-6weeks, so that will provide an ammonia source for the filter but jump starting with filter media from your other filter will help.


i dunno man, i've heard of water having bacteria in it in some circumstances


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Ooops. Look like I have to wait more. Too many good things from ADA, the only problem is the ammonia. Don't have any No3 test kit yet.
How can people in my country can release shrimp the next day and still got no problem??? I mean those master shrimper.

*Another update:* Mosura products in my mail.
I got this box in my mail this afternoon. Some shrimp food, water additive, also a little cute shrimp net. 









I choose Mosura series for food.









Mineral rock from Borneo Wild









And this shrimp net. So cute.

















BTW, my scape. Wanna call it Halleluiah Mountain 









_*Question*: can you give me some feedback of breeding dance liquid? Which brand are you using, how is that? Thanks a lot.
_


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

@mordalphus: you are one of my targets when my tank is ready.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Those people are not using substrates with ammonia in them (AS has ammonia/ammonium/whatever). Many of the Asian shrimp substrates are created without the ammonia so that they can be used more quickly.

There are methods of getting the ammonia down and speeding up the cycling time compared to what shrimpnmoss quoted above. Things like increasing the heat (increases bacteria metabolism), large water changes and tossing a large amount of plants (which will have bacteria on them and will also consume the ammonia/ammonium/whatever).

Shrimp are so sensitive that you sort of have to wait a little longer than you would with a normal planted tank with only fish in it.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

madness said:


> Those people are not using substrates with ammonia in them (AS has ammonia/ammonium/whatever). Many of the Asian shrimp substrates are created without the ammonia so that they can be used more quickly.
> 
> There are methods of getting the ammonia down and speeding up the cycling time compared to what shrimpnmoss quoted above. Things like increasing the heat (increases bacteria metabolism), large water changes and tossing a large amount of plants (which will have bacteria on them and will also consume the ammonia/ammonium/whatever).
> 
> Shrimp are so sensitive that you sort of have to wait a little longer than you would with a normal planted tank with only fish in it.


No, those people I'm talking about are my friend from my local aquarium club and they are using new ADA. That's the secret. I don't have chance to talk to them much, so secret is finally secret. Let me list some brands of substrate we use in Vietnam for shrimp tank.
- ADA aqua soil (Amazonia and Malayna too). This one was used most
- GEX shrimp soil (not sure you guys heard about this brand before).
- Benibachi shrimp soil
- Shirakura shrimp soil 
- Bornenowild shrimp soil
Too bad we don't have any of the last 3. No amonia but even more expensive than ADA aquasoil.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> No, those people I'm talking about are my friend from my local aquarium club and they are using new ADA. That's the secret. I don't have chance to talk to them much, so secret is finally secret. Let me list some brands of substrate we use in Vietnam for shrimp tank.
> - ADA aqua soil (Amazonia and Malayna too). This one was used most
> - GEX shrimp soil (not sure you guys heard about this brand before).
> - Benibachi shrimp soil
> ...


I can't think of any method of getting that much ammonia out of the AS instantly other than pre-soaking it for a month or something. I guess it will remain a secret.

Up Aqua Shrimp Sand is one of the available shrimp soils in the US that does not release ammonia. Pretty expensive though (even more than ADA by the time that you get it shipped, IIRC).


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

The new amazonia is so full of ammonia, when I first set tank up with it, my whole shrimp room smelled like cat pee. Even after several water changes. 

It took about 4-5 months of water changes to finally get the ammonia to 0. It's much stronger than the old amazonia II or amazonia I. Once it finally stopped leaching ammonia, it has been fine though. That tank had no UGF, just sponge and double canister filter. I have another tank with half amazonia new type, and half africana too, that one has a UGF and leached the ammonia in about 6 weeks, probably due to the flow going through it.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Wouldn't an inert substrate like fine lava rock gravel work better? No excess ammonia cycling issues apart from the normal bio-film establishment all tanks undergo. With an under substrate filter won't the AS leach out sooner and offset most of its benefits over any inert substrate. Lava rock still has some CEC value.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

My Netlea took about 6 weeks to finish leeching.





audioaficionado said:


> Wouldn't an inert substrate like fine lava rock gravel work better? No excess ammonia cycling issues apart from the normal bio-film establishment all tanks undergo. With an under substrate filter won't the AS leach out sooner and offset most of its benefits over any inert substrate. Lava rock still has some CEC value.


It depends if you want the buffering ability of the soil or not. For neos, inert works fine, keeps my tap water or tap water/RO mix in the 7.2-7.6 range. For crystals, I use Netlea because it buffer the 7pH of the RO water down to <6pH.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

I decided no to go with that scape. Got an idea and lets do some wood work.

What do I mean when I say wood work? Well finding a nice DW for your tank is nearly impossible. You could but you need $$$. I want it cheap but looks nice. LFS don't cary nice stuff, they may but not cheap. Going online is the good way but you don't know what you would get, 1 photo can't do anything. So I decide to buy some DW online, and let see what I could do with them.

First, go searching for the scape you want. Here's is what I want my DW looks like.

























Well. I can't do exactly like that, but I want that shape.

Go back to my DW box and lets see what I can do with them.

*What you need:*
- Imagine
- Hand drill
- Bamboo chopsticks
- Tooth picks
- Fishing line (the thin one)
- Superglue gel
- Peat moss or coco fiber
- Optional: scissors, knife, small box, wire cutting pliers.

As you can see, I have a nice piece of DW but its branch is too small, what I can do with that small short branch. The other smaller piece is nice too, my tank is too big, that piece would do nothing in there. Why don't I put them together to have a nice piece with 2 branches.









Put them in place, wow, they fit perfectly









Take some fishing line and wrap a round the connector, just tie enough to hold them there.









This is the superglue gel I'm gonna use. They are cheap, for $1 you will have 3 small tubes and there's plenty of them at Dollar Tree.









Put a nice layer of gel all over the connector, don't worry about its looks. Just use a lot of it.









Next, use peat moss or coco fiber put it in small box and sprinkle them well on the connector where you just glued them. Use a box so you don't mess up. Peat moss with absorb the glue and turn it to be a good mixture. It also makes your final product looks nature and nice.









Give it some tap and here you go. From 2 pieces, now I have a nice piece of DW that I may couldn't find it anywhere.









However, it's not always put in place, tie and glue them up, tap some peatmoss.
How can you tie this 2 pieces??









You can but you have to put something between them to hold it first. So take I take a driller and make a small hole that can fit 2 toothpicks.









Cut the tip and you will have this









Put them in place 









Now, you can tie them easily. Superglue them, peatmoss and you have this









Close up photo. Don't worry, you can tie moss on them or just leave it like that. Under water, you wouldn't see anything, time will cover it.









How about put branches together? Who will hold it for me when I tie? There's only me.
Got an idea. Follow the drill step, but this time, I use bamboo chopstick. Toothpicks is not strong enough.

















This is the final product and also my dry scape. Not bad. What would I have without these mod? 









Some close up photos

















Right side, I call this "chicken ass"


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

Artist is at work here. Nice demonstration how to extend driftwood. I will use this for my future tank. Thank


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

That is a great idea to extend driftwood. Thanks for sharing this.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Great idea on attaching those pieces of DW together. How did you come up with the idea with covering up the parts with peat moss? I would've done everything you did, but instead just tied moss around the parts and HOPED they cover up the joint. That peat moss extra step was brilliant!


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Looks great man. LOLLOLOL...I love Chicken Butt!...yum...


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Artist is at work here. Nice demonstration how to extend driftwood. I will use this for my future tank. Thank





> That is a great idea to extend driftwood. Thanks for sharing this.





> Great idea on attaching those pieces of DW together. How did you come up with the idea with covering up the parts with peat moss? I would've done everything you did, but instead just tied moss around the parts and HOPED they cover up the joint. That peat moss extra step was brilliant!


Thanks. Extending driftwood is just one kind of many modifications you can do. You can use this way to I see others using ss screw to attach to a small plastic plate to hold DW down. 
I'm not sure if you guys know this but in my country, all carpenters know that the mixture of fine sand, sawdust stuff and superglue gel is a great combination. Hard likes rock. I don't have sawdust, or find sand, so I used peatmoss. Just fine.



> Looks great man. LOLLOLOL...I love Chicken Butt!...yum...


_Looks exactly like this to me. Haha_

Here are some photos of what can give you by using this way. These photos were copied from a my local planted tank forum. I'm not the person who do this, I just follow their steps. I wish I could do like that too. Unfortunately, I'm not that handy.

The small container is fine sand and sawdust together.









2 branches 









Add details









































And you have this. Bonsai style, perfectly for shrimp tank or nano tank


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

This is what I've done after 15h working. Took 6h for Ro/di water!


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I've screwed together branches to make my driftwood more interesting, but that peat moss coating is pure genius. Thanx for the great idea.


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## kangshiang (Jun 28, 2006)

Amazing works here!!!!!!!


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Wow the guy you learned from did a awesome job as well


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Just wondering, where did you get that shrimp net from? what does it call? LOL 

It look really nice


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## Jeff.:P:. (Sep 8, 2009)

subscribed nice work!


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Thanks for your all kind words.

This tank will be cycled for 4 weeks. Here's the plan: 15G water change after 2 weeks, another 15g water change at week 4th. Check the water parameters, dose _Mosura Mineral Plus, add Borneowild Mineral Rock, TDS up_ if needed. And will be ready for shrimp. 

New ADA: water crystal clear since the first time. No dust, no yellow (of cause), nothing to complain. 

Here's the parameter of *Day 1*. Air pump is on 24/24.
-pH: 6.3 (after 12h running air pump) and I didn't add Indian Almond Leaf yet. I will test it with the CO2 is on. I think it will drop a little. I don't -know.
-gH: 0
-kH: 0
-TDS: 55
-Temp: 20-22
-NO3: waiting for test kit.
-Lighting: 10-12h
-Co2: running solenoid a little more than 1bps with light 
Not bad for the first day.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Almost week 1. Update FTS

I took out the needle JF and replace with some fissidens on lava rock. Also took the anubias nana out added some SS mesh with fissidens. I know it looks messy but I'm cycling the tank, so I will throw in as many plants as I can to let them suck all the NO3. This is what I would take out the NLF on the left corner, the anubias coffee in the middle BG, and will place the SS mesh in breading boxes.








Sides wiew

















My NO3 is 20ppm. Hope it will drop when the cycle is done. I'm looking for 5-10ppm before putting some shrimps.

Just order some Secheam purigen, Secheam Matrix, 2 Large Marina breader boxes and a 2l prefilter as well as ss mesh prefilter for intake. Hope they will arrive soon.

*What I have learned so far:*
1. I bought too much plants and can't use them all.
2. I'm messing up the tank. I realize that it suppose to be done more simple. This is too much for a shrimp tank!
Anyway, not bad for my first tank. Who knows what would happen.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I don't think it's messed up at all, or too cluttered. You still have a lot of room and it'll be easy to see shrimps and what not in there. Plus, your scape looks awesome 

What are those random brown spots in the bottom left of the tank?


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

diwu13 said:


> I don't think it's messed up at all, or too cluttered. You still have a lot of room and it'll be easy to see shrimps and what not in there. Plus, your scape looks awesome
> 
> What are those random brown spots in the bottom left of the tank?


I think it's so dense. The 2 brown orange spots are ADA Barter Ball. 

I got 2 box of this. Believe me or not, they really like to eat this one. If you have a good amount of shrimps. 1 ball will be disappeared after a night.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

What part of it do you think is dense? The back left of the tank with all the ferns? Other besides that you'll be able to see everything really easily.

Those are bacterballs? I thought those were like yellow and they didn't go away.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

Great tank and interesting thread.

Two questions.
1. How many watts are your lights and how many hours do you keep them on?
2. Where did you get that baller net which extends? I hate sticking my hands in the tank so I love things like that. Heck, I have two foot tweezers which are probably the most useful tool I've ever owned. My hands never touch the water when I take out plant debris or uneaten food.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> What part of it do you think is dense? The back left of the tank with all the ferns? Other besides that you'll be able to see everything really easily.
> 
> Those are bacterballs? I thought those were like yellow and they didn't go away.


I tied NJF on small lava rock. 

Sorry. I thought you ask me about the 2 spot in the front. 

Bacter ball and ADA Bacter 100 are same stuff ang they contain over 100 kinds of 
bacteria. It will breakdown slowly so you can be sure you always seed the tank with good 
bacteria. But I'm not sure what let make shrimps like it so much. 



> Great tank and interesting thread.
> 
> Two questions.
> 1. How many watts are your lights and how many hours do you keep them on?
> 2. Where did you get that baller net which extends? I hate sticking my hands in the tank so I love things like that. Heck, I have two foot tweezers which are probably the most useful tool I've ever owned. My hands never touch the water when I take out plant debris or uneaten food.


Thanks.
1. I have a DIY 12x3w cree xp-g. They are dim and i run them around 700mA. Light is on 10 hours a day. 

2. Nice tweezers there. In shrimp tank, the less you put your hand in there the better. You don't know what is on your hand. Where do you get it? Ebay? For the net, I'll send you a pm.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4406.html
just google it and there' a good thread talking about ADA Barter Ball.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

vincent201089 said:


> I tied NJF on small lava rock.
> 
> 2. Nice tweezers there. In shrimp tank, the less you put your hand in there the better. You don't know what is on your hand. Where do you get it? Ebay? For the net, I'll send you a pm.


Go to ebay and type in this item number in the search:110451638266

I strongly encourage everyone to have these...so awesome and useful. I always take out the food after 2 hours of sitting in the tank but I never have to stick my hand in.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Guys. I need your help!

Before starting to dose Mosura Mineral Plus (MMP) to my tank, I decide to try it on RODI water to see how much it can raise GH and TDS.

As you know for crystal shrimp we need
GH 4-6
TDS 150-170-200-220 (different from each shrimper but most keep them at 150-170)

My RODI water is 0 TDS and 1-1.5 GH (I use sera test kit. 1 drop I can see a little green, so I think 1.5 drop is the result).

I take 500ml RODI and dose MMP and I get
100 TDS at 5 GH
180 TDS at 9 GH
===> It means I can get 20 TDS for every 1 GH

*The problem is: How can I get 150-170 TDS without raising the GH to 7-8 (I want to keep it at 4-6)*
What do you guys do with your water and how do you adjust it? Please don't tell me to mix RODI water with tap water. It will raise my GH too.

I also have Mosura TDS up (it said that will raise the TDS but GH). So I dose some to the 500ml RODI water above and I get over 350 TDS (I only use 500ml water so just a little of TDS up poder can raise that much). GH is still 9.

*Which one should I follow?*
- Follow GH 4-5 and forget about the TDS 80-100 or I can keep GH 4-5 and dose TDS up to 170
- Follow the TDS 150-170 and forget about the GH 7.5-8.5


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> Guys. I need your help!
> 
> Before starting to dose Mosura Mineral Plus (MMP) to my tank, I decide to try it on RODI water to see how much it can raise GH and TDS.
> 
> ...


Go by the gH you get in the range, check the TDS then and then always go for the that mix. It's odd that you get any reading on a gH test kit though because 0 TDS should be 0gH. If it's the 1.5 gH, it should be around 30TDS starting with, so one or the other is off. Pure gH should be ~18TDS per degree of gH. MMS also has other things in it like traces of iodine, etc, so to get 5gH you should still be at a higher TDS than 18*5. 

I find MMS a bit inconsistent as it seems everyone has to dose different amounts to get a different TDS.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> Go by the gH you get in the range, check the TDS then and then always go for the that mix. It's odd that you get any reading on a gH test kit though because 0 TDS should be 0gH. If it's the 1.5 gH, it should be around 30TDS starting with, so one or the other is off. Pure gH should be ~18TDS per degree of gH. MMS also has other things in it like traces of iodine, etc, so to get 5gH you should still be at a higher TDS than 18*5.
> 
> I find MMS a bit inconsistent as it seems everyone has to dose different amounts to get a different TDS.


I'm not sure about GH of my RODI water, test it at 0 TDS is quite difficult to see the result. I test my tap water and can easily see color changing from yellow to brown/red and then yello green.
I just have another test, this time I use 10ml of RODI water instead of 5ml like instruction to let me see the color easier. It's a little green after 1 drop even with 10ml (the more I drop the greener the water. Instruction says that stop when it green from yellow to brown) maybe I was wrong when said that 1-1.5 GH.

So you mean I should keep 4-5 GH but the TDS is only 100.

Dosing MMP will increase GH as well as TDS.


> Pure gH should be ~18TDS per degree of gH


 sounds great when I have 20 TDS for each 1Gh.

Let assume that I'm a LFS or water store that sell RODI water and you are the person come to my store to buy water for your tank.

Your tank is 5gh and 200 TDS and you wanna do water change. You use MMP to bring my RODI to GH 5 and find out that its TDS is only 100.

How can you use that new water with TDS 100 to change with water in your tank that has TDS 200?

==> In this case, what would you do to match the water parameters in your tank.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> Your tank is 5gh and 200 TDS and you wanna do water change. You use MMP to bring my RODI to GH 5 and find out that its TDS is only 100.
> 
> How can you use that new water with TDS 100 to change with water in your tank that has TDS 200?
> 
> ==> In this case, what would you do to match the water parameters in your tank.


Well my MMS gives me around 150 TDS for 5 gH because of the other additives in it.

The thing is, you're not changing 100% of your water. If your tank is 200TDS and you change 10% with 100TDS mixed water, you're only going to drop your TDS to about 190. (200*90% + 100*10%) Then whatever you have in there will poop, leftover food, etc will creep that 190 back up. Water will evap which will concentrate the TDS and rise it. I dunno, I just keep my water where my shrimp are happy. It's 260TDS right now and everyone is happy, so that's where it stays. Water evaps, poop builds up, it probably creeps up to 280-290. I mix up some ~130-150 RO water, and do a small WC, 5-10%, it goes back down to 260 and stays there. If lots evaps and I don't do a WC, I just top off with pure RO water, so the 280 goes back down to 260ish. I have easily over a 150 crystal babies that I'm selling off right now that are happy with it, so whatever. I gave up the numbers game and don't really test anything anymore. Shrimp are happy, babies survival rate is good, they're reberried, that's good enough for me. I tried to play the numbers game for a long time and had no babies lasting more than a week because I was obsessed with WC's, and playing chemist. change or top off here and there and let them do their thing and the tank is doing great.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Thanks. I also thought few gallons water change anything much. So I can forget about this. I mean just match the gh when doing water change.

This is what I have when I dose 25ml of MMP into my tank.
-GH 4
-TDS 80

I see many people say that the more we mess with those #, the more problem we will have. I also don't wanna mess with those # too, just wanna match the idea parameters before adding shrimp.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> Thanks. I also thought few gallons water change anything much. So I can forget about this. I mean just match the gh when doing water change.
> 
> This is what I have when I dose 25ml of MMP into my tank.
> -GH 4
> ...


Yup, best advice, the more you muck with it, the more the shrimp don't like. People breed crystals in 7.4pH, 5.0pH, 90TDS, 400TDS, all kinds of ranges in their. The best thing is stability.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

You should let your tank fully cycle before wasting MMP. I just dose MMP until TDS 150ppm and that's around 5-6gh for using RODI water. Something could be wrong with your RO water maker.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> You should let your tank fully cycle before wasting MMP. I just dose MMP until TDS 150ppm and that's around 5-6gh for using RODI water. Something could be wrong with your RO water maker.


That's what I get too, 150ish for 5-6 gH.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

shrimpnmoss said:


> You should let your tank fully cycle before wasting MMP. I just dose MMP until TDS 150ppm and that's around 5-6gh for using RODI water. Something could be wrong with your RO water maker.


I got this RODI maker long time ago for my salwater tank. I do change those filter. My tap water is 300~ TDS. After RO is 4 and after DI is 0.

I think even there's something wrong with the water maker. It won't effect the result how much GH and TDS MMP can raise.

If you don't mind, can you take some time doing a little test with your RODI for me? Just like my test with 500ml of RODI. What is your RODI gh and tds. Dose few drop of RODI and measure the it again. Thanks.

How about my test kit is bad!


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

It's much easier to match water using TDS meter with RO water. Since this is a new tank anyways your shrimps should get used to whatever TDS you use. I have tanks between 150ppm and 200ppm. I don't think it matters that much. Stability is much more important. You might as well go with TDS 150ppm to start. Since your TDS meter is measuring 4ppm, which is pretty good. My RO measures 1-2ppm. You are probably correct the Gh testing kit could be off.

I asked a Gh testing kit question previously in the water parameter section and there were some helpful responses.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fertilizers-water-parameters/167791-gh-testing-liquid-tester.html


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

*4/9 update (2 weeks):* _20g water change and install prefilter with Matrix and Purigen_

NO3 before water change is 25ppm (API test kit) and after 1 day it is 10ppm.

I got shipment from kensfish.com and here's what I ordered.
-2 L size Marina breeding boxes.
-2 100ml-bag Seachem Purigen
-2 liter Seachem Matrix
-1 JEBO small pump (5w 70 GPH) for breeding box. Should be 2. 1 first because I don't know what they can do.

Here's the plan for those Matrix and Purigen along with a 2liter APA pre-filter I got a week ago.
- In my prefilter, I'll fill it with regular filter floss follow with 1 100ml Purigen bag.
- In my Eheim 2217, I'll fill the top with 1 liter Seachem Matrix (from bottom 2l Eheim ceramic ring-filter floss-4l Eheim substrat pro-filter floss-1l Matrix).

So water from intake-prefilter-eheim 2217-back to tank









Lets see what Purigen and Matrix can do with the NO3.

Here's my mod for the breeding box (there's gonna be 2 of them). I bought this pump on ebay. Small, cheap, adjustable. I use 1 small piece of left over eheim tube to connect the pump with the breeding box. I also take some ss mesh and window screen to cover the intake because I don't want this pump turns to be a shrimp blending machine.

Quick video of the flow (pump was half way closed) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8uE...DvjVQa1PpcFPYvopUB12crfqqrOpwcTFFCVAgvpE8bqs=


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> Here's my mod for the breeding box (there's gonna be 2 of them). I bought this pump on [Ebay Link Removed] Small, cheap, adjustable. I use 1 small piece of left over eheim tube to connect the pump with the breeding box. I also take some ss mesh and window screen to cover the intake because I don't want this pump turns to be a shrimp blending machine.
> 
> Quick video of the flow (pump was half way closed)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8uE...DvjVQa1PpcFPYvopUB12crfqqrOpwcTFFCVAgvpE8bqs=


Where's the picture of the mod haha? Or was that in the video?


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## al4n (Nov 18, 2008)

So are you going to put shrimp in that breeding box or are you using it as extra filter?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Where's the picture of the mod haha? Or was that in the video?


Oh. Missed it. I'll post it when I get home after class. 


> So are you going to put shrimp in that breeding box or are you using it as extra filter?


The plan is housing male kk with female crs and there f1. So I could control the offspring F1 easier. I mean it won't be messed up with other shrimp in main tank. 2 breeding box is enough for the plan. I can even add more if I want. 

BTW. 20 grade A mix band Bechibachi shrimp will be in this tank next week.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Here you go. This pump is really small 1''x1.5''x1.5''
As you can see. This ss mesh is quite large so I put between it and a the plastic cover 1 layer of window screen. You can clearly see it in this photo. 









*Quick update:* I add another breeding box but no pump, still on the way. I only change water from main thank to this box.

Can you guess my NO3 level? After 1 night it drops from 10 to 5. Yes my NO3 is 5ppm now. Those Seachem Purigen and Matrix are doing really good job.

I start to see some copepods running around, crystal clear water all time (I dose BT-9, old sea mud poder, and some Clear Super few time already), slow growing amazon frogbit- dwarf water lettuce. They are all good signs, aren't they?


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Do you have the full shot of the DIY? I really want to do this to my breeder box too. Sorry but what F1 means? Hybrid? Also, are you going to leave the off spring in the breeder box?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I'm wondering how you bend the SS mesh that nicely haha. That stuff hurts my hands when I try to bend it and what not.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Tuan, I run a prefilter with purigen and floss like yours with my canister in my 60p. I've actually found that the Purigen prefilter works better AFTER the main canister. The reason is that your biological filteration is in the main canister. You don't want the water polished already before it goes in there. Let the main canister to the work before you polish the water. I use the prefilter as the final step before the water goes in the tank. My water stays cleaner and my prefilter and Purigen last longer after I switched the order around.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

sunyang730 said:


> Do you have the full shot of the DIY? I really want to do this to my breeder box too. Sorry but what F1 means? Hybrid? Also, are you going to leave the off spring in the breeder box?


F1 hybrid come from KK and SRS then I'll take those F1 female cross back with daddy KK again so offspring may have 50% Taiwan Bee and 50% hybrid. I follow this thread. 

Here's my DIY pump for Marina breeding box.
Go to ebay and type 350511532861. That's what I bought.
It has a small knob so you can adjust the flow you want. In the video I posted, I only set 1/2 way.









This is what a Marina breeding box will give you. But this setup is noisy and won't give enough flow, at least for shrimp. So I throw away the air tube. 









Pump comes with 2 outlet 5/16" and 1/2". Marina tube is also 1/2". So I just take some eheim tube and connect those together.











> I'm wondering how you bend the SS mesh that nicely haha. That stuff hurts my hands when I try to bend it and what not.


It's not the SS mesh people are selling on this site. I know it's hard to bend. I'm using the soft one. Pretty good. 130561351442 from ebay. 



> Tuan, I run a prefilter with purigen and floss like yours with my canister in my 60p. I've actually found that the Purigen prefilter works better AFTER the main canister. The reason is that your biological filteration is in the main canister. You don't want the water polished already before it goes in there. Let the main canister to the work before you polish the water. I use the prefilter as the final step before the water goes in the tank. My water stays cleaner and my prefilter and Purigen last longer after I switched the order around.


Thanks for your idea. I'm playing with my prefilter and canister too. People say that having prefilter with floss will help cleaning water a bit before going through main canister. It also give you more time between each main filter maintain (I don't know how to say this) because you only have to clean the prefilter. Easy and fast. Just take it out, change half of the floss and you're ready to go. Your bacteria sources are still in the main canister and mess with it is a bad ides.

I also like your idea of having another filter for your breeding box and put Purigen bag in there. There's also a guy drills his spraybar, inserts a tube into it and run it to the breeding box. I almost did it too. However I want the cleaner look.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

vincent201089 said:


> F1 hybrid come from KK and SRS then I'll take those F1 female cross back with daddy KK again so offspring may have 50% Taiwan Bee and 50% hybrid. I follow this thread.
> 
> Here's my DIY pump for Marina breeding box.
> Go to ebay and type 350511532861. That's what I bought.
> ...


Thank you for the detail. I will do the same thing to my breeder box! LOL very nice.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

What is the best way to store shrimp food? 

I buy too much. Not really too much. I mean I have months to use them all and I know leaving it like that won't keep the best quality. How do you store them?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Ziplock bag and freezer. Can't go wrong with that. Most dried foods can just be stored at room temperature in a sealed bag.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Just wondering, what did you use to hold the mesh with the pump? super glue gel?


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

sunyang730 said:


> Just wondering, what did you use to hold the mesh with the pump? super glue gel?


Yes. Super glue gel. Super glue is safe, don't worry.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

cool, thanks for the info


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

*Quick update:*
I take my Digital Aquatics controller system from my saltwater tank and use it for my shrimp tank. So I can always control the temp, pH. (ph probe and temp probe was calibrated again)

Here's my parameter so far:
- GH: 5
- KH: 0
- TDS: 155-160 (as I said before I had to use Mosura TDS up to bring it from 100 to 160)
- temp: I don't know, 2 of my glass thermometers read 22-23C but the temp probe read 20C
-However, my pH is only 5.0!!! Is it normal for new tank? 

There's nothing in there yet. No fish, only plants and moss. Only 3 Indian Almond Leaves. I don't think 3 can lower my pH that much. I'll take 2 out and lets see what would happen to the pH. 

If it won't raise or just a little, should I raise my ph by using coral chip/ salwater dry rock? I have plenty of this. Or what can I do???

Thanks for your suggestions.

Tuan


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

If your kH is really zero your pH is gonna swing like CRAZY from anything in your tank. So it makes sense since you have some IAL that the pH would drop like crazy with zero kH. It's weird though, I thought Mosura remineralizer increases kH to ~1 to 2?


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## storrisch (Jan 22, 2011)

Stabalize your kh first or like the previous poster said it will swing all over the place. I use sodium bicarbonate. There are many calculators available online if you Google it.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Mineral plus only increase my gh and tds. And now I now that because my tank is new. So there no uneaten food no fish poo. That's why gh 5 but tds only 100. And I have to raise tds up to 160. Later with the shrimp, poo tds would up itself. 

I spent whole night searching for this. Btw. I took the IAL out. Leave the tank whole night. The ph stable at 4.9. 

So you guys mean I should raise the KH to 1 first? We use baking soda to raise KH in saltwater too corals eat calcium and kh alot. I have a whole gallon of premix of this stuff. So can I understands like this.

- gh will give a stable tds that matches that gh level. No matter how I deal with the TDS, without stable gh, TDS will swing. And the # of fish. Food. Fish poo. Nutrition will give a different higher tds level from tank to tank. 
- kh will give a stable ph to match that kh level. No matter how I deal with the ph, kh O or lower will just bring the ph somewhere else. So bring the kh to a # we want first. And then decrease or increase the ph level will depend on what we wanna keep and how much we wanna adjust it. 

Please corret me if I'm wrong

Thanks for helping. Aquarium stuff is so interesting. Every tank is different.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

So gH = hardness needed for shrimp to molt. Your TDS can raise and lower without gH changing at all due to nitrates and ferts being dissolved in your tank water that also conduct electricity.

kH determines how much the pH will change in your tank. So if you have zero kH the pH can swing however it wants. With a kH of 1 or 2 it buffers the water and you'll experience less pH change.

You aren't using an active substrate such as akadama, fluval shrimp stratum, or ADA? If so they should be buffering the pH to a level you want already. You just need the kH at ~1-2.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Just dosed 2ml backing soda liquid from my saltwater tank. ph goes from 4.9 to 5.76. Nice done. I'll test the kh later tonight. Don't wanna overdose.

Here's the recipe. You will know this if you also playing with corals and saltwater tank.

_Spread baking soda (594 grams or about 2 ¼ cups) on a baking tray and heat in an ordinary oven at 300°F for one hour to drive off water and carbon dioxide. Overheating is not a problem, either with higher temperatures or longer times. Dissolve the residual solid in enough water to make 1 gallon total. This dissolution may require a fair amount of mixing. Warming it speeds dissolution. This solution will contain about 1,900 meq/L of alkalinity (5,300 dKH). I prefer to use baked baking soda rather than washing soda in this recipe as baking soda from a grocery store is always food grade, while washing soda may not have the same purity requirements. Arm & Hammer brand is a fine choice. Be sure to NOT use baking powder. Baking powder is a different material that often has phosphate as a main ingredient._

However, 1 box of baking soda comes with 450g or around 500g and I only use 1 box. That's for SW, we need some thing quick and a lot to use so we make a whole gallon of this, not for planted tank. Please don't do it. You can google the calculator and just dose pure baking soda directly into your tank.

Thank you guys. 

*Problem Solved!*


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

*4/20 update:* _*12 F1 hybrid *_

Got this from Liam this afternoon. As you can see, he's so nice to give extra 1 bag of shrimp food.









Carefully open the box and take these little baby out









In a foam container for drip acclimation. I count them. 1,2,3,...,10,11. 11 is what he gave me instead of 10 and count them again and again but wait. There's 12 of them. Yeah, I was so excited. I also put some Seachem Matrix and set 1 drop/2 seconds









Close up photo. The black one has some blue/purple tint. I got total 10 CBS and 2 CRS









Here are some photos when I put them in my breeding box after 4h acclimate


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

Very cool!


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

very sexy!


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Why the seachem matrix may I ask? Is that seeded?


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## Michiba54 (Nov 24, 2011)

This thread is awesome, its like a minefield of info. Your tank is looking good too


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Very cool!





> very sexy!





> This thread is awesome, its like a minefield of info. Your tank is looking good too


Thanks for your kind words. This is my first shrimp tank. Still have many things to learn from you guys.



> Why the seachem matrix may I ask? Is that seeded?


To let it absorb all the ammonia from shrimp poopoo during shipping. Just my idea, I don't think if it works. :icon_ques

*
This is the behind the scenes story.*

I got this package at 1pm.
I took my foam box that used to acclimate my SW fishes that was laying around for awhile, and also some clear tube for dripping method (from SW too)

I cleaned it with tap water and I thought whether this was a bad idea.:thumbsdow Would the chlorine in tap water harm my shrimps? Would the dust in the box harm my shrimp? The salt too? However I still decided to use that and I thought that would be ok. :eek5:

I started to acclimate the shrimp around 1h30, they seamed pretty happy when they was released from the shipping bag. Color was awesome, they started to swim around, picked stuff. I first set 1 drop/ 2 second. 

After 1 hour, I went back and the shrimp still ok, I decided to set 1 drop/ second. At 2h45 (around 30' after I set 1drop/s) I felt sleepy, I checked them again and wanted to set 2 drop/ second. What I saw was 1 small CBS was laying on the side. I took the tweezers and touched that shrimp, it swam away. Few minutes later, it was on its side and swam again when I touched it...

I thought this small shrimp was stress during shipping Liam sent 2 more to cover DOA and I decided, OK let go take a quick nap (I have to go to work at 6) and will see if the shrimp can make it. :icon_ques

I couldn't sleep, I always thought about the shrimp and worried about them. I got up at 5 and came to take a look. WTH!!! Some were laying on the ground and some were at the surface.:eek5: I know shrimp don't do like that. There was something wrong here. My $100! I touched them, NOOOO. They didn't even wanna move, their legs were shaking. What did I do??? 

I was in a desperate situation and thought I would lose them all. However, I got an idea. Maybe the chlorine in my tap water was poisoning them. I immediately took the shrimp net and put them in the breeding box. 3-4 hours since I started acclimate, I knew it was not enough but I had no choice. Put them in there, the new water, the oxygen may help.

One by one, I couldn't net them when they didn't move, some just stayed there, I had to use my finger, I even used the tweezers to pick and put them in my hand. They were dying.:icon_cry: When I dropped them into the box, they just fell down and laid on its side. I was almost cry. I checked them every few minutes, only 1 could swim around, pick stuff. Some was between the flame moss, some was on the substrate, some hung on moss. They were all clear, no black but grey, I didn't even know which one was my 2 red. HOPELESS. 2 were dead, they stopped moving, nothing. I had to took them out. :fish::fish:

I went to work at 6h30 and hope I wanna see them swim around again when I get home. I don't wanna net the rest out and throw them.

After 8 hours working, I got home at 4am. I ran to my tank. YEAHHHHHHHH. They were alive and swimming, picking again. They were alive!!! 1,2,3,...,6,7 and 8, and 10. 10 little shrimp were in the breeding box.

I turned off the light and went to sleep. Got up the next morning, the first thing I did was count them. Why 5??? Where were the others??? I checked in the main tank and HEY, 2 of them were in there. They escaped the box last night. So the others should be in my main tank too. Turn on the light and after awhile, I can see the other 5 shrimp in my main tank. Yes, 5 in the 33 gallon and 5 in the breeding box. YEAH! :thumbsup:

I still don't know what is the main reason causing this. I KNOW I WAS SUPPER STUPID when.
1. Reuse my SW stuff that collecting dust.
2. Clean it with tap water.

Just bought a new set of tubing after class and I will buy another container, I don't wanna risk their life again. *I was so stupid!!!*


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

That's pretty amazing. Congrats on being the newest Shrimp Trauma Center intern :hihi:


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

love the blue/purple one congrats on the new shrimps


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I had to cut two small pieces of SS mesh and off set them to replace the useless plastic gate of the breeder box. The one that comes with the box lets them escape. Good luck with your new shrimps.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

I just cut some ss mesh to replace plastic gate. Shrimp are escaping my breeding box. So far they are doing ok. I wait few more days and net them back to the breeding box. 

Today's photos.

Someone is growing. Yeah









Me eating Mosura special crystal shrimp food









Hanging on flame moss









On DW

















And on fiss


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Make sure the "Gate" you make also sticks out of the water a bit. Shrimp can climb over little obstacles that are at the water line or only 2-3mm above it


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

I only have few but taking photos of these guys are so interesting.







RIP


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Should get that coral out of the tank though, it will raise GH and KH


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

mordalphus said:


> Should get that coral out of the tank though, it will raise GH and KH


I'll take it out now. This is my water specs this afternoon
GH 4
KH 1 (after few days messing with it. I gave up. It raised pH a bit but dropped again)
temp 23 C
NO3 0
*pH 5.5-5.6* (it was 5.0 before I add coral rock) no Co2


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Soil substrate will always bring your KH back down, even if you dump a tablespoon of baking soda in, in a matter of hours it will bring it back down to 1. Be careful trying to adjust it, because the more carbonate you add, the shorter the lifespan of the soil. Those hybrids were raised in pH 5.0, so they'll be fine. We are at the mercy of the aquasoil


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

mordalphus said:


> Soil substrate will always bring your KH back down, even if you dump a tablespoon of baking soda in, in a matter of hours it will bring it back down to 1. Be careful trying to adjust it, because the more carbonate you add, the shorter the lifespan of the soil. Those hybrids were raised in pH 5.0, so they'll be fine. We are at the mercy of the aquasoil


Yes, after dosing some baking soda (not much), without any result, I decided to stop doing this. I added some coral rock (pH is stable at 5.5-5.6)

Just took the rock out and pH is 5.48-5.49 now. I think it will drop back to 5.2-5.3 tonight. 20 CRS will be here tomorrow.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

*Update 4/24 22 mix band grade A Benibachi*

New 2g glass tank and new clear tube. I don't wanna be stupid again.

Got the package at 12pm and I start to drip acclimate it immediately. 

Out of the bag






They are not normal grade A as you can see


I have 2 like this


Can you see the little "X"


After 4 hours, everything is looking good. I put some light on to keep this tank at 21-22C. They start to hang on the mossball. Color is improving (they were red/clear when I got them). I'll put some moss in the tank later. I have to go to work at 6pm and get home at 3am. So, it's gonna be 15 hours acclimating. ^^


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## idex (Apr 15, 2010)

Thanks for the pictures... want more pictures once they fully color up.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Dang, that's a long acclimation period! Looking good Tuan!


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Thanks for the pictures... want more pictures once they fully color up.


Yeap. I bet they will color up when in the tank and get used to it.


> Dang, that's a long acclimation period! Looking good Tuan!


No choice. I think 7-8 hours is ok. But... I'm setting 2 drops/second now. Still plenty of time for them to acclimate, so there's no reason why I have to hurry.


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## Michiba54 (Nov 24, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> I just cut some ss mesh to replace plastic gate. Shrimp are escaping my breeding box. So far they are doing ok. I wait few more days and net them back to the breeding box.
> 
> Today's photos.
> 
> On DW


Is that a human hair in the tank? lol


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Michiba54 said:


> Is that a human hair in the tank? lol


Eck. I even don't realize that. I don't know if it is a human hair but yes. I have some in my tank. LOL :help::help::help:


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i love the little x on the shrimp that is kinda cool. they are pretty crystal reds that is for sure


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## Michiba54 (Nov 24, 2011)

vincent201089 said:


> Eck. I even don't realize that. I don't know if it is a human hair but yes. I have some in my tank. LOL :help::help::help:


Haha, one of my dogs is white an I have found his hair in the tank a few times... the fry love to play with it too.


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## pennfisherman (Jan 18, 2011)

great shrimp i want them!

kinda off topic, but mind posting a pic of your saltwater tank?


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

Bye shrimp and shrimper. See you later at 3am. LOL


> kinda off topic, but mind posting a pic of your saltwater tank?


70g. RIP. Tank crashed year half year ago. I'll take it down.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

WOW! Those benibachi shrimp look amazing. Their colors almost look "fake" in those pictures.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

More pix. They are doing fine. Color is slowly improving.


"X" shrimp is on crypt nuri pahang mutated




I really like these photos


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Wow, they are coloring up nice Tuan. Looks like you almost have a crown there with your mixed bands. Sweet!


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

hey they look like mine! lol
Lucky you got an SSS!!!


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

> Wow, they are coloring up nice Tuan. Looks like you almost have a crown there with your mixed bands. Sweet!





> hey they look like mine! lol
> Lucky you got an SSS!!!


Yeah. They are really nice. They look better than the one in their video. I have no entry, tiger, hino/ double hino, and those. I mean from A to SSS I have them all. Not bad. Lets see how the offspring looks like. 

Because I have no idea how the female and male look like so
_Question, if they are female, they will use their leg and doing stuff with their belly? I mean they curl their body, use their legs and pick things under their belly. Do the male do that too?_


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

vincent201089 said:


> _Question, if they are female, they will use their leg and doing stuff with their belly? I mean they curl their body, use their legs and pick things under their belly. Do the male do that too?_


I've seen both my females and males cleaning their pleopods. Don't worry, I'm sure you have both males and females seeing how many CRS you have.

So how many of each grade did you pick up from Benibachi?


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

hedge_fund said:


> I've seen both my females and males cleaning their pleopods. Don't worry, I'm sure you have both males and females seeing how many CRS you have.
> 
> So how many of each grade did you pick up from Benibachi?


I ordered 20 mix band grade A and Max sent me 22. As Max said Benibachi grading in based on the solid of the white, not pattern, so for the mix band, they give you the one that doesn't have the perfect white, it doesn't matter it is S or SS or even SSS

I got few normal grade A, S with tiger tooth, V band, some hinomaru, almost double hinomaru, no entry, some SSS almost crown as you can see in the pix above. I bet if whoever buy 30-40 of these guy, they can even see other pattern too.

roud:roud:roud:roud:


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Those Benibachi look amazing.

Good luck with them. Will be great when hobbyists get some populations of them spread around the country to make acquiring high quality PRL shrimp easier.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

madness said:


> Those Benibachi look amazing.
> 
> Good luck with them. Will be great when hobbyists get some populations of them spread around the country to make acquiring high quality PRL shrimp easier.


Yeap I hope so.

More pixi.


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## hakishimiei (Oct 13, 2011)

very nice!! keep up the good work.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Very beautiful shrimp!!! I try to work on the pump the other day and I got no luck at all putting the mesh together. So I give up!!! Let me know if you can help me mod it. LOL The crazy glue thing just not working for me. I am so stupid at DIYing stuff!!! ARHHHHH


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

sunyang730 said:


> Very beautiful shrimp!!! I try to work on the pump the other day and I got no luck at all putting the mesh together. So I give up!!! Let me know if you can help me mod it. LOL The crazy glue thing just not working for me. I am so stupid at DIYing stuff!!! ARHHHHH


Let me know if there's anything I can help.

After few days feeding these guys with ADA bee shrimp food, Mosura special food and Mosura Excel. They pretty like Excel. I'll try to feed them some boiled cucumber and spinach. 

I want more shrimps. 22 in 30g tank is nothing. LOL

Quick update, I saw some females with eggs on their heads. I think they will be berried next molting.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

You think you can sell me one of the pump ?? LOL


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

I added 2 crown/flower head and 5 KK/panda last week
Some more pics. Can't take any pic of the KK, they are so black, I couldn't focus on them.














This one just molted so still coloring up.








This one just molted too.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

More...

Benibachi




















Party time








Crown






And...TBs


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Nice shrimp!


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Vincent, just a forewarning....even if you used established filter, water and add bacteria...it won't matter with the New Amazonia....it'll take you a full 2-3 months to zero out the ammonia. I'm 6 weeks into a cycle and ammonia is still between .50ppm and 1.0ppm....That's with running two established canisters and two sponge filters (one established)


I disagree, I have experience cycling aquasoil with some established media in just one week. 

Up the bioload for a few weeks ahead of time and it will go even faster.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Chlorophile said:


> I disagree, I have experience cycling aquasoil with some established media in just one week.
> 
> Up the bioload for a few weeks ahead of time and it will go even faster.


I've cycled the old version in two weeks before. I'm on my second bag of the New Amazonia and they've both taken over 6 weeks. They changed the formula for the new stuff it leaches longer.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> I've cycled the old version in two weeks before. I'm on my second bag of the New Amazonia and they've both taken over 6 weeks. They changed the formula for the new stuff it leaches longer.


I've found the new amazonia to cycle faster, but it may have been unique to my method - temperature at 82-86f and daily water changes to keep ph at 7.6 

edit: if you have a good bio population to start with it only takes maybe a week to double to what is needed.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

It's been 2 weeks since I got them. I see some "old shirt" and they get bigger but...No berried yet. They are doing great. I think they still acclimating to the tank and still too small. Hope they will berried soon.

Those Beni shrimps are really doing great. They are coloring up nicely. I still remembered the first they when I got them, they still small and looked clear. If you go back and look at the pics when I first got them and compare with those I posted yesterday, you will be surprised.

I got 2 SSS+ and nothing to complain, they are so nice, 1 has white leg, the other is still small but so far so good.

I also got 5KK, they are so nice and black, hope they will grow up and give me a lot of babies.



> Nice shrimp!


Thanks. The SSS+ are awesome. Love those KK/panda too.

I put the KK in my breeder box but I felt like they didn't wanna live there, so I put them in my main tank. When they get big, I will put them back to the breeder and let them XXX there.



> I've cycled the old version in two weeks before. I'm on my second bag of the New Amazonia and they've both taken over 6 weeks. They changed the formula for the new stuff it leaches longer.


I've found the new amazonia to cycle faster, but it may have been unique to my method - temperature at 82-86f and daily water changes to keep ph at 7.6


> edit: if you have a good bio population to start with it only takes maybe a week to double to what is needed.


I also think water from other tank, as well as plants or filter media are some of the good sources of bacteria that we can add to new tank. Not sure how much they can do but they will help alot.

Next time I'll try to raise the temp to 83-87 to let the bacteria grow faster.


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## Max Kenji (Mar 11, 2012)

Looking great Vince!

I agree. The new amazonia cycle much faster, it doesn't release tan anymore. It took me 2 week to cycle with my old 2215 and some other stuffs.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Chlorophile said:


> I've found the new amazonia to cycle faster, but it may have been unique to my method - temperature at 82-86f and daily water changes to keep ph at 7.6
> 
> edit: if you have a good bio population to start with it only takes maybe a week to double to what is needed.


Mine took 2 weeks. I just some Nutrafin Cycle Biological Filter Supplement and it works very well. LOL


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Ok I just cranked up my temp to 80 to cycle....I hope my moss doesn't die at that temp...


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

80 would be fine for mosses. Just give them some CO2. 
I'm gonna add CO2 again. Fiss turns black w/o CO2. Maybe 1 every 2-3 seconds.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

I have one shrimp that has 2 pattern on its body, one side is tiger and the other is hino. Still no pic yet.

I've noticed my shrimps start dancing like crazy for the last 2-3 days. I got up yesterday and saw 1 fatty eggy "no entry" got berried. She's still shy and hide alot. 

1st day when I saw her.


Here are some pics I got this morning
How beautiful she is.









Wait... second mama


I think I would have 1 more in the next few days and maybe 2 more next week when they molt.

Here's the future mama


Some other pics of the daddies






... TB


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Congrats!! I also have two berried. And we with got them at the same time. What's the odds!!! 

-Sent from my Samsung Note, A "Phablet "


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

h4n said:


> Congrats!! I also have two berried. And we with got them at the same time. What's the odds!!!
> 
> -Sent from my Samsung Note, A "Phablet "


Just found the 3rd one. Haha, if I'm right, I will have at least 3 more after next molting. Maybe next week or so. LOL


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Nice!!! 

-Sent from my Samsung Note, A "Phablet "


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Not to thread jack, but after some testing on my own tanks I still don't believe you can *fully cycle* a tank with AS in 2 weeks. The Ammonia might be zero which I achieved by cranking the heat up. However, the soil is still leaching. There might be enough BB to convert the Ammonia so the test is showing zero but if you test your Nitrates it will be high because of all the Ammonia still being converted. A fully cycled tank is no longer leaching Ammonia and and the Nitrate creep will be very slow the only Ammonia source will be from the waste.

Yesterday I tested my tank and Ammonia is showing zero. The Nitrates was in the 20-40ppm range. Did a 100% water change with pure RO. 100% as in drained the canister so there is no water in the system. Today the Ammonia is still testing zero but the Nitrate went back up to 10ppm-20ppm. Where did the Nitrate come from? The only source being Ammonia being turned into Nitrite and then Nitrate.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

When I tried to do a slightly less extreme version of the 'fast cycle' I sort of noticed something similar (though I was not as scientific in measuring it).

You can use the method to get rid of the initial 'bulk' of the ammonia release but there is still going to be some sort of extended (not sure how long) small ammonia release. Sort of a small ammonia 'drip' for a while.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Not to thread jack, but after some testing on my own tanks I still don't believe you can fully cycle a tank with AS in 2 weeks. The Ammonia might be zero which I achieved by cranking the heat up. However, the soil is still leaching. There might be enough BB to convert the Ammonia so the test is showing zero but if you test your Nitrates it will be high because of all the Ammonia still being converted. A fully cycled tank is no longer leaching Ammonia and and the Nitrate creep will be very slow the only Ammonia source will be from the waste.
> 
> Yesterday I tested my tank and Ammonia is showing zero. The Nitrates was in the 20-40ppm range. Did a 100% water change with pure RO. 100% as in drained the canister so there is no water in the system. Today the Ammonia is still testing zero but the Nitrate went back up to 10ppm-20ppm. Where did the Nitrate come from? The only source being Ammonia being turned into Nitrite and then Nitrate.


Sorry to hear your lost. My pH was 4.8-4.9 and I had to add some coral rock to bring it up to 5.5 (I took them out already) and now my tank is 5.5-5.6

I let my tank cycle for a month before I added my first shrimps. Fishless, nothing but plants.

Week 1 : 100% RODI
Week 2: more than 50% water change
Week 3: around 50% water change/ Add purigen, Matrix
Week 4: No3 was 0

Before I added purigen/ matrix. No3 was like 20. Few days after adding them, No3 dropped to 0

Week 4 I did the last 10g water change and add my first group. They are doing fine now.


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## vincent201089 (Jan 16, 2012)




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