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Breeding room build.. finally ..


revolutionhope

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Thought I'd start to post some pics and updates of the progress and some of the steps along the way incase it helps anyone to learn from my mistakes and successes.

 

Below is a pic of the room as it is now (very ad hoc) and also the materials we're using to build the new tables and shelves. We are using atructural pine for support including lengths along the base of the tables to spread the load with 25mm "eco" ply benchtops. Dressed pine shelves for misc frequently used items and to mount the lighting as well as to support waterchange dripping buckets. The waterchange method my friend and I have come up with (mostly him) is pretty neat and I'll share the details of how that will work later.

 

The end result will house 12× 60 litre tanks and 2x 90 litre tanks all of which will be divided into two sections. I will be using a combination biospon and the standard style air driven sponges for filtration - all biospon will be driven by one larger pump hidden away supplied by a large airline around the perimeter and a smaller pump for each table to supply air to the oldschool sponges to ensure filtration and aeration incase of mechanical failure.42acda74bb510e529f06d4e5097ab3bf.jpg554784400968544143f3953e5f8026f9.jpg

 

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will

 

 

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Already time for an update :-) benches are built (solid AS - massive thanks to my mate Kenny) I'll need to do some sanding here and there to remove misc stamps and marks then will give them a clear coat of varnish/sealant.

Also all the miscellaneous crap in the room has been tidied and a lot of it stashed away elsewhere. When benches are ready then it will be time to shuffle the old tanks out and then bring in the new gear.9c0325ce158a1def712eba82f5e08cd1.jpg

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will

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Looking great! Keep doing updates no matter how small :)
Thanks for the encouragement :-)

Here's a pic of some of the tanks I have chosen. They are opticlear I've been lucky to find them at a price that isn't over the top. The rest are arriving next week. I love that the silicone is pretty much invisible.

And a teaser shot of my friends ingenious water change mechanism - he's finished the electronics side of it..73e15e5f50f23e33da371e43631f048f.jpg53560195c2da49667d892da3a851e6e6.jpg

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will

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So bunnings has a special on their DETA led downlights. 5x 12w for $69 so have gone with that option. They are daylight spectrum and rated to 900 lumens - I could only find independently tested specs on them for an earlier model on ledbenchmark.com but those came up pretty decent and I've already been using this brand for close to a year and I'm quite happy with how they perform.

My buddy has rigged and tested the deta brand universal dimmer that bunnings also sells - we will put each of the four benches on a separate channel so I can easily turn a single bench on or off manually if/when I need. They will all run on a timer and fade on from 20% - 100% power over a few minutes period.

The lights come with clips and we will suspend them inside of pvc tube a little above the tanks to keep them enough out of the way to give good spread over the tank and also avoid wasting too much light.

When the LED system is setup I'll ask my mate about the technical side of it and include those details here for those interested.8d5ff0e2b09a904b44de39707e175f47.jpg

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will

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That opticlear glass... [emoji44] 

I know it's going to be a shame to blemish them with the dividers but it's the most efficient way I've decided that I'll be able to do selective breeding without stressing the shrimps having to move them from tank to tank!

 

I also want to dedicate one or two other seperate tanks for oddbods plus those shrimp that I just can't quite bring myself to cull as well as a few of my nicer shrimps popped in there as an insurance policy.

 

The dividers will have no windows with mesh - I will just have 2mm acrylic dividers but with a gap at the bottom of 3cm and a 5cm layer of fairly chunky dark gravel either side of that spanning out 10cm and then a shallower later of either buffering substrate or plain old pool filter sand depending on the tank.

 

I hope that should provide enough circulation. There will be a total of about 400-600 lph of airflow going into the sponges to circulate each tank.

 

I've attached the rough plan for the LEDs here now. The electronics side of it will probably be finished soon. Things are really moving pretty quickly can't wait till the rest of the tanks are ready.

 

Shrimps I will keep

 

(What I already have) -

Blue dream

Blue body red rili (work in progress)

Yellow cherry

Bloody Mary

Crs

Green babaulti

Blue dream

Tangerine tiger

 

Shrimps I would like to add -

Shadow panda

Caridina zebra

Sulawesi cardinal

Mid-dark blue oebt

 

Inverts I have but have not made allowance for (mainly because I don't want to put massive tanks in this room where I'm not sure the floor might cave in and as a result will need to beg the minister of finance to allow me to have 2 tanks in the lounge again) -

Macrobrachium Australianese

Yabbies (cherax destructor)

 

At this point without naming anyone because the list would be too long I'd like to thank all of the wonderful people in the shrimp keeping community who have helped me to get to the point I'm at now i have learnt a lot in the last 2 and a half years or so since I first signed up on skf. You all know who you are - thank you !!![emoji173] [emoji173] [emoji173] 6065bfbf66daa380234b84c6567e67f5.jpg

 

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will

 

 

 

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Some of the aquarium dividers are installed and I'm pretty happy with how they are looking. We've used some small PVC tube with a slot cut in the middle to anchor and support the 2mm acrylic sheet as well as using the little plastic clips at the top (they came with the aquariums as supports for the lid). We have left a gap of around 23mm at the bottom and i will layer it up high with some fairly chunky gravel in the middle where the divisions are to allow enough flow to keep WP fairly well matched in both sections.

LED controller has been built and we
Have also finished 3/4 draining and moving out all of the smaller tanks into the room next door while we install shelving and modify the built in robe. Tanks have been filled back up with fresh remineralised RO and the shrimps seem to have handled the move OK and I haven't detected any spikes in parameters. Some shrimps in my yellow colony seem a little paler than I had thought but I think they'll bounce back alright.c962a6d143dd42240fa2d1831ce0fdcc.jpgc63bcd6bfc8ec923863f957a83e75fae.jpg

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will

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  • 2 weeks later...

Influenza just recently and before that some other personal anf health issues have got in the way I'm sad to say. It will get there though; hopefully this coming weekend tanks will go on tables.

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will

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Time for a "mess" update. Finally getting stuck into it again. Have removed the built in robe and dividers are nearly all done. Shrimps have been doing pretty well in their new temporary accommodation in the adjacent room. Still have to shift the big tank out, fix up the wall and floor etc where the BIR was, then the benches and shelves etc can come in and it will really start coming together. aa7e592b5309d3a8ec5962e545527544.jpg08b6eddf6d0cb267b141bfc17bbfd4d7.jpg

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will

Time for a "mess" update. Finally getting stuck into it again. Have removed the built in robe and dividers are nearly all done. Shrimps have been doing pretty well in their new temporary accommodation in the adjacent room. Still have to shift the big tank out, fix up the wall and floor etc where the BIR was, then the benches and shelves etc can come in and it will really start coming together. aa7e592b5309d3a8ec5962e545527544.jpg08b6eddf6d0cb267b141bfc17bbfd4d7.jpg

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will


Thanks for following the encouragement is really appreciated !

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will

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BIR?

Built in robe. There was a secret door behind it which will allow me to go outside to dump water in the garden easily among other things :-) and it enables me to squeeze in a comfy little two seater couch to hang out and chill in when the weather is too hot.

 

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will

 

 

 

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Moved the 4ft with bloody Mary, crs and green babaulti today. :-) drained very low then moved it with the table. Left the air sponges in a bucket with some aeration to keep them happy while the tank is currently slowly refilling. I contemplated using@fishmosy glad wrap method to keep biofilm alive on the walls but I'm around the house so I'm just splashing them every hour or so.

Ive kept and added back a small amount of the old water and will allow the proper 75% waterchange to take about 8 hours to complete for the comfort of the shrimps. It's a jungle in there at the moment !025426021302e80d0642a4065ce28163.jpg3d84e07cf64ee0ba1438cfa52b722bae.jpg

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will

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Well done looking great

 

Sent from my HUAWEI Y360-U72 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thankyou!

 

Still progressing slowly it will be late in the year by the time everything is up and running and ready for shrimps to move in. Thought I might randomly share some shrimp porn from the last few days random pics. Also pictured is a friendly bluetongue that got trapped in my pond I had to rescue just recently. :-) natives.f0c6aaf9bd33a8012c32697eb987f95c.jpg2d6f4c33552c2b94a093694d82a4a77f.jpgbad4d41e588f9689305f02f401a759b6.jpge3f30ee45df0e2247c02c2eee1671d33.jpg

 

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will

0796b99e8c53df8aeb853a16496010d8.jpg2d44a0205de3d690d10fa8252ad90bbf.jpg42632d59bc6601afe9d2bf9f4776d34d.jpg2ac8ec667f0020f025d9aad2901c5c53.jpge00072643f3bc5945a50c55f1ec196ea.jpg

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Looking awesome. How tricky/easy are green babaulti compared to the others in your experience? I am looking at getting them at some stage when I see them available.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Looking awesome. How tricky/easy are green babaulti compared to the others in your experience? I am looking at getting them at some stage when I see them available.
 
 
Hey sorry I missed this post. They have been a little stubborn to be sure. But not impossible. I'm still experimenting I have a few in bee WP and a few in with neos. I have had no problems with them mating but very limited juvenile survival; in fact none at all as yet in the neo tank and only a handful in the tank with crs.

I wouldn't read into my experiences too much I haven't been very consistent with my shrimp maintenance and tank conditions at times this year.

The person I got them from said they were keeping them with bee shrimps but their colony got wiped out not much later. From what I know there aren't many people having success with them in Australia (if any anymore !) Must be the genetics that was brought in because the babaulti lines in the U.S. seem to be very prolific and quite hardy.

Love and peace

Will

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  • 1 month later...

Finally an update. We're just about there at last after a lot of delay(s).

 

Since I last posted we've stripped the built in robe and repainted the room and patched up miscellaneous holes etc. We've added a hole through the wall in the corner with a pipe that I can use to conveniently drain my water changes directly to a reservoir outside. I've just been putting together the mounts for the LED today (PVC stormwater pipes) and also connecting and fixing the main airlines to the walls and shelving - one section needs to be finished where it runs along the ceiling to the two middle display tanks.

 

The tanks are all washed out and ready to go and I hope to have them filled and cycling within the next few days.

 

I'm pretty happy with how it is looking it should make for a pleasant room to be in. I still need to find a comfortable couch for the empty space along the back wall and arrange to print out some large pictures of my best shrimp to decorate the room. I also have some bamboo material I will wrap around the black legs in the middle of the table to improve the appearance of the display setup there.

 

All in all there is 8x50cm long, 4x60cm long as well as 2x40cm cubes for display in the middle and a 60cm cube for display in the far corner next to the couch. All of the tanks have a division in the middle except for the biggest cube.

 

I'll update again very soon :-)

 

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Will06e3576f54e25185b35c0d94cdfe4262.jpg

 

Love and peace

 

Will

 

 

 

 

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