Thanks for replying. I know what you mean about breeding, I started off with about 10 and was soon (couple of months) over 100, and  I am sure that would have kept going up if the tank could  have supported more??? I don't see any reason that it wouldn't work with bee shrimps if it is working so well for your cherry shrimp. Obviously the parameters are different but if you are managing to keep the cherry tanks stable I don't see why the bee would be any different, although they are a lot harder to keep! Worth a try though unless someone says otherwise? I shall certainly follow this with some interest. Simon 

Hi Simon, NO, I wasn't using a buffering substrate previously in the neo tanks, it was just some white gravel that I had laying around. It had originally been in a fish tank some years ago, so it wasn't new when I put it into the neo tank. It started to break down just because of age, and my GH, and subsequently TDS, were rising out of control. JayC talked me through a rebuild with a bare floor. It has worked so well that when I set up more neo tanks I just made them bare as well. Like I said, I wouldn't go back. The little buggers are breeding like crazy, I have a very high baby survival rate and almost no deaths. Under my particular water conditions, it works great ... for neo caridinas. Now I want to do the same with caridinas, but not sure if there's more to a buffering substrate that I don't know about. Hopefully someone out there will be able to help me (and you) with the answers :)  

A very good question and one I will follow with much interest as I had a similar question a year ago in that would I need to replace the substrate when it stopped buffering with my Taiwan bee tank if all the water I use has the right parameters. Unfortunately I don't know the answer in my case as my heater stuck on and killed all my shrimps off so I am starting again, though I still wonder about the same issue, though I should have at least a year before the new substrate stops buffering.  A lot of big breeding companies that have hundreds or thousands of shrimp (cherry and bee) in each tank (big tanks admittedly) use bare tanks (for obvious conveniences) so I am guessing it will be ok! Hopefully someone who has done it may get back to this thread, but otherwise I would give it a go with a few, especially if you have a spare small tank etc and see how it goes? If you used buffering substrate before but were using RO mineralised water of ideal PH did you have a problem once the substrate lost its buffering ability? I am/was hoping that the substrate buffering wasn't really needed if the water going into the tank is always around PH 5 or 6?  Simon

So here's the thing. I've got 6 bare-bottom neo tanks that have been chugging along just fine for quite a while now. There are lots of babies and it's extremely rare to have any deaths, even when I add new shrimp.  I use remineralised rain water that has been filtered through an RO. I stopped using substrates in the tanks after I had ongoing issues with it breaking down, and to be honest, I wouldn't go back. Now I want to start some caridina tanks for tangerine tigers, CRS and blue bolts but want to know if I can get away with bare bottoms in them too. My RO filtered rain water comes out at pH 5, and when I add Salty Shrimp 'Bee shrimp' minerals to give me a GH of 5, the pH goes up to around 5.8. Do I really need the buffering affects of a substrate if my water is already within an acceptable range for caridinas? 

It must have been an aluminium heatsink. The Indium in Liquid metal will eat through aluminium. Only copper or nickel plated heatsinks can be used with liquid metal. It says so on the packet, at least my pack of Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut does.