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My racks and shrimp collection


alvinchan80

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Greetings to all fellow shrimp keepers and breeders in OZ and the world... I have been keeping shrimps for about 2~3 years... started off with Cherry, Sakura.. and jumped on to CRS and CBS.. Had a taste of keeping Black King Kong (just 1pc) but ended up in failure because keeping them was so hard initially..

After that, I had a big jump into having a 6 tanks (each 60cm x 35cm x 30cm) rack which filtration is using a sump and each individual tank has 2 air sponge filters and 1 bottle of K1 media to provide extra filtration, and I am also pumping in air via EHEIM air diffuser to each of these tank.. This is the rack which I started off with and right now I am still using it to house my PRL (Pure Red Line) of 2 different bloodline.

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And recently I have started another rack which I have bought off another hobbyist who is temporary stopping. This rack, each tank is 120cm x 40cm x 30cm. But this filtration is totally different from my first rack.. For this rack, I am running 1xPre-filter (packed with just wool) + EHEIM 2026 + EHEIM 2217 + EHEIM 2215 per tank. (meaning I have 2 Prefilters and 6 canisters under my rack.. haha)

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For setting up, can say that right now I 'swear by' ADA New Amazonia soil.. No doubt it takes a long time to cycle and somehow it has been a very stable soil if the tank matures. In order to enhance the bacteria during cycling, I use Prodibio Biodigest.. Somehow this little vial of liquid bacteria hasten my cycling by almost half.. (Normally a full cycle takes 4~6 weeks, but mine, I introduce shrimps after the 2nd week)

Here are some of my shrimps photos to show.. Hope to hear some comments and feedbacks from all fellow shrimp keepers.. Thank you...

The PRLs...

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The Black King Kongs..

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Sorry that some of the photos are not very well taken as they are taken with iPhone. I will try to post more photos as time comes as I have yet to take photos of my PBL (Pure Black Line)..

Enjoy and thank you...

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Wow that's awesome love the blue on the shrimps!! Thanks for sharing, what's the water parameters??

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wow thanks for sharing heaps alvin! they are spectacular!!! any tips for us "aussie cavemen?"

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Beautiful, they seem to like the barley straw .Looking forward to the PBL

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Wow that's awesome love the blue on the shrimps!! Thanks for sharing' date=' what's the water parameters??[/quote']Thank you for the compliments.. I love those blue based pandas and hinomaru too.. It's has been awhile since I have measured my parameters though.. What I do is that once my set up finished cycling and I check my PH, GH and TDS "one last time".. After that I don't check PH and GH (until something happens.. Haha) Just use a TDS pen to make sure my TDS is within my range..let me try to give you the rough parameter which I am providing for all my shrimps at the moment.PH5.7~6.0GH5~7TDS180~220 (I use pretty high TDS for my shrimps)KH (never measure before)Dont say that bro Gbang.. It's not 'caveman' it's just that certain restrictions in OZ... Feel free to ask me anything and I will help.. I am not a guru in everything but if I know and I can help, I will.. :)But what I know is that you need lots of filtration and 'bubbles'.. They love oxygen rich tanks (which is also a problem which will have other issues like BBA growing etc..) My tanks are also somewhat algae infested to a certain extend..Thank you bro mat... They do like to crowd around the barley straw often.. They take quite awhile to actually 'finish up' these.. Haha... Can be a good holiday food for them if shrimp keepers are going on holiday..I will take photos of my PBL tonight and post here tonight or tomorrow.. :)Happy shrimping everyone...
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awesome tanks and love the overkill eheim fest! may i ask what the thing is with lowkeys written on it?

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awesome tanks and love the overkill eheim fest! may i ask what the thing is with lowkeys written on it?

Thanks bro.. I think it's really overkill even for the sump with approx 25L of media.. Haha...

That LowKeys piece is actually an anti ammonia + heavy metals (in water) absorption material.. How well it works I don't know, but it certainly makes photo taking of shrimps easier when they are on it.. It's like a platform where they can 'perform' while I take photo... Hahaha...

Just an add on to my filtration.. I am using EHEIM Substrate Pro, Biohome Plus, Powerhouse Monoballs & Powerhouse Soft in my sump set up.. In my canister set up, I am using EHEIM Substrate Pro, Powerhouse Monoballs & Powerhouse Soft, each media in a canister on their own so just in case if there is any problems with any media, I will just remove that canister and replace.. All canisters are linked with double taps, at any point if I need to wash or service my canister (which I don't really need because only 1 or 2 canisters will be running, others are dummy), I can just disconnect and reconnect again easily.. (but I never wash my canisters at all.. The only thing I will change is the prefilter wool once every... Erm... 3~6 months depending.. Might not even change if shrimps are doing fine..)

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Mate your shrimp are beautiful and look extremely fit. I agree with you about fiddling with your tanks, its a case if it isn't brocken then leave it alone. I think that was why I lost a lot of my CRS/CBS because I fiddled too much.

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Mate your shrimp are beautiful and look extremely fit. I agree with you about fiddling with your tanks' date=' its a case if it isn't brocken then leave it alone. I think that was why I lost a lot of my CRS/CBS because I fiddled too much.[/quote']Thank you for your compliments..i was just like every hobbyist before.. Want the tank to be nice, want it planted, want it to have good scape.. But it just doesn't work that way for keeping and breeding shrimps.. Seen and been to a few overseas Breeder's tanks.. They all look algae infested.. I felt that mine is already very not so 'ugly' actually... Hahaha..Just keep in mind that once tank is stable, just don't do anything to it.. Even sudden washing of all the sponges for those sponge filters.. I just did that last week out of impulse and I lost some juvenile shrimps throughout the week.. But lesson learnt again for me and everyone.. :)Thank you so much... ;)
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Hi Alvin, great setup mate and some beautiful shrimp you have there :)

what are you using to stop the shrimp from going in the overflow ?

do you find the tanks with sponge/canister work better or the tanks with overflow to sump?

thanks for sharing mate and glad to see you here :victorious:

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Hi Alvin' date=' great setup mate and some beautiful shrimp you have there :)

what are you using to stop the shrimp from going in the overflow ?

do you find the tanks with sponge/canister work better or the tanks with overflow to sump?

thanks for sharing mate and glad to see you here :victorious:[/quote']

Thank you boss dean for your compliments.. It's a great honor to have your compliments.. :)

I am using a marine grade stainless steel mesh (very fine holes that shrimplets won't go through) to cover the overflow pipe.. But because it is horizontal to the water surface, I would need to do regular brushing using a toothbrush or even replacing with another set of mesh (I have 3 sets in case..)

Between the overflow sump set up, there has to be modifications to be done.. Firstly, my top tank's water will not affect the tank below it because my overflow pipes are align vertically down.. Which means the top tank's water will overflow directly down to the sump, every individual tank's overflowed water will go to the sump without affecting tanks below.. But the fallback will be that the pump that is pushing water out has to be split into 6 outlets (6 tanks) which greatly reduced the flowrate and I need to have taps/valves to tweak the flow to be balance between the 6 tanks.. Each tank in the sump has sponge filters and K1 to improve the filtration for the sump set up..

As for the canister set up, it is more straightforward due to the canister filter being a pressure forcing water through all the media in the canister (or canisters) it is more efficient.. And I also added sponge filters also to increase more bacteria and filtration to individual partition.. It's just plain overkill I think..

I think both has their pros and cons.. But I like the sump set up because there are lots of tweaks and modifications to play with and improve.. But canisters is just straight forward (and efficient).. Since I have 2 different set ups now, so I play with both to see which is better..

Wil try to upload more photos sooner to show but I am more used to using Tapatalk software which can load photos directly from my phone. This forum is unable to use Tapatalk so please forgive me and give me some time to upload.. :)

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The setup and shrimp are amazing! You have done an amazing job Alvin!

PS, do you know RonWill from Green Chapter over there?

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The setup and shrimp are amazing! You have done an amazing job Alvin!

PS' date=' do you know RonWill from Green Chapter over there?[/quote']

Thank you so much..

Its an ever learning process in shrimps keeping.. Spent quite a big on the initial breeding shrimps also had lots of casualties and mistakes.. Then I spend again.. But I think shrimp keeping is about how to improvise and improve.. If one failure and we give up.. There goes the passion for the hobby.. I don't know how long this hobby will last for me but I will try to persist on.. My main objective now is to try to refine better quality of PRL and PBL from what I have.. Then trying to breed out more KK hinomaru or even try for KK mosura if I am lucky..

Yeah.. I know RonWill... Uncle Ronnie from GC.. Used to drop by the shop and have some smoking and chit chat session with him.. But right now I don't have much time to drop by due to family commitments..

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Great to see this thread here Alvin and I can learn from you too. I'm all for overkill filtering ;)

How did you find the room in Singapore homes for a large shrimp rack? I've got friends there and their apartments aren't the biggest in the world.

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Great to see this thread here Alvin and I can learn from you too. I'm all for overkill filtering ;)

How did you find the room in Singapore homes for a large shrimp rack? I've got friends there and their apartments are the biggest in the world.

Thanks for introduction bro Sprae.. We all learn from each other.. That should be the way to sustain a hobby I guess..

Well, actually I have a small area in my house just for my racks.. And I have a place for 1 more 3ft rack I think.. But I won't be doing anything for time being.. This hobby is not cheap.. Soil alone is killing me and not to mention the media and equipments.. Haha.. Right now the 2 racks are chiller run, but next week that area will be air conditioned.. Decided to give up using chiller and opt for aircon... Partitioning up my shrimp area and installing aircon, it will be my personal space where my wife and daughter won't disturb me.. (hope my wife is not reading this forum... Hahaha..)

Next time if any OZ hobbyist is coming to Singapore, feel free to let me know.. I can be a host and bring you guys around the LFS and plant farms.. Maybe pop by my place to have a chat.. Maybe wine session.. Haha.. Always welcome fellow hobbyist from overseas.. :p :)

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Next time if any OZ hobbyist is coming to Singapore' date=' feel free to let me know.. I can be a host and bring you guys around the LFS and plant farms.. Maybe pop by my place to have a chat.. Maybe wine session.. Haha.. Always welcome fellow hobbyist from overseas.. :p :)[/quote']

I'll remember this offer ;)

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It has been awhile since I update photos.. Gotten some time last night to take some photos to share... Sorry for bad photos..

PRL:

IMG_0294.jpgIMG_0299.jpgIMG_0302.jpg

PBL:

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Flowerhead (passed from a good friend who stopped this hobby for awhile..):

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King Kong and Blue Bolt:

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Enjoy fellow hobbyist...

Happy Shrimping~~ :)

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wow! when i was setting up a CRS tank in KL for my mom earlier this year and I found it so hard to source any KKs and BBs, you could only get it from SG (the benibachi shop).

And just for reference guys, a SSS in KL cost approx rm70 (aud22 ea) ea. you can get 50 ss for rm500 (aud3 ea)

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wow! when i was setting up a CRS tank in KL for my mom earlier this year and I found it so hard to source any KKs and BBs' date=' you could only get it from SG (the benibachi shop).

And just for reference guys, a SSS in KL cost approx rm70 (aud22 ea) ea. you can get 50 ss for rm500 (aud3 ea)[/quote']

The cost for these shrimps are dropping... Reasons why i am keeping pure bloodlines is because there is a challenge of refining, improving and most important the satisfaction of the end result of a very high grade shrimp...

Comparing PRL to CRS, a single piece of banded pattern might already be RM70 which is of normal grade... PRL doesn't gauge price by body patterns like A~SSS anymore but more on the thickness and solidness of the colors... Therefore a banded pattern which has very very solid white and red with red legs might cost much more then a hinomaru which doesn't have a good white and red with translucent legs..

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And just for reference guys' date=' a SSS in KL cost approx rm70 (aud22 ea) ea. you can get 50 ss for rm500 (aud3 ea)[/quote']

Nice prices. I'm visiting KL next year, any good shrimp aquarium shops?

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Nice prices. I'm visiting KL next year' date=' any good shrimp aquarium shops?[/quote']

haha.... Bro Sprae, take a 3.5hrs drive to Singapore... I bring you around.... hahahahaha...

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Yes the prices are very good in Singapore. Also pretty good in Japan. Though i think Dean is working down the prices. EG, when i started shrimping a few months ago, a yellow was $50 for a juvie. Now its like $12 each on Bossaquaria lol.

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Yes the prices are very good in Singapore. Also pretty good in Japan. Though i think Dean is working down the prices. EG' date=' when i started shrimping a few months ago, a yellow was $50 for a juvie. Now its like $12 each on Bossaquaria lol.[/quote']

I think Japan prices are still very high... Spoken to a few breeders and the price they given gave me a fall back... But I think for me, Pure Lineages have to view to be sure of what you are paying for because a high grade PRL or PBL can cost SGD2.5k to 3k easily....

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