Welcome Ghandi_bl

[Ghandi_bl]

Shrimp Keepers Forum welcomes Ghandi_bl.

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skfadmin

[Ghandi_bl]

Hi everyone!
My name is Anja, and I live in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm not new in fishkeeping, although I've never had shrimps. I want to set up a tank for them in March, so I've signed up here to lean about their needs before that. 
Right now, I have a 40l tank with Gymnocorymbus Ternetzi, and one 250l tank that is unfortunately still empty (don't have enough money right now for equipment, but I plan to make it a Southamerican biotope with Pterophyllum Scalare once I collect enough money for that). 

Here's the picture of my 40l tank :) 

edit - picture is taken before I put fish in it, so that's why they can't be seen 
 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Ghandi_bl

[sdlTBfanUK]

Welcome to the forum!

What size of shrimp aquarium are you planning?  The  most important thing is what kind of shrimp you plan on keeping, neocaridina (cherry) are simpler than the Caridina, both have different water requirements so that will be your starting point?

Simon

[Ghandi_bl]

Thank you!
It's so nice to see an active forum these days.

I have one empty small tank, will measure it later, I'm not sure how big it is. 
I'm thinking red cherry (it's the only species I can buy here, and based on my recent research, it should be good species to start with). I'll start a new topic here when I measure that tank, because I have so many questions about setup and everything needed for shrimps to thrive.

[jayc]

Welcome Anja.

Nice tank.

Don't forget to cover up the filter inlet with a prefilter sponge or floss before you put shrimps in there.

5 hours ago, Ghandi_bl said:

I'll start a new topic here when I measure that tank, because I have so many questions about setup and everything needed for shrimps to thrive.

Good on ya for researching before jumping to getting shrimp.

As with a fish tank, the most important start is to understand the Nitrogen cycle and make sure you cycle your new tank properly before adding any shrimp or fish.

Just letting a tank run for 1 month, doesn't mean it is cycled. ?

[sdlTBfanUK]

The cherry shrimp are a good place to start and the easiest to keep. All shrimp are a bit more difficult to keep than fish.

Full marks for doing your research in advance and hopefully that way we can guide you through the process successfully? 

If you have the usual test kits, PH, GH, KH, TDS can you test your tap water so we can see whether you can use that or not?

Simon

Edited February 11, 2021 by sdlTBfanUK

[Ghandi_bl]

Thank you!

17 hours ago, jayc said:

Don't forget to cover up the filter inlet with a prefilter sponge or floss before you put shrimps in there.

 

That's a good point, I would never think of that. So, that's a must, even if I don't have a strong filter? 
Filter I plan to use in this new tank is Atman HF-0100 (water flow is 150l/h and it has a valve, so it can be reduced).

 

17 hours ago, jayc said:

As with a fish tank, the most important start is to understand the Nitrogen cycle and make sure you cycle your new tank properly before adding any shrimp or fish.

 

I do understand the Nytrogen cycle and it's importance, so couple months ago (when the idea of keeping shrimps came to my head) I added that filter to my main tank. I thought, since I already have a healthy running tank, why wouldn't I cycle new filter material in it, before I set up the new one. (I hope you understand what I mean, English is not my native language). 
And I'm thinking to use some of the water from my tank (and maybe even some of the gravel) when I set up the new one, to speed things a bit, if that's okay for the shrimps

 

 

7 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Full marks for doing your research in advance and hopefully that way we can guide you through the process successfully? 

 

That's what I was hoping for, thank you

 

7 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

If you have the usual test kits, PH, GH, KH, TDS can you test your tap water so we can see whether you can use that or not?

 

I have pH and KH test by JBL (unfortunately I can't buy any tests here, and with COVID situation, I can't travel to get them somewhere else either). So here's the parameters of my tap water: pH=7,5 and carbonate hardness is °dKH=6. I hope that information is helpful.

[sdlTBfanUK]

That KH is a bit high, were you hoping to use tap water, or do you use RO water with the other tanks?

Might you be able to get test kits through the post?

I also put sponges in an established tank to start some bacteria on them. The gravel is a good idea as well with cherry shrimps!

Simon

[Ghandi_bl]

I was going to use tap water, as I already use it with my other tank. Unfortunately, I don't have RO system, but perhaps I could use some distilled water to bring down KH?

 

I'll check the internet for TDS and GH test.

[Crabby]

7 hours ago, Ghandi_bl said:

That's a good point, I would never think of that. So, that's a must, even if I don't have a strong filter? 
Filter I plan to use in this new tank is Atman HF-0100 (water flow is 150l/h and it has a valve, so it can be reduced).

Definitely a must... shrimp are curious fellows, they love swimming into open filters! You can sometimes find sponge or mesh covers for filter inlets, but filter floss will work just as well. 

7 hours ago, Ghandi_bl said:

And I'm thinking to use some of the water from my tank (and maybe even some of the gravel) when I set up the new one, to speed things a bit, if that's okay for the shrimps

If your other tank has good water, that's a great idea. I use water from my south american tank (which is quite soft, with a low pH) for my water changes on my shrimp tank. You just need to drip the water very very slowly to make sure the shrimp adjust well. That's a way that people can sometimes accidentally kill shrimplets.
Using the same gravel would be super good, to boost your beneficial bacteria.

7 hours ago, Ghandi_bl said:

I do understand the Nytrogen cycle and it's importance, so couple months ago (when the idea of keeping shrimps came to my head) I added that filter to my main tank. I thought, since I already have a healthy running tank, why wouldn't I cycle new filter material in it, before I set up the new one. (I hope you understand what I mean, English is not my native language). 

That's going to give you a huge head start, good thinking. And your English is really good!

6 hours ago, Ghandi_bl said:

I was going to use tap water, as I already use it with my other tank. Unfortunately, I don't have RO system, but perhaps I could use some distilled water to bring down KH?

I think distilled water should be fine.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Your best starting point would be to get the full set of test kits, for you that would be GH & TDS (as you have the PH and KH already) as if you are needing to work on the water it will be best to get that done and steady before you get the shrimps!

As crabby states above you can use distilled water. or consider a zerowater filter jug which you can probably get on the internet delivered to you (they usually come with a TDS meter). I don't know which method would work better or be the most financially suitable where you live? The zerowater or distilled water will mean you need to add shrimp minerals back to the water but starting with tds 000 water and adding the minerals is by far the safest way to go and not as fussy as it may sound as the shrimp mineral products will create the perfect balance/proportion of all the parameters!

Simon

[Ghandi_bl]

Thank you both. 

For the filter pipe problem, I do have some extra filter sponge, so I'll try to fix that on the end of the pipe, thanks for suggestion. 

I just ordered TDS meter online, it should be here in week or two. Didn't find GH test that can be shipped here yet, but I'll look again in few days (seller that is willing to ship is out of stock right now). 

 

Distilled water is cheaper option (at least at the moment). I do have a water filter in my fridge, maybe that could be okay to use instead of the filter jug? Here is the link with specs of that fridge filter https://www.samsung.com/nz/home-appliance-accessories/refrigerators-filter-hafin2-hafin2-exp/

 

BTW, I just measured the tank I have. Dimensions are 35cm (l) x 18cm (w) x 24,5cm (h), water level would be at 22cm. So the volume is about 13,5l. Is that too small? 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Ghandi_bl

[Crabby]

If it’s only for shrimp, it isn’t too small, but you’ll just have to be very careful to keep the water parameters stable. 
 

[sdlTBfanUK]

My Taiwan bees started off in a 15L and did extremely well, in fact too well so within a few months I got a 35L setup!

When you get the TDS meter, try testng distilled water, it should be pure water in which case TDS 000, KH 0, PH below 7 etc, GH 0. If it is then you can just use it as you would RO, which will require getting GH/KH+ shrimp minerals. 

Simon

Edited February 11, 2021 by sdlTBfanUK

[Crabby]

Simon, do you know whether there would be potential in mixing tap and distilled water? Or do the shrimp remineralisers contain ingredients that tap water wouldn’t necessarily have?

[sdlTBfanUK]

I do that with my really old tank that has tetras and red cherry shrimp, with tap water and Brita filtered water. I do 50/50, though I can't really remember why I started doing it at the start, but have always done it so I continue to do it just because verything is fine so why change it. 

It is one of those things you may want to try, only with neocaridina (cherry) shrimp though? Mix 1L of each together and see what parameters you get, and you can always alter the proportions of each to get nearer the parameters you want/seek. You may find that some parameters are out of line though, we find that here in UK as we are mostly on limestone so it is unusual for us to get KH and GH both in the right range, I am lucky here as our area is mostly peat.

Of coarse tap water is probably likely to change in time/season (ours does certainly here) and you don't know what is in tap water as such so there is an element of risk, but certainly I would give it a go with some cheap or poor quality cherry shrimp first! It is worth a try as it will make it easy and cheap to get the water, but IT IS POSSIBLE even if the TDS/GH/KH are all in the right parameters that it won't work as your tap water (dechlorinated) is something you don't know what it has in it, or in what proportions.

Using RO water with shrimp minerals will mean you know that your shrimps have exactly what they need in the best proportions, even though you probably don't know what is in it as the manufaturers want to keep that to themselves?

When I first tried crystal shrimp I used tap water through a brita filter but it never worked despite the parameters all being perfect, but those caradina shrimp are more sensitive to water and parameters.

Simon

Edited February 6, 2021 by sdlTBfanUK

[Ghandi_bl]

I had an exam today, so I haven't been active these days. 

Crabby, I plan to keep only shrimp in that tank, so I'm glad that you think it could work. Maybe I even decide to get something bigger for them down the road. 

Simon, I got TDS meter today and here's the result for tap water. To be honest, I have no idea where to get shrimp minerals, so I really hope these parameters are good. 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Ghandi_bl

[sdlTBfanUK]

I hope the exam went well!

TDS of 164 would be fine, PH 7.5 is the upper limit and KH 6 is well over?

Personally, I would get all the readings you can for the 3 different water sources and write them on something and then we know what we aredealing with and whether we can mix/match a variety. The sources being, Tap water, Fridge (filtered) water, and distilled water! You shouldn't really need to do distilled water but I would just as a double check, if it is what you would expect, you then know and won't need to do that ever again. You can probably get by without the GH test if you can't get that test kit? So do PH, KH, TDS.

I'm sure we can work with what you have (can get or afford) without the need for shrimp minerals if they are hard to get, but there is always some risk that it won't work, but you will only know by trial? Cherry shrimp are the easiest and most adaptable so it is worth having a try!

Simon

 

[Ghandi_bl]

It did, thank you. 
I'll measure those as well, when I come home, and I will get GH test too, the seller I mentioned in some earlier post ordered it already, so we're just waiting it to arrive. Since I'm planning to put some driftwood or maybe even coconut cave in the tank, I guess it will alter pH of water a bit, so I'll check that again when I set up the tank. But I don't think pH is the problem (at least for now), as it can be modified easily if needed. 

 

To be honest, I think the person I intend to get shrimp from doesn't really have any of these tests, and it crossed my mind just to get them (shrimp) and experiment, but I'd rather do everything right from the beginning and try to avoid most of the problems. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Ghandi_bl

[sdlTBfanUK]

Ask the person you plan to get the shrimp from what water they use first?

If they use tap water then you can probably also just go with that if they use the same water??? Cherry shrimp are quite adaptible but if you have the same parameters as the water they lived in before you can't get better/safer than that! 

Simon