journal Hexad's Cube Journal

[HexaD]

Just received my oxydator today and thought it would be a good time to start a thread on my tank and it's evolution

So, this is how it all started

Tank

Aquatic Style 40x40x40cm

Substrate

4.5L bags ADA Amazonia 1

Filtration

Kotobuki UGF with ADA rio

Eheim 2213 with substrate pro and mech

Eheim inlet pipe prefilter

Gex HOB Filter with carbon, mineral balls, benibachi balls

Prefilter with filter wool, matrix carbon, purigen and cuprisorb

Lighting

24W PL Clip on Lights

Heater

1x Hydor in-line 200w

1x ADA Glass thermometer

Flora:

US Fissiden

Needle Leaf Java Fern

Subwassertang

Mini Pellia tied to Shirakura Mineral Stones

Fauna

CRS

Oct 2011

Nov 2011

Jan 2012

Feb 2012

Apr 2012

May 2012

June 2011

[HexaD]

After a lot of twist and turns, the current setup is

Filtration

Kotobuki UGF with ADA rio

Sponge Filter

Eheim inlet pipe prefilter

Fluval G3 mineral balls, benibachi balls

Prefilter with filter wool, matrix carbon, purigen and cuprisorb

Others

Hydor in-line 200w

ADA Glass thermometer

JBJ Mini Arctica Chiller

Aquazonic UV

5 stage RO unit with Micro Computer + TDS from Guppies Aquarium

Oxydator

In the end, I just gave up on scaping and making my tank look pretty because in the end providing sufficient moss for my shrimplets to hide and more oxygen was my priority

And an image of my larger Cade tank.

[HexaD]

erm... my images are vertical in photobucket but not here... hmmm...

[Loach]

Looking good Daniel,

Really cool to see all the idates like that lol. The stauro in the CADE has grown really well :)

[Foxpuppet]

Inspiring tank journey mate, thanks for sharing. I'm toying with adding a 2213 to my little tank. The hob its got has been running for nearly a year now and has never given me issues, but I'm into over filtering ;)

[Sprae]

Thanks for sharing HexaD. The JBJ Mini-Artica chiller is certainly larger than I thought. What's the pipe/tubing size?

[HexaD]

Looking good Daniel' date=' Really cool to see all the idates like that lol. The stauro in the CADE has grown really well [/quote'] Haha, as you can see, they are all a month apart and I like to fiddle with the scape so much! Maybe that's why I had some deaths here and there and the colony wasn't really building up compared to the 30cm Aquaone cube I used to have. With that one, it was breeding like no tomorrow and all I did was water top ups, hence my new theory now is to leave it ugly and let nature do it's thing! In regards to the Stauro... You will get my first trim this weekend lol! Trust me, over filtering is the way to go! Pristine clear water for our huge investments! But I didn't like the look of HOB, that's why I just went for one G3 which I have been really happy with so far It's one of those where the tubing can fit both 12/16 and 16/22. So did you get your chiller yet Sprae?

[Sprae]

It's one of those where the tubing can fit both 12/16 and 16/22. So did you get your chiller yet Sprae?

Nope. As we're still in winter there's no rush :)

Looking around early next month. Any issues with yours? I'll be powering it with 2213 so 12/16 will be good.

[HexaD]

Any issues with yours? I'll be powering it with 2213 so 12/16 will be good.

Used to have it plugged to a 2213, never had any issues, it powers up once you hit the temp limit you set, and as you might expect, never had it on since winter! Don't you wish online LFS do stock clearance for chillers in winter lol

[Dean]

Wow, what a trip, you changed the tank so many times :) but must admit i like the final look now as it is the best suited for the shrimp by far.

the cade also looks fantastic. :applause:

[HexaD]

Wow' date=' what a trip, you changed the tank so many times :) but must admit i like the final look now as it is the best suited for the shrimp by far.

the cade also looks fantastic. :applause:[/quote']

Thanks Dean, I think I've been good suppressing the urge so far to make anymore changes. Guess the less I dip my hands into the tank, the less likelihood it might get polluted with misc stuff! Honestly, I would be the first to admit that I am not having much luck with the 40cm cube.

I kinda regret not using the Cade to house my best shrimp, as the culls are breeding well despite living with pygmy cories, cardinals and rasboras, and living in water temp of 27c with no additives, just pure tap water with prime.

So coming from experience, for those new comers, please go straight with a larger tank instead of a smaller tank if you can afford it!

[Sprae]

So coming from experience' date=' for those new comers, please go straight with a larger tank instead of a smaller tank if you can afford it![/quote']

Hear! hear! One of my biggest noob mistake with going nano...

[HexaD]

So after speaking to Gbang last weekend, I realized that my TDS/EC was out of whack and might explain why I've been having no luck with my breeding. I don't have a TDS meter lol and all I have is the Fluval G3 which monitors EC and I have never checked it from inception. It was showing 407 last week

And for those interested, Fluval G series EC reading can be found here http://www.fluval-g.com/ecsystem_e.php

My sensei recommended that I should adjust the EC until it reaches the 100-200 mark and then just do top ups with the salty shrimp bee mix. He suggested that I took all the shrimp out and do a 60% change and reacclimate them back in. However being the lazy person I am, I chose to the lazy path and have been doing 10L water changes with pure RO water every night instead of one whole go. Over 10 days I have managed to bring it down to around the 270 mark.

I did a bit of reading on the internet and it seems like EC and TDS is two different things (EC v TDS reading found here http://www.tdsmeter.com/faqs/#ec-parameter). Is there good EC figure that I should be aiming for as I dont have a TDS pen?

Also, I am pretty sure that the shirakura mineral and benibachi balls are playing some part in raising the EC readings once I do water change. Should I remove them since I will be using the salty shrimp bee mix going forward?

And would doing so many water changes everyday until it reaches the desired mark affect the shrimp health?

[HexaD]

Hear! hear! One of my biggest noob mistake with going nano...

lol Sprae YNWA, and it proves that you and I weren't alone in making this mistake!

[Sprae]

I'm keen to understand EC too. I've ordered a couple quality meters and EC is one of those.

[Sprae]

lol Sprae YNWA

Liverpool fan? ;)

[HexaD]

Liverpool fan? ;)

Yes hahaha LFC for life, saw that you are one too in the other thread, can't wait for the season to start! havent been this excited since Torres came on board

[Sprae]

Yes hahaha LFC for life' date=' saw that you are one too in the other thread, can't wait for the season to start! havent been this excited since Torres came on board[/quote']

Why do you think I keep CRS and red cherries? Red wine is next on the list ;)

This season will be Day 0 for LFC... Not sure where we'd end up

[HexaD]

Small update, I had another small change to the tank due to having huge amounts of shrimp death of 2 successive months, losing up to 70% of my colony

And having numerous amounts of SS and SSS die on me....................... This was just after venturing into them less than half a year ago!

The SSS I bought from a certain ex AL member was just pure crap although they didn't come cheap, so I didn't mind losing them

vs what was advertised.

ARGH.

The ones that really broke my heart were the awesome little lips that I got from Bluebolt a while ago, also on AL. Seeing the amount of money and effort invested in going up in smoke just made me to leave the shrimp hobby not to mention the $1,200 AGL bill I had to cough up for the winter quarter!

After some deep thoughts, I could only come up with the following reasons,

1. EC - Adjusting it from 480 to 200

2. Overfeeding - Although I only feed once a week, I still see a planaria once a while and now doze No Planaria once a week

3. GHKH - But I use RO water and Salty Shrimp Mix to buffer it up

4. Water quality - Maybe getting some bacteria contamination or Metal substance(?)

5. Overcrowded - I had approx 70 shrimp in a 40cm cube

6. Tank size - It is only a 40cm cube and sceptible to parameter changes

7. Nitrates - I certainly have been lazy in not checking but I am feeding only once a week and I have G4, UGF, Oxydator and Sponge Filter

8. G3 - Not cleaning the filters after the alarms went off and are overdue

So I stripped the tank down to bare minimum and see how I went. So a fortnight later, i am still losing one every 2-3 days. I am really at wits end here, just what is going on?

Now I am thinking of upgrading to 2 ft tank. If I used Benibachi soil, would I be able to detach the G3 for the new tank to help with the cycling, and leave the UGF and sponge filter to provide filtration for the cube with the remaining shrimps till the new tank is ready? Or should I just try and reboot my 40cm cube from scratch instead?

[Sprae]

That's terrible news mate. Hope you can sort it out soon.

Here's my 2 cents;

- 1 feed a week maybe too little and they're starving to death?

- The change from 480 EC to 200 EC might be too much. How long did it take to lower to 200?

- Filter cleaning and maintenance shouldn't be a big issue as you have 3 filters going.

- What are your water parameters?

- Are all the dead shrimps of similar age? Remember that as they hatch around the same time, they would die around the same time too.

[emboli]

Wow that is a huge difference pictures! They look so solid in the advert!

Are they the same shrimp?!

Regarding the shrimp deaths; I would immediately test all parameters as it may be something as simple you might have overlooked.

It takes a lot to kill 70% of a colony.

[HexaD]

- 1 feed a week maybe too little and they're starving to death? - The change from 480 EC to 200 EC might be too much. How long did it take to lower to 200? - Filter cleaning and maintenance shouldn't be a big issue as you have 3 filters going.- What are your water parameters?- Are all the dead shrimps of similar age? Remember that as they hatch around the same time' date=' they would die around the same time too.[/quote']It took about 2-3 weeks for the drop, I just kept doing pure RO water changes till I got down to 200 and now just top up with water + salty shrimp mix. All my shrimps are not even reaching full adult size before dying off... Is it the RO water? Is it the G3? Everything was breeding fine while I was still using Eheims and before I switched to my RO unit, only difference is the colors would be bad but at least they still breedI assume not, asked him numerous times for pics before sending it out so I could give him the benefit of the doubt but he just ignored my request and kept saying he was too busy. Then few days later, he conveniently puts up videos and photos on his FS threads at even better prices. I told him I wasn't happy upon receiving them, but I said I'll give it a month for them to acclimatize. It never happened and he said he would give me some SSS culls to make up for the bad experience. Again, waited for 2 months and heard nothing from him despite me emailing him. So, not like I named and shamed him on AL, I just posted on my journal saying I was upset with the quality I bought of a seller and reminded people to be aware and ask for photos before buying shrimps, he then got all mad and agitated, again conveniently replying my email within 12 hours after I posted on my thread. Saying that I was scamming him and part of a group of people who has an "agenda" against him. Again promised me SSS culls to keep my mouth shut, and another 3 months later, nothing eventuates. Not like I expected anything from him anyways. Worse shrimp keeping experience of my life till date.Another day another death, another solid S gradeReally fed up, I think I will just buy the Cade and go back to fish/low grades and plants.

[Sprae]

I think the drop from 480 to 200 EC in 3 weeks is a bit tough. I'm trying to lower 360 to 200 across 3-4 months. But then again that's my 2 cents.

I've been on RO for months now and no real problems. My shrimps are still breeding well.

Dont' let the losses get you down HexaD! YNWA!!!

[lachie1998]

Sorry to hear Hexad :sorrow:

Thats a very nice tank dont take it down , just wait till things have settled down and then restock it. Dont give up, thats part of the chalenge keeping these shrimp unfortunatly:mad:

[Gbang]

don't give up duuuuude!!! we all have our bad days. you will get there, just keep updating us and we will all try our best to help. sometimes the older shrimps are just used to the old parameters and can't adapt to the new one. don't worry once the rest settle, they will bloom again. just takes time.