Hey :)

[Hammy17]

new to the forum, pretty new to shrimp as well D:

started loving shrimp about 2 years ago now, started with 50 red cherries in a 3ft, nothing fancy, few cheap pet shop plants, over the following couple months of owning the shrimp the plants in that tank went crazy compared to any of my other tanks and the shrimp multiplied considerably, loved watching them grow up and counting all the shrimp :) about 8-9 months after i started that tank i had to move them into a 4ft as there was just so many of them, counted around 500 shrimp that i moved into the new tank, estimated there was at least 10x that many, a few months later i moved to the sunshine coast and had to start from scratch! haven't had much luck since but i've gotten more varieties to play with now, in the process of designing my dream plant/shrimp display set-up :)

- Dean

[wayne6442]

Hi Dean, Welcome to the forum ENJOY!

[Shrimplyf]

Welcome to SKF Dean! :o

[Hammy17]

Thanks Wayne and Shrimplyf :)

[OzShrimp]

welcome to forum dean, look forward to seeing pics :)

[ineke]

Hi Dean sounds like you had a good start with your RCS they are a great shrimp to get you started with shrimp. This forum will open up for you as you post so the more you post the more you see. Heaps to see and learn and lots of friendly people to share your hobby with. Hope you enjoy our forum

[Wraithie]

Welcome dean, where were you before bundy?

do you have any tanks pics you could show us? :)

[Hammy17]

might post some pics now, will see what i can do :)

i noticed that ineke! first time encountering anything like that in a forum, keeps the spammers at bay i suppose? :)

Ahhh... didn't notice how old this account was, tried making an account a couple weeks ago and it told me my email was already in use so i recovered it, never actually made it on until now, not living in Bundaberg anymore, started in Bundy and moved to Caloundra, Wraithie

[Hammy17]

first picture is one of my "golden" shrimp (only have 2 :( ) my better female chocolate and a male chocolate (i got the chocolates as culls from a dark knight colony) you might notice some nice dark babies throughout the pictures ;)

second picture, the most yellow chocolate i have, kind of weird to call it a chocolate considering, but i'm hoping when it breeds i get some unique babies from it :)

close up of the golden

[Wraithie]

Awesome pics! Was the water parameters much different up north perhaps?

as you have noticed the forum opens up as you post more, the other option is to pay for premium membership and open everything straight up ($12.50, required to access the classifieds anyway- great investment!)

this is a vey friendly forum and no question is considered silly so go nuts!

[Squiggle]

Welcome to the forum, definitely the best place for good info. Hope you have as much fun here as we do. :victorious:

[fishmosy]

Hey Dean, welcome to SKF

[Hammy17]

Wraithie - the ph was slightly different i know that much haha, but other then that i can't say much on water parameters, never checked GH or KH or anything, i know you can get the strips but other then those i don't know how to test, and even if i did test i don't know how to change them lol

so only premium members can buy and sell on here? :o might be something worth considering once i've built my set-up :) just been using gumtree to get shrimp lately, not a huge variety but prices aren't too bad :)

[Hammy17]

also while i'm here, could anyone point me in the right direction for the best RO kit on eBay, i see plenty ranging from under $100 to over a thousand, which is the best value for money? :) and also not sure what to add to it exactly or the best place to find it

with the RO i'm assuming it's suitable for human consumption as well? haha, i have a small water purifier that seems similar but pretty sure it's not as thorough with it's filtering as i'm after, any info on the topic is appreciated

[BlueBolts]

My unit is from Filter Australia..they sell their different units via ebay too, and were sponsors for one of our comps here.

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/3091-April-SKF-Competition-Sponsored-by-(-Filter-Systems-Australia-)

Size and cost of the unit depends the volume of RO water you're expecting to extract each week.....drop them an email and confirm your requirements with them, and they can advise accordingly.

Their website also contains all the info you need to know about RO/Di water.... :-)

[Wraithie]

also not sure what to add to it exactly or the best place to find it

Im guessing you mean shrimp minerals? The most popular in this forum are the Salty Shrimp range that Dean from Boss Aquaria sells (he has a forum subsection that links to his site). Depending on what you want to keep primarily there are slightly different minerals for cherries vs bee shrimp (same with substrates).

As far as drinking water goes i would contact Filter Australia, truely pure water (RO/DI) is not great for consumption as it has no minerals in it and will actually end up leeching minerals from your body, they will know more though!

[Hammy17]

hmmm looks like RO can be a bit complicated, i think i'll wait till my set-up is complete before i decide whether to go for it or not, have all the pages saved that i'll need if i decide to go for it though, thanks :)

[Squiggle]

with the RO i'm assuming it's suitable for human consumption as well? haha' date=' i have a small water purifier that seems similar but pretty sure it's not as thorough with it's filtering as i'm after, any info on the topic is appreciated[/quote']

If you want to drink the water you need to get an RO/DI unit that has a switchable alkalizer stage on it as well, if you drink pure RO water the PH can be too low & it's not good for your teeth. The alkalizer stage buffs the water back up to a stable PH of 7 which is ok to drink. :victorious:

[Wraithie]

RO is more daunting than it actually is. I had success with my red cherries in tap water but had to swap for RO when I got some blacks that were slowly dying off due to the tds being too high (supposed to aim for 150-300tds, but the water comes out of our tap >300 :/ )

[Hammy17]

your making it sound worse Wraithie xD

i noticed that little TDS thing for an extra $50 i think it was, i guess it's a necessity? and the fact that the description didn't say much about it put me off lol, have to google it, wikipedia gave me a reasonable idea, but doesn't help me with what TDS level to aim for etc, been working long days lately and trying to learn so much at work (relatively new job) so learning at home just makes me lose interest haha -lazy-

and squiggle... maybe that's why i have bad teeth for some reason, when i was younger i'd drink out of any old tap in parks etc whether they said it was drinkable or not, at any rate that's not shrimp related >_>

[Squiggle]

TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids, it's a measurement of how much impurities & minerals are in your water. Different shrimp require different levels, cherries are about 100-300, CRS/CBS are about 100-150, Taiwan Bee are about 100-150 & Tigers are about the same. This all contributes to the PH, GH & KH, which are all very important parameters for shrimp. :victorious:

*These are just an approximate level & the levels I have had success with, many other members have had success with different levels, this is just what works for me*

[Hammy17]

well at least i have some rough figures to aim for now :) now i saw the TDS measuring thing that you can get to add to an RO filter, but can you get/use them without the RO filter? might be something i invest in before going all out with the filter :)

[Squiggle]

You'll have to check with the manufacturers but I'm pretty sure it won't work, the RO membrane does most of the work(down to about 20-30ppm) & the rest is taken out by the DI(deionization) stage. It would be a good idea for you to get a cheap TDS pen from eBay, they're pretty cheap. :encouragement:

[Hammy17]

thanks, just bought one :) i didn't know such thing existed D: