journal My first rack

[keego]

I'm currently setting up 10 tanks I purchased second hand a couple of months ago. They are 900(L) x 450 (D) X 460(H), pre-drilled with 1 hole in the back. They were from a LFS that closed down and still in the original wrapping. I planning on dividing them into 3 segments. The hole is near the bottom of the tank, so I have decided to patch over the hole, never done before, but been researching how to do it.

So on the weekend, I started on building a timber rack with designs from another forum & also to keep cost down, I can build with timber, but can’t weld, so timber was the obvious choice & cheap. The timber is 90 X45mm The tanks cost me $450 & the timber & fitting $165. Having recently read Squiggles journal, tanks look very similar ????.

I planning on keeping a number of different cherries & see where it leads, very interest in some of the work of member of SFK of “line breedingâ€, don’t understand it, but looks interesting. I love a good challenge

In a nutshell, I thinking of running sponge filters / air pump???, borrowing LED lights ideas similar to the ones Squiggle showed in his posting.

Like all trying to keep cost down, but like other have stated, the right choices now will reduce ongoing maintenances & more time watching shrimp LOL.

Next job is to patch hole.

[ATTACH]5970[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]5971[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]5972[/ATTACH]

Sorry couldn't rotate photos, will try again

[BlueBolts]

That looks super exciting....love reading new builds......please do keep us posted :-)

[Squiggle]

Looks awesome dude, I'm pretty sure they are exactly the same tanks I got except mine are 2ft, mine had the hole & everything, very very cool! It's very easy to patch the holes & if you want I have spare glass off cuts you can have, I can also come over to help you do it if you're unsure. If you want as well, I can bring over the glass drill bit & drill some holes in the bracing for your airlines like in my tanks, this way you can have nice tight fitting lids to prevent escapees. PM me & we can tee it up. :encouragement:

[hoang1912]

After watching everyone are doing rack, I also want to do but havent have chance yet :">

[keego]

Looks awesome dude' date=' I'm pretty sure they are exactly the same tanks I got except mine are 2ft, mine had the hole & everything, very very cool! It's very easy to patch the holes & if you want I have spare glass off cuts you can have, I can also come over to help you do it if you're unsure. If you want as well, I can bring over the glass drill bit & drill some holes in the bracing for your airlines like in my tanks, this way you can have nice tight fitting lids to prevent escapees. PM me & we can tee it up. :encouragement:[/quote']

Mate, that's an offer too good to refuse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[keego]

Thanks BB, Hoping the more I give, the more I will receive from member who have been doing this for years.

[keego]

Looks awesome dude' date=' I'm pretty sure they are exactly the same tanks I got except mine are 2ft, mine had the hole & everything, very very cool! It's very easy to patch the holes & if you want I have spare glass off cuts you can have, I can also come over to help you do it if you're unsure. If you want as well, I can bring over the glass drill bit & drill some holes in the bracing for your airlines like in my tanks, this way you can have nice tight fitting lids to prevent escapees. PM me & we can tee it up. :encouragement:[/quote']

Great to meet today Squiggle & thanks for the advise on patching the holes, smells great LOL & re-position the rack. Had a sparky relocate a GPO from behind the rack, can never be toooooooooo safe with electricity. Checking out lights & air pump tomorrow.

[Squiggle]

Sweet dude, it was great to meet you too, your rack is going to look sick when it's done, can't wait! :victorious:

[keego]

Picked up a LP20 air pump & several sponge filters, struggled to decide on LED light, so grab one Istra LED 36cm clip light to try. Made 2 dividers from conflux and fiberglass insect screen. 99% sure going to uses & make glass dividers with holes. Transferred water from existing tank & my yellow & velvet cherries. Devastation!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to find 3 of my 8 little velvet blue missing, quick check under tank cabinet found 2 dead little velvet, sucks big time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Kicking myself big time.

Anyway fairly happy with trial tank set up, still looking for right LED, p***** with my little colony lost, lesson learnt. Tomorrow job. chase up prices for glass lids, buy small glass drill bit, to stop shrimp walking on out, turn all tanks into Fort Knots. Hope to set up and start cycling all 9 tanks on weekend

[ATTACH]6003[/ATTACH]

[newbreed]

Awesome thread!! Very exciting times!! Keep us posted please!!

[keego]

Boxing day update.

Mostly been planning best uses of tanks, what to get & where to put it. I’ve got one divided tank currently occupied with some beautifully yellows, blue velvets & some shy “blue/chocâ€. Recently noticed about 20 new shrimplets from my berried yellows. Problem is their entered all three divided sections. So will have to update my divided sections with some stainless steel mesh & will uses 6mm Perspex / acrylic divides, all & all, not a bad problem to have, new shrimplets swimming around!!!!

I’ve had six tanks cycling for the past two weeks using existing tank & treated tap water & sponge filters & throw in some fish food to aid, the plan is to have one of the six occupied mid/late January, no rush, as I’m planning on increase current yellows & velvets stock levels in current tank. Have decide to obtain an RO unit form advice from SKF members. Also decide to branch out to CRS & CBS and going to sump with chiller for the single 3ft rack using the bottom tank as a sump &, go the whole hog & follow SKF setups for Caridina Cantonensis.

Next jobs in the new year will to be to obtain a few Up-Aqua Pro LEDs, some cheap inert substrate for cherries, set up permanent air supply, like Squiggle used in his system, currently just running 4mm air hose.

Sorry, guys & girls cant roate photos, please feel free If you can or let me known how too.

[ATTACH]6077[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]6078[/ATTACH]

This end rack is going to be for CRS & CBS, will covert bottom tank to a sump with a chiller

[ATTACH]6079[/ATTACH]

One of the new shrimplets

[ATTACH]6080[/ATTACH]

One berried yellow

[ATTACH]6081[/ATTACH]

Life's good in the shrimp world, does it get any better then shrimp keeping???????????????????????????

[ineke]

Well done the tanks and rack look really nice. Lovely berried Yellow!

[Squiggle]

Looking awesome dude, sounds like it's going to be sweet when it's done. :encouragement:

[keego]

Looking awesome dude' date=' sounds like it's going to be sweet when it's done. :encouragement:[/quote'].

@Squiggle. thanks mate, no leaks, touch wood. Going to copy yours/Dean idea in relation to feeding bowls/sections for CRS/CBS. Picking up sooooooooooooooo many proven methods for setting correctly, done a rough cal on the cost of Benibachi shrimp soil for the 2 tanks, many need an overdraft.

[keego]

Well done the tanks and rack look really nice. Lovely berried Yellow!

.

@ineke, thanks she (berried yellow) looking good, got her of a SKF member. cant wait to see your LED's selection..

[FishBeast]

Awesome setup keego. I am very envious and can't wait to see your updates and hear your success stories.

[buck]

this needs an update bad   @keego 

[keego]

Update, can’t believe it’s been nearly 2 years since the last update, but here we go.

 

Just over 12 months ago, I built my 1^st simple TBM, Mischling rack chilled sump system, followed by another 10 tank rack. 5 tanks @ (600mmx150mmx150mm) & 5 @ (600mmx150mmx 180mm).

 

To keep the costs down, I set up 5 tanks at a time, with a 6 months between the last 5 tanks which I have just completed about 2 months ago. It turned out to be a BAD, BAD choice and resulted in a lot of deaths from Ph. swings that took about a month to settle. See post under shrimp health & care.  

 

My advice bring all tanks online at the same time.

 

 

 

Sump, built with advice from Jay, actually the whole system Jay had input or I copied his ideas. . Consists of 15ltrs of K1 in the 1^st chamber, chamber 2, 15ltrs MarinePure spheres & an assortment of filter mats.  I cover the sump in 10mm polystyrene to all sides and have glass lids also,

All tanks have glass lids & 10 mm polystyrene to all sides, except the front.

The system is cooled by a Teco T15 chiller.

 

Air is from a LP 20,

 

Return pump is an Eheim Compact+3000

 

Chiller run by Eheim 1500 pump

 

 

I encounter a problems with the SS strainers after about 2 months.  So DIY my own with plastic strainers, cover with pool filter socks, secure with a cable tie. Been in uses in the 3foot tank for over 18 month’s problem free.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2015 by keego

[Disciple]

Wow this is awesome!

Need more details and pictures.

[fishmosy]

So what are you breeding in all those tanks? 

[inverted]

Do you still believe the strainers were causing ph issues?

[keego]

So what are you breeding in all those tanks? 

Hi Disciple & Fishmosy, will try to get some good photos of each tank tomorrow & will provide details. What I can tell you now is, its nothing to fancy, basically I have cherries, Tb's, TBM's, CRS, mischlings & tang tigers. 

Do you still believe the strainers were causing ph issues?

Hi Inverted, I originally thought the rusty SS strainers were causing the pH & GH issues. I know feel it was my inexperience with TB WP, that lead me to jump the gun and blame the rusty strainers. I’m now sure that the general rise in TDS from 145-150 to 170-180 also increased the GH. I still fairly new at this.

My current problem is directly related to adding the 5 new tanks (bottom row) to the system. The problems I encountered were 1) underestimating the impact of adding 200 ltrs of tank water (5 tanks) with a pH of 5.4 to approximately 600lts with a pH of 6.4.

The 5 tanks had fully cycled and I add 1 tank at a time to the existing system over 5 days. Within a few week the deaths stated & monitoring the WP of the different tanks showed that different WP in different tanks. It’s taken about 4 weeks for the system to find its balances with all tanks having the same WP.

So if anyone like builds a rack and plans to add different tanks time over 6-8 months due to cost, are likely to run into the same problems with multiply deaths.    

[inverted]

Good to hear you got to the bottom of the issue and stabilised the rack.

Sweet setup you got there! Insulated tanks and all . And looks like you got room to grow.

 What's your water change system?

What foods do you feed and how often?

And what's your breeding goals for the future?

[keego]

On 10/19/2015, 10:40:11, inverted said:

Good to hear you got to the bottom of the issue and stabilised the rack.

Sweet setup you got there! Insulated tanks and all . And looks like you got room to grow.

 What's your water change system?

What foods do you feed and how often?

And what's your breeding goals for the future?

All been going well since my last post. Every tank now has plenty of berried girls. Lucky enough to have 3 X BB pure TB female all berried up and got my fingers crossed for a little pure WR & a KK to be female. 

Yeah all tanks and the sump are  insulated hoping to reduced the power cost a little, heaps of room if need.

I normally do a 20ltrs  (2.5%) about every 2-3 weeks. RO water top ups week. I also add either Super Bacter Bee MAX (love the fruity smell) or Mironection powder or Bacter AE.

Food, either Boss snow or crack or Jayc candy once per week, weekly either fresh kale (homegrown), mulberry leaves,  bee pollen or Benibachi kale table or red bee ambitious. I also uses Biomax, White pellet and my all time favorite is Biozyme,  

 

My breeding goals are simply to have tanks full of pure TBs.  Some good CRS & CBS, Tang tigers  and hope to try OEBT

 

 

 

[revolutionhope]

awesome man!!! i want some of that red wine :-)