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G'day All


Josho

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G'day fellow shrimp keepers.

Just to introduce myself, I've been a keen fish keeper for many years and had started keeping RCS for about 4 years now.

I have a 50gal tank which is fully planted and houses two of Golden Severums + others. My shrimp tank originated when a previous tank one night sprung a leak and had to purchase one until a new one was built. It's only 10 gal (some might be familiar with the Aqua One AR380).

I recently decided to completely re-do my shrimp tank. It has course river gravel, some drift wood, java fern, java moss, and a crypt.

Last week I received packages from sponsors and should be starting the re-scape as soon as I receive some HC.

Changes were decided on if there is a day I decide to upgrade my shrimp to CRS (just need a chiller, RO, and external canister filter).

Changes:

  • Ista Shrimp Soil
  • Upgraded lighting (originally 11W, now 36W)
  • Plants: HC, japanese hair grass, hemianthus micranthemoides
  • Pressurised CO2 sytem (1L with solenoid)
  • Iwagumi style rocks
  • Getting rid of cone snails.

I look forward to meeting you all, and reading and contributing to the forums.

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Welcome to the forum Josho,

You will unlock alot more of the forum by posting or you can subscribe to the forum as a premium member for $12.50 for the year to unlock the whole forum straight away and get access to the classifieds section. You do this through the subscription part of your profile.

We love to see photos to so feel free to share

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Gday Josho, welcome to SKF. Thanks for the intro... Photo's would be great.

C02 can be an issue for a shrimp tank so best to avoid if not necessary ... although the HC will appreciate it no doubt :-)

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Welcome to the forum Josho! Lots of info and friendly members here to share your journey!

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Thanks for the warm welcome guys. BlueBolts, it's the first time I've heard that CO2 can be an issue for shrimp. I assume you mean excess CO2? To be honest I haven't heard anything bad about it for shrimps apart from if you add too much.

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Thanks for the warm welcome guys. BlueBolts' date= it's the first time I've heard that CO2 can be an issue for shrimp. I assume you mean excess CO2? To be honest I haven't heard anything bad about it for shrimps apart from if you add too much.

Problem is ... how do you know it's too much?

With fish, you'll notice them gasping for air.

Shrimp can't / don't do that.

By the time you figure it out, it's too much, it's too late.

Shrimps also prefer highly oxygenated water.

Oxygenating the water with plenty of surface agitation defeats the purpose of pumping CO2 into the tank.

Shrimps prefer dimmer lights, rather than super bright lights.

They won't die, but they might react by hiding, or not breeding, or just not being their playful selves.

So HC and HM in a shrimp tank is going to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

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Welcome to the forum, definitely the best place to be to learn about shrimp. Ask as many questions as you like cause there's no dumb ones here, hope you have as much fun here as we do! :encouragement:

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Hi Josh and welcome.

With regards to the CO2 it really depends on what you plan on keeping and how much you 'value' them. I have a small aquascape which i run from tap water with CO2, ADA lights (very bright) bi-weekly ferts and daily overdose of Excel for algae. I have Red cherries in this tank and they are quite happy breeding and cope fine with the lack of care around water parameters. I would be hesitant to keep Crystals in the same conditions as i seem to struggle with them even in tanks with RO water + salty shrimp and no plant additives.

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Yeah, sorry, I should be more specific, excess CO2. I lost my entire CBS colony 3+ years ago! due to my error and "stupid f**#*#!# malfunctioning valve" etc....yes it still hurts. As shrimp keepers, we tend to aim to oxygenate our water more, and if CO2 isn't necessary, then IMO, I wouldn't use it....I have 5 CO2 bottle in my garage ATM :-(

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Thanks for the tips guys. I've got a permanent CO2 indicator to monitor concentration of CO2. In addition I also run an airstone to keep the water oxygenated. If I have the CO2 levels right I hopefully will get the HC to pearl and which I have been told increases the oxygen level above normal.

The solenoid will also shut off supply of CO2 when lights are off. If the plants don't work out or causes distress in the shrimps, I'll move the CO2 system to my 50gal tank.

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