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Disciple

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don’t make this a secrete squirrel chat! :paranoid:

I’m in the planning stages of a new rack aswell and I love hearing all the ideas, although the contradicting ideas is a head f :zombie:

 

I am also getting confused about all the different methods. I was thinking I would stick all the methods up on a dart board and throw a few darts then go with the ones I hit haha.

 

Damn shrimp secret service. Ill be glad to learn a bit more about the setup for a nice clean and funcional talk. Share ur cards xD

 

haha there are no secrets being kept. I have shared all my set up ideas. The questioned I pmed shrimp daddy was not shrimp related. :D you guys aren't missing out.

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ANY informed information is invaluable to us -especially from someone like Shrimp Daddy. Also friendly debate and constructive criticism helps us all learn and keeps us motivated to do better. The day we think we know it all  is a sad day . It is great to have knowledgeable members who are willing to share their knowledge. At the end of the day this helps us all make up our own minds on which direction we take but it is always our decision and not every thing works for everybody. Happy shrimping guys! :thumbsu:  

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LOL!!! Guys... It's no secret. 

 

Just that I got many of my friends off UGF, and immediately they observed the following results:

  • Adult shrimp stop dying.
  • Increased of baby survival rate.
  • Improve of colouration

Given said that, UGF is not totally bad. It is more of how you use and maintain it. If you are a hardworking young bloke (I'm the opposite) that has muscle, strength and energy to revamp the tank every 6 to 8, UGF could be an option. In in real world, even young bloke can be layback too. Hence, without proper maintenance regime and care, UGF will create more problem than help. ;)

 

Just a little story about UGF (I posted this in an US forum before). In the initial stage of shrimp keeping period, Japanese and German dominated the expert world. German usually practice simplicity and leverage HMF frequently. Japanese is in the camp of over filtration by cascading multiple canister filter in series.

 

Sometime down the road, some Japanese company created the idea of reduce the canister filter count (from maybe 3 to 2/ 1) and leverage the substrate as filter. If I don't remember wrong, it was Shirakura started to have UGF friendly substrate. This feature of the substrate also differentiate themselves from ADA AS.

 

Years down the road, the Taiwanese started to buy Japanese Bee shrimp from Japan (initially they had a hard time obtaining them and the Japanese forbid them to resell the offspring by using their name). The Taiwanese started to replicate the practice of the Japanese breeder and tried to breed the JRB. At this point of time, JRB is very valued and highly sought off. In Asia (mostly HK and Taiwan), JRB are called as PRL in their local language. From then till now, you all know what is the current condition of PRL vs the real JRB.

 

During the course of the development of Taiwanese shrimp market, they started to creates products to market against other countries. These products are tagged with a special breeding tactics of their own (I will not mention what are they and most of you know in the heart will know). But there is a major problem. These products and tactics of shrimp breeding are not engineered, instead they are kind of they tried it and it does or does not work kind of things. As such, these tactics may work for some and may not for others.

 

When I started shrimp keeping initially, I tried out every tactics, methods and claims. All of them either failed miserably or disaster happened with no way to fix. Since I have both engineering and chemical background, I started to study the shrimps and differentiate the facts and myths. Ultimately, I am able to find out what is easily workable and what is not.

 

One advise I have for everyone is: whenever someone recommending something to you, ask them the scientific rationale behind it.

 

If the person does not know why or tells you that it works for him for years, be wary of it. For an instance, ask yourself how many things you heard about shrimp keeping and you practiced it, but you still don't achieve the same result as most people claimed? This is part of the reason why, I never tell someone something will 100% work. What I had been doing is to ask that person to take out one of the tanks and follow my entire solution. This includes sending him/ her all the required stuffs to practice my solution. After that, I let the person gauge the result himself/ herself within 2 weeks. Which is a "let result speaks itself" method. Not really showing a lot of pictures and making bold claims without substantial evidences or data. 

 

There is another phoney claims, usually from shrimp/ product sellers: "The shrimp just changed water condition, their colour will fade. The offspring will look better."

 

Shrimp does drop colour when change of water condition, but it will recover after it moult within 2 to 3 weeks (depending on shrimp's age). If after 2/ 3 weeks it still look bad, it is either the shrimp has bad gene or the new product you bought is bad. Hence if someone claimed this, just walk away.

 

Hope these information is useful for you guys. Read it at your own discretion. ;)

Edited by Shrimpy Daddy
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I was just messing around with both of you. But to be honest its always good to see discussions like this, bcuz its a nice way to get extra knowledge. And btw tks for the explanation and for the over 9000 keystrokes xD

Edited by linus84
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Little update,

 

I received the quote and some recommendations from the LFS. Now I have a few decisions to make :D

 

One thing I was curious about was whether or not A UV filter is good for a Shrimp tank. I like the idea of getting rid of diseases but I dont like the idea of it getting rid of algae or bacteria. I am still reading about it because it just came up during my conversation with LFS guy. unfortunately the search function does not allow for 2 letter searches so I havent found much on the forum. There are a few mentions but I cant decide lol

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I was just messing around with both of you. But to be honest its always good to see discussions like this, bcuz its a nice way to get extra knowledge. And btw tks for the explanation and for the over 9000 keystrokes xD

 

No worries. I have to type a million key strokes everyday (at least 500 emails to clear per day), thus 9,000 is just a fraction. LOL!!! 

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One thing I was curious about was whether or not A UV filter is good for a Shrimp tank. I like the idea of getting rid of diseases but I dont like the idea of it getting rid of algae or bacteria. I am still reading about it because it just came up during my conversation with LFS guy. unfortunately the search function does not allow for 2 letter searches so I havent found much on the forum. There are a few mentions but I cant decide lol

A UV filter will only get rid of algae spores floating in the water. You will still get algae growing on the tank walls.

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A UV filter will only get rid of algae spores floating in the water. You will still get algae growing on the tank walls.

Thanks Jayc,

 

Ok that seems a lot better but from reading about them it seems they are quite hit and miss depending if you get a good unit or not.

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Ok another little update.

 

First of all I have decided not the use the UGF after much thought. I felt it would be stupid to ignore Shrimpy Daddy's advise. So i have decide to ditch the taiwan style set up :D

 

I have put in my order for my custom tank and it should be ready for pick up in 4 weeks. So now I got to start getting all the equipment.

 

For filtration

 

I have 3 biospon filters. I am going with 1 eheim 2217 and 1 eheim 2215. The at the LFS asked me to try the ASTRO filters they stock that is equal to the 2217. Anyone used the astro before? Also wondering if I should have 2 2217 for this 4 foot tank?

 

lighting

 

I was looking at Up aqua 4 FT LED. the LFS has recommended Ista LED but I am leaning towards the up aqua as I currently use it on my 2 fter and it is great.

 

Air Pump

 

I was recommended a schego 350 l/h. I read a forum post that a hailea v20 was good. If anyone can give me some input regarding air pumps it would be great but I think I will go with the LFS recommendation.

 

UV

 

I was recommended a Dophin brand that was 7watts so I will go with their recommendation as I have never used UV before.

 

Substrate

 

I am going to go with ADA amazonia as it is a product I have used and i like it. I was thinking of trying for ADA Africana as it seems better for TB's but I am worried the ph may get too low. I was thinking if I use some fulvic grains with the Amazonia it will buffer closer to 6.2 to 6.4 ph I am aiming for. I know my RO water comes out at 6.4 ph.

 

Chiller

 

I was recommended a Hailea 150a or 300a. I am currently using a 150a on my 2ft tank. its cools my tank 1 degree in about 15 -30  mins with I think is quite fast. I am worried this might shock the shrimp. So I was thinking of using a 150a for the new tank and getting a 130a for the 2 footer? Or do you guys think I should go with the 300a?

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Hoping in about 3-4 weeks This journal will get more interesting and I'll have some actual pics of my new tank. I will also try do a step by step update as I set everything up.

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"I felt it would be stupid to ignore Shrimpy Daddy's advise." <--- Won't be stupid. LOL!!! Different people have different thinking and practice.

 

"Also wondering if I should have 2 2217 for this 4 foot tank?" <--- Shouldn't you have 1 canister per compartment? I thought you have 3 compartments or maybe I am wrong?

 

"I was recommended a Dophin brand that was 7watts so I will go with their recommendation as I have never used UV before." <--- I highly recommend you don't use UV with shrimp tank. UV will kill microbes plus it will cause nutrients to be bio-unavailable.

 

Regarding the chiller. During summer, how warm the tank water can get? If it is 26C and below, you don't need one. If you have a few tanks or large tank, it is not cost effective to use chiller (upfront and operating cost). What I did is to turn on the air-conditioner for the whole house. The air-conditioner is set to dry/ dehumidifying mode. This will make the house cool but not cold. I have heater in my tank all year round to ensure the temperature does not drop. By the way, I keep my shrimps in 26C temperature and not what those myths claimed that the shrimp must have 22C and below temperature.

Edited by Shrimpy Daddy
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"I felt it would be stupid to ignore Shrimpy Daddy's advise." <--- Won't be stupid. LOL!!! Different people have different thinking and practice.

"Also wondering if I should have 2 2217 for this 4 foot tank?" <--- Shouldn't you have 1 canister per compartment? I thought you have 3 compartments or maybe I am wrong?

"I was recommended a Dophin brand that was 7watts so I will go with their recommendation as I have never used UV before." <--- I highly recommend you don't use UV with shrimp tank. UV will kill microbes plus it will cause nutrients to be bio-unavailable.

Regarding the chiller. During summer, how warm the tank water can get? If it is 26C and below, you don't need one. If you have a few tanks or large tank, it is not cost effective to use chiller (upfront and operating cost). What I did is to turn on the air-conditioner for the whole house. The air-conditioner is set to dry/ dehumidifying mode. This will make the house cool but not cold. I have heater in my tank all year round to ensure the temperature does not drop. By the way, I keep my shrimps in 26C temperature and not what those myths claimed that the shrimp must have 22C and below temperature.

Lol I have been reading a few things and I have decided that your advise was the best advise. Plus looking at how you have helped other ppl in other forums it was amazing to see the before and after pictures. You are so humble.

My partitions have a cut out that is covered in fine mesh this will allow the water to flow between the different compartments. I decided to use this option because it would allow me to run one chiller to cool the whole tank.

I will give the UV option a miss.

Unfortunately the summer time in Perth gets quite hot that before I got my chiller I had already seen my tank temperature hit 28. The area I have my current and future tank is in the living area and I cant keep the AC all day. I am in discussions with the wife to use one of the spare rooms for a Shrimp/home office. If I get the go ahead then using the AC in the smaller will be possible. At the moment having a chiller for each tank is my only option. As the temperature does hit the low 40's in the summer time here which would mean the tank temperature could hit the low 30's.

Again thank you for your input. :D

post-1014-0-46437800-1422148032_thumb.jp this is a picture of the partitions I will be using.

Edited by Disciple
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"My partitions have a cut out that is covered in fine mesh this will allow the water to flow between the different compartments. I decided to use this option because it would allow me to run one chiller to cool the whole tank. " <--- The fine mesh gets clog with biofilm and algae easily (within 2 to 4 weeks). What's your plan on cleaning them?

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"My partitions have a cut out that is covered in fine mesh this will allow the water to flow between the different compartments. I decided to use this option because it would allow me to run one chiller to cool the whole tank. " <--- The fine mesh gets clog with biofilm and algae easily (within 2 to 4 weeks). What's your plan on cleaning them?

Yes that is the plan :D

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LOL!!! Sorry for not clear with my question.

 

Not sure you had put any fine mesh in aquarium before. They clog up very easily. If you try to brush them, you will see a lot of gunk/ algae/ bio-film released into the water column. These stuffs will dirty the water and very quickly clog up your filter media.

 

Hence if you use this mesh, I'm not sure will it make your maintenance worse and/ or hard to manage.

 

If you are travelling frequently or when you are on long holiday (2 weeks or more), these mesh will clog up. When they clog up, the water level of the compartment that has the filter outlet will rise. If there is not much buffer, it may over flow. In addition, the the water flow in between tanks will not be smooth. This may cause to stagnant water in certain area of the tank. 

 

Personally, I prefer to have tank design that does not need my care much, even I am traveling for a month or two.  

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LOL!!! Sorry for not clear with my question.

 

Not sure you had put any fine mesh in aquarium before. They clog up very easily. If you try to brush them, you will see a lot of gunk/ algae/ bio-film released into the water column. These stuffs will dirty the water and very quickly clog up your filter media.

 

Hence if you use this mesh, I'm not sure will it make your maintenance worse and/ or hard to manage.

 

If you are travelling frequently or when you are on long holiday (2 weeks or more), these mesh will clog up. When they clog up, the water level of the compartment that has the filter outlet will rise. If there is not much buffer, it may over flow. In addition, the the water flow in between tanks will not be smooth. This may cause to stagnant water in certain area of the tank. 

 

Personally, I prefer to have tank design that does not need my care much, even I am traveling for a month or two.  

haha Sorry I didnt read you question properly.

 

I was thinking I could clean it during my weekly water change. I was thinking I could use a gravel siphon to clean it but maybe into stead i will treat each partition seperately and have two ehiem 2213 and one 2215 for the middle. Does this sound like a better solution?

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" I was thinking I could use a gravel siphon to clean it" <--- You may not have enough water to siphon. You only able to siphon 10% water every two weeks. ;) Unless you are going to practice weekly water change.

 

"but maybe into stead i will treat each partition seperately and have two ehiem 2213 and one 2215 for the middle." <--- Then you might as well have glass partition. ;) Actually, To save you trouble, my take is to ditch the mesh and go for glass partition. :D

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Lol ok I'll have to speak to the lfs making the tank and see if I can make a change. What I am thinking now is going back to my original plan and have it all connected to a sump haha.

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LOL!!! Maybe you should ask the LFS to hold on from ordering/ custom make anything. Then you take a step back to digest all the information you gathered in the SG trip and all my feedbacks slowly. Finally, derive the final design of the tank. ;)

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  • 1 month later...

Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Weighing in at a staggering 45.95 KG, 122cm long, 60 cm deep and 35cm tall. (I don't actually know how much it weighs but it makes my intro seem better)

 

Let me introduce to you the MONSTROSITY! : VOMIT :

 

post-1014-0-93365600-1425704509.jpgpost-1014-0-17054700-1425704523.jpgpost-1014-0-00252200-1425704535.jpgpost-1014-0-11610200-1425704556.jpg

 

As you have worked out I was able to pick up my new tank today from the LFS. I think they did a really nice job and it looks awesome. Not as cool as all the racks everyone else has been putting together but hopefully this will help me go to the next level in my shrimp keeping. I really want to get a colony of Blue Bolts & OEBT's and establishing some of the different colours & patterns that my Rili's have been throwing out.

 

A little up date from my last post.

 

I had tried to contact the tank builder to see if I could change the plans to incorporate a sump but unfortunately I was not quick enough to make the changes I wanted without incurring additional costs as they had already started. I think trying to incorporate so many different ideas from different shrimp keepers was too much to handle for me, I should have just stuck to my original plan lol but I think this will still work fine. I should have just paid the extra costs and listened to Shrimpy Daddy's advise (sorry) lol.

 

Over the last month I have been buying all sorts of bits and pieces from different SKF sponsors to prepare for this new tank.

 

post-1014-0-12044300-1425705813.jpg

 

I still need to get a few more things but by next week I should have the tank flooded and the cycle started. Over the next week i hope to do some posts of putting the cabinet together and setting up the tank & getting it cycled. I hope you enjoyed the pics and if there you have any feedback or question do not hesitate to post. I wanna start a new Journal because I want a cool journal name like "Shawshrimp Rackdemption" or "Pandoras Rack" Lol

 

Cheers!

Edited by Disciple
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Not sure if i missed it, what air pump did you go for?

I have a hailea v20 after advice from 2ofus and i really like it, high output and very quiet :D

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I am going to buy a Schego forgot the model from the tech den just because it was recommended by the guys at the lfs and I remember a post where a couple of members said it was good too. I'll do a bit of research on the hailea too.

 

One question how quiet or loud is it?

 

btw did you end up getting a biospon filter?

Edited by Disciple
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No i didnt end up getting one was more expensive then i had available to spend.

 

My pump is really quiet and i even have it sitting on a plastic tub, all i can hear if i tune in to it is a very low hum. 

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Looks great Disciple...I look forward to seeing this project progress......the schego is German made and no doubt good quality.i personally have had no experience with them but have heard good things.

The airlab40 I purchased for the rack is, to date excellent its extremely quiet, I can hardly hear it which is impressive for it's size.

Edited by inverted
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No i didnt end up getting one was more expensive then i had available to spend.

 

My pump is really quiet and i even have it sitting on a plastic tub, all i can hear if i tune in to it is a very low hum. 

 

Awesome I only need to run 3 biospon filters and maybe one for a airstone when I want to acclimatize shrimp.

 

Looks great Disciple...I look forward to seeing this project progress......the schego is German made and no doubt good quality.i personally have had no experience with them but have heard good things.

The airlab40 I purchased for the rack is, to date excellent its extremely quiet, I can hardly hear it which is impressive for it's size.

Thanks Inverted. I think the airlabs are a bit big for what I need unless i looked at the wrong thing.

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    • jayc
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