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I dropped by Aquarist Chamber to stock up on some goodies for myself and I thought the members here may enjoy some pictures. Please excuse the picture quality I only had my IPad. Entry lol Counter with some stock & shrimp tanks Shrimp pictures again sorry for the quality. I totally stuffed PRL pictures! Thanks to Alvin for allowing me to take these pictures. My iPad is about to die so ill load these and add more tomorrow. Lol I planned on staying for 30 mins but ended up shrimp staring for 4 hours, my wife thought I got kidnapped lol. Chatted to a local shrimpkeeper and got invited for lunch. Got some tips from Alvin himself too. Great day out. Hope your guys enjoy these pics as much as I do lol

Hi wot_fan, ADA AS has 2 stages where it releases massive amount of ammonium and organics. First is when it is first water logged, second is about 1 month later after the grain are totally soak and loosen. As such, don't be deceived by the test reading saying 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite will be safe for shrimp. The best way to gauge this is by observing the critters's population and activity. When you see their population bloom and increased in activity, that means the first stage one completed. After awhile, their population will decrease tremendously. This signify the start of stage 2. During this stage 2, perform regular 20 to 40% water change. Once you see the population and activity of the critters bounce back, then it is the almost time for stage 2 to complete. After that, perform approximately 80% water change (drain the water until 4cm above the highest point of the substrate). Let the water run for 48 hours before adding in the shrimp. If you want to speed up the leeching of ammonium and organics, use mild alkaline water. Approximately pH 7.6 or 4dKH.

going by what youve said you have the said shrimp in now, you'd probably best to go the ISTA plant, it will stabalize at 6.6

I wouldn’t be to bummed if you counted 123 in there the other day even if you lost 1/5 that’s still a sheet load of shrimp left haha congrats on your success! I’m still waiting for my first crs to mature hopefully i can start counting hordes of shrimplets soon too!

I’ve used the fluval and ista shrimp and plants subs and found them ok, I didn’t really keep too much of an eye on the ph or how well they held there buffering because i was using tap water at the time. in thinking about using Amazonia in my next rack, even if it does have a long ammonia bleed. when I’ve been looking at what breeders o.s us there were lots using ADA and swearing by it. As for the question about buffering capacity, I think the idea is the stronger ones last longer with ro then the weaker ones because they have more of the buffering compounds then the weaker ones and it gets used up quicker in the lesser brands as it has less? That’s why when you use tap water rather than ro it exhausts the subs quicker because they need to do more work. thats how i see it any way....

Sponge filter will work. So will the mesh prefilters. The choice is purely aesthetics. One looks nicer than the other.

Oooh I envy you! I had 10 CRS and 10 CBS amonth ago, and I lost them one by one None left now.... Congrats on yours ;)

Looking good. The ammonia levels are coming down. Seeding with bacteria from the other tank will definitely help in reducing the cycle time. Just remember to wait till ammonia is down to zero before adding any livestock. You might want to add a mesh pre filter to those filter intake though. Otherwise, your shrimps will be sucked into the filter and it's impeller. You might also want to poke the substrate to get rid of any air bubbles. There are always air bubbles trapped in new substrate. Apart from that, everything else looks good, and you are on the way to a newly cycled tank.

Coming along nicely mate. Cant wait to see how it looks once everything matures.

Nice work, cholla will bleed tenins in your tank. I've got a couple for mine but currently leeching it out in a bucket before I put into mine. Won't do any harm to your setup but you may notice a slight brown tinge to the water colour.

What a difference from day one to day two. This setup has come along way in just a few days. Look forward to seeing it develop!! Thanks for sharing this all important stage with us!

Very nice set up your shrimp will enjoy it. Looking forward to future updates.

Thanks Squiggle. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Being a newbie (and not too bright ;-) ) I would be lost without knowledgeable people like you that are willing to share their wisdom. Based on your comments, it doesn't sound like I need to worry about adding more Bee Max or mineral powder until the tank is done cycling and I am ready to add shrimp. Thanks again.