Leaderboard

Time to start a journal of my new rack. Rack: Custom made timber rack. 90x35mm pine and plywood construction. Painted in matt black. Tanks: 12 x 30cm cubes (3x2fts divided, 2x3fts divided) Lighting: 90cm works LEDs Substrate:benibachi normal Filtration: 3ft sump with k1 chamber and filter mat chamber Heating: 2x150w eheim Cooling: Hailea hc300a The base rack before painting Plywood shelves installed and rack in final position Rack bolted to floor and strapped to wall as its only 300mms deep to prevent falling Foam mat from Bunnings for under tanks First set of tanks and sump after being made Tanks sprayed black First sump build....spot the mistake Top row of tanks drilled and in place All tanks drilled and in place sump no2 in place That's it for now another update tomorrow.

^ is that actual footage of you sitting outside squiggles shrimp room buck?

interesting.... looks like a sick rack man!

Look what I found!

I know Slate is inert for sure. A compressed and hardened clay. Lava Rock or Unzan rock as Takashi Amano calls it is also an igneous inert rock. Depending on where they were collected, the colour varies from dark brown/black to a red colour. Ohko dragonstone, I have heard, is hardened clay - so this will be ok as well and will not raise water parameters (but I haven't got one to test). Seiryu as mentioned isn't suitable and will change water parameters. But I'm not convinced all seiryu are equal. The real seiryu is a Metamorphic Rock from Japan. With their high demand around the world for aquascaping, they are now illegal to export from Japan. If they are not exporting it anymore, then what are the stones labelled seiryu really? Most of the Seiryu stones being sold outside of Japan are typically Ryouh Stones and are just commonly misidentified. However, even real Seiryu stones will definitely raise your pH and gH depending on how many per litre you have added into your tank. Ryouh stone looks very similar to Seiryu. A lot come from China, some from Japan. But many countries have rocks that can be considered to be ryouh, but obviously they call it a different name. Ryuoh Stones are limestones and they are a metamorphic type of rock, so they will raise your pH over time. Limestones are full of calcium and will leech into the water overtime raising TDS, GH, KH and pH. Yingshi, I believe this is the same type of rock as Ryouh, but from China. So same explanation as above. Manten Stones are an igneous rock that are created from the magma of a volcano. The name was introduced by Takashi Amano. Just because Takashi san named it doesn't mean that this type of Igneous rock isn't found elsewhere in the world. If you live near a mountain that is considered a dormant volcano, it could be your best bet in getting some free Manten Stones for your aquascape. Unfortunately, they don't occur naturally in Oz. The problem is Manten type rocks do get misclassified all the time. So my advice is to test it anyway if you think you have manten rocks. Soak them in a bucket of water, test the parameters. Then test them again after a week. A real Manten rock, being volcanic in origin, will not raise your water parameters. Then there is a similar stone to Manten called Yamaya that is used in aquascaping a lot. For filler or for borders. They are generally small pieces, so they don't get used as a main feature. Aquascapers use this rock to fill gaps in driftwood, or to prop other rocks up, or as borders to larger rocks to draw attention to those feature rocks. Again this is an Igneous, volcanic rock, that will not change water parameters. Then there is Petrified Wood which is typically an inert igneous rock. But depending on where it has come from and what rocks it was petrified in, they can raise pH. So again best to test this one just to be sure. I've come to a personal conclusion that it's too difficult building an Iwagumi style tank for shrimps. The constant battle with water parameters goes against the stability concept for shrimps. Simple low demand plants and substrate is so much simpler. But that's just me, I have too many tanks to fuss over and I'm lazy.

I feel like a kid on Christmas! Mostly because my posty is an old fat dude with a grey beard, who brings be presents

Hi Zorba. I've been having a hard time finding stones or rocks for my shrimp tanks as well. I've been doing a lot of reading about them on Google and have come up with a list of rocks that are classed as 'inert and won't affect your water parameters'. But I've had quite experienced shrimp keepers on Facebook tell me that no stone or rock is safe for shrimp even if they are inert. So it can get pretty frustrating. It's true that if you drip vinegar on the stones and it fizzes then they aren't safe to use. But the vinegar test doesn't always work. I use the Hydrochloric Acid that we add to our pool to test them now as it will fizz on rocks that vinegar won't. Seiryu Stone will raise your ph, but I'm not sure about TDS. You could run some tests on the rocks or stones you want to use. I wish I had done that instead of believing the lfs that said they were shrimp safe and not finding out they raised tds until a few months after the tank was running and stocked. If the stone you'd like to use passes the fizz test, the next test you could try is to see if the stone affects water parameters. You'll need a container larger enough to put the stone in and cover it with water. Fill the container with water (preferably RO water) and test the ph, gh, kH, and tds before you add the stone. Make a note of the test results and when you did the tests, then put the stone in the container of water. Cover it with glad wrap or something to stop anything like leaves, dirt or bugs that'll drown in it getting into the water and possibly affecting the test results. Every few days for the next few weeks test the water in the container and compare the results with your first lot of tests. After a few weeks you'll know if the stone affects you water parameters. Some stones will stop leaching out whatever is causing the changes to your wps after a short or long while. So if you make a note of all your test results and when you did the tests, you might see the stone stops changing the water parameters and then it might be safe to use in your tank. I'm a bit fussy and a worrier, so I'd start the test again with fresh water just to make sure lol.

i wet my toes with the little rack first and im glad i did! soon ill be up there with a rack like squiggle

nice, sounds like your going to be busy ill be lurking in anticipation of this journal

85% rilis 15% Crs and GBs Hopefully I'll have a nice shrimp tank journal in a couple more weeks and I'll split the Crs and GB's into their own sections. Plan to make this one into a tank for tigers.

I forgot to mention I really like the journal name. Again I have to say you are the pun master!

Wow dude, looks like it's going to be a stunner, well done!

I have to admit, I do enjoy shrimp, but some people go to great measures to keep and breed shrimp, it's actually quite impressive and interesting, looks like it's going to be a fair set up there.

Looking good! looking forward for the updates

well that was more easy than i thought

I see no picture?

Look who's berried again! This girl is workin it!

Thanks Buck, Awesome to know. I better jump on there and get my order done!

Not at all! Customs had a look ( they left a little note explaining that they had opened it) and because every thing is clearly labled and declared, there's no issues And being under $1000 there's no tax's or duties to pay so every one can stock up!

Thanks mate. I believe in taking the time to give people the full explanation.

What a great explanation jay c ....very good

Wow man! did you have any issues getting all that?

You are welcome. ;)

Thank you! All of the algae I have seen is on the main piece of spider wood so that is all I will have to remove. I will do it in a couple of hours. I have to do some maintenance including a WC on my 65G community tank first though. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the help you have provided on both my tank and my shrimp photography. Without your help I am sure I would have killed at least one batch of shrimp (and probably more) not to mention the grief and aggravation you have saved me from. Thank you sir.

Thanks for welcoming. Hi I'm new SK from Jakarta, my 1st tank is only 5 weeks old, so please guide me up guys. Only got neo caridinas shrimp, hehe low cost

Quick Update, the tank has finished cycling and I have moved some critters into the tank out of my 60l as I am re-doing that soon as well. CPD's settled in within 10mins with full colour! Also found 14 babies this morning out of my 60l. Also changed to a sand path. Tank fauna at the moment consists of: 5 Sunkist cherries 3 CPD's 2 female 1 male 1 DAS Louis