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I got a nice surprise this morning. I have had a tank inside the house that had no heating or lighting and was experimenting with plant growth using this method. At the time I threw in a couple of cheap red cherries and I also put in a female rifle shrimp I had. I used pool filter sand as the substrate and I used a slow release aquagrow fertiliser tablet in under each of the plants. I have litrally done nothing else with it and thought I had lost all the shrimp over the two odd years it has been setup. I recently added a heater after deciding to utilise this tank again for shrimp. I added a few red gene blue rilli and when I looked into the corner of the tank and found the female rifle. She is about 3cm long. Maybe I need to get her a boyfriend. The pictures are not the best .

So I took the plunge and went out and bought a 60L ADA Cube Garden aquarium off a shop in Melbourne who was doing a sale on ADA aquariums and equipment. I thought it was about time I started advancing my skills as a shrimp keeper. After keeping RCS, YCS etc for the past 6 months and having a successful breeding colony, I ventured in to the CRS/CBS a couple of weeks ago in an already established 30cm cube tank - they all seem to be doing just fine. So over the course of the next 4-6 weeks whilst my new tank is cycling I am going to learn all I can about CRS/CBS to make sure I limit the amount of stuff ups. Once everything is established and I feel the tank is ready to rock and roll, I will look at adding a TB or 2 to existing selected stock. My ideal kind of set up for the new tank is to be an excellent visual tank along with a breeding ground for many shrimplets. I am unsure of what plants I am going to use if any, besides some mosses and perhaps some anubias on some driftwood. My main concern at the moment is what filter I will be using. As I have limited space and I don't want to clog the counter up too much (I cannot put for example a canister filter hidden underneath the tank), I am conscious of the tank and area around the tank having minimal items hanging around. Tank Setup Tank: ADA Cube Garden Superior - W60×D30×H36 (60 litres) Substrate: ADA Power Sand, ADA Amazonian Normal and ADA Amazonia Fine Heater: TBD Filter: TBD - Can just a sponge filter work Lights: TBD most likely UP Aqua 60cm LED My plan is to follow exactly what the ADA substrate tells me to do in terms of cycling the tank and water changes. Before I get started I will need to find a filter that meets my needs. I know I can always add plants later but I am sure it is best to get them in there and settled ASAP. Any design ideas and/or filter suggestions would be great. I will keep you updated as I go along......

Time to post up some of the pictures from my recent trip to Cairns with Northboy aka Bob. Once again massive thanks to Bob and Linda for putting me up for the extended weekend. I flew into Cairns at around 8.15am and by 9am we were at our first location sampling some typus and longirostris. When we got there, we were quite worried that there might not be enough water (or shrimp). Our worries were not justified though. Some habitat shots The typus were found in their greatest numbers hanging onto the white roots of the surrounding trees that grew down into the water. And here it is Unfortunately I wasn't able to get good pictures of the variation in colour of these shrimp. We were also able to find lots of longirostris. Below is a small sample after about 15 mins of netting. And here is why you need to keep a lid on your buckets. Typus and longirostris are very good climbers! Also found this little guy. Further upstream Through the culvert was a moss wall And after grabbing some moss samples, we headed off to the next spot in Cairns. And the result of this trip - a shot of my typus in my tank at home today.

Decided to set up a rack a home to house all my shrimp tanks in one place. Found this kit at chain hardware shop. 150kgs per shelf, extra wide, and in black (the shelf has to be black) ... Perfect, right? WRONG!!!! It may hold 150 kg per shelf, but not without a massive bend in the frame - meaning none of the tanks sit level. Not only that, the whole frame shakes whenever someone walks near it. What's wrong with this picture? Notice the difference in the size of the gap between the top and bottoms of the tanks? This was even after I had chocked the middle of the tanks to try to get them sitting level. It only got worse when I added new tanks (larger - shown empty below). I even used two mdf shelves as one shelf. Also added the braces from the shelves I wasn't using to try to get the whole structure more rigid. No difference at all. Note also that you can't really have two 2 ft tanks sitting next to each other easily either. Other shelves I've used in the past say 1200 long and mean 1200 between the posts. That's useful. 1200 outside the posts is not useful when you need 4 feet! Oh and one more thing: The middle shelf has to always go in the middle because it holds the end pillars together - the shelving isn't as 'VERSATILE' as it advertises on the box. If you are looking for a steel rack, please learn from my mistake and spend a little extra to get a 'pallet' style of rack. Save yourself the angst. I'm currently setting up a new rack - 'Rack It' brand which states 750kg per shelf, although the shelves will be only 400 mm wide. Based on the solid construction of the shelving brackets, I'm sure these will do the trick. Fingers crossed!

Best of luck with your set-up and getting the cycling done. I've never used ADA soil but some posts on SKF indicate that it can take a long time (months!) for ammonia to stop leaching from some ADA soils. With regards to the filter set-up above: I would have two concerns. 1. Is the filter (motor) strong enough to draw water through the filters at a high enough rate? Those filters will clog over time. best to try it out beforehand and if the flow is los when the filters are clean, then it isn't going to cut it when they start to clog. Remember when it comes to shrimp, the more filtration the better. secondly the overflow from the filter goes directly into one of the sponge filters. Hence this will create a loop and reduce the amount of water that actually flows around the tank. This would not be a hassle to fix, just needs some extra plumbing pieces. I'd run the both HOB and the sponge filter, but seperately.

I also actually want to thank the great SKF members I have met through this site for their help, wonderful and imformative advice. It has been great to chat with some members who were more than happy to pass on their knowledge and experiences and support. This is a great site for all shrimp enthusiasts.

I was thinking to keep things nice and tidy I could always do something like this - using an AquaClear HOB filter too.

Haha GC yes mate you are legendary!!!!!!!!! Ohhhh and as Squiggle said just so modest.................lol

​Thanks :). I took some more pics tonight. I used a flash this time so they are a little better than the last batch I posted.

& modest too!