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Competition sponsored by Newbreed Aquatics http://newbreedaquatics.com.au/ Ladies and gentlemen the competition has begun. Somewhere hidden under these tiles are the following prizes - 1. Boss baby powder and boss booster 2. One pack of Boss Mineral Balls - Winner larrymull 3. Six pieces of Cholla Wood (12-15cm lengths) 4. Ten pack of Tantora Catappa Leaves and a pack of Benibachi Kale Tablets . How to play - Each member can pick one tile per day however you must ensure you check what everyone else has picked as i will not advise you. Once you pick your tile for the day you can NOT edit your post. Any edited post will not be counted. I will advise everyone when a prize has been located by a member. There is only one of each available. To be eligible to play this competition you must have a minimum of 5 posts on the forum. Other moderators are eligible to play as myself and Newbreed are the only ones with knowledge of the prizes.

A couple of pictures from the holding tank for my confusa.

So the Shrimp bug has got me bad! Started out wishing to get some shrimp again, after previously keeping RCS I was hoping to fill (the old tank)140l which we upgraded to a 450L Juwel Rio. Before I got the shrimp for the 140L I was already keen to start a 60L nano display tank inspired by the same tank on display at Aquotix Aquariums. After setting up the 140L to keep shrimp and finding them currently difficult to source in Perth WA I joined this forum. Thanks to Disciple who gifted me twenty or so of his Red Rili/Blue Gene culls the tank is not so empty. Infant no more, in less the a week i already have shrimplets, + three berried females. While this colony has begun to thrive my mind has been focussed on setting up the 60L. Thanks to Disciple and other forums members I have been eagerly researching and absorbing information about the best WP to keep shrimp as well as the different shrimp available and the conditions they require to live, thrive and multiply. I had planned the 60L tank as my display tank for the Rilis and the current 140L for the rili culls, a practice which I've only just become familiar to. However I now wish to keep the new tank with Snowball and Blue Tiger Shrimp and will sort out an alternative option for keeping my Rili culls when that opportunity finally comes :) (I'm really looking forward to having a healthy crop to weed out, so to speak!) I just really want to develop my current Rilis into a higher grade of Rilis, something i never got into when previously keeping RCS. Sooooo! a nano tank setup can be just expensive as a larger setup , but Im having a lot of fun preparing for the tank which I have ordered from Aquatix, the tank should be here in a fortnight, yeah!!! So far I have purchased the Benabachi powder as a substrate, a Sicce Space Eko external filter and a hydro 200w external heater. Now I require help with selecting the lighting. I am thinking to go with 2x Ista LED light as setup with the current Aquatix tank however I really am keen on the Fluvial LED which has been discontinued and awaiting a replacement/newer model, I can purchase the older model online but am hesitant to purchase something thats discontinued + the price comparison between the fluval and the ista is quite considerable. I wish to purchase whats going to be be the best for my future planted/shrimp tank in the future, also there is no rush in making a decision as Im currently happy spending my time with the Rilis's and our larger tank which I'm seriously considering purchasing a C02 setup for. As far as Aquascaping goes i have really been inspired by JacksonL's Journal to use a DSM with the new tank. I'd also like any advice on wood vs rock or a mixture of both when it comes to hard furnishing the tank. Substrate Im unsure If Benibachi with a laterite base is good or if I should use, benibachic alone with root tabs for the plants ore one of the ecoplant or sachem substrates as a base layer and the benibachi on top as i do wish for this to be a planted/shrip tank. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This may be a boring first post but be assured to watch this space! Once I have the 60L tank Illl begin to post photos of the setup, and once the 140L Rili tank starts producing some more exiting produce Ill post picture of that to, opposed to a "one shrimp (rili cull) hanging out next to a berried chick in 140L of water". "its a deep tank for twenty semi mature shrimp" its like Wheres Wally when I first go in there. Thanks again to Disciple who not only took the time to reply to my posts on this forum but also offered to get me started with my first Rili family HUGE THANKS! Im sure after spending some time with you in person your shrimp keeping enthusiasm has fed and multiplied my current Shrimp MANIA! Thanks guys! Peace out, Astro

This tank is going to be so overgrown it's not funny, haha. Still one of my fave tanks on this forum, love it.

Nice setup :) Wrap your airpump up in a towel or old shirt i do this to All my airpumps with out an issue And have done it for years we have a big hailea air pump in our room (1metre from our head) running 8 different sponges and it's completely silent ( once wrapped in a towel)

Lol I'm not to sure on their life span mate but if they are anything like our typus and riffle (filter feeder) they should live along time

Thanks Gary sounds encouraging. This was the tank a few months ago but the plants have almost doubled in size and you can't see the substrate. They have grown right to the top of the water and are much fuller looking now so I really need to thin it out. I will give it a go tomorrow I think.

Crypts are great emersed, and you get to flower them that way. It's what all the Crypt nuts do! Most aquatics can grow well out of water too. Notable exceptions that you're likely to see are Blyxas, Nymphaeas, Aponogetons, Barclayas... that type of thing. The basic stem plants are all ok.

The plants will survive no matter how much roots you remove Ineke but they will be set back a bit. Swords are super tough things and big ones will have plenty of energy stored to replace lost roots if necessary. They might drop some old leaves and the new ones might be small or distorted for a little while. Yes, cut roots left in the substrate will decompose and release their nutrient load to the environment. It might all be consumed in the substrate and never reach the water column. It might be dealt with by the filtration and never cause a spike. Or, it might all go wrong. Depends on the obvious factors. I think if you follow your instincts not to remove to many and not to make much mess you'll be fine. If you leave some swords behind they will probably suck up any excess very quickly.

Its worth subscribing to the digital versions of aquarium magazines. For example, I subscribe to Amazonas, Practical Fishkeeping and Tropical Fish Hobbyist. When you subscribe, you get back issues for all the digital versions too. Not to mention, its much cheaper than buying the magazines in print. I would very highly recommend Amazonas and PFK, but less so TFH. I could take it or leave it. TFH is very hit and miss as to whether I find something interesting in every issue, whereas I always find at least one thing interesting in the other two (and most times many things!).

I have read that you could slowly pull the plant and expose 1-2 inches of the root (depending on size of plant) and snip it off there, and leave the rest of the roots in the substrate. I have wondered if the roots would rot and have an ammonia spike. Sorry I am not very helpful here but it seems to work for the person who posted his solution. Personally I just did the same. Pulled out 40+ chain swords last weekend with 2-4 weeks old TB bubbas in the tank. Touch wood... so far so good without any obvious ill effects. Initially I pulled at it gently and not much got stirred up so I continued. I was taking a risk but the chain swords were hiding my shrimps from view. Overgrown chain swords are messy and I had to uproot some of them whole, some with trailing roots at around 30cm. Some I snipped the roots off. I left the canister and sponge filter running while I was doing it. Good luck!

will grab a picture ASAP as soon as I get my camera back from a friend! I'm extremely happy with it and it looks superb. I've added more and more tanks with space to spare for two more tanks I'm getting shortly, and its still solid as a rock with no bowing (well at least as far as I can tell). I should have brought this rack from the start and not cheaped out. Old saying - Buy cheap, pay twice.

Going to go with the RackIT solution as we spoke about off the forum :) Less hassle for me than building it from timber and wife wants it set up quicker than I do apparently ;) No complaints. Haha. Will be easy to pull down come moving time, and extend it at the next house with the same sized rack attached to the end of this one, but shhhh :) In all honesty I have never tried to seed sponges that way, but it would work I suppose. Same with everything in the tank being covered by bacteria. It would probably take significantly longer however so if you have a spare air pump laying around leave it running on the sponges for a week at least before you use them in the rack tanks? This should ensure you have enough of a colony to keep you going with a close eye on parameters to start with. This is what I plan to do (have a couple already running in my fry tank with minimal fish load though but will build up the colonies slowly as I am not in a rush to set up 5-6 tanks at once anyway).

This reminded me of my old days when I was a Project Manager. We love to tell our client that "You can't make a baby in a month by getting 9 woman pregnant". LOL!!!

"ecology of the planted tank" is an interesting read

Any luck getting an off-the-shelf rack? You can easily put together a wooden rack real quick for the laundry and build another pretty one for your lounge? Just saying... haha. I already have the sponges in the sump with the rams but not running any air through it. They are just submerged and have been in there since 2 weeks ago. I have read that without connecting the sponges to an air line, they will still seed albeit takes a longer time for bacteria to colonise the sponges.

Great news, my confusa is berried.

Great plant and looks good, 3 types in the group Kiz when was the name changed? another change, why cant boffins leave names alone Bob

Very nice Fishmosy, they were the ones I was talking about as well. The rack looks really good fully assembled. The extra side bracing is really good and dosen't take away from the overall look. It's gonna look really good when the tanks are set up. Looking forward to seeing photos of the entire setup when you have finished.