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i have recently had the pleasure of meeting some lovely people both in person and on line who are quite new to shrimp keeping - although some have been keeping shrimp for sometime. I am both disturbed and amazed at the general lack of knowledge of basic shrimp keeping. Things like how to drip acclimatise shrimp. Doing water changes, what temperature to keep shrimp at, what substrates to use . Just the basic minimum knowledge is so lacking and once they realise they can ask me these types of questions I end up spending a lot of time with them answering their questions. I know the information is out there but perhaps it's lost in amongst all the more specific information that is harder to understand. I wonder if there is a time we could set aside here on SKF where we can answer realtime questions. Where people are able to come online and ask these questions while a couple of members are available to answer them. I understand these questions can always be asked but sometimes it can take hours or even days before someone answers. If we set aside a specific day and time that general knowledge questions can be asked and then the answer discussed and explained perhaps this would help the newer members to get answers right when they want them. We can all learn from each other's experience and discuss what works for us and what doesn't. I guess it would be like chat but on the open forum for anyone to join in. As I mentioned once people realise they can ask me basic questions I get bombarded with them. I don't mind and like to share what works for me but there must still be lots of new comers who just can't get their questions answered in an easy way to understand. Simple things like our abbreviations still confuse them and we are all guilty of talking a mile a minute using the abbreviations which just confuses the new comers more. Anyway food for thought going back to basics for very beginners may be useful - that's the sort of information a lot of people are looking for

Thanks @buck The rack has been invaded this week by some curiously stunning looking ladies!! You'll never guess who these came from?!? (Queen of the Tibees - hint) Yet another breeding project begins...... this never gets old!! ?

It has been almost two months since I updated this journal. Much progress has been made but at the same time, I could have done more but it was easier to just sit back and enjoy watching the inhabitants than to try complete the finishing touches to the rack. Yes I have been lazy and a bit of a procrastinator... haha. This is what I have been doing... I was battling an ugly BGA outbreak in the 4x2x2 tank. The before and after effect of using Chemiclean and siphoning out the dead BGA is evident in the photo below. Weeping moss concealed under that thick sludge of BGA. My discus have finally decided to pair up simultaneously all within the span of these two months. I was lucky to have six of them paired up out of eight juvies that I grew out. I waited until I could see wrigglers to ensure it was a confirmed pair before I moved my favourite pair to the rack. The other two pairs are left to spawn in the community tank. I installed a DIY mesh baffle (using SS mesh and poster hangers) on the center divider of the 4ft sump so water from the right section (grow out/hospital/quarantine tank) could flow onto the drip plate in the left section (sump) without having the fish/shrimps take a holiday in the sump. I added sump media consisting of filter wool, ceramic noodles and marinepure spheres. Also installed a fluid reactor to run Macropore Gold and some K1 which are still floating. Video of Macropore Gold in fluid reactor. And... the most problematic and tedious bit... I connected the shrimp tank to the canister filter and chiller. The plan was for water to exit the tank from the right most section via the SS strainer to the canister filter to the chiller and the return goes to the left most section. Water was to flow from the left sections to the right sections under the glass baffles through the substrate. Unfortunately, the flow through the divided sections was not adequate and this resulted in high water level line in the left sections and low water level in the right section and the outlet SS strainer was sucking in air to the canister filter. Each section is too small to allow me to drill holes in the glass dividers and I do not want to remove the dividers to drill and re-silicone them in. After some thought, I decided to try an inverted water bridge concept under the glass dividers but I need to test the flow rate so as to find an optimum pipe diameter that can fit under the glass dividers and yet allow enough flow to accommodate the canister filter and chiller's recommended flow rate. Hope my drawings make sense. Testing in progress using different diameter hose and pipe fittings... anything I could find really. I was pretty happy with the tests and decided to construct the inverted water bridges using irrigation hose and DIY mesh guard to prevent shrimps from travelling between each section. The DIY instructions can be found here: http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/topic/3041-diy-filter-guard/. I have decided to use 2 x 19mm diameter hose for each section. This is the end result. So far the tank has been running for a few weeks and I have moved more shrimps into each section. At the moment, I have moved some yellow cherries (some from @buck... thank you good sir), bloody marys (from my brown/black cherry colony), black cherries, low quality blue bolts, pandas and heaps of CRS, CBS and GB type mischlings. This is how the tank looks now. I will most likely move some better quality shrimps into this tank for selective breeding in the coming weeks. Some of the candidates are... Female shadow panda. One of my better looking male blue bolt. One of my prettier female blue bolt. Next step is to install some night lights, run electrical trunking to hide all the wiring, and finally to paint the finishing coats for the MDF panels and mount them on the rack. Stay tune. Thanks for reading. :)

Nothing beats interaction with other people who can answer questions In real time. When I first came on here Fishmosy answered a multitude of questions in a very easy to understand way - he never seemed to mind my endless questions . I didn't have the first idea of how to keep shrimp and treated them like I did my fish. All the abreviations were a nightmare and trying to wade my way through the literature was just to hard. 3-4 years ago there was less information available so the SKF members were my lifeline or my shrimps lifeline. Beginners feel silly asking really basic questions but it's the way we learn and our policy here on SKF was always no question is a silly question so new members can ask for help.

@Grubs yes that is very good i think what @ineke was getting at was being a sounding board for new people in the hobby. I read a heap of articles when I first started out but it wasn't until I was asking specific questions to knowledgeable people on the forum that it began to sink in.

You mean like this?: http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/articles/

totally agree with @ineke there is a huge learning curve when initially starting out, especially if you are dealing with more delicate shrimp. I keep trying to remember the old adages if it ain't broke don't fix it and less is more. Happy to help where I can, although I am still learning the trade after almost a year in the game.

No issues here.Chat is hit and miss depending on time of day and what device people are using. You could also maybe once a week just have a mega ask any question here thread as well? Otherwise, I encourage newcomers to start new threads. Don't be afraid to ask the obvious, hell I still do lol

I got most of my information here at SKF. we used to chat a lot , ask questions, compare experiences and have a lot of fun along the way. The information is on here but you need to search for it. It would be great to have people communicating and exchanging information at a certain time and day.

Thanks for answering our basic questions and maybe some of the harder (or wordier) ones could be redirected to a Moderator. As a newbie I don't have a lot of sources of knowledge for shrimpkeeping and this was a big reason I joined the forum. Where did you get all your information and tips? You can only get so much out of shop attendants and the Internet often has conflicting views. I usually have 3-4 questions for the poor guys at Subscape Aquarium and look up info on the web daily (which I usually try to cross reference with information discussed here). I think having a basic knowledge section here would be fantastic and could covering simple matters for beginners. Thanks for raising it.

I'm part way through writing an article on TDS. In my research 500ppm TDS is considered contaminated water. 1000ppm TDS is unfit for drinking. 300 TDS is getting close to water that is considered contaminated. Next time some one from Adelaide says they are having issues with their shrimp, remind me to ask them if they are using tap water.

JayC I'm in Adelaide and my tap water can be 300!!!! I always mix and test my RO water in a bucket and make sure it is less than the tank water so if my tank sits at 150 my water is mixed to approximately 130 . I also check the temperature and make it as close to the tank as I can- a laser temp gun makes that easy work. I use a jug and slowly pour the water into my tanks- I do it to all 13 and have done it that way for 3 years. my tanks are overflowing with all sorts of babies! All my tanks are treated the same , have the same substrate etc but at the end of the week there is usually a 10 point difference between them- some stay 150-155 others go to 160. I would say it's to do with the population in each tank and the amount of food I put into them accordingly. I also still use something like Boss booster each week, mironecton fortnightly and Beta-G -when I can get it. The TDS never fluctuates much more than 10. I also add pure RO if there has been a lot of evaporation -I only have half my lids on in summer instead of full coverage to help keep the tanks cooler.

So I got my ada soil and my up aqua lights today from the tech den. I forgot to get the stuff I needed to hang them up so let's hope I remember tomorrow. I transfered my endlers and red cherries to the new rack in the same tanks. Will move the yellows tomorrow. So far really impressed with the up aqua U lights. I have Z's on most of my tanks but the U and a lot bigger but brighter as well

Looks top shelf dude!

So it all has started. After moving the tanks last night To this tonight I think it's going well. Now cos my garage is so unlevel the rack is rocking -.- so I'm talking to a guy that works for the company that makes them and he installs them for a living. So I'm hoping I can get some levelling plates off him.