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Here is my formula for re-mineralising RO or Rain water: Powdered compound Grams needed: Calcium Sulphate CaSO4 Heptahydrate (so it dissolves easily) or Dihydrate if you can't find it, but dihydrate is not as soluble. 58gm Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salt) MgSO4 37gm Potassium Sulphate (aka Sulphate Of Potash) K2SO4 11gm Iron Sulphate (optional) FeSO4 0.30gm Manganese Sulphate (optional) MnSO4 0.16gm Total weight 106.46gm Multiply accordingly if you need to mix bigger batches. Alternatively, Iron and Manganese can be replaced with a Micro-nutrient (trace element) mix of 0.46gm. Again micro nutrients or trace elements are optional, but a small amount of these minerals can be beneficial for shrimps. They will get it elsewhere if it is not added here. You can either use it in powder form, adding small teaspoons to your water change until a TDS of 140-160 is reached. OR You can premix this in 500ml bottle of RO water, and drip it into your water change until the desired TDS 140-160 is reached. If you have a TDS pen, you can check how much 1gm will raise TDS in 1L of water. Similarly you can also test GH/KH raise in 1L of water. It is very important you test this yourself, since there can be a number of variables between your mix and my mix. This mix will not alter pH. You will be able to find all you need at www.aquariumonlinestore.com.au <--- Back in business as of Jan 2018! It is getting more difficult sourcing Calcium Sulphate heptahydrate. The best source I can find is from home brew shops. keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-1kg.html - $9.75 for a kilo. This is food grade stuff. removed - never seem to be in stock. https://www.keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-caso4-300g.html.html https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111974621019 - $20.89 for 1kg of Calcium Sulphate. https://www.bunnings.com.au/manutec-1kg-epsom-salt_p2960980 - 1kg of Magnesium Sulphate. https://www.bunnings.com.au/richgro-1kg-soluble-powder-sulphate-of-potash_p2980321 - 1kg of Potassium Sulphate (Potash). Alternatively, if you need a remin mix for Neocaridina or Tigers, you can replace 15g - 20g of Calcium Sulphate with Calcium Carbonate or Calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is probably easier to dissolve in water and that would be the preference. This will raise KH a bit. http://keg-king.com.au/calcium-carbonate-caco3-300g.html - $4.95 for 300g of Calcium Carbonate.

Hi SKF, what coloured cherry shrimp are available in perth? And how much would they go for? CRS Question: does anyone in perth keep them without using a chiller? I need to get back into shrimp keeping ? Thanks Joe

Hello, My name is Andrzej and I'm from Poland. If something is against the rules, please let me know. I will like to show you my tanks. A few of my aquariums :) Ok some information: Aquariums as you can see is 15 7 is 30x30x50 - the rest is different but mostly 35-45L Filtration Sponge: e-jet 104 or 103 and some u-jet 3 + several biological: such: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWhr-uCYX6Y Pumps have three: 2x Sera 550R and 1x Hailea ACO 9620 And now some of my shrimp: Thank You. I will try to put some new foto and film every few days. If you have any questions, ask. https://www.youtube.com/user/szopen2004

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

Oh no another perthy.... hahaha JKs Welcome!

Pardon my ignorance. What is a back parcel sump? Is it those sumps that is integrated behind the tank? When you said having the sump as a divided breeding area, do you mean something like a refugium? Interesting idea. Would be keen to hear more about it. Watch the first video above for the back parcel demo. Yeah imagine a 1200 long sump with the first section as Inlet (300ish) for media/biohouse then 3 (200-250 ish wide sections as partitions for different shrimp. Then the last bay as heater, return pump, uv sterilizer, co2 (if required) and I'd also run a separate canister filter (2213/5 or similar) in and out of the sump for maintanence/redundancy & chiller connection. Maybe I could go 6 200 wide bays but depends on fitment of components/media etc.

Well, shrimplets have grown up... and there is not a single blue jelly: I have now some nice red rili, and some other clear blue with "red stripes" The blue jelly female is berried again, and as there was only the 2 blue male left, I hope this time I will have blue shrimplets... I'm happy with the red rili though.

Great write up! Keeping the chiller away from the tank i.e. Different room or Under floor cannot be stressed enough

That's what we are here for. Let us know how we can help you.

Hi Sarah, welcome to SKF !

My tap water is 7.8+ ph. Perfect for cycling tanks. You should check your own tap water. You will be draining the water anyway after the cycle. Fill it with RO water after that. If I ever go back to using ADA substrate (I'm using Cal Labs Black Earth Premium now), I would soak it in a large bucket and leave it out in the garden. Once I see mozzies in it, I will know it's safe for use.

From many previous reviews and discussions on ada amazonia substrate, I have the following recommendation:- 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. Once you are done with cycling, you should flush your water (80% WC) one week before putting the shrimp in. This will reset our water parameters and also additional dissolved stuffs. As such, don't think too much about the water parameters except keeping the pH up.

There is a newer variety of HC called Monte Carlo, which will grow a nice carpet in lower light without the need for CO2. It does grow a bit more vertically than others so would need regular trimming to keep the lower parts of the plant exposed to good light. The four foot bookshelf sounds good. The more water volume you have the more stability in parameters and temperatures.

when you say baby tears do you mean HC or HM? HC will generally need co2 injection and high light to get good results. HM IMO doesn't carpet that great and if you did want a dense carpet will need high light and high light means co2 to balance it out or youll end up with algae issues... co2 and shrimp can be tricky if your not experienced in both id pick one and see how you go. so i guess it depends if you want a shrimp tank or an aquascape with shrimp in it? if you want another option you could use belem hair grass ( the smallest of the hair grass's), it carpets well and doesnt really need co2

You mean like this? This is an example of an Iwagumi.

My LED day/night transition