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so after yesterday's debacle with the TDS pen today started off really bad! Recently I purchased some OEBT from Disciple but shortly after they arrived I noticed their tank had some planaria despite having been cleaned and left without shrimp for several weeks before the Tigers came. I treated the tank with planaria zero as per instructions and then I did the requisite water change. Over the last week that tank had a white bloom which I thought was a bit of the zero floating around. I wasn't happy with it so put an internal power filter with Some macro pore in it. I left it running for a few days but Tuesday night well 2 am Wednesday morning ( I have trouble sleeping so I'm often up at that time)I took the filter out as the shrimp were hiding all the time and it hadn't made a lot of difference. Usually I clean out the filter to check no shrimp had got into it but at 2 am I didn't think mistake number 1 . Today - Thursday- I couldn't see my Tigers except for 1 and felt quite depressed and upset. I haven't had too many shrimp room problems but if I do it's usually major!!!! Anyway I pulled all the plants and moss out and put them into a bucket that already had plants and water in - mistake number 2! I usually check plants and driftwood for shrimp but not today' I decided to catch out the shrimp - I had put a number of females into the tank to make some Tibees- I found only 2 Tigers and there should have been more. I took out the water , cleaned the filters and refilled the tank. Now usually I put salty shrimp in to The water before I put it into the tank but today I didn't mistake number 3 - I didn't do it today as I wasn't sure what parameters I wanted and of course I didn't have my TDS pen. I next went to the power filter and changed the media and sure enough there were shrimp in the filter - damn they had been in there for over 24 hours but luckily there was still some water in it. 4 Tigers and 2 Taitibees swam around the container thank goodness I had put the filter into an ice cream container instead of emptying it into the sink. I put them into the satellite box to warm them up and acclimatise them to the tank they were going into. Save number 1 next I went to the plant bucket which had spare plants plus the plants from the Tiger tank , it had been standing for about a week so was quite cold and had no filtration. After finding shrimp in the filter I thought I better check the bucket so using several containers I checked plants and driftwood and sure enough some more tigers were found. Save number 2 after checking the plants I redecorated the tank which had been topped up with straight RO water plus a layer of new substrate. I went back to check the shrimp and looked at the tank and there was a poor lone Tiger frantically swimming in the tank. Not only had it been plunged into a bucket of cold water it was then taken out and plunged into a tank of straight RO. Save number 3 . I caught the poor guy and put him into the satellite tank and re acclimatised him. He must have been hiding on the driftwood which I thought I had checked. Now you see why I said silly old woman. I made 3 stupid mistakes that I would normally never do - can I claim a seniors moment for that ! 1 would have been bad enough but 3 is very bad! The shrimp are all acclimatised to their new tank and seem to be ok but I guess I won't know for a few days how they go. I think I found all my lost Tigers though!

Hey guys, If you ever have an idea that you think would be worthwhile exploring here at SKF, log it in the SKF Improvements Register. It's what I use to track improvements to the forum. Once a suggestion is approved, it creates a forum post where others can also provide input. cheers, Nogi

I would suggest that as a noob like myself, you are better off with a larger tank like a 3 or 4 footer. Much more forgiving with your water parameters.

Don't worry, I think I've been using an incorrectly calibrated PH meter, and I'm an instrument tech by trade. Moral of the story is that this hobby is fickle.

Oh boy, what a day you have had. I too had a similar one today, though only 1 incidence, not 3. I have a bucket of baby Killi fish (aphyosemion bitaeniatum), which I normally have a lid on the bucket to stop them jumping out. Well last night after feeding them I forgot to put the lid back down. And guess what, this evening I go to feed them and find a dried out baby fish next to the bucket ! Silly me. These guys are rare, so the loss is even more heartbreaking. I guess we all make mistakes.

got my fingers crossed for you ineke

Just got home and no fix unfortunately. My pen apparantly is an old model and needs a different calibration solution according to Hanna Australia printout. I can't get it on eBay so have sent a request to Hanna themselves but it looks like they deal with companies not private individuals. I will have to see if they get back to me . I need HI 70080 solution 800ppm @ 25c. They have it in sachets so just need to be patient for an answer. In the mean time I have my old pen which reads slightly different but close enough. I have re calibrated the Hanna to the tank reading it gave me yesterday before this all happened. We figured that if I got that reading back then even if it is wrong it is still stable with my tanks and as the shrimp are doing well it should be ok. If I can't source the correct solution I will have to buy a new pen as I don't have confidence in this one as it stands at the moment. The shop guy - apart from stuffing up my readings- was only trying to be helpful and I don't think I can force the issue in anyway so I just have to wear .

yeah i recently got some new shrimp, but mainly to make selective breeding easier. I've currently got from Left to right Selective CRS pair 6x Panda (new stock, only juvies) was 7 but i lost the best one :( 15x CRS (new Stock mature & juvies & existing older CRS 15x Pinto Misch & BB (new stock, only juvies) ?x CRS culls. there are also 2 external breeder boxes and 2 internal boxes for projects. all the new stock has been living under quarantine in the externals since early january, so i needed to shift them into the tank to make way for some CBS Mixed stock i have on the way. it's all in anticipation of a new tank project i have under way.

Looking good man. So what shrimp are you adding? or is there another reason for the extra sections?

i haven't really measured but id say around the 5cm mark across the shell

It has been two months since my last update. I have not been motivated to try complete the rack as it is currently running fine, even though it is not the 'aesthetically pleasing' look I promised my wife when I first convinced her to allow me real estate space in the lounge room. She hasn't been complaining... so I got lazy. @Disciple asked for some photos and that got me started working on this again. Haha. So first up... night lights. Night lights are highly recommended for breeding discus so that the parents can see their fry easily, especially the crucial first few days of free swimming when the fry need to 'attach' to feed on mucus off the body of the parents. I pretty much did the same LED build in my earlier post here except it is a much shorter version and I used a different type of switch so I can vary the intensity of the lights if required. The photo only shows two but I made three of these, one for each tier. I mounted them in the middle of each tier so a night light is shared by two tanks. Next I tidied up the messy wires dangling across the rack using electrical trunking from Bunnings. The dangling wires were a pain as they get in the way whenever I wield a net to try catch/sort fish/shrimps. Before. After. Before. After. Full rack shot. You would notice that the light on the bottom tier is dimmer because I only ran a single LED strip. I have always plan to use the bottom tier as fry grow out/hospital/quarantine so I avoided bright lights. The light for the sump is usually switched off. I only turn it on when I am cleaning or doing water changes via the sump. Also, the LED strip lights on the middle tier is currently not in use. I am running an Up Aqua Pro Z light from @newbreed. You can get these awesome lights from Newbreed Aquatics. Full rack shot with night lights. Ok... now let's talk shrimps. Isn't this a shrimp forum after all? Full tank shot of the shrimp tank as it is now. From left to right... Section 1 houses my YCS, some from @buck, and my recently acquired CRS from @Gbang. I have always love CRS and wanted to restart a quality pure CRS colony. I think many of you would know the quality of Glenn's CRS... some of them even have sexy red legs!!! I also got some PRL 'culls' from him but they are housed in an entirely separate planted display tank (see further down this post). The YCS are showing great colours but they are still not breeding for me. I hope they would be able to adapt to TB water parameters. Fingers crossed. Section 2 is home to my BB and GB female mischlings. I have my best BB stud male with 3 x BB females and 10 x GB female mischlings. Talking about a harem... haha. Unfortunately, the Bloody Marys I introduced as guinea pigs when I first set up this tank did not survive. It was probably too tough on them to adapt to very different water parameters compared to the tank they were moved from. Section 3 has my KK, Panda, RR, WR together with my CBS/CRS female mischlings. No surprises here and breeding activities have resumed since their move. Section 4 is where all my TB culls and CBS/CRS/GB mischling juvies live. This is also where I look out for female mischlings to be moved into Sections 2 or 3. Sadly, similar to the Bloody Marys, the black cherry culls I used as guinea pigs didn't survive. As mentioned earlier, the PRL 'culls' I got from Glenn are going to this tank. Hopefully I will be able to selectively breed and cull to achieve nice beautiful quality PRLs. Next step is to complete the paint job for the MDF panels and wrap up the rack like how it is here. Thank you for following my first rack build this far. I know progress has been excruciatingly slow but hey, it is about enjoying the journey as much as arriving at the destination.

Hehehe, my thought process was something like this: These tiger stripe shrimp look awesome, but they'd look more awesome if they were blue. These blue shrimp look awesome but they'd look more awesome if they had tiger stripes. [Lightbulb moment] :)