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Great update @Ronskitz And great to hear direct result from gravel vac use. I have seen it used on overseas posts but have also been hesitant. I have found on my newer rack that things have stalled and I honestly believe, as I have used only a relatively shallow soil depth of 3-4cm, that there is a direct correlation between dissolved organics being too close to top of soil. As this is where shrimplets stay for the first week of their lives quite often, it must have an impact. I also think this is where some of the Asian undergravel systems work well as back section is deep (10cm) and front section only one to two peices of gravel deep. That way no dissolved organics can really settle in the front section. I went out last week and bought my first gravel vac in years. And will be going through a similar process. Just need to figure out the best method for my system. I can luckily isolate shrimp from one tank into breeder boxes in the next, as all paramaters are very close. I am planning to do a tank a day over the next week or so. Hoping to have a similar noticeable effect. Look forward to more great updates. ?

No worries mate. Yeah look i just want to stress that i love the positive effect its had on my tank but each of our own little ecosystems are different and can react differently than what someone elses tank would.

Just wanted to share some shrimp pics!

I apologise in advance for the quality of the pictures. I spent all morning trying to get them to sit still long enough and close enough to get a picture. I really must buy a macro lens. These are 3 different shrimp- 1 new one I found this morning still quite small - it's from a different drop of babies.

Thought it was time for an update. So originally this tank i bought as is (besides a few things iv changed) and it was running with shrimp so couldnt really change much at the time. It was originally setup on the 25/5/2014 or at least thats when the tank journal was made on here if you want to see it its titled "new 4 footer". So its over 2 years old now so the substrate was filthy. Long story short i had some major issues as you can see above so i went against the grain and took a risk so over the last few weeks/months iv been gravel vacuuming and holy $h17 im glad i did it was putrid. Tested ammonia nitrite and nitrate almost hourly for a few days following and itwas perfect. Ever since my tank has thrived and im bloody stoked now after the devastation i had before. Anyway the only thing that has changed about this tank is iv taken out the piece of UG i used to separate my boss bio media and replaced it with a filter mat And now onto the the important part CRS section is coming along nicely with the lowest grade is basically s+ whick are the tiger tooth and V pattern and I've got quite a few sss bubs too but too small to get pics atm The blue bolts are going OK not as nicely coloured atm compared to what they can show The tibees are going good. I started with a blue oebt x mumma mishlings and damn the f1 are absolutely nuts Then im planning to pick all the females out of the f1 and put 2 kk with pinto gene males over them Then we go to my new favourite the PRL. For some reason my phones camera doesnt pick up their leg colour too well Cheers for having a look [emoji1303]

I've recently got into mosses after receiving small portions of about 14 varieties from a friend as a bonus from a purchase. When they arrived I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them as before this I had only ever grown the basics (eg. Java Moss, Peacock Moss, Flame Moss, etc.) and all of a sudden I have rare mosses like F. splachnobryoides and F. zippelianus just sitting in clip-seal bags on my dining room table. Suffice to say I had a little problem as my tanks were full to the brim with other stuff, and as a stickler for quarantine I wasn't going to have them sharing the same tank. A lot of the mosses also needed high light, low temperatures and CO2. So I began thinking... and thinking... and thinking. And eventually I came up with an ingenious idea to give them high light, easy access to CO2, low temperatures and all the other things they needed, all while keeping them separate from one-another. I decided on growing them emerse (as I have had luck with Echinodorus and Cryptocorynes that way in the past). However, I wasn't too keen on using the soil mixes I had used before as they always absorbed too much water and ended up covering the medium in algae, so knowing this I decided on perlite instead and I would be mindful to keep the liquid level a lot lower than the top of the perlite to avoid algae potentially covering the mosses. Be mindful your perlite cannot fall out of the pot, however, as the pot I used had large holes on the bottom of it (I used filter wool to plug them). For extra growing help I decided to switch out water (which I had used when growing plants emerse in the past) for BioJuice (a seaweed mix for hydroponic use which promotes vegetative growth, not flowering or root growth like most) to use as the liquid, and for each pot which a moss to be contained inside a bag for humidity which I then put onto my verandah in a place where it would not be too hot, but would also get a decent amount of sunlight with the moss laid out on top of the perlite. This'll be a work in progress. It's not too clear now but I'll work on that later today and into the future. Better photos will come, don't worry! The location of the bags on my verandah. A close view of the set-up (excuse the fog). This one is already growing after about a week. View full article

https://vimeo.com/164879809 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi All, I picked up this piece at my local fish store today, Normally I don't put anything in my tanks when I am unsure of what they are but I simply couldn't pass this piece up ( it is just gorgeous ). So my question is, what type of moss is this and where can I get more ? TIA. Jarad

Sorry I know this sucks but I couldn't help it ...

I can never sex mine right lol

Thankyou so much ! I could scape an entire tank with this and driftwood ^_^

Looks like cladophora- what we call 'native' marimo/ aussiemo. You can buy the native cladophora on Gumtree and EBay ( just make sure it says native as the Japanese one- real marimo is illegal as it is protected as far as I know). That is a very slow growing algae, but if it is in the current, you will have a few tufts popping up around the tank. Some people remove them, I love it, so I keep it as the shrimp like the microorganism so that live in it. Very nice!?

im not doing a review of this net as I know someone else will be so I'm not putting this post in the review thread. i received my glass net from @Newbreed Aquatics - thanks Jamie- I bought it although I did think it might be a bit big and unyielding in my 70 litre tanks. In the video showing how to use the nets it looked really easy and the shrimp just seemed to sit there and walk into the glass bowl of the net. Initially I did find it a bit awkward and my shrimp while not swimming off did shuffle away a bit but once I got the hang of it I found they did literally walk into it. What I really like though is the ability to lift the shrimp in their water out of the tank and put them near a light to get a really good look at their markings. They wander up the handle if you leave enough water in it and you really get to see them clearly. I'm not sure how the camera would work with the rounded handle but I'm going to try that next. Anyway I think that if you were hesitant about buying one they really are good and worth the money . I won't be throwing away my other nets but think this one will be getting used a lot

LOL Keenshrimp that's a good way to treat glass. But they do feel very strong. There definitely is a knack to using them but once you get it it's great. The Tigers are funny they grab on to the edge of the bowl and fight me but I do like how quiet they are once you get them into the net/ bowl they rally aren't concerned even when sitting out of the tank in mid air - either that or they are stunned into submission LOL

I love the caramel brown eyes with the dark blue ineke?

LOL ? @KeenShrimp Don't let them sell you any shrimp crack, only buy from a reputable seller LOL ???

Yes i have a 4 outlet air pump running a sponge in each section plus a twin outlet running to turn my boss bio media in the sump

I take on all info and agree what works for one may not suit others so each to their own as you say. @newbreed looking forward to your observations when you venture down this path. I have both the standard type gravel vacs and battery operated ehiem vacs. The battery operated ones would not be suited to shrimp tanks as the finer dust would pollute the take going through the fine mesh which isn't a problem in the larger fish tanks. I mainly use the battery operated vacs when I don't need to do a water change, however I would suggest to have a good filtration filter either a canister or high flow internal filter in use when using the battery type in a fish tank to clean up the fine debris that may be released.

Thanks Jamie. That would make sense as the waste is so close to the top of soil that even the shrimp just turning the soil the little bit that they do may be affecting the equilibrium of the tank/rack. What substrate do you use? Im not sure about a tank a day though if it were me id probably start off doing 1 a week and increase from there if its working well coz if you cause an amm spike doing the first one then do another 1 the next day i think by the time the amm shows nastily you may have done 2-3 tanks by then and then you'll have major issues. Just something to think about but your a shrimp master so im sure whatever you do you will be done well

Hi All, Soon I will be having my own shrimp room so will be adding 20+ shrimp tanks to the existing ones. The mistake I have done with the older tanks is - the water change and drainage were all manual work so it takes quite a bit of time for the water change. Mostly I get weekends only to spend with family and if I spend a big chunk of the time in water change then obviously family will not be happy. So will be selling some of the tanks and will get all similar size of tanks for better understanding and plan is to automate the water change as much as can. Below is a crude diagram of the rack(s) and how the system I am planning - Will be a 3 layered custom made rack, which will mostly keep 3 tanks in each level. Now my area tap water is around 800 tds so will be using RO plus remineralizer. First we will keep a square container around 250-300 lt at ground level where I will put RO water and will mix the remineralizer and then at a decent height one more container of around 200lt will be kept which will be used to distribute water to every tank(s). From the ground level to the top level water will be sent using a pump. Will replenish the bottom container once its empty. Each tank will have 2 pipes - 1 for input and 1 for output. Each tank input will be connected to a master PVC input and the PVC will be connected to the top container. And each tank output will be connected same to a master PVC output which will be connected straight to the drainage. Each of the tank inlet and outlet will be controlled by valve and will be opened during water change. Below is a diagram of the tank sizes, filtration etc. Tank dimension are mentioned in inches. Each tank will have 2 filtration - Taiwan style UG filtration and one sponge filter. A 4 inch partition will be done in the tank where the UG plate, filter media and soil will be kept. The UG and Sponge filter will be connected to a bigger Hiblow XL pump which will run all the tanks. So each tank will have 4 air pipes - 1 water drainage -valve controlled 1 water inlet - valve controlled 1 air pipe for UG 1 air pipe for sponge filter Mostly will be using LED for all the setups. Now would require members advice on the system we have planned. Please share your thoughts/suggestions/area of improvements. My end goal would be to provide efficient filtration and also to automate the water change as much possible as it can be.

It's a fairly basic system I've coded. For extra features like that, put them in the improvement register to prompt me to seek some external developer assistance.

Hi @Cryptocorynus, only saw this now- a bit late to respond, but I am in ACT. Lol, the above ad sounds like a bad recruitment ad for a mule. If you are still after it, I can pick it up for you as long as I don't get a bad vibe from the place I am trying to collect for you from, as it sounds dodgy as?

I'm not sure why - maybe it's me being impatient- they are healthy enough swimming and grazing . TB take longer to mature and these have strong TB genes. I haven't had Tigers for long so don't know if they are slow growing?