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Thank you so much for the encouraging and kind words everyone! I'm currently stashing my photos on http://steven-chan.smugmug.com/ if you guys want to see more pics. Looks like I can't upload that many pics at a time in one post! I just got my sensor cleaned and did some test shots a few hours ago. Enjoy!

It has a lot of red things in it... It's a 20long (75.7 liters?) And somewhat new. I made a three day move a couple of months back, and decided I'd rather get a new tank than try to transport the old one. Brought two buckets of water with me, along with some fish a gajillion sword plants. (Those started as just two or three, and somehow multiplied into...many), and an anubias I got a month or two before moving. It currently has 9 cherry barbs (7 female, and two males) 1 female bristlenose pleco and 10 very very red cherry shrimp Unfortunately can't really remember the exact names of most of the other plants, but I've been adding them to the tank for a couple of months. They are all medium/low light plants that are supposed to be easy to care for. The shrimp and the male cherry barbs are actually brand new as of today. The barbs were very excited to meet. The shrimp also appear to be doing well so far...they've only been in there about two hours, so I'm still holding my breath. They move around a lot more in my tank than they did at the store, so I guess they like it here, or at least there is more for them to nom on.

@newbreed +1 to colour bond roof being ok. It's new, so it's unlikely to have problems. Just make sure you use a plastic rain water tank for storage. Less chances of metals leaking into the water. First flush systems are the best. Pair that with a "Leaf Eater" and you're laughing. Large debris like leaf and twigs gets filtered out by the Lead Eater. And the first flush system gets rid of all the finer dirt and dust. What you will be left with will be crystal clear rain water.

Hi everyone! I'm usually lurking on the website, but I'm a big fan of this forum and the great information it has. I hope this helps express my gratitude to you all! I recently wrote an article on shrimp macro photography for Photography Life, and they published it! I hope you enjoy :) https://photographylife.com/aquarium-macro-photography-of-ornamental-shrimp

Good to know! And thank you :) It makes taking the pics and sharing them that much more enjoyable! I will try to post more so that I can get more pics out to y'all!

Thank you. I appreciate the add.

Thankyou very much! :D It's been slowly evolving for a month or so, the middle used to be a little bit cluttered and I had to move things around for the pleco. She seems to think she's much larger than she actually is, and gets herself "stuck" simply because she doesn't think she has room to turn. I suppose at least she is considerate of the plants and doesn't just rip through them like some plecos like to do. Now that its night time here and the fish are sleeping, the shrimp are really zoomy, they've been swimming all over the tank! I can't believe how fast they can run and swim when they feel inclined to do so. We turned on the moonlight for a short bit to watch them, it was pretty fun.

OK, I've got someone working on the infographics for this. First draft below, ignore the shrimp images, they'll be replaced with the SKF ones. I've asked for it to be on a single page as well.

As soon as you get a few more posts up it should let you post more. Great pics btw

I have used water from our colour bond roof with out a problem. I don't have a rainwater tank so I was catching it once the roof had been cleaned with heavy showers- we have one drain pipe that just drops onto the garden -will fix that one year -it's only been like that for 16 years!.

I've been using rain water from both tiles and colour bond roofs over the years, both safe for fish currently have tiles using the rainwater for both fish and shrimp. The water whilst your tank is full should be right as its diluted from your previous haul off the old roof. I think you'll actually see an improvement in water quality, if you don't have a first flush diverted system I recommend one and drain it off after each rainfall, I use the water from the first flush on the indoor plants and orchids. If your not sure I would try it out on some of your culls and complete your regular tests. Additionally I store my rainwater for our shrimp in litre glass bottles so anything that may be in the water can settle to the bottom of the bottle and do not use the last few drops in the bottle, probably not needed however that's what I have been doing. I haven't seen any sediments in the remaining water. How exciting a new roof and gutters, the things we do for our shrimp!

@Kurobom wow nice stash, love the photos well done and thanks.

Sorry to hijack this thread but question is on rainwater. Looks like we will have a new roof installed next week, my other half only just told me lol, it will be colour bond. Should I expect this will now mean I need to actively filter my tank water going forward? Don't want to risk my shrimps. Or maybe I will have to bite the bullet and switch to ro?

An opportunity arose and I couldn't say no... This new tank has only been set up for a couple of weeks prior to getting shrimp, but all the contents (rocks, plants, moss) have come from mature tanks rich in biofilm. Only the glass is clean and thin inert sand layer is fresh. Same size as before ~50 litres. The day before the shrimp arrived I swapped the sponge filter for a mature filter from another tank. Not maturing the tank properly for a month or more is a risk but whatareyagunnado. I did consider removing all the shrimp from another mature tank but then discovered there were Paratya larvae in the water I wanted to keep. So new tank with old contents it had to be. Since the sand is clean - I'm temporarily adding some grotty potted plants in slimy plastic pots from other tanks to supply more biofilm and the shrimp are quickly finding them and cleaning them (small amazon sword bottom pic). The water this time around is pure rainwater from 100KL storage (so water params should be relatively stable) with a constant drip in and out (about 3 litres of 50 litres replaced each day) = ~30% water change per week. KH <1, GH<1, pH ~6.0 22C. I drip acclimatised the shrimp to the rainwater over a 2 day period with no losses. Colours are bright and I'm optimistic. I followed @fishmosy's lead and bought some Boss aquaria shrimp snow to try as a supplemental feed and a test of a just a few flakes brought more interest from the shrimp than I've seen from the zebs before for other foods. .

So i couldn't help buy bid on an auction for 100 stems and i won. So i loaded the animals in to the ark and so began the flood! new additions to plants are Eriocaulon lividum, Syngonanthus sp 'Belem', Tonina fluviatilis and 2 others i still need to double check but i think Rotala sp "Green" and Mayaca fluviatilis. Im cranking that CO2 to try and get them kicked off, the hair grass is taking its sweet time to carpet and the clover is making heaps ground so i guess it will be my carpet? Shoulda just got 2 pots of it and left the hair grass out haha ?? lol ill keep posting even if they all melt and it goes to poo so stay tuned! In a month or so ill add some live stock when im 100% sure the tanks eco system has established.