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Hi everyone ! I have set up my first shrimp tank ! This is a Fluval tank kit and was an unexpected gift to me from my girlfriend for my birthday. I did a bit of research and went to the local pet store and got some supplies. I got a 2kg bag of the fluval brand shrimp and plant substrate, some basic little "easy" grade plants, a water test kit, a foam filter attachment (I cut the original filter pick up tube and made the foam bottom fit). I also got a heater and a thermometer. The "No Fishing" sign was part of my gift so I included that in the tank as well as some of the white gravel that came with the gift as well. I set everything up and treated the water with the treatments included in the tank kit. Once it was all set up I tested the water and I seemed ok so I added 6 amano shrimp into the tank as my "sacrificial" shrimp , I figured if they died then I'd know something was wrong. 2 days later and they are seemingly doing good, actively roaming around and feeding on the food I put in. I'm also keeping track of the water tests with a "log" of the test results so I can see what's changing. I got a few different types of shrimp food to try out , an algae wafer style , a pellet style and a block style that stays in the tank a few days. The shrimp seem to like all three so that's a good start. If all goes well then I will order some more shrimp through an online retailer here in Canada. The prices in the stores here are noticeably higher than the online retailers and the store selection of shrimp is pretty lacking co,pared to the online sellers. So far it's been an interesting and fun set up, once I get a few more things figured out and get a handle on what to do I think I'll enjoy this new hobby a lot !

So far I have 6 Amano shrimp, practicing with those and with success will get more shrimp soon !

I'd considered using a betta barracks for shrimp at one point - gogo targeted breeding! The thing that got me was the total volume of water in the tanks - it just seem so small. If I can find one that actually held +20 gallons, I might still go for that. How much water does yours hold Zebra?

Thanks for that info. I plan on setting up a 4 footer with a sump outside on the patio and was wondering how i was going to get it done. Going to the LFS or glass shop costs to much just for a couple of holes. You have inspired me to give it a go myself.

Cheers mate, I ended up gluing it at level with the tank. Just finishing the plumbing now, But so far it's all working very nice, I'll post an update pic when it's done and back in place. (It has hanging lights and other tanks built into the cabinet haha everything is a mess right now) Thanks, but it's probably just the pic lol a lot of my holes ended up with small chips and they weren't fully straight so I had to go back over them to get the bulkheads to fit, but it's like my first time drilling glass so I'm just happy nothing cracked or exploded :) I put a small bucket on top of the tank and used airline tubing with a tap to drip water down the glass onto the drill bit, and an airline suction cap to hold it perfectly over the job. Just a towel underneath to soak it up, (had to swap the towel a few times over the 4 holes) I just used my dewalt cordless drill, (I figured cordless cause it's working with water dripping over the job-and I don't have a corded drill ) Set the torque right down to 1. Start off with the drill speed on 1 aswell, just start on an angle and slowly straighten up till your level then you can increase the speed to 2 and full revs is fine as long as your quite straight and level.(this is with my drill) I think the main key to drilling glass is ZERO pressure, you have to let the drill bit do all the work. I was thinking about it and apart from how practical the term is to say, "Drilling" is probably a bad word for it tbh, it's more like very course polishing lol same with "cutting glass" It's more like a guided break then an actual cut. I wanted to make up ply wood guides and clamp them onto the tank so it's perfectly level and the drill bit doesn't walk, I think this would give the neatest holes :) I think some chips in the last few mm is pretty much inevitable though, maybe the pros come in from the other side for the last few mm? Idk. 4mm is easier and cleaner to drill then 6mm. 1" holes took about 30min each. cheers

Welcome @seabring! You've definitely come to the right place! What are you looking at keeping?

From what i hear it is the best design for a sump return, The box should be at tank level because if the power goes out and then comes back on it takes a little while for the siphon tube to purge all the air. Basically the box will fill up a bit more than usual so the secondary drain will be taking most of the flow for a short time and it is not siphoning (sucking) it is just falling with air mixed. The box fills high than at normal operating level i hear. Better to be safe than sorry although i cannot see it filling any higher than the emergency overflow level and you set that height to where you want but it needs to be higher than the top of the siphon elbow. I would love to know how you drilled the glass and got such a neat hole. Almost no large chips that i can see around the edge.

Hey Zebra The only way to cool it down, without a chiller, is to have evaporation. For that you will need maximum surface area for the water. Having the water enter the sump system through some media in a trickle system will help with that as well as giving you good biological filtration with the added oxygen in the water. There are a few youtube vids on DIY systems to get this. Once the water is in the sump proper then you are just going to have the surface area of the sump tank to play with so the addition of fans at that stage can help.