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Always wanted sulawesi shrimp and snails since they first appeared in PFK magazine (from memory) back in the mid 2008. Today I got realised a bit of that dream with the arrival of some juvie cardinals - thanks to @JPN07 After acclimating them over a couple of hours they went into the tank and within seconds they had coloured up and were feeding away. It might just be because they are new, but these shrimp are really fascinating to watch. Cant wait until they get bigger. Excuse the dirty glass.

You lucky guys! Hope one of these days I ca grab some. Enjoy!

Bought some cardinal shrimp from John aka @JPN07 shrimp arrived in perfect health and with a little extra bonus. Much appreciated mate.

I got my first batch this Monday, I know you're excitement:)

Thanks mate, yeah that makes perfect sense with the tds the way you've explained it. I instinctively took out most of the shrimp snow this morning cause I didn't see them hugely taking to it anyway. So this is also why a very very slow RO drip would be good to setup with these guys hey, to further maintain stability over tds changing due to water evaporation and any other factors like those said above. I probably will just start another thread my first one ended up a hellish nightmare slaughter :( I'm a lot more confident with these guys now though. thanks again.

Just a 1 week update, plants and shrimp settling in well, keen to get the new liquid fert and CO2 into it also. All feedback, comments, advice welcome, cheers.

Hate to say it, but don't trust test strips. The margin for error with test strips is too great. Get liquid test kits from API. ph, ammonia, gh as a minimum. Kh, nitrites , nitrates if you have more funds. A TDS meter, it's also very useful. pH and TDS pens are very cheap nowadays. Get them if you test water a lot. In the meantime , a water change won't hurt.

I do feed snow from time to time, but only very sparingly. I am very careful to minimise the amount of food that I add to my tank for the simple reason that it only takes a tiny amount of anything leaching into the water to change TDS when the water is so pure like when keeping zebs. Think about it like this - assume the TDS in a zeb tank is 20. A change in TDS of just 5 ppm changes the TDS to 25, but this is a 20% increase! The same change in a cherry tank (say 200ppm) to 205ppm is just a 2.5% change. As for starting a new thread - its up to you. I started a new thread because I started a new tank. I think its more important to document what you do/dont do so other people can learn from your mistakes or hopefully success!

Got like 15 extras with my order!! Sooo happy, shout outs to LCA. Most of the females are berried and some babies are so small looks like they must have hatched during transport. :) the water in bag was tds 36 so these ones have been kept in the right conditions before I bought them atleast. tank is looking soooo healthy. temp 21-22c ph 7.4 tds 27 kh and Gh both less then 15ppm. I got some shrimp snow recently too cause I wanted some leave in food for them that won't foul the water. Do you feed them this @fishmosy? So back up to 37 :) think I should just start a new thread or keep adding to my other one? Calling the shops I got the originals from today Aswell. Sorry didn't mean to jack your thread op. join the LCA Facebook group Jeff has some for sale now :)

OK guys, let me know what you think

I cannot confirm or disprove if the adding an airstone will reduce temps or not. But it theoretically could by increasing surface agitation which then increases evaporation rates, which cools water. Doesn't hurt to have extra surface agitation from an airstone. Try it. Adding air flow (with a fan) across the surface of the water would increase the cooling capabilities of just an airstone.

Good news all, you can now apply the discount online. Use the following code: SKF5

Hows this:

@Filter Systems Australia Hey Cody, It's great that you guys are asking for suggestions. I have a few. I have the GT1-70DIALK model. Others here might also have the GT1-70DI model. It's time for cartridge replacement soon. But I find it difficult to locate the correct replacement cartridges on the web site. You have the following replacement cartridges on the page for the GT1-70DIALK, but it's added to the the Whole RO unit. I don't need a whole new unit, just need the cartridges. Would You Like Replacement Filters? Pre Filter (6 Months) +$15.00 DI Resin Refill Only (Life may Vary) +$14.95 12 Month Pack (Including Resin +$59.95 Full Pack (All Filters) +$99.99 1. It would be useful for us newbies, if FSA could provide a link to purchase replacements easier: Pre-filter Di Resin or All Filters. 2. Provide an explanation on what is included in the 12 month pack? 3. Provide an explanation on what is included in the Full pack? What if I only want the DI Resin replacement, cause that usually expires first. Give us an option to repurchase single replacement cartridges or a full set to replace the existing. Right now it's too hard to locate the right parts. 4. If replacement cartridges are provided, instructions on how to replace it would be very, very helpful too. 5. If DI Resin refills are sold, then instructions on how to refill would be helpful as well. Step by step for each Aquarium RO model and with pictures for us dummies. What do we do with the old resin? 6. I know you also sell TDS and pH meters. I was in the market for some pH pen storage solution. The options for getting it is either a hydroponics store or make my own. I resorted to making my own - which is probably not the most precise. It would be good if you guys stocked pH pen storage solutions. 7. You already have pH 7.0 buffer solution. pH 4 buffer solution is more useful for us Aquarist. It would be good to add this to your stock. 250ml bottles are a good size. 8. In regards to the TDS solution 342ppm you guys already stock, I suggest providing a smaller, cheaper bottle for hobbyist who don't use much. TDS pens don't need recalibration very often, so 250ml of TDS solution @ $20 is kinda overkill. A 100ml bottle at $10 is way more than required. A 50ml bottle at $5 also much more than needed, but I would get it without even batting an eyelid at that price. Almost every single shrimp keeper on SKF has a TDS meter. But not a lot of us have recalibrated their TDS meter because 1) TDS calibration solution is difficult to find, and 2) when we find it, it comes in a bottle way to large and costs equally as large.

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.