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Hello. This week we took our dog on a family holiday down to the great ocean road, I figure any chance is a good one to go out looking for shrimp :) So I went for a wander up Smythe creek, I started from the side road car park near beach where the Creek flowed out into saltwater. The view of ocean from where I parked. The veiw looking inland. I had no equipment with me (not even gumboots, just an old pair of street shoes lol) the car said it was 9C haha. I just took a few bottle traps on line that I'd make quickly to see what was in the Creek. Though the Creek was totally inaccessible other then walking over large rocks or straight through water, I didn't have to walk far until typical rainforest vegetation became increasingly prevalent. I set my 2 bottle traps up using a dry dog kibble as bait in one and a prawn head in ther other, I did this on the way up the creek to check on my way back down. I mostly just scanned through the water with my eyes and occasionally lifting over a rock or 2. But I didn't find any shrimp or even shells/ fish bones. Nothing. But it was still a lovely veiw. The first signs of submersed vegetation, nothing was hiding in these. Some of the spots I stopped to eat a muesli bar and just appreciate the veiw. I did notice a large amount of brown slime with tiny oxygen bubbles covering most of the rocks in large part and of the creek, I also saw large populations of like dragonfly/ damselfly nymphs and other aquatic bugs, maybe this had something to do with the lack of aquatic fauna? I did find a fish trapped in a small rock pool, on the way back I decided to move some rocks so it could get back to the main river (There was no eggs on the rocks or anywhere in the pool, I thought maybe it wanted to be there?) But after I moved the first rock it swam away back into the main river happy as, I forgot to make a wish lol. This is as far as I walked, about 2-3hours maybe a few km I wasn't moving fast lol. Some beautiful native Bryophytes a metre or so from the creek. Horwort, Cyathophorum Bulbosum- (Quill moss) Achrophyllum dentatum, All in all I didn't find any shrimp or even aquatic ferns, but was a nice veiw. Good to be home though,

Hi every one and so glad I found this forum. Let me just say I have had RCS in the past but am going a new directions with my little aquarium and would love your opinions on how to move forward as have been given very confusing information. Ok, I have redone/scaped my Fluval Edge 46 litre as a "planted" tank with ADA amazonia and some pieces of driftwood...tank has been re-cycling with old media from past set up for about 2 weeks now, ammonia has dropped greatly in this time from 4 ppm to now just between 0.25- 0.5 ppm as it stands today, no Nitrite since day 1 and slight Nitrates of less than 5 ppm. The dkH of tank is at 4 and gH is at 3 pH at 6.8. My tap water is almost identical with the same dkH and gH and only difference being pH at 7- 7.2. I asked a famous online resource on shrimp if I could have any shrimp in these parametres and was told basically "no".... I would have to use RO water to get rid of the kH? so that it is 0 degrees? I then looked up a site that tells you what parametres for each species of shrimp and it seems I may be able to have RCS once again, but I wonder if any of you have similar parametres and have success with RCS and CRS in those conditions and willingly breeding? I keep the tank at 22 C . What are my options as a RO unit is way out of the budget at the moment and would love some shrimp again... I hope all this has not been in vain as though having slightly soft tap water would have been a good thing in combination with ADA soil. I hope to hear from you and any help you can provide, am a tad heartbroken after the news I received from above mentioned. Thank you. PS don't laugh at my first attempt at "scaping" it will grow in a bit eventually....lol

Hello, I bought these heaters cheap on eBay about a month back and they arrived today. These are Topaqua brand 50w QUARTZ (not glass) "explosion proof" aquarium heaters- 220-250v 50-60hz. Made with Asian plug. They cost $15ea with free shipping. So far they seem quite accurate, After installing them and plugging them in I set the temp to 21c and noticed the thermostats seem to line up with my thermometers quite closely straight off the bat. Green light= at temp. Red light= heating on. This tank is still cycling with new black earth, now the heaters in I'll get some plants in too, bentonite everywhere lol

Pagoda is just a product name. Like Commodore is a product name of Holden. A Holden Commodore is a = car. Pisces Pagoda = what type of rock? Probably good to find out. Google-fu might be required. I'm guessing it's a type of sedimentary rock (formed by compressing mud or sand). Rocks are THE most likely source of increased GH and KH. So if you needed to focus on something, that would be my first suggestion. Vinegar not fizzing doesn't mean it is not leaching something. If you have a Nitrate test kit, use reagent #1 to test rocks. It's hydrochloric acid and is strong then vinegar. If vinegar was marginal and too small a reaction to notice ... you WILL notice it with Nitrate reagent#1. Agreed, it's a very nice scape! @Mapsyd However, what you might find ... later on ... is that it will be difficult finding/seeing all the shrimp in the tank. I know this from experience. Ever since, all my shrimp tanks are very bare and minimalist by comparison ?

Welcome to SKFA @Mapsyd. After reading through this post i'm picking up from @jayc that there really is not much of a problem with your tank at the moment. Your water parameters are perfectly fine to keep and breed Red Cherries, almost the same as mine but with a lower PH, and it may be fine for CRS once the cycle is complete and things settle. I Think the other forum gave you a bum steer (or they were talking about the ammonia) and that has you a bit stressed. I also think you did a great job of scaping it. Looks good to me.

Thank you NoGi....yes, another venture into cycling and learning about shrimp in general. So glad I found this forum.

Nice but keep an eye out on the temps, there is a reason some things are cheap ?

Some great photos there mate. A long exposure shot on the stream would have looked awesome.

Welcome to SKF Aquatics @Mapsyd Look forward to hearing about your planted tanks.

Hello, Do you ever find great products online we don't otherwise have access to here in Australia? I find power adaptors tend to make a very poor unstable connection, and adding a new plug end isn't everyone's cup of tea. So As long as your product is: 220-250v 50-60hz (which is used by a lot of Asia and also Australian power standards) You can simply bend the male terminals carefully to create a stable, Solid connection to fit our Australian power points. These products like some of our electronics run with only 2 wires and no earth, you can plug them in either direction and they will operate. Asia plug on top. Australian plug underneath. One at a time carefully bend the male terminals with pliers till the plug fits Aus power points. Thats about it, I'd recommend maybe using an un plugged extension cord to test the plug fit, always be careful doing anything with or around electricity. This is what I do and it works safely for me given the device is rated correctly, Do this at your own risk though, imo I believe this is a safer connection then the loosely fitting power adapters.

Nice one I know exactly what you mean with the insecure power adapters !! [emoji173][emoji111][emoji445] will

Hi @Mapsyd, firstly welcome to SKFA. On the subject of your water parameters and RCS, there are many, many shrimp keepers in Melbourne that have successfully bred RCS with similar Melbournian tap water. KH of 4 is fine for RCS, they are a lot more tolerant of water parameter ranges than other shrimp. CRS (crystal red shrimp) might be the species that prefer lower KH. and that might be what your "online resource" would have been referring to. Then again, many in Melb have been keeping CRS with those parameters. Someone from Melb might be able to chime in here. All is not lost however, KH will drop (a little) naturally as cycling completes and the tank matures. If RO systems are too expensive for you right now, rain water (RW) is a great alternative, if you are able to collect enough for regular water changes. You would still need to treat RW the same way as RO water, ie to remineralise it to the right parameters for your shrimp/livestock. RO has many positive benefits (I'll let you read some of our material in the Articles section os what those benefits are), and if you ever decide to purchase a unit, we have a site sponsor FSA that offer a 10% discount. PS - nothing wrong with your scape there. It's quite good actually. edit - maybe your online resource said "no" to RCS in those parameters is because of your tank still showing ammonia. That is a correct analysis. Do NOT add shrimp into the tank until ammonia reads zero.