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So who's interested? I've started to do some backend stuff for this if we can get it off the ground.

That's difficult to answer. GH, or General Hardness can be caused by a number of things. Dirty filter, Dirty substrate, Fertilisers, Aquarium salts, Rocks that might have some limestone in it, Coral and Shell grit, Using too much GH+ or GH/KH+ remineralising products. You need to replace some water with pure RO water occasionally to replace the evaporation. Calcium and Magnesium do not evaporate out of water. So any water lost due to evaporation will make the concentration of Ca & Mg higher. The substrate itself could be a cause of increased GH. Some supposed inert gravel actually have parts of it that are formed with calcium or magnesium. What substrate are you using? Long intervals between water changes. If I had a tank with high GH, I would do the following... Look for ornaments that might be causing GH to rise like rocks, or even filter media. Gravel vacuum the substrate, which also does a Water change. Replace water with pure RO or rain water slowly. Clean filters, using the water removed above. Just rinse and squeeze it out. Test again, then add Purigen or Macropore as necessary.

I did use a saw, special type of saw, can't remember the name now. Was recommended by my father who used to cut it all the time. I did have a few small cracks which I didn't really care about. And yes you're correct. It does bow which I thought was annoying initially but actually worked out well because it allows a little air movement [emoji3] ...for summer I'm thinking to cut a square in the corner for a fan and cover it with some kind of Mesh and that should hopefully be enough along with the bow to push air around. I did think of using Mesh on top but was worried it would cut out too much light.

Spotlight has plastic mesh that I use for dividers with the Kmart poster hangers. To make a larger divider I cable tie two or three sheets of plastic mesh together edge to edge. Easy to cut to size with scissors. https://www.spotlightstores.com/sewing/knitting-crochet/knitting-crochet-accessories/plastic-mesh-7-count-canvas-sheet/p/BP80128863?gclid=CIiQ8OuJ6M4CFQNxvAod0ugFUA Great idea @neo-2FX easy to cut as well I use sharp tin snips on solid polycarbonate sheet. Normal Perspex needs to be cut with a saw however need to take care that it doesn't vibrate and break. One problem with the thinner standard/normal Perspex is it will bow after a while due to heat even bows without heat depending on thickness.

After a 5 year break from fish keeping. Thought I would get back into it with a shrimp tank. Ill keep a tab on all expenses etc because I find it helpful and like to see what I spend on a tank. Also dad has a shed full of fish gear so alot of things came from there. AR-620- free from the shed Sponge filters - From the shed Schego WS3 air pump- free from the shed Eheim 2215- $25 Pisces iron sand 20kg- $60 The tech den Up aqua shrimp sand red- $50 The tech den Ceramic shrimp breeding cave- $8 The tech den Java moss- $5 Weeping moss- $5 SS mesh x 4 - $5 Wood- free Shrimp are 10 yellow 5 carbon rilli and 5 blue cherry shrimp. Wanted some colour but didn't want to go to expensive as Im just starting out. End goal is a display tank with white gloves as they are my favourite but $$$ for my liking. Thinking of adding some CRS in soon, I see alot of micshlings which look like CBS to me. Need to read up on those. Pictures from start until now. Cycling with the help of some established sponge filters Sand and moss in. Lilly pipes in. Still deciding on what to do with the intake cover. This is just a cut up piece of foam. Trying to make a nice display piece of wood out of about 10 pieces. I ended up using 3 pieces. As it sits now Still playing around with the wood designs etc. Also will cut the sponges out next weekend. I have read that shrimp love a lot of air and most just use sponge filters. Are there any nice looking sponge filters on the market? Black back ground will be applied this weekend. Thats all for today. Any help and tips will be greatly appreciated! Thanks Zac

First shrimplet in the tank. Picking up my breeding rack this weekend! 12 2fters.

Fans work very well when setup properly with a temperature controller, there are a variety of types available. I ran my large tank with 4 computer fans and a controller for 3 years before buying a chiller. Unfortunately smaller tanks are less stable so have big swings of temperature. Nano tank chillers are now available too and quite reasonable in price.

Cheers for that. Just did a water change today and wiped down the glass, which had started getting a little bit of algae, but it seem to be slowing down by itself already. Cleared up nicely actually, parameters as follows: 24 degC TDS 180 PH 7.5 GH 4 KH 2 Got a light ammonia reading this time, so added another dose of bio culture. Got some nice colored red ramshorns in there who have cleaned the amazon swords to absolute perfection, and they are screwing non stop it seems as well as some babies have hatched, so it's all looking reasonable. I'm running a hybrid mix of Salty Shrimp GH+ and GHKH+, as I don't like the way GHKH+ makes the PH go through the roof, and I plan to have tigers in there as well, so I don't want the KH too high. I'm aiming for GH 6-8 and KH 1-3, with a plant friendly PH of around 7.2-7.4 hopefully. Not too fussed right now as it's not fully cycled and the wood is just starting to darken/waterlog. Was thinking of getting some new yellows, but I've got about a dozen really nice ones in my big tank so I'll just bring them across and see if they give me the line I'm looking for.

So here we are, finally filled it up today. Bought a bunch of plants from Z aquatics or something online. Don't really know what they are, just went through the "background, middle and foreground" sections and went for the "easy care" selections. There's a stainless mesh square of java moss flexed between the root blades (worked a treat) and frogbit floating around there as well. Filled it up with a combination of rainwater and RO water then added my saltyshrimp, which is why the water looks white. Substrate is NZ black iron sand, no regrets there. The lighting looks bright, which it is at the surface, but is not excessive IMHO. The frogbit looks very happy, and some of the plants look to be turning to face the light as well. I like the "beams of sunlight" effect, and as the frogbit grows I'm sure it'll all find a happy place light wise. I'll run it for 4-6 hours a day (any suggestions, want to avoid algae while getting my plants to start) while cycling using a timer. Really happy with the cannister filter and the top box, the flow rate is spot on. When I first fired it all up it was just overflowing the top box a bit (back into the tank, not over the back), but with the intake strainer covered in plant debris it's still holding right up at the maximum level it can be. I've used Mr Aqua ceramic noodles in the cannister and top box, and after the tank is cycled I'll add a mat of that expensive "poly filter" in the section under the spray bar for a final scrub of the water before adding livestock. Hope you like it!

OK, so I've been a bit busy with kids, work and whatnot, but I'm back on the job. At least I know my paint is fully cured. Can anyone recommend a good heater other than the Eheim one with the calibrating rings? I don't like them and want to try something else. I've got my mangrove root in the dishwasher (wife is delighted with that) and will try to get more done tomorrow. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't get the glass cleaner. It seems to have some etched in calcium stains or something.

What a brilliant idea. I wonder who came up with that? Painted parts are looking good. The pipe is mostly camouflaged.

Well done, but wtf at that price ! $20 plus $20 shipping !! Didn't you like my substrate idea? Plants: Fore, foreground - Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' Foreground - UT ( Utricularia graminifolia ) Midground - Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’. The red will break up all the green between fore and back grounds. Background - a LARGE bunch of Tonina Belem. Driftwood - US Fissiden draping off the drift wood.

Very pleased with the lights/hood. Certainly very bright, but seems within reason even when empty. I put the power lead out the side as it seems they had it running through the filter box, which would make it ridiculously difficult to remove either hood by itself.

While I'm waiting for some epoxy to cure in my light hood, I moved onto the top filter. I decided to go with jayc's good idea (which really should have been obvious to me) and connect my canister to the top filter. I really hate the plumbing that comes with cheap ebay canisters, so I made my own in pvc pipe. The white pvc looks a bit agricultural I realize, I'm more into function than form. I have considered painting the down pipe in the same aqua paint I'll use on the back of the glass. That would be perfect but I'm unsure about toxicity. The intake strainer is from a rural pump shop, and I'll tie a stocking over that. I have a spare, so at water change time I'll just screw the old one off and put on a fresh one. I'm thinking that putting some of that (very expensive) poly filter mat in the first section under the spray bar might be good, as the water should be pretty clean and I can easily check it for the change of color it does when exposed to chemicals, and then ceramic noddles in the second section. Does anyone know anything about painted items in the aquarium water? Is it a no no?

Following with interest. I kept my Aquaone filter in place and filled it with ceramic noodles.Then I fed the outlet of my canister filter into the Aquaone filter. Double the filtration.

OK so after chatting to a few experienced people in this area it seems like we need to have informal catchups with like minded individuals initially and go from there. Kind of like our old SKF BBQs, This is because, if we want to do it like a formal club, a number of things are needed like incorporating, public liability insurance, governance, auditing etc... Which can still happen down the track if we get the momentum. In the meantime, I am proposing a brisbane shrimp keepers BBQ catch-up at a park where we can still chat about the same sort of stuff that gets discussed in a club but in a less formal manner. No formal club also means not worrying about raising funds etc... to get started, hall costs and so on. Once we have the numbers, it shouldn't be too difficult to take it to the next step which would be to incorporate, vote in a board and whatever else is needed. I just don't think we at that maturity here in brissie yet. Facebook site for brisbane peeps: https://www.facebook.com/shrimpkeepersclubbrisbane. Things to do to get it rolling: Get brisbane people to like the pageConfirm a dateConfirm a location