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Yes. That's a good way of adding mineral powder for a new tank. yes, that should be fine. Many shrimp keepers only use air sponge filters. But I go by the motto ... "you can never have too much filtration". Shrimp are not a huge bio load in any case.

LOL ! I can hear the excitement in your post. Tip - Boil (blanch) one leaf, freeze one leaf. The shrimps will take to the boiled leaf faster. They don't go for the frozen leaf as quickly.

Heaters for shrimp are not essential in Australia. Shrimp prefer the cold. Set the heater to 22deg C. - and that is only really for Winter to reduce wide fluctuations in temp. The heat of Australia in summer has more of an impact on shrimp, and a chiller would be a better good idea. CRS tanks need to be kept between 22-24deg C. That gets difficult in Oz. Oooo, how much?! Not a good idea. Yoga mats are too soft. Look for this instead, if you have a Bunnings nearby https://www.bunnings.com.au/polytuf-50-x-50cm-solid-black-foam-mats-4-pack_p4490382 Substrate choice depends on the type of shrimp you are keeping. Your forum name, gave it away CRS. A good plant substrate is advisable to keep pH low. Look for Cal Lab Black Earth Premium, ADA amazonia, Benibachi. Those are good substrates that hold their shape and don't exhaust their buffering capabilities like some cheaper brands. The extra cost far out weighs the need to redo the tank once cheaper substrates loose their buffering capabilities. Lots of choices on the market now. Look into alternating with fresh fruits, veges, leaves and flowers too. - often free as offcuts from the kitchen. And of course, you can DIY your own foods. There are several posts in the Food & Nutrition section.

Here are a few posts that talk about preparations ... There are probably more, but I think those should be enough for a good read.

Wow! I completely forgot about updating this sorry guys! So much has happened since the last update. So I filled the bottom rack with water and blocked the top off (As I was going on a holiday and wanted to keep it simple for the lady looking after the house). That was really a bad idea! I had automated everything in the fish room, Dosing pumps for ferts, Aircon on a timer program, auto top off RO Water ect. no expense spared. She thought she was doing me a favor by turning the aircon off to save power (it specifically said on the instructions to let it go as it was on a timer....) ALL of my shrimp were cooked, my Threadfin Rainbows all died, and a vast majority of my plants turned mushy as the room temp would have been sitting on about 38 degrees. I was devastated when I got home... Moving on, Ive just began to restock the shrimp rack now. Ive also filled the top row of tanks, and they are isolated so they can cycle with their individual Biospon Filters before I connect them into the sump loop. Plumbing - I hate plumbing hahaha! I stupidly did it all after the tanks were in place and the bottom row was cycling. Im not a small bloke so it was a bit of a tight squeeze behind the rack ahhaha! But saying that, it allowed me to cut everything to exact size, and I had no leaks when I finally had the water flowing through it. And it looks pretty neat so Im happy with my first ever attempt at plumbing, I also have a new appreciation for plumbers! Outflow is 25mm from the tank to 40mm into the sump, and Inflow is 20mm. Im not happy with the inflow into the tanks. They work well, and are self made rain bars, but they look dodgy AF. If anyone has any suggestions on something that will look nice, im all ears. Lights - I got 4x 3ft Up Aqua U series from Newbreed Aquatics closing sale (Thanks Jamie!). I have just zip tied them to the bracing above each tank and it works well and you cant see it. Saved me drilling things and was cheap. They are on a single power board with a timer so all go on at the same time. The bottom shelf has the sump and another tank that I cant bring myself to shut down (it did have my Bloody Marys in there from Saul Henebery but they were all killed in the shrimpocalyps so maybe its time to go....) Sump - 3ft long X 1.5ft wide X 1ft high custom build. Im not particularly happy with it as I had specific measurements it was supposed to have for the internal baffles to suit the media I had, and the dude stuffed it up. And there isnt anyone else in Townsville that builds tanks so Im kind of stuck with it for now. Just seeing the one bit of media sticking up f*cks with my OCD hahaha. Ive never had a sump before so if anyone has any tips for young players, im all ears. What kind of media are you guys using? I have Jap matt, and the rest is bio balls, bakki rods and marine pure balls. The chiller is on its own loop now as well back in to the sump. (disregard all the hoses everywhere, its a bit neater now). Other working parts - Auto Top Off - I made an Auto top off system that flows into the sump, its a simple float valve with 2 x 25 liter drums of RO Water. Its gravity fed as the drums are on the top shelf. It works really well and will last around 10 days depending on how hot it is. Equipment shelving - I got the 2 side shelves that are made for the Rack It shelving. They hold a fair bit of weight and look good. Happy with these as they hold all my food, ferts, test kits ect. Now Im in the process of restocking after the Shrimpocalyps, Ill update with some pics of the new occupants when they arrive. Thanks for reading, here are some pics of the poor shrimp that got cooked while I was in Japan :-( Ruby Reds from Ken Lee Blue Bolt from my LFS. Bloody Marys from Saul Henebery (These were my fav!) Sneaky girl trying to escape up the filter! Blue Dreams from Saul Yellow Cherries from Saul.

Shrimp love them :-) !! This mulberry leaf has broken down enough for shrimps to be all over it this morning. Other leaves are also starting to get devoured too. I pick them fresh, freeze them for an hour or more then once they defrost I drop them in. Shrimp initially check them out and graze a little but 1-3 days later they are swarming them. Leaves are a fantastic food source for shrimp and have much less impact on water quality than processed foods. [emoji173] [emoji111] Willhttps://vimeo.com/194120751 -edit- i should point out as mentioned elsewhere on the forum that freezing leaves ruptures the cell walls effectively achieving the same result as blanching.