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always happy to dob you in @jayc Let's admit it you are a mine of knowledge and have helped most of us out at sometime during our breeding history ?

I use Astaxanthin powder in my general baby powder for most of my shrimp. . You really only need to use a very small amount for shrimp. We did a group buy some years ago and I bought 250g - I still have at least 100g left. I didn't use it exclusively for red shrimp. I found I had to be careful with some colours as it made the whites muddy. The issue I have with feeding too much colour enhancing food is breeder a ) uses Astaxanthin and has lovely red shrimp. He then starts selling these shrimp to buyers. Overtime the lovely red shrimp start to lose colour and breeder b) is at a loss as to why their shrimp are much duller. If you have the room to experiment then try a tank with xanathan and a comparison tank without. Then try the shrimp that have been fed the xanathan in a tank and stop using Astaxanthin. If they lose their colour over a few generations then it's something you need to think about. Although the foods we feed can help nothing beats true selective breeding to enhance colours. With the bulk buy I haven't heard much feed back and we never did another one - possibly because we are using such small amounts. @jayc is the person who can tell us more.

If you don't mind losing a few shrimplets and have lots of plants and hiding places a few small fish would be ok I should think

You could go with one of those cheaper canister filter brands like Worx 1200lph External Filter - very high flow for a 2footer. Or maybe a Marina External Filter CF20 which is smaller and lower flow rates.

I'm really stuck on filtration for this tank, wanting a canister but not wanting to spend the coin for one, not soooo sure about air driven sponge filters, not so keen on HOB, really have no idea what I'm doing to run with.

Thanks jayc, Pretty sure i can come up with something that will work in my set up. I hadn't replied as I was processing your response to my overall plan for the tank's set up. I've been checking the forum multiple times a day since I made that first post and reading more (enjoying it, very inspiring). Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I hope the above helps some others too. Find it interesting that other's haven't chimed in with what they do. Cheers, D

Even before I had my ponds we never go out in the back yard at night to sit on our pergola- the mozzies are huge,. When I check my ponds during the day I never or very rarely see any wrigglers- even when I've done my yearly empty and clean up of the neo pond I haven't found any. Hubby has offered to make a screen with fly wire to go over the ponds but so far it doesn't seem to be necessary - he also offered to put kerosine on the top of the water- YEAH RIGHT!

This is what I use on one corner... The following was the prototype, which I still use because it is easier to remove and replace, thanks to the larger channel cutout. I use it occasionally when I need to remove the pipes often, say like during cleaning time. You see the final product above was much more refine than the prototype.

They really are.... Evil little buggers that I am semi allergic to (and live several hundred meters from a wetlands so summer means = thousands)