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so my TDS seems to roughly have stabilised, the fish's spot has started to colour up again and i just counted 7 adult shrimp and 19 baby shrimp of varying size from about 10mm to about 4mm so something tells me ive done something right (with sound advice thank you) and im now not just inundated with fish but also shrimp and their breeding like crazy! and ive gone back to pretty much normal maintenance but i haven't checked readings as the TDS hasn't changed much ive just assumed everything ok and not done a complete water check. ive just sourced the new tank and decorations and because the one we talked about as shown on page 3 of this thread was out of stock at pro-shrimp i looked on amazon and because their price was higher i looked at other tanks and for £1.82 more than the tank we were talking about i could get a 54 liter tank that will fit the shelf almost perfectly. please see attached link. ive also bought dwarf water grass, water lettuce, underwater bamboo and some moss balls, but my total including delivery is around £135 which isnt bad, the only thing extra it needs is substrate but i think i may have enough left over to do it, ill judge when the tank arrives, so i may need an extra £20 ontop. here is the tank:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018XRNE2W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Never rush the cycling. And don't bother setting up the parameters perfectly during a cycling period. The parameters will be all over the place during cycling. The cycling phase is all about the BB. BB couldn't careless if you have a mineral stone or not, nor does it care for any other mineral except ammonia. If you think your tap water has no ammonia, then you need to add some flakes or a prawn or something similar.

Has anyone tried picking some fresh Dandylion Leaves, blanching them and feeding them to there shrimp like fresh picked Mullberry leaves? I'm about to do just that in a cull tank. I will update with results. I grow Stinging Nettle and collard Greens and Mullberrys specifically to do this but never tried Dandylion.

Absolutely try flowers. Don't even need to blanch them. As long as you know they are clean of pesticides, it can go straight into the tank. I've fed roses, hibiscus, nasturtiums, dandelions (those are the ones I have in my garden). The shrimps love them and they colour up nicely after a few feeds. The colour is not permanent however, just a caveat.

you were right 9 liters of substrate required. (60x30x5)/1000 = 9 i was thinking the water would be fine if i have a shrimp mineral stone in there and do water changes with minerals up until the first month when there would only really be residual amounts of tap water in the tank if any. i just feel it would be cheaper on filters and less time consuming. i did have my tap water readings a while ago but i got rid of them thining them pointless but i just remember GH & KH were high, TDS was around 330 and there were 0 readings on Ammonia Nitrite & Nitrate. RE-the Titanic, first of all there's a lot of speculation about that and a few theory's i could go into (being an engineer) but the main thing you should know is their building an exact replica that's due to set sail on the same rout next year :)

The prawn has been used by some people as a form of ammonia production. Beneficial Bacteria (BB hence forth) use ammonia as a food source. A decomposing prawn can generate a LOT of ammonia, but it's nasty and stinky. I prefer flake fish food. Add a pinch in and let it decompose. @CurleyJones321, You are going about cycling a new tank , not wrong, but inefficiently. BB need a few things to grow and thrive in a new tank. Heat - we all know bacteria thrive in warmth. turn the temps up to 28degC. Oxygen - flowing water. This is easy since it's taken care of by your pump/filter. Alkalinity - BB colonies grow faster in high alkalinity compared to acidic water. So keep pH above 7.0. And Food - in the form of ammonia. So rather than use RO water remineralised to TDS 165 by mix tank and RO water together, just use ... wait for it ... tap water. If you have tap water like most countries in the world, it will have ammonia in it, with pH close to 8.0. Of course, you need to remember to dechlorinate it. Tap water has 2 of the 4 things BB needs. Just add the pump for water flow and heat. Yes, tap water has its uses, but we will be draining it after cycling is done. Give this a few weeks, and once you see pH drop below 7.0, do a water change with dechlorinated tap water and add a pinch of flake food (or that prawn). This should bring the pH up again, and adds more ammonia food for the BB. Keep testing ammonia, nitrite and nitrates during the course of cycling. When you see ammonia and nitrate at zero with high nitrates, your tank is cycled. At this point you drain the tank of 99% water (making sure the filter media stays wet) and add your RO water remineralised to the required TDS levels. Use this time before adding livestock to adjust pH, GH, KH and TDS. If the tank stays empty after it has cycled, you need to keep feeding the BB with ammonia, this is where the prawn comes in handy. You need something to decompose in the tank, but is easily removed once the tank is inhabited. You have to remove it or ammonia is produced constantly. Don't add bio boost or other bottled bacteria if you have a mature filter media you can wash in the new tank. Bottled bacteria will compete with the real BB, slowing down the multiplication of the real BB. The BB in your mature filter media or old substrate is the bacteria you want. Hopefully those are some tips you can use for cycling a new tank. (60cm * 30cm * 5cm) / 1000 = 9L ? 5cm substrate height for a 2footer is a lot, just saying.

cheers fr the info, im going to go for about 5cm of depth substrate so i need approximately 11 Liters off substrate, but ive only got about 3 liters left over from the last set up so down to the LFS i go this weekend! its a good thing you mentioned the filter cleaning in the new tank, I need to get new filters for my small tank at the same time. I recommended adding the water because alltohugh you are right it only contains a small amount of bacteria, there is still something so it will help at least. only im going to add a couple of handfulls of substrate from my small tank to kick start it aswell. Im thinking with water for the set up in going to add the water change water from the old tank mix half tap water at 330TDS and half zerowater which should give me a TDS of 165. i will then clean the small tank filter in the big tank water, add bio-boost (friendly bacteria) and a mineral stone and it should go up to around 220-250TDS after a week. i will then do a 2 liter water change with old water again and add some fish. Unless you have success with that prawn method i suggested then i will just start with that for a week. come my Birthday (July 17th) i should be able to add shrimp and finish off the decor i want in both tanks. i also made sure to get a thermometer in that £135 price :) BTW i don't see this as my thread, i see this as a thread for ANYONE in the world to use as reference to generate the results we are getting. so as long as its Aquarium related i see it as just a good information source.

^ Dandelion flowers, not the leaves. It's going to be just like any other leafy green at the end of the day. If you already feed mulberry leaves, the shrimp won't get anything extra from dandelion leaves. Feed the flower on the other hand ... that's a whole bunch of different minerals the shrimp will get, including carotenoids which can assist in colouring up shrimps. Read my write up on feeding "Edible Flowers for Shrimps". It's fallen off the first page in the Food & Nutrition forum. Maybe I should pin it.

It's not necessarily the old tank water that you need. What you want to seed the new tank with beneficial bacteria is the gunk from your filter. Wash your filter media in the new tank. Yes, it will make the new tank look dirty, but it's only for a short while. Water itself holds very little beneficial bacteria.

You are doing well and I'm so glad for you! Getting into a regular routine is good but I guess that won't be for long as you have the new tank coming. That tank you have chosen is bigger so you are better off in the long term (room for more shrimps) and it comes with everything you need. JayC has the filter covered, no pun intended! I would personally go with more than the 2cm of substrate depth though and probably use 6L, 2cm is less than an inch - a bit more cost now will save a hell of a lot of time later re-doing the tank as it should last longer, which I am experiencing at the moment............. You also won't need the clearance for the top to flip so high! A few tips I can think of: 1) GET A THERMOMETER................ D'oh! 2) When you fill the tank with water, measure how much it actually takes to fill to where you want it (I guess it will be about 48L) as you can only really do this AT THE SETUP STAGE without a lot of disruption and unnecessary work at a later date. 3) When you do water changes on the existing tank, dump that water into the new tank to help with the cycle. 4) Don't use the duckweed this time! Water lettuce, or there are others are much better, and easier to manage. 5) Avoid rocks unless you have tested them as that must have exhausted my substrate considerably quicker. I hope the new tank arrives promptly and in good condition. I am hoping to get the filters and heater running in my tank today after I add another 4L of zerowater so the heater is sufficiently covered. I put the plants and stuff in the tank yesterday but it needs arranging properly. I have until friday to just run it and settle/clear the water and then it will get 4-5L of dirty betta water so we are off, and that will be the official launch date! Then the boring part, running a tank with no shrimps while it cycles. Simon

Nice tank. But make sure you know how the filter works, so that you can ensure that shrimp are not sucked into the filter compartment. A course sponge might be needed to block the intake so shrimp can't get in, but the water will still flow through. To calculate how much substrate is needed you can use this formula... (length of tank x width of tank x height of substrate ) divide by 1000 = Litres of substrate. Let's say the tank is 60cm (2ft) x 30cm (1ft), and say you want a 2cm height of substrate. So the calculation goes, (60 x 30 x 2) /1000 = 3.6L of substrate.