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The purpose of the temperature controller is protection, that why I also have it in my turtle tank, it will cut off power if a heater malfunction, it's a small price to pay for a expensive investment, my turtles cost over GBP 1000 each, and all these new equipment is carried to my shrimp setup.

Shrimp that are new to the tank will be slow in accepting processed foods especially when there is biofilm available. They will eventually learn to eat pellets when they get hungry. But don't wait in getting the bloodworms however. Note: Protein you find in pellets foods is never going to be as good as the protein from meaty products like bloodworms. (Don't feed them steak though, LOL). Drop a pinch of bloodworms into the tank and watch them fight for it. Bloodworms are especially good for shrimp before they moult and breed. The female shrimps need the protein much more and their chances of a recovery is much faster after moulting/breeding/laying eggs. Don't be too hung up on only feeding pellets and bought foods. The occasional kitchen vege scraps can be washed, blanched and fed to shrimps too. Look around your garden for leaves and flowers. Mulberry leaves are a favourite of shrimps. If you don't have a mulberry near by, look for Oak leaves that have dropped for Autumn. Flowers like roses, hibiscus, dandelions, nasturtiums, and almost any flower can be fed fresh by just dropping it in the tank as long as you know no pesticides have been sprayed on it. I'll bet you these veges, flowers and leaves have more nutrition than processed foods. The added bonus, flowers for example, have antibacterial and antifungal properties. And flowers have an abundance of vitamins and minerals, flowers also contain a huge amounts of carotenoids and flavonoids compared to leaves. Specifically, Crytoxanthin, Zeaxanthin and Lutein which is obviously lacking in the leaves. These carotenoids enhance the colour of shrimps. Have a read of the food & nutrition forum for a lot more ideas on foods you can use. https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/forum/44-food-nutrition/ @sam, if you add in your location in your profile, we might be able to give you better advise on foods based on your location.

That's the same reason I use mine too. It's protection that will turn off a malfunctioning heater. It will do so when you are not there. The problem with thermometers is that it relies on you seeing the problem, and you manually turning off the heater. This temp controller monitors and turns off the heater if it gets too hot, without any intervention from me. I could be asleep and this would still protect my tanks from overheating due to a stuck heater. I've had too many malfunctioning heaters to risk it again. Even so called reputable brands can have issues with the heaters getting stuck on.

Mum has popped. I must say, there must be well over 100 babies. Thankfully a small yield, but then I guess my odds are worse for survivors. We have moved Mum back into the main tank. Her partner must have missed her, he was riding around on her back. Lol. The babies are now in brackish water. Fingers (and everything really) crossed. Picture attached, although all you can see are white dots. Lol. They are all moving about. x

Dried, frozen, or live bloodworms? I should pick some up.

I am still thinking about one of these devices but we have left summer here and I have a thermometer stuck on the tank now and a heater that shows the water temperature so will leave that is for now until I know whether all is working this time round! We have weird electric supply compared with the rest of the world so would have to get one that takes our unique plugs and 220V! I will consider this and getting the fan sets at the end of the year ready for next year, assuming all is working of coarse? Keep an eye on the zerowater as it will suddenly go up as the filter reaches saturation. I aim to change it at 003(ish) as it goes up quickly after that? You have done really well if it is on its original filter! Simon

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My zerowater is going fine, I do get 001-002 on the reading, but that shouldn't make much differences, so no filter change yet. Whiles JayC was talking about the temperature controller, I have this one which is used as my secondary one, its cheaper from www.aliexpress.com, just long waiting time for shipping. But it does get the job done, there are various version available so search around if you are getting one. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32831434059.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000060.2.797149b5FEHBHa&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.90158.0&scm_id=1007.13339.90158.0&scm-url=1007.13339.90158.0&pvid=816ea382-2ca8-468e-b630-522e3ddb4780 From the photo, top figure is actual temp, bottom is set temp to cut off power, red LED is power on for the socket, off if the socket power off, you will have to change to EU plug for a UK plug, that is easy by cutting it off or using a adapter.

I think the tank just wasn't ready enough when I put the first batch in it.I still had nitrate readings, not particularly high though and all the gross algae, even though it had been 'cycling' for 5 weeks? I feel like it s settling down now as it is 3 months old (still a lot of algae though) and steady so bought the blue bolts as they were a good price here and if it all goes well will get the reds I want and then it will be done and just let the shrimp do the rest and produce (hopefully anyway) a variety of colour and pattern as I had before. I have seen 5 of the new blue bolt/steel I put in yesterday so far today which is pretty good considering there are so many hiding places and they are small and usually hide in a new tank for a while! The first lot were from a retail seller through the post anyway so I would have expected a few more to die due to their extra stress as there are more steps involved (other post on that), but I don't know for sure but both could have contributed? Anyway see how it goes from here? I tried putting bloodworm in shrimp tank as per JayC but I must have Ferrari brand assassin snails, never seen them move that fast, so EVEN if the shrimps were interested they are probably too slow and small, not that they have shown any interest thus far! Hope all is still going well with yours? How are you getting on with the zerowater? Simon

I'm from Perth and there's a mulberry tree around the corner, do the leaves need to be dried first or are they best put in fresh?