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It all depends what you like, don't let anyone say you must have red, really red. I'm trying to breed blue red rili atm. They are coming out with alsorts of lovely shrimp.

Hi Simon, Your problem with your reds your not culling the unwanted colour shrimp to keep a nice red line. When I say culling I don't mean killing, I mean removing from the breeding tank to another tank where you don't mind the off colours or selling/donating to local fish shop. Good luck shrimp keeping. ?

I’ve been considering a few of those Thailand crabs, but haven’t pulled the trigger. Beautiful shrimp!

I use less of most things in reality than recommended by the manufacturers! Simon

Just a word of caution on the Bacter AE... the spoon it comes with is considered over-dosing to most people who use it... and if a tank doesn't have enough aeration, can cause shrimp deaths. Many people I see who use this product tend to under-dose it to prevent deaths although one person had to completely stop using it entirely. You may want to try and stick with an algae/vegetable based diet (great idea with the kale!) and add in protein occasionally... which may come in the form of fish food? (since it is a mixed tank...)

I’m anticipating some losses for sure. I am feeding Shrimp Fit, in hopes to help boost health. The HOB filter has done an excellent job of clearing up/ polishing the water. Baby shrimp are appearing and scurrying around more regularly now.

I've got an aquarium shop very near to where I live but I very much doubt he bothers with TDS, but of course I could be wrong. I'll try him tomorrow and if he can't help there's a large shop in Durham that I can use. I do have a GH/KH test kit that states you add one drop of liquid at a time to your water sample until it goes green...….but what shade of green? When I tried it, the water seemed a very light shade of green after one drop! It's an old kit that I never needed to use so perhaps I'll buy new ones. I must admit, my Malawis are so much easier than keeping shrimp but I'm enjoying learning and it's great to see the plants doing so well without any CO2 injection.

I had another thought, perhaps take the 2 TDS meters to an aquarium shop and then you can test them in some of their water or one of their tanks and then compare the figures to their TDS figure. Do you have GH and KH test kits, it is probably worth getting one of each for this new tank setup, and to check the zerowater is still reducing everything long term as your water is so hard? I would test the zerowater GH and KH after about 50L, 75L and so on until the TDS reaches the stated 006, needing replacement? You would only need to do this for the first filter as the others will be the same! I know it is fine with my water but we are in a very small area of the UK which doesn't have such HARD water. Simon

Cheers Simon, good idea for visiting local aquarium shop. Yes, I gave them both a good swooshing and the figures remained the same. I'm going to test the Zero water today to see how much the readings drop when left in the tank water for a while. It was continuously dropping when I used it last time.

Hi, Can any one help me I'm looking to buy or have custom built a tank of 900mmx300mmx300mm. I'm in the UK, Midlands area. Its almost a US 20gallon long. But the UK seem to want taller tanks? I need it to fit in a alcove in my lounge. Planning to breed cpd in it. Any help appreciated.

Thats quite a difference! Did you swoosh them both through the water? Take a look at the 2 prongs on each and they should both be parallel to each other, ie straight? If the prongs aren't straight it will be wrong! Otherwise take a sample of some water from one of the sources, to a nearby local aquarium place and get them to check what reading they get and 'hopefully' it will agree (near enough) with one of the meters? The zerowater one is nearer the figure correlation that beanbag mentioned so maybe? If you want to change the water in the tank before you can get confirmation which is right then I would use the Zerowater meter as those figures are higher, so if it turns out the lower old meter is right you can just add more GH/KH+ which is easier (and a lot less wasteful) than trying to reduce it! As the zerowater figures correlate better to GH figures etc that is probably the most accurate! Simon edit - sorry, just realised beanbag TDS/GH correlation is on another UK thread! 1 GH is very roughly USUALLY approx 20 TDS.

Incredible photos again, in terms of the fish I have a school of 20 embers with my shrimp, and have never seen an interaction between them. No interest in hunting from the embers whatsoever. It may just be my group though, you’ll have to gage yours.

You have been getting some solid advise from Simon. To answer your question above.... if you are cycling the tank, there is no need to change water in the tank daily (if there are no inhabitants) , not until the pH reaches below 6.5. If you can keep it at pH7.0 during the entire cycle process, then the bacteria will grow at an optimal rate. The time when cycling is complete, is the time you start adjusting water parameters to suit your selected shrimp. The cycling process will naturally reduce pH, so that is why you want to keep an eye on the readings during the process. Don't let it drop too low. There is also no reason to NOT add your plants now.