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While I have been cycling my 10 gallon the heater has been building up some clear white film on the bottom cap of my heater I scraped it off but it reappeared in 24 hrs. What is this and is it bad?

It is VERY common to get fungus in a newly set up tank, I think almost everyone has had that and it will clear up in time if left alone. Simon

I'm not too sure how well grass will do without soil substrate, which is the usual substrate for planted tanks. I would expect the plants to take longer to settle in without soil so don't be too quick to remove plants until you are really sure they are completely dead/dying! They will all get worse before they get better. Too much fertiliser can also be dangerous to shrimps? Simon

Funnily enough I am having the same problem in my tank that is cycling atm! It's the exact same, and on the exact same heater!!! Interested to see if it goes away after cycling or is a continuing problem with this heater.

Thanks Simon, that's really useful! I don't use a soil or planted tank substrate, but I'm dosing ferts and using root tabs. Mine didn't come in mesh or anything, so not too worried about that. I've bought the plants but not the light. Plants are quarantining and looking fantastic, so I really hope that they will do well in this other tank. I'm not going to use CO2, though. That link was really helpful. I think I will just go for that light, as it's the nicest I can find nearby without resorting to the deathtrap of low-quality products that is eBay. Cheers, Crabby

Thanks for the update, as with crabby, would be great to see some photos! Glad it is going so well! Are any crystals Berried asthey may not breed in winter, my taiwan bees aren't? Simon

That light sounds like it is about right for the tank, mine has water 22cm deep and I have that TYPE (LED) of lamp 6W, 6500K, 500 lumens. I tried some grass that I bought that was on a metal mesh that had a plastic coating over the mesh. It didn't do very well and went a bit yellow (didn't die though) so I don't know how well it would grow, but would give it a go anyway, there's little to lose? I removed it as the plastic started coming off the mesh and the mesh started to rust - looked horrible? All plants take some time to settle in though so may look a bit uninspiring for a while until the roots establish? In my newest tank ALL the plants looked bad for a while but none actually died and now they are flourishing (too bloody well)! I found this link which may help you decide? I assume you are using a soil substrate? https://www.aquascapeaddiction.com/articles/dwarf-hairgrass-carpets-made-easy Your actual question though I can't help much with and will hope others will help there. My philosophy is 'try it and it either will, or won't work', but the grass I tried was the only plant that I have ever discarded and that wasn't really anything to do with the plant, more the mesh it was supplied with? The only other thing I can think off that is related is, lots of people use CO2 with grasses etc, but this is best avoided and not necessary as it will live without it (It would do better with CO2 but the risk to shrimps is too great to warrant it, only use CO2 for a plant only aquascape tank). Simon

That’s the colour of light so 460nm is referring to the wave size

Yeah none in my tank.

It's happened to me. They are great, we call them invisishrimp. Love 'em. How has my life become shrimplated? Lol. LOVE IT! x The females grow bigger. x

That’s great! Can you share some pics? I’d love to see how shrimptopia has transformed in the last couple months!

They look like little beauties. Hope all is well. x

No he doesn’t. And we don’t have those in Australia. Why did you ask?

Do you have a female amano shrimp? x

OMW guys, my tank is mental at the mo. There are so many berried I don't know what to say. It's MAGIC! x Berried blue, yellow , red and crystals..............I know I may end up with a wild bunch, but I'lll love them too. x

The Jades are thriving, but I’m fairly certain I have all females, so no breeding. The lack of breeding also may reflect water parameters. I’ve set up a smaller tank with substrate, drift wood, and rock that will produce a better environment for Neos. As soon as it’s cycled( should be another 2-3 weeks before I’m happy), I’ll transfer them into that tank. I’ll likely order another refresh of jades abs let them do their thing. Some pics including a FTS

It may be a kind of fungus and I wouldn't worry about that as it should clear itself in the cycle/settling period. It's fairly common that fungus appears when cycling but usually clears even if just left alone and it won't harm anything, just doesn't look very nice. Simon

The pictures are a bit too small for me to make out whether there is a bit of algae, but if there is I wouldn't worry too much it may clear up with time and as I can't see it it's not rampant! It sounds like you aren't having the 'stop breeding in winter' problem that many have. Are the green jade neos doing well in with the crystals still? Simon

Photo?

Update. Things are going great. No casualties, 4-5 Berried females, as well as a new generation of babies located this AM( I saw 5). I’m fighting this odd dusting on leaves, seems to be an algae. Not sure why. Don’t mind the particles in the pics, just fed BacteriaAE

Well, I’m not sure that he babies are half size. They are probably around 1/4-1/2.” Everyone is healthy, and I’ve been able to count 9 babies at one time. Hoping the now 3 new mamas drop soon! Eggs still look fairly brown.

Now you say, I can see it is greenish and I had forgotten you said you had Jades in that tank! It looks/sounds like you are pretty set now! I hope the older babies are now half size and still doing well, and you will soon have another load of babies to watch? Fingers crossed you get a brown one at some stage................ Simon

Lovely pictures. I like the wild type brown with a stripe, I have some of those from red cherry but could never cull them as I quite like those? Having the mix of CRS and CBS makes it much more interesting to look at. Hopefully the wait for babies isn't too distant! Simon

Pics!

Hopefully you will soon have a tank full of babies. Usually the eggs go from yellow (yolk) to grey as they mature so that may give you an idea how far along they are! Make sure the vegetables are ORGANIC, non poluted or pesticides etc? Simon

Update: 3 Red Crystals are mamas, all three are holding, although I’m not sure how far apart they berried, and in what order. Algae is gone, completely. Yay!!! I’ve started to increase and vary the diet for the herd. Today, Broccoli.

I sure did, thanks for the advice. I both cut down the light schedule to 6 hours, completely removed the blue spectrum, decreased the intensity of each other spectrum to 35-40%, and started dosing a bio-available carbon source( Easy Carbo). Algae turned red, pink, than white. Nearly gone. Thanks for the help!!

Update: Just back from visiting family for the holiday. Buddy looked after tank, abs did a fantastic job. No additional casualties to be noted. Yes! Nuisance Algae is 99% gone, abs everything looks GREAT! First generation of babies have grown more, abs they are out as much as the adults.

Yes, not abnormal. Maybe they got more food than the smaller ones.

Is it normal to have some shrimps grow much faster than others from the same batch? Some of these are nearly 1/2 the size of the others? Hmmm. All seem healthy, and have some great markings. I didn’t anticipate that big of a size difference. fingers crossed!!!

Yes it has, welcome back ✌️️ I need to update that first pic as we got them all now. If you have any better quality ones by all means send them to me.

With spring upon us, and the influx of new hobbyist/members on SKF, thought I'd resurrect this thread, as it has several important points of discussion we could share, and even remind us all of the basics of shrimp keeping, whether new or old shrimp keepers...