Hi all I have a question for those using a fine substrate or barebottom tanks. When detritus accumulates how do you manage the situation? I find it very frustrating when I want to cull or move anything that the muck swirls up into the water column. I don't know if this is very bad for the shrimp? Or when im happy enough with my colony and ready to sell some how to avoid the gunk ending up in the breather bag?

 

Any comments and input appreciated!

 

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Will

With fine substrate like sand i agitate the water close to the bottom with my hand before doing the water change so i can pick up some gunk with the hose.

I never bag shrimps straight away, i leave them in a bucket overnight so they empty their intestine to avoid pollution in the bag.

Thanks for the suggestion@anthonyd will consider that when I get my large sand tank up and running shortly!

My trial barebottom tank colony seems to have been breeding fairly well despite being pretty badly neglected; and the tds doesn't seem to be increasing noticeably more than my gravel tanks - so I guess so far the occasional swirling of waste into the water column isn't hurting them. If anyone can offer some scientific insight into the subject it would be much appreciated :-)@fishmosy@jayc@keenshrimp and any others I've missed? ? :-)

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Will

14 hours ago, revolutionhope said:

insight

Nothing wrong with bare bottom tanks as long as you can keep the parameters you want.

 

Nothing wrong with bare bottom tanks as long as you can keep the parameters you want.
 

Still concerned everytime the poo gets swished up into the water column lol

I would have thought a quick vacume of the bottom before doing anything in the tank would get all the mulm in a bare bottom?

As for the sand bottom i have taken to running my suction hose, that normally just goes in the garden, into a bucket first that is placed in the garden. Even when doing a heavy vacume of the sand and i'm thinking there is a lot getting sucked up it turns out to be bugger all in the bucket. That can be easily scooped out and put back in the tank and is generally less than 1/2 a cup from my 6 footer. Much less from the smaller tanks.

The risk with vacuuming a bare bottom tank too often is the risk of sucking up shrimplets. So catching it in a bucket like what @Madmerv does is a good idea.

 

 

Yep I do catch in bucket and grab a few misadventurers each time. I think trying to do barebottom with ycs was a fools mission in hindsight. Something with darker shrimplets would be more suitable to continue the experiment with!