Tigs

Okay, space is limited so I'm stuck with using a 36" by 18" shelving unit, claims to be rated for 4,000lbs if perfectly stacked. Thus should hold the weight. I'm wondering if I dare put 10G tanks in lengthwise, meaning the length of the tanks, 20" front to back, on the 18" of shelf. I'm thinking it will probably be fine, but have never actually tried it. If anyone has done this please let me know if you had any issue. annnnnd if it's just a really bad idea feel free to say 'bad bad bad' cheers, and thanks in advance, Antonio

wicked looking fish, nice find Antonio

Good info thanks. As Kim mentioned, any specific potting soil you'll would would care to mention? Also, have you tried using a mesh to keep the soil/lfourite base in place? cheers, Antonio

Im curious, when you do this do you skip cleaning the sand period? thanks, Antonio

lol, nice Antonio

Quick update. Still trying to get ahold of GH test kit locally, have one on order otherwise. KH is high working on what I can do to reduce that for now. Did a test on local water, warm vs cold. warm water comes out @ 200-220 TDS, cold 175ish, sediments added from the hot water tank and mixing the water. Will run GH/KH test on cold water once I get the kit in, see if it's viable to use cold water perhaps heated in a separate tank for water changes etc Got ahold of seachem, they did state that the neutral regulator would cause the TDS to spike due to the buffering agent it uses as some suggested, thus the high readings <phew> I specifically asked if there was any issue with using that product and shrimp keeping, was told that it is completely safe to do so. Will split off some of my cherry population and maybe test it there some of my tigers are still around so I'm hoping to save the, the blue pearls, rili and fire reds seem to be doing just fine, may have lost one of each total. thanks for all the help. Antonio

What type of shrimp are you planning on keeping? As Jason mentioned, the local cherry shrimp are cake to keep. In my case, I got some in trade put them in a 2.5G tank with a foam filter unheated (20 celcius room temp) and while they did not have a population boom they sure survived just fine. They are now in a heated setup and as such there are tons of young to be seen. Some other types are a fair bit more picky as I'm finding out the hard way. cheers, Antonio PS landscaping, I've heard of everything from bare for breeding tanks working to fully aquascaped etc. Comes down to how much do you want to put into the setup, maintenance time and such BAh Humbug, AJanzen has faster typing fingers than I do today cheers

Great looking batch What water parameters do you have them in? thanks, Antonio

in all this plant eating, do they touch algae? Thanks, Antonio

Ack not the plants! Hmm lemme rethink that, I tend to favour heavily planted setups thanks, Antonio

welcome Antonio

Hmm, happen to know of anyone who has some of those snails Jason? Wouldn't mind keeping some handy thanks, Antonio

welcome to the boards Antonio

yep, they do have a lot of different shrimp types in right now. I've simply to room to add more though lol, sticking to 5 types for awhile. Antonio

Higher end of PH, mid to higher 7's. Any breeding in your tanks? If you've got great success you should definitely sell me some of the acclimatized shrimp! Would love to but alas I made one fatal mistake. Colony had gone from 6-8 shrimp I'd gotten in an exchange to a good 30+. I needed somewhere to put a pair of new fish , Apisto's and I figure heck why not the shrimp tank. After all the fish were maybe an inch long, maybe a tad more and the shrimp were easily half it's size...well, next morning I woke up to a tank with 2 fish in it...I think 3 shrimp had survived. I was astounded that they could take apart that many shrimp, not leave a trace and next morning look like they'd been starving a week.. Last three died of old age but had no females at the time left so was a foregone conclusion Was sad too, as I'd started off with just the black version and from the offspring had started to see the red strain coming out every once in awhile so was looking forward to seperating them out. Will keep you posted on the other stock I picked up, so far all but the tigers are doing quite well. Cherry shrimp are pretty much fire & forget, it's more difficult to get them to not breed at this point. Cheers, Antonio

Now funny thing is, I've had great success breeding the common crs and cbs in Edmonton tap water. Hence my confusion in another thread where I've got my tigers dying off slowly. All I did was regular water changes, power filter at the time with a sponge over the intake, in a 15 Gallon tank. They seemed to do fine. Note, these were by no means super grade stock, but the common stuff. cheers, Antonio

great info thanks! that helps explain why the tigers are having a rough go of it and not the other species in the same tank! <tries to put his pulled out hair back on> Antonio

Agree, and my suspicion is that it's the neutral regulator i used to try and bring the ph to neutral after the first one passed away. Was the only item (PH) at the time that showed up on the test kit. I have tested my tap water and it's 200-220, after adding the neutral regulator it jumps up quite fast. Now, the question is whether or not the TDS is what I should be focusing on. Meaning, the spike in TDS could be the way the neutral regulator works, though I'm unsure if it drops back afterwards or how long it would take. as for calibration, doubt it as the meter is new but bears checking into. Dirty filter I'd say no, all of my tanks get at least their weekly water change, which includes cleaning up the filtration unit as needed. So sponges get washed out in tank water that's being taken out and put back into the tank etc. In the case of my 90 Gallon it has 2 x 90 Gallon canister filters on it. cheers, Antonio PS seriously considering an RO unit for better long term water quality.

Hmm you're thinking to have the plants clean the water per say? There is a fair bit in there, but not full by any means. Meaning, some vals, cabomba sorta stuff, another stem plant, some moss and watter lettuce. Won't hurt anything so I'll clip my main tank and toss a bunch more in tonight. Antonio

Hi Jason. Actually the tank does have a few of the smaller water lettuce and a touch of duckweed. I do find that the tigers specifically hang out on these,and tend to stay on the other plants in general as well. I'll continue to monitor and short term may risk moving them to an open 15Gallon that I can vacate on quick notice. Hate to double shock them but if it means them making it will be better in the long run. cheers, Antonio

Yeah, if they went from ph 6.5-7 TSS of 100-150 and then you put them straight into Edmonton tap that would be enough of a shock to kill them. Even if you slowly drip acclimate(over say 12-24hrs) them you still might have some die. Thats why I try to buy them from a store or person that has already acclimated them to edmonton water(or similar parameters). Let them take the losses :P heheh couldn't agree more on that but could not find a local source for anything other than cherry shrimp, which I have enough of If you know of a local source for other shrimp pls pm me tks Antonio

Think you may be on to something there . I was told a ph of 6.5 to7 and TSS of 100 to150. So the difference between locations could be it.

Yep, all tested out fine. What really has me confused is the fact that I setup 2 smaller tanks for some shrimp at the same time, a 20 gallon for the bigger shrimp etc. Same process used on all, other 3 tanks are doing great. Same setup in all, ie sponge filters etc. Matter of fact the sponge filter in this particular tank had been left in an established high load tank for 1-2 weeks prior to placing it in the 10 Gallon. as for the tetra safestart it's purpose is to quick cycle tanks (or so they claim). This 10 Gallon had a total of 20 shrimp, avg size of .5 inches, plants and 0 snail, so bio load would be exceptionally small at this point. The 20Gallon has like 20-30 red claw macros, ranging in size from 1 to 4 inches. I'll retest tonight, did a good water change yesterday to get the TDS down to 400 range from nearly 700. tks, PS have you bothered with TDS in your shrimp tanks, or just left it to local water parameters? Also, there are two species of shrimp in the one giving me trouble. Tigers (dying off slowly), and blue pearls, thriving nicely. <goes looking for nearest concrete wall> Antonio

Hi there, I've recently picked up several types of smaller shrimp, all of which are supposed to require the same parameters water wise. 3 of the four species are doing just great, the fourth is dying off slowly. In my attempts to change the water parameters to more closely match those shown online (Tiger Shrimp) I've met with little success. I've tested my local water, measures in at 200 to 220. The tank in question was @ 680 last night. My older tanks are all at about 400. So, anyone have experience using neutral regulator in conjunction with smaller shrimp? Is there a better way to drop the ph and just what level of TDS can shrimp actually handle. thanks, Antonio PS substrate is sand, washed. Tank was cycled with tetras quick cycle, and no shrimp added for an additional week after that. Filtration is via sponge. the 20gallon setup at the same time currently houses my red claw macros, TDS of 400ish, no issues with those shrimp. Side note, was about 3 days before I lost the first tiger shrimp, immediately tested water parameters with api's master test kit (new so pretty sure it's accurate) and found nothing out of sort other than high PH (7's) Since then it's been about every 2 days and I lose another. Second species in there is doing fine, may have lost one.