JamesHe

Just ignore it.
 
RO pure water has none buffer capability. it would swing big

This chart will help you understand:

I rotate varies food.

We all have our love stories about USPS. Here is my latest...
 
Purchased some LOVELY Dream Blue neo's that were shipped out priority on Monday. Waited impatiently for tracking to update for several days - which didn't, at all, CUTE. This morning I find it magically was "delivered" before our mail person even started her route today, which brought up a bit of panic. Insert more panic waiting here, and finally mail lady showed up with my parcel...



 
My favorite bit is the wonderful sticker they oh so carefully attached to the top "Received in Damaged Condition". 
Talk about dread opening the box. Miraculously, everyone survived! I now have 30 new blue dreams dripping and awaiting their new home. Let this be a lesson, the right packaging makes a huge difference! Seller now has me as a beyond pleased and seriously relieved customer with no doubt I will return again.
 
I can breathe again. Off to enjoy the newest monsters!  

I want to add one more point to the trace elements.
 
If you use vocalic ash based substrate, like ADA Aquasoil, Controsoil, Brightwell. you have more than enough trace elements.

That's amazing.
 
You may create your own line of YKK.
 
I'd like to have some once you have colony going.

Let's take this discussion few steps deeper.
 
First, not all nitrifying bacteria are same.
Most nitrifying bacteria works great in normal aquarium environment which is on the alkaline side (pH >7.0) of pH range. only few nitrifying bacteria works in the range that we keep our bee shrimp at (pH5 - pH6).
 
So cycling shrimp tank at higher pH won't help as the nitrifying bacteria colony built up during cycling won't work effectively in acidic range, they will die off as pH keeping dropping.
 
Second. does certain strain of nitrifying bacteria work in low pH range? short answer is YES.
If you don't introduce any seed of nitrifying bacteria during cycling the tank. eventually it would select the correct strain of nitrifying bacteria over time (they are in the air) 
But I heard lots of stories that the tank is not cycled over couple months if you choose let it happen naturally. 
 
My P. Altum tank stays at pH4 right now. it's kind of low, but nitrifying bacteria is thrive in the canister filter, I need to clean it on schedule.
I seed this tank with Seachem Stability at beginning.
 
Third, If you have more than one tank up and running for a while. that means you have correct strain of nitrifying bacteria already.
So seed it in mature tank would cut the cycling time to none.
 
Forth. If you cycling a tank from scratch, and use the nitrifying bacteria designed for bee shrimp. you intend to increase the pH to higher range. It slows down your cycling process as that particular strain of nitrifying bacteria works better in acidic range.
 
conclusion
I found pre-seed the filter (sponge filter, canister filter, HOB, etc) in mature healthy tank is the better way for me.
I always have couple spare sponge filters in other tank, once I need it, I just move it to new tank, and have it up and running in no time.

Thanks for the welcome and for the heads up, I know both of those guys from SCAPE, which I am a member of as well.

Your colony is thriving before the change.
 
So it's very clear that you have everything correct.

Han has a good collection of Buce.

LOL  I was gone for a few days  because of directing stuff, and family stuff and I come back to over 5 pages filled with posts!  I love it!
 
I'm off to catch up!

Let's take this discussion few steps deeper.
 
First, not all nitrifying bacteria are same.
Most nitrifying bacteria works great in normal aquarium environment which is on the alkaline side (pH >7.0) of pH range. only few nitrifying bacteria works in the range that we keep our bee shrimp at (pH5 - pH6).
 
So cycling shrimp tank at higher pH won't help as the nitrifying bacteria colony built up during cycling won't work effectively in acidic range, they will die off as pH keeping dropping.
 
Second. does certain strain of nitrifying bacteria work in low pH range? short answer is YES.
If you don't introduce any seed of nitrifying bacteria during cycling the tank. eventually it would select the correct strain of nitrifying bacteria over time (they are in the air) 
But I heard lots of stories that the tank is not cycled over couple months if you choose let it happen naturally. 
 
My P. Altum tank stays at pH4 right now. it's kind of low, but nitrifying bacteria is thrive in the canister filter, I need to clean it on schedule.
I seed this tank with Seachem Stability at beginning.
 
Third, If you have more than one tank up and running for a while. that means you have correct strain of nitrifying bacteria already.
So seed it in mature tank would cut the cycling time to none.
 
Forth. If you cycling a tank from scratch, and use the nitrifying bacteria designed for bee shrimp. you intend to increase the pH to higher range. It slows down your cycling process as that particular strain of nitrifying bacteria works better in acidic range.
 
conclusion
I found pre-seed the filter (sponge filter, canister filter, HOB, etc) in mature healthy tank is the better way for me.
I always have couple spare sponge filters in other tank, once I need it, I just move it to new tank, and have it up and running in no time.

Let's take this discussion few steps deeper.
 
First, not all nitrifying bacteria are same.
Most nitrifying bacteria works great in normal aquarium environment which is on the alkaline side (pH >7.0) of pH range. only few nitrifying bacteria works in the range that we keep our bee shrimp at (pH5 - pH6).
 
So cycling shrimp tank at higher pH won't help as the nitrifying bacteria colony built up during cycling won't work effectively in acidic range, they will die off as pH keeping dropping.
 
Second. does certain strain of nitrifying bacteria work in low pH range? short answer is YES.
If you don't introduce any seed of nitrifying bacteria during cycling the tank. eventually it would select the correct strain of nitrifying bacteria over time (they are in the air) 
But I heard lots of stories that the tank is not cycled over couple months if you choose let it happen naturally. 
 
My P. Altum tank stays at pH4 right now. it's kind of low, but nitrifying bacteria is thrive in the canister filter, I need to clean it on schedule.
I seed this tank with Seachem Stability at beginning.
 
Third, If you have more than one tank up and running for a while. that means you have correct strain of nitrifying bacteria already.
So seed it in mature tank would cut the cycling time to none.
 
Forth. If you cycling a tank from scratch, and use the nitrifying bacteria designed for bee shrimp. you intend to increase the pH to higher range. It slows down your cycling process as that particular strain of nitrifying bacteria works better in acidic range.
 
conclusion
I found pre-seed the filter (sponge filter, canister filter, HOB, etc) in mature healthy tank is the better way for me.
I always have couple spare sponge filters in other tank, once I need it, I just move it to new tank, and have it up and running in no time.

Han has a good collection of Buce.

James you are 100 % correct ,that's the best way to cycle a taiwan bee tank ,good job
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Jason Lin (Blue Crown Aquatics).

My famous 10 gallon BKK tank with Controsoil, only sponge filter used:

 
My 10 gallon CRS tank with AC50 HOB:

 
My 10 gallon PRL tank with sponge filter and Controsoil

 
My 20L PRL tank with AC50 HOB, sponge filter and Controsoil:

Bought couple 20"x30" foam boards from Dollar Tree. 1/8" thick.
Works great.

My famous 10 gallon BKK tank with Controsoil, only sponge filter used:

 
My 10 gallon CRS tank with AC50 HOB:

 
My 10 gallon PRL tank with sponge filter and Controsoil

 
My 20L PRL tank with AC50 HOB, sponge filter and Controsoil:

Let's take this discussion few steps deeper.
 
First, not all nitrifying bacteria are same.
Most nitrifying bacteria works great in normal aquarium environment which is on the alkaline side (pH >7.0) of pH range. only few nitrifying bacteria works in the range that we keep our bee shrimp at (pH5 - pH6).
 
So cycling shrimp tank at higher pH won't help as the nitrifying bacteria colony built up during cycling won't work effectively in acidic range, they will die off as pH keeping dropping.
 
Second. does certain strain of nitrifying bacteria work in low pH range? short answer is YES.
If you don't introduce any seed of nitrifying bacteria during cycling the tank. eventually it would select the correct strain of nitrifying bacteria over time (they are in the air) 
But I heard lots of stories that the tank is not cycled over couple months if you choose let it happen naturally. 
 
My P. Altum tank stays at pH4 right now. it's kind of low, but nitrifying bacteria is thrive in the canister filter, I need to clean it on schedule.
I seed this tank with Seachem Stability at beginning.
 
Third, If you have more than one tank up and running for a while. that means you have correct strain of nitrifying bacteria already.
So seed it in mature tank would cut the cycling time to none.
 
Forth. If you cycling a tank from scratch, and use the nitrifying bacteria designed for bee shrimp. you intend to increase the pH to higher range. It slows down your cycling process as that particular strain of nitrifying bacteria works better in acidic range.
 
conclusion
I found pre-seed the filter (sponge filter, canister filter, HOB, etc) in mature healthy tank is the better way for me.
I always have couple spare sponge filters in other tank, once I need it, I just move it to new tank, and have it up and running in no time.

IMHO, I only buy leave litter from reliable source, not eBay.
 
I can't risk my expensive shrimp to save few bucks.

Shipping products quickly to the usa isnt cheap

Tigers are more like neos which can do fine in harder water but can adapt to softer water but bee shrimps are best kept in soft water

When - Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 2:00pm - 6:00pm
 
Where - Aquarium Design Group
3520 S Sam Houston Pkwy E Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77047  
This month we will be detailing ornamental dwarf shrimp species at Aquarium Design Group! We will be covering the Caridina, Neocaridina, and Sulawesi types along with some of the others we see in the hobby. We will have Travis Parkening, Tim Bell, and Josh Phuong Nguyen as guest speakers. We will be diving deep into the tricks to be successful with these and discuss the lineages and what they all mean. It will be an amazing event that is not to be missed. We will have Texas Aquatics, LLC, Greater Houston Aquarium Club, and South Texas Area Shrimpers combining to make this the dwarf shrimp event for our area!
 
 All our meetings are free to the public and everyone is welcome. If you are in the Houston area or are interested in making a road trip, this will be a huge event. ADG is owned by Mike and Jeffery Senske (Internationally recognized aquascapers and judges) and their store is simply amazing.
 
Here is the Facebook event page in case anyone here is interested and hit me up if you need any further information
 
Roy Williams President of GHAC (Greater Houston aquarium Club)

Mischling just means hybrid, so it can be TB mischling, Pinto mischling, .... etc.
 
They are good in producing more shrimps of higher value, so it made a lot of sense when TBs were very expensive. Also, mischling are normally of a lower form (crystal vs TB), so they are generally tougher, especially in the early stage of a new morph.
 
However, there is another aspect of it that people often overlook. It's to create different patterns. If you breed regular BKK x regular BKK, chance of getting a mosura flowerhead BKK is next to none. However, if you use mischling of different pattern, you may not get mosura or flowerhead any time soon, but you will definitely see more hinos, and then from there, you get closer and closer to mosura or flowerhead. This is really getting into the genetics, the guppy guys should get excited over this ;-)