Brolly33

Very interested to see results of this. Will your moss live? Any shrimp or fish losses? Will the string algae actually die off?

+1 sponge filters. There are some that come with twin sponges that I prefer, since you can clean one sponge and leave the other dirty.

Congratulations. I remember my first RCS babies. That moment will totally hook you!

One year use out of my lifeguard 36". Only runs 5 watts and super cool to touch. I expect to get a good long life out of it. Was about $75.

Stray tank voltage can throw off pH probes a lot. Suggest taking the water out of the tank in a glass to test it.

I boiled up an IAL and tucked it away in the corner. So far the shrimp have been unimpressed with it, but I think that will do the trick for my 2 week vacation. Thanks for the wide consensus and suggestions on that topic. Evaporation is an important part of my overall shimp-ecosystem due to it's cooling effect on the tank. My AC runs 78F and my tank runs about 75F. Covering the tank will effectivly raise the temprature while maintaining water level and mineral concentrations. If I cover the tank, I think I should also shut off the CO2, due to much lower O2 exchange (especially if I used saran wrap) If I add an ATO (overall it's an attractive idea) I increase risk of flooding (depending on how sophisticated I get) If I ATO, I will need an additional reseviour of pure RO for top offs. If I were to drip ATO with overflow, I would need to drill a hole in the wall for the wastewater. This would have to be done in top secrecy to avoid the wrath-of-spouse. I typically do not top off but instead do a 10% water change once a week. Start of water change is typically about 150-170TDS Incoming water is 110-120TDS reconstituted RO (with ferts for the plants) Post change TDS is usually around 140-150. There are no neighbors close that I would trust with my tank. I am leaning heavily towards KISS and not do anything about evaporation and simply water change when I get home. (Tank with IAL tucked away)

OMG. I just found this DIY feeder design on U-toon that has me laughing and impressed at the same time https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CgfZN8JOuxo Too much food, so I cannot use it.

@plantdude I have never tried Mulberry leaves before, do you have a favorite supplier? Do you use them the same as Indian Almond leaves (IAL) - boil and drop in? @bostoneric I have some IAL that I have used from time to time in my shrimp tanks. Thanks for that reminder. I will go that route. Water evaporation will be substantial, and will push my parameters out of whack as TDS and GH will rise slowly. I loose about 1 gal/week, so 1/6 of total volume loss. I have some float valves around here somewhere and could rig a 5gal on a gravity feed ATO but I worry about the float getting stuck open and coming home to a ruined floor. If I water change just before leaving and drive my TDS down to about 140, I should still be under 180 in 15 days from evaporate + food. Hmmm. Need to run the test @pokeshrimp sounds like a double snowflake + grazing on IAL is the popular idea. Thanks for the suggestions. Any others?

I am headed out on vacation for 15 days and thinking about options for feeding the CRS tank while I am gone. It's a mature 12 gallon long. I have solid filtration (Eheim ecco pro 130) with dual sponges on the inlet. The CRS seem pretty happy and breed quite often. In a typical week I feed 2 pellets of snowflake + 3 matcheads of Bacter AE + 1 little stick of Azoo Max Breed. My trip is a few months away, so I have time to experiment. I was thinking of just dropping a ton of snowflake in. (or slighly less than a ton... maybe a metric ton?) I considered one of those little feeder pyramids for about 30 seconds, but I think it will mess with my GH and TDS too much and would overfeed terribly. Considering one of the rotational daily feeders with just a small amount of BacterAE in it. Maybe I can solder a resistor in to make it rotate once every 3-5 days instead of once a day... I could just let them graze and hope for the best. Other ideas?

Update? Hydras gone? Shrimp happy?

Breeding season. This is the first I have heard mention of a season. Can you elaborate on what you mean here? Are there specific months for breeding? Is it related to light? water chemistry? general durations?

It's the sale that never ends! The BB package came in today. The shrimp look delicious. I can't wait till they settle in and start producing.

Welcome, fellow Floridian. I am up in St. Petersburg. I too just upgraded from cherries to some CRS. ADA amazonia is hard to find in FL. I picked mine up out in San Fran Cisco at Aqua Forest on a business trip out there. I hope to have a colony of Blue Bolts going strong by this time next year.

Adding shrimp adds diversity but also risk of disease.