Doc4PC2

I am just wondering if I went to the river and was able to use the driftwood, branches and twigs that are by the river bed. If I boil them first, and let them dry, if they would be okay? I live in the mountains in Montana, so I have access to tons of rivers, creeks, lakes, etc.

I find my shrimp, no matter what the variety is, they just don't eat very much of what I put in. However, they love, love, love, mulberry leafs. They eat it to the skelaton every time I put one in. They used to love blanched zuccinni, a small slice, but they don't even Go for that much now. I have tried all kinds of high quality, highly recommend Food, but they just don't seem interested very much, except mulberry leafs.

I was wondering what kind of wood, branches, twigs, can be used In shrimp tanks or fish tanks? Can it be any kind as long as u boil them, and let them dry? Or Does it have to be a certain kind, like wood found by the river or lake? Same for branches and twigs? Thanks for the help and any answers.

Yeah, I would agree with that statement, Soothing Shrimp. It doesn't matter how much time and research you do. No matter what, once you start with them, you will continue to learn, and experience on your own, and then change with that knowledge.

If u have a lot of drift wood, and 3 or 4 sponge filters, and a HMF, do u really need to have substrate? Isn't,t there enough with the wood, and sponges, so u don,t necessarily have to have substrate? If I can keep my ph at 6.4 to 6.6, and 0 to 1 KH, and 6 GH, and 135 to 150 TDS, can,t I go with a bare bottom tank?

From a company online called PetStore. They did a good job and it was packed way overboard and came to me safe and sound.

Yeah, sounds like I will do it Louie's way for sure. I got the Mr Aqua 12 gallon Low Iron Tank Today, and the Penn Plax Cascade 500 Canister filter. The tank is impressive. Crystal Clear, and they packed it so good, you could have played football with it and it would not have cracked. I will be doing the water tests tonight to make sure it does not leak. I am going to make this tank, a easy to deal with tank. Substrate in a glass pan inside, plants is small ceramic containers. Short glass containers for leafs, food dishes, etc. I am going to make this, so I can clean it easily anytime, and not have to worry about worms and other critters, and if I do get them, I will have a easy way to deal with them. It will be a simple design, that will be as easy to take care of as I can make it. I had several of my CBS have their fry last night. The little tank is full of fry. I still can't get over how tiny they are. lol

I decided to go with the Penn Plax Cascade 500 after researching, watching several videos on it, and talking to several people that own them. I think it will best with the Mr. Aqua 12 gallon tank. I will have to shorten the intake and maybe have Han make me a custom ss mesh cover for it, but after talking to 7 different owners of the PPC500 and only two of the Eheim owners, and watching a bunch of videos on both Eheim and the Penn Plax, I decided to go with the Penn Plax. I'll use BioBalls, Ceramics in the bottom containers, sponge on top of that, the other sponge in the middle with the Purigen and Chemi-pure on the top with the floss / polish sponge on top of that.

Louie, you seem to use this Chemi-pure and purigen and you like it. But how often do you change it? So with the Eheim 2211 or the Penn Plax Cascade 500 external canister filters. Are you saying I should put one basket with Chemi-pure, and one with purigen . Then put the sponge filter on the top basket, and some floss on the very top? Should I stay away from the charcoal sponge and not use it at all? Thanks!

I boiled mine for about 3 hours, and they sunk right away. So far, my ph has not changed using what I have been using with the Fluval Shrimp Stratum for substrate, Malaysia Drift Wood, a small filter of peat pellets, and RO Water with some xmas moss and one plant. It stays rock steady at 6.4. That being said, it has only been 3 to 4 months though. But so far, no up or down on the PH, it has been consistent in all of my tanks with this setup and one of my other tanks just has inert substrate and has been steady at 6.4 for almost a year now.

I use the Malaysia Drift Wood, and it does well for keeping the PH stable with RO water. I can keep the PH at 6.4 stable with the Malaysia Drift Wood, and a small bag some peat pellets. Even using inert substrate, or Fluval Shrimp Stratum. Doesn't seem to matter. I still can keep the PH stable using the combination of Malaysia Drift Wood, Peat Pellets, and RO water at 6.4. If I use too much peat pellets, I can drop it even lower, so you don't have to use that much with RO water.

I have looked at a lot of these type of filters, pitchers, and other RO filters, and most of the time, the cost is about the same or more than the 5 bucks per 5 gallon container of Culligan RO Water. So far, I have not found a RO system I can use that will save me more than a buck a gallon of RO. Plus you have to take into consideration the time spent getting the RO water versus, picking up the 5 gallon container and pouring.

Thanks for the info. I am trying to decide between the Eheim 2211 or Penn Plax Cascade 500 to be used on a new Mr Aqua Serene 12 gallon low iron glass tank. It is 35.4" X 8.3" X 9.4" Like you, I want to be able to look at the tank and look down and not see cables, tubes, HOB's, and all kinds of stuff. I just want to see a small intake and small out take in the tank. It will be on a nice cabinet where the canister will be below and unseen too.

What do you think of them, DETAquarium? Do you like them, are they fairly easy to take care of? Do they do a good job on keeping the water clear and the tank clean? Thanks!

lol didn't even notice that just got locked into the idea and ran with it, but yeah, that is what I am thinking of. Put the substrate in the glass pan like above. The whole idea is to have a quick and easy way to clean the tank, keep it cleaner longer, yet still have the enviroment they need. I am starting with a 16 gallon Mr Aqua low iron glass tank - 35 x 8.4 x 9.2 in inches. Trying to decide on a good external canister filter so, only the intakes and outflow shows.

Has anyone used an Ehieim Classic 2211 External Canister filter with media for 40 gallons before? I was thinking about using it in a 16 gallon Mr Aqua tank? Or go with a row of 6 sponge filters with three Tom's mini canister filters. or a Penguin biowheel 100 - one on each end, plus the three sponge filters or a Penguin Biowheel 200 on one end and three sponge filters Or do six sponge filters and no biowheel, or canister, or anything else. Just a row of sponge filters and that's it with a couple of air stones. This tank will be for TB shrimp. Or what about a marineland HOT Magnum filter? Or does anyone suggest a good external canister filter, so that only the intake and outtake have to go into the tank and nothing else showing.

What if you were to take a glass dish that is about half the size of the tank, and is two inches deep and put the substrate in the dish in the tank. So half of the tank, is substrate, but it is in a glass dish that you can just take the dish out, clean the substrate in aquarium water and put it back in whenever you need to. The rest of the tank can be bare bottom or leaf bottom with driftwood, etc? What do you think?

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What if you were to just put in a glass jar filled with substrate? You could just fill it and put in the tank, maybe run an air stone in it, them just take it out and rinse it in aquarium water every now and them and put it back in?

I have a small oto in every shrimp tank, and I also have a new small yoyo loach, but not in a shrimp tank. I want to be able to use him to eat up the small snails when I don't have any shrimp in a section. I have no idea if the the yoyo loach is okay with shrimp or not. He is pretty small, and so is his mouth. I have not seen an oto eat a detritus worm.

I think it would be great to import all of the shrimp species. The more we can spread them around the USA the better.

I do use the Tom's mini canister too in each section of the tank with their sponge filter, and they seem to work well, plus cleaning them in aquarium water is easy and putting them back in keep the flow right. I keep a plant in front of the the flow, but it seems like the shrimp like it. Some hang out directly in front of the flow on the plant, so it must not be too much for them. Considering this is only a 9 x 9 x 8 inch section. The sponge, an air stone, and Tom's mini canister seems to work well. But I do have a BioWheel 200 HOB in the middle section where there are no animals too.

I have six lower grade CBS in a 2.5 gallon right now and two of them are berried. It is my main 48" long shrimp tank where I want them to get berried, and so far, I have only found one SSS grade CBS that is berried. I would really like my TB's to get busy......

Wow, nice!, but very expensive.

Yeah, that is a good idea, I could keep it simple, go HMF with just air and put the substrate behind the HMF and put it on the side and make the bottom bare. Or I could put the substrate in the media bag still, and put the HMF on top of it. I might need to put some easy water flow under the sponge, and air. Or the heck with it, I could just put in a couple bags of bio balls under the HMF. The idea is to keep it simple, and a piece of cake to clean anytime. Yet, still have the bacteria. I could go bare bottom and large porus rock and sponge filters, maybe