Doc4PC2

I think your tank is beautiful. I was torn in trying not to vote for every one of them. Looking at the fts it really looked more like a beautiful planted tank then a shrimp tank. I agree would have been nice to have 3 closer up photos where you could have highlighted specific aspects and possibly some of your livestock.

The TB's have been in this tank for almost two months now and are doing great. Plus there is a lot of fry in the tank now too and quite a few berried shrimp. So far, so good on the tank. No deaths, and they really like the walkways, all of the Malaysia Drift wood stacked in a pile, and the HMF sponge filter. Keeping the leafs in the large container really helps and they clean it all up.

I added a LowKeys Absorption Board to the tank, and I put in one new Bio Digest, one new Cappa Bark, and one new Max Breed BioBall on the first of each month.

I made a vacuum cleaner that is smaller so I can get into the nooks and crannies easily and suck up anything that needs cleaning. I change about 15 to 25% of the water every two weeks and the water parameters have been staying steady and stable.

TDS - 150
PH - 6.4
Temp - 72 to 72.5
GH - 6
KH - 0

Water has been staying crystal clear. The light is on a timer and I use daylights for 8 hours now, blue night lights for 6 hours, and off for 10 at night. There is some natural light to the far right of the tank in the morning, but no direct sunlight hits the tank from any side.

I have been feeding a lot of different food. They are eating really well. They love Mulberry leaves, (their favorite), Bee Pollen, Bacter AE, several different kinds of powder food, organic spinach, stinging needle leaves, Indian Almond leaves, Fallen Oak leaves, dried organic Mulberry branches that are in small pieces that are used for making mulberry tea. Banana sprig, Alder cones, and then the dish of different plants, and xmas moss.

They love the long bamboo walkway that goes the length of the entire tank and the stone walkway, and hanging out in the stack of Malaysia Drift wood by the HFM Filter.
They also love the Cholla Wood and seem to clean up the bare bottom tank with the otos. No algae or other issues so far, and I can easily take anything out and clean it when I am changing the water.

I may try the new premium shrimp soil in the substrate containers that will be better for them and take out the inert substrate.

So that is the update on my Mr Aqua 12 Gallon Low Iron Glass Tank that was setup for the TB's and to make life easier on me to take care of.

I don't like the tank mat, and next time would not use it. If you get water from spillage, the tank mat soaks it up, and then you are not sure if you have a leak or if it is the tank mat, but once you dry it all up all around the tank and check, you discover that it is the tank mat that soaks up any water and sits under the tank, so next time, I would be inclined to go without the tank mat.

The Penn Plax Cascade 500 Canister Filter is doing an excellent job and is easy to take care of. Combined with the three Tom's mini canisters, three air sponges, and the large HMF Filter with a Tom's mini canister behind the HMF filter, and the four air stones and bubble wand, the tank is staying clean and healthy so far. I will give you an update at about four to six months, then I will see if this setup will really be the way I wanted it. Plus, I have the emergency 10 gallon tank beside it, with pretty much the same water parameters, just incase anything should happen, then I have a tank to put the shrimp right into for emergency.

I appreciate any tips, comments, suggestions, help, and your opinions.

Thanks, Doc
 

 
 
 

Got them in all my shrimp tanks. They are free roamers.

I have them in all four of my tanks as well! They are beautiful & my shrimp love to hang in them.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome, you will love it here! And where you are located, you have access to tons of shrimps and supplies, that
us local guys in the small towns can't get.

I wonder if the Sera sponge will fit on the XY base? 
 
That is also the lowest I have seen the BioSpon is at $30 bucks a piece.

I just want to say, I love it, it is going to be an awesome tank!

The TB's have been in this tank for almost two months now and are doing great. Plus there is a lot of fry in the tank now too and quite a few berried shrimp. So far, so good on the tank. No deaths, and they really like the walkways, all of the Malaysia Drift wood stacked in a pile, and the HMF sponge filter. Keeping the leafs in the large container really helps and they clean it all up.

I added a LowKeys Absorption Board to the tank, and I put in one new Bio Digest, one new Cappa Bark, and one new Max Breed BioBall on the first of each month.

I made a vacuum cleaner that is smaller so I can get into the nooks and crannies easily and suck up anything that needs cleaning. I change about 15 to 25% of the water every two weeks and the water parameters have been staying steady and stable.

TDS - 150
PH - 6.4
Temp - 72 to 72.5
GH - 6
KH - 0

Water has been staying crystal clear. The light is on a timer and I use daylights for 8 hours now, blue night lights for 6 hours, and off for 10 at night. There is some natural light to the far right of the tank in the morning, but no direct sunlight hits the tank from any side.

I have been feeding a lot of different food. They are eating really well. They love Mulberry leaves, (their favorite), Bee Pollen, Bacter AE, several different kinds of powder food, organic spinach, stinging needle leaves, Indian Almond leaves, Fallen Oak leaves, dried organic Mulberry branches that are in small pieces that are used for making mulberry tea. Banana sprig, Alder cones, and then the dish of different plants, and xmas moss.

They love the long bamboo walkway that goes the length of the entire tank and the stone walkway, and hanging out in the stack of Malaysia Drift wood by the HFM Filter.
They also love the Cholla Wood and seem to clean up the bare bottom tank with the otos. No algae or other issues so far, and I can easily take anything out and clean it when I am changing the water.

I may try the new premium shrimp soil in the substrate containers that will be better for them and take out the inert substrate.

So that is the update on my Mr Aqua 12 Gallon Low Iron Glass Tank that was setup for the TB's and to make life easier on me to take care of.

I don't like the tank mat, and next time would not use it. If you get water from spillage, the tank mat soaks it up, and then you are not sure if you have a leak or if it is the tank mat, but once you dry it all up all around the tank and check, you discover that it is the tank mat that soaks up any water and sits under the tank, so next time, I would be inclined to go without the tank mat.

The Penn Plax Cascade 500 Canister Filter is doing an excellent job and is easy to take care of. Combined with the three Tom's mini canisters, three air sponges, and the large HMF Filter with a Tom's mini canister behind the HMF filter, and the four air stones and bubble wand, the tank is staying clean and healthy so far. I will give you an update at about four to six months, then I will see if this setup will really be the way I wanted it. Plus, I have the emergency 10 gallon tank beside it, with pretty much the same water parameters, just incase anything should happen, then I have a tank to put the shrimp right into for emergency.

I appreciate any tips, comments, suggestions, help, and your opinions.

Thanks, Doc
 

 
 
 

Check this out.... "BIOSPON"
 
Not sure if it's "better" than a sponge. But, I'm sure it cost more. hehe
 
BTW, I prefer the single sponges just because they are easier to remove and clean. But I have both.

Congrats! You are certainly on a lucky roll! Go play the lotto.    lol

6

2

That is great that they continue to do these shows and contest though. It will help and get to the US eventually.
The more they do, the better, and the better for shrimpers everywhere.

I've noticed now that I can take out the small media bag of peat pellets from behind the HMF and my PH has still been holding steady at 6.4.
I have a small cup of alder cones in the tank and added some small pieces of dried organic Mulberry branches. So far the PH has remained
steady at 6.4 for about 4 to 5 days now. So, I think I can get away with not using the Peat Pellets anymore. The shrimp love the Mulberry sticks.
I boiled them for 10 minutes, and let them sit in RO water for a day, and then put them in the tank. I also have oak leaves, Indian Almond
leaves, Mulberry leaves, and stinging needle leaves in my leaf dish. Although they eat up the stinging needle leaves and Mulberry leaves
pretty fast.  I'll keep testing to see if I can get away with no using the peat pellets behind the HMF Filter.

same. i got all my hmf from there also. I've seen my shrimp climb over the foam into the rear chamber before. so dont be surprised if yours do that someday.

I've tried several ph meters, and have yet to find one that works correctly and consistently, even after being calibrated several times. The API master kit and even test strips give me more accurate results than the meters I have tried. A couple of them were very expensive, but I just don't trust it.

We use iPage for our hosting. It is unlimited everything. Unlimited traffic, unlimited usage, file sizes, videos, photos, with full database, ecommerce, shopping cart, etc. You name it, they have it. And you never have to worry about going over on traffic or file size or how large your site is. You can pay once a year, or once a month payments, and they are the best, as far as I am concerned. We have several of our sites on iPage. Usually you can get a good deal for the first year, like 40 bucks for the year, and then after that, it is 145 a year. Which is reasonable, because everything is unlimited, emails, security, support. They have both email and call in support, and anytime I have had to use support, they have been excellent. One of our largest sites is ProShineClean.com and it also has the ProShineclean.mobi with it. One account can have several domains and sites hooked to it, and it doesn't cost anything extra. Your domain name
costs, but you can have four different sites being managed from the same web tools and file management, and ftp, and still only pay the one price per year.
So, just my opinion as a Webmaster and I manage several websites, but I haven't found a single host that is as good as iPage.com. GoDaddy, is good, but you have so many extras that you have to pay, you end up paying close to 500 a year if you need anything extra. The so called Free hosts do not have the tools you need to have a professional site up and running consistently, and search engines ignore websites on them, you can't get on the first page. You end up on page 20, so no one can find your site. When someone searches for shrimp, pet shrimp, TB's, neos, keywords like that, you want your site to come up on the first page of search, and as your traffic grows, you, you get there, but it take some marketing
and time. Just my opinion.

We use iPage for our hosting. It is unlimited everything. Unlimited traffic, unlimited usage, file sizes, videos, photos, with full database, ecommerce, shopping cart, etc. You name it, they have it. And you never have to worry about going over on traffic or file size or how large your site is. You can pay once a year, or once a month payments, and they are the best, as far as I am concerned. We have several of our sites on iPage. Usually you can get a good deal for the first year, like 40 bucks for the year, and then after that, it is 145 a year. Which is reasonable, because everything is unlimited, emails, security, support. They have both email and call in support, and anytime I have had to use support, they have been excellent. One of our largest sites is ProShineClean.com and it also has the ProShineclean.mobi with it. One account can have several domains and sites hooked to it, and it doesn't cost anything extra. Your domain name
costs, but you can have four different sites being managed from the same web tools and file management, and ftp, and still only pay the one price per year.
So, just my opinion as a Webmaster and I manage several websites, but I haven't found a single host that is as good as iPage.com. GoDaddy, is good, but you have so many extras that you have to pay, you end up paying close to 500 a year if you need anything extra. The so called Free hosts do not have the tools you need to have a professional site up and running consistently, and search engines ignore websites on them, you can't get on the first page. You end up on page 20, so no one can find your site. When someone searches for shrimp, pet shrimp, TB's, neos, keywords like that, you want your site to come up on the first page of search, and as your traffic grows, you, you get there, but it take some marketing
and time. Just my opinion.

My name is John, and I work in IT at a Canadian tv station. I'm relatively new to shrimp keeping, but already have two tanks going with a third in the planning phase.
My other hobbies include: weight lifting, gaming, building computers, hiking, and fishing.

Tulungagung, Indonesia.

Flemish giant?  They were originally bred for food.

for macro photography, here is what I do:
 
1, you need macro lens to get 1:1 live size photo, (105mm/F2.8, or 200mm/F4 which is better) very expensive. other option, get extension tube (Nikon PK-13) for 50mm or 35mm prime lens, what I have now.
2, use external flash (SB800) with extension cord or monolight (WhiteLightning 1600). put on top of tank with glass cover. flash is super fast, > 1/1000s, can freeze any motion of shrimp.
3, close the aperture to min, give you max depth of field, as in macro photography, depth of field is very shallow.
4, set ISO to 100. reduce the noise level.
5, shutter speed 1/60-1/250 depends on body.
6, no need for tripod, handhold is ok as flash freeze everything.
 
I'm a Nikon guy, you may find similar item if you use Canon.

Ya always think, less is better.
And ya like Eric said. Any powered products always mix in a cup of tank water first and pour it in.

I just put the bag in a bigger container.
 
cut top open. and start acclimating by dripping in water.
 
once you have enough water in the container, gently flap over and let shrimp out.
 
done.

Hoping this loads ... Umaro and Trouble!