Joe's Shrimpville Journal & Photo Album (The Return Of...)

[joeybabooey]

Hi everyone!

INTRODUCTION:
Back from a 2 year haitus from shrimp keeping! It's a lot quieter these day, huh... But nonetheless, i hope everything that i can share in this thread to the best of my ability (as well as from inputs from all of you) will provide confidence to the beginner and inspirations to the experienced! Please feel free to drop in questions, raise points/ issues and any form of feedback you can think of!

BACKGROUD:
This is my fifth (4th) shrimp tank im setting up. I started this hobby about 3 years ago when I started up a generic 2ft community fish tank with yamato shrimp and it just grew from there. The reason for my leaving the shrimp hobby is because I was plagued with a hydra infestation which killed many of my precious shrimplets and thats when I threw in the towel. Thus i set out on an adventure exploring other fishes from predatory fishes to South American cichlids. Cut the long story short, I could not stay away from shrimp keeping and hence this thread.

THE PROJECT:
FAUNA- This setup is will be mainly for Crystal Red Shrimps. Also will be housing other variants of Wine Red and Black King Kong Shrimps. If i can push my luck, I will also keep Golden Eye Bue Tiger shrimps in a Satellite breeder box.

FLORA- This setup will have mosses only. Will be using as many 'mini' mosses I can get my hands on. Tied to DW and stones. Might try to see if a moss wall could be done in the near future as well. I love mosses.

The setup of this tank will be a long journey as i will be taking things slow to avoid any headaches in the future. Just as well as certain equipments will only be available to me at a later date I hope to document every step I make in this journal and I'm looking forward to your input and comments!

To get the ball rolling, here's a picture of the subject we will be setting up.
Collected this fella last week. My first time using crystal glass and first time having a cabinet too! It is a 60cm x 30cm x 36cm (~65L) tank.


Spent a couple of hours looking through every piece of wood (and rock) at Green Chapter this past weekend and quickly brought it home to wash and make it sink. Had to boil water 4 times to fill up the bucket! Hopefully it can sink in time for scaping...



Will be updating tomorrow after I have done more to the tank... So much to do, too much excitement!

[joeybabooey]

Whoops...

Somehow i couldn't load pictures to the post.. Here are the attached pictures though!

[sicnarf]

camping...

[Regis]

Can't wait to see the final product!

[joeybabooey]

Thanks for the support guys! Taking it one step at a time =)

So here are a couple of updates to end the day...

Initially I wanted to use Benibachi's Crimson Bee Black Soil as I had always been using this soil with no problems. Unfortunately, it's unavailable. So i have settled with Mosura's Red Soil. Have not heard any bad feedback and I thought the soil color would be a nicer contrast to black shrimps like BDS and BKK. Here i am taking a plunge Anyone had experiences good or bad with this soil?



After adding a thin layer of soil, a bottle of MOSURA Old Sea Mud Powder is sprinkled across the bottom.


Finally all 12 Liters of soil is dumped in and tried to shape the soil in the way I thought I might want to scape in.
AND to end this process, i sprinkled a packet of Benibachi Fulvic Grain across the foreground part of the substrate. This helps to maintain an ideal pH level, amongst other things.

[joeybabooey]

And to offer a comparison, here is my last shrimp tank I had before about 2 years ago
I realized I was not very active in this forum before and hadn't posted anything about shrimps

[reed21]

Wow. Your shrimp tank 2 years ago looks Damn good. Is that fissidens on the driftwood?

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

[soonhong]

old tank look great ...nice

[joeybabooey]

Wow. Your shrimp tank 2 years ago looks Damn good. Is that fissidens on the driftwood?

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks bro ree1! I appreciate your compliments! One thing other people helped me realize is that the scape did not have any depth to it. So i hope to change that this time round..

Yup! thats fissidens tied to the the driftwood

old tank look great ...nice

Bro soonhong, thanks you for your kind comments! It is one to have tanks that look great but it's another thing to have power shrimps like yours!

[sicnarf]

Does those bee balls in your previous tank work? and its effect on GH?

[Mafia00]

your old tank looks good, hope you will show a even better one this time.

[joeybabooey]

Does those bee balls in your previous tank work? and its effect on GH?

Hi sicnarf!

To be truly honest with you, I really cannot tell if 'bee balls' (no matter what brand) works. The claims are that it sterilizes water through absorbing ammonia and 'other harmful substances' at the same time releases a certain number of minerals vital for water quality.

To be absolutely honest with you, I cannot tell a difference. I have never had an ammonia spike in a shrimp tank post cycling to test its effectiveness. So I cannot tell if it's the bee balls working or there just isn't much bioload to begin with.

In regards to its effects on GH, i dont believe it does because I still have to dose GH supplements every water change.

[joeybabooey]

your old tank looks good, hope you will show a even better one this time.

Thanks for compliments! Yup i definitely hope this time round will be an improvement on the scaping side of things =) Thanks!

[sicnarf]

Hi sicnarf!

To be truly honest with you, I really cannot tell if 'bee balls' (no matter what brand) works. The claims are that it sterilizes water through absorbing ammonia and 'other harmful substances' at the same time releases a certain number of minerals vital for water quality.

To be absolutely honest with you, I cannot tell a difference. I have never had an ammonia spike in a shrimp tank post cycling to test its effectiveness. So I cannot tell if it's the bee balls working or there just isn't much bioload to begin with.

In regards to its effects on GH, i dont believe it does because I still have to dose GH supplements every water change.

Thanks alot.. money saved.
Cheers!

[avex30]

1st keeping shrimp satelite breeder box will eventually stress them out
2nd since you mention u kept shrimp 2 yrs back i presume you know tiger have a different parameter from KK and CRS.

[joeybabooey]

1st keeping shrimp satelite breeder box will eventually stress them out

Hmm.. never had a problem before but will keep in mind

2nd since you mention u kept shrimp 2 yrs back i presume you know tiger have a different parameter from KK and CRS.

Personally, i feel that their parameters are not too far apart. Reputable LFS are keeping them in the same tank and same filtration system as well. Especially so if they have been bred is such parameters and we aclimatize them well and long. The only reason I want them separate is so that they would not interbreed.

Thanks for bringing up your thoughts! Appreciate it!