Hi, I am aiming to start up a new shrimp tank starting with cherry shrimps and hopefully after gaining some experience, I can give CRS a go. I have been reading up various sources of information from this forum and the below items are what I have gathered to be good for my tank. Please advise on the items I have listed. Thanks a lot!
1) 1.5 ft tank
2) ADA amazonia soil
3) 1 driftwood
4) Java/spiky moss (Is it ok to have only moss in the tank?)
5) Filter?? (I've read about ppl using UGF, canister, sponge filter. Which one is more suitable for me)
6) Light?? (As I'll be only having moss in the tank, I don't need a strong light right? Any recommendations on what light to get?)
Certain points to consider,
1.Most shrimp tanks are low tech moss planted
2.Ada amazonia soil is great for shrimps, however tank cycling is essential before introducing crs.
3.UGF pros and cons are debatable.
4.How are you maintaining the temperature of your tank?(24hrs aircon ? Any chiller?)
5.Lighting strong enough for you to see your shrimps
6.Canister filter is highly recommended
Thanks for your reply. Pardon the 'cheap and good' queries below. I'm trying to keep cost down.Originally Posted by Cross
Certain points to consider,
1.Most shrimp tanks are low tech moss planted
2.Ada amazonia soil is great for shrimps, however tank cycling is essential before introducing crs.
3.UGF pros and cons are debatable.
4.How are you maintaining the temperature of your tank?(24hrs aircon ? Any chiller?)
5.Lighting strong enough for you to see your shrimps
6.Canister filter is highly recommended
1) Low tech moss planted tank will be exactly what I'll be attempting.
2) I'll definitely wait for the tank cycling. How long do you reckon it'll take?
3&6) I think I'll most probably use canister. Any cheap and good brand/model to recommend?
4) I am still thinking about the temperature problem. Might be placing my tank in an air-con room. Is there any cheap and good chiller for small tanks around?
5) That's easy.
cycling can take up to a week or weeks!warmer temp and good aeration usually speeds it up
eheim is very reliable, very reliable costwise too-->$$$can consider atman, pretty decent. If your aircon is on 24hrs temp can be maintained rather constant in tank as it is closely related to ambient temperature, then no need for chiller. Chiller can look for 1/10 or 1/15hp ones. Popular brands such as hailea/resun can be chanced upon once in a while on the forum.
1/10 for a 1.5ft tank??? overkill for me. Im running on 1/20 hp chiller and it work fine.
For cherry you dont need a chiller as they are quite hardy. Maintain 27 to 28 degrees and they will be fine. Just get a low watt PL light. Maybe 23 watts ok already as higher watt makes you plant grow faster.
i'm keeping cherry, using a powerhead sponge filter
they are fine with 27-28, but if you want them to breed you probably need to lower the temp
bro there is someone selling hailea chiller 1/10hp on the market place can go take a look
How efficient is this hailea chiller 1/10hp? Can it cool down a 2ft tank from room temperature to about 25 degrees? What is the lowest temp. it can cool down to?
im using the resun cl280, its a 1/10 hp chiller too and I set mine to 25 degrees. I can safely say it runs less than half the time for my 2 feet tank. However, the run time of the chiler depends on many factors such as your ambient temperature and your placement of your chiller.
any other shrimps that is suitable for a non-chiller tank?
cherry and sulawesi.
Besides the temperature consideration, is the commerial shrimp food and suppliment
necessary? What is the most common food/supplement that is been dosed nowaday?
cheers
Those commerical shrimp food arent necessary but its good to have as it provides faster/better growth for the shrimps. The shrimps are able to thrive on mirco-organism found in a matured planted tank.
Most CRS keepers feed their shrimps with Mosura CRS Specialty Food.
you can get cheaper shrimp food such as hikari algae walfer. if you are new to shrimps, my advise is to start with cherry and please dont go go sulawesi shrimps as they are very difficult to keep. Even experienced shrimp keepers have problem keeping sulawesi shrimps due to high death rate so you might want to keep cherry first.
Point noted. Thanks.if you are new to shrimps, my advise is to start with cherry and please dont go go sulawesi shrimps as they are very difficult to keep. Even experienced shrimp keepers have problem keeping sulawesi shrimps due to high death rate so you might want to keep cherry first.
I bought a EDEN 501 for my 50cm shrimp tank which is now cycling, find it to be well built and has a better finish then some of the China made canister, it also comes with media and most necessary fitting which can be consider a plug and play canister
At only 5 watts with 300 lts/per.hr, i think its more then sufficient for a small shrimp tank.
Highly recommended IMHO.
Cheers.
1) strongly recommand a 2 feet. IMHO in case of anything such as a ph spike or posioning, a 2 feet might be able to carry the shrimps out of disaester instead of a 1.5 feet.
equipment for 2 feet tank is also easier to source. lik 2 ft light in contrast to a 1.5ft one. etc.
2-4) seems fine.
4) filter.. if you REALLY want cost down, then maybe can do it the way i did my filter.
I got a prefilter which is a canister, then plug it to a powerhead.
i dun have tt much money to buy a eden or expensive filter. so i spent 30 on a good powerhead, then used the money to buy a resun cl280 chiller. so i got a canister filter and a chiller for less than 250.
5) for lights... you might want to try nature. their lights are cheaper and also the uncle there is an expert in lights. might ask him for help.
but u can also use PL lights 18 watts for standard 1.5feet tank. i find that moss growing in that light more beautiful.
I think a 2ft tank will be better as the parameter will be more stable.hope this might helps you if you are low in cash
2nd hand 2ft tank -> $10 look in the market place to source for it
2nd hand gex or ada soil -> at least 4kg for soil can look in the market place also new pack at least $15 per pack for gex ada 3 liter for $17.50
driftwood-> saw polyart at c328 got some pretty nice one can cost below $10
moss-> $4 per tub? in the market place also
filter-> i would say invest in a good filter such as eheim. 2 feet tank can get 2213 or 2215 cost less then $100
2nd hand light-> saw alot of bro selling 2ft light in market place recently, around $10 to $20
2nd hand chiller -> $150 to $200 so search in market place
2nd hand dc fan-> $5 to $8
2nd hand ac profantic fan->$10 and above
the reason why investing in a better filter so that it can last longer and the flow rate will be compatible to a chiller.
getting a classic 2213 or 2215 is not worthwhile imho. Since they dont include media, TS had to fork out another 30 to 50 bucks for the media and in that case. might as well ask TS to buy eheim pro 2222 (media included) which i bought recently and quite satisfied with it.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks