2FT Starter Planted Tank

Yeah been adding in the food and waiting for the tank to cycle, just figured id start shopping around so long as shrimp supply always seems to be an issue...

 

So here is the latest update on my tank, I added some cinnamon already to start getting ready for the shrimps and I noticed that this seems to give the water a bit of a brown tint in the last day.

It looks like some of the plants have taken and started growing, the left hand back corner seems to be growing to the right hand side, and im assuming this means i need another cheap or a zetlight unless i want a koeksuster forest going with the plants.



I have also finished the Tank lid this past weekend, I noticed almost immediatly how the water cools down in the filter and understood how why I needed to do a 1L top up every day looking at how fast i got moisture on the lid.

 

What is the cinnamon for? I haven't heard of that before.
The tank is looking great. So exciting you're already seeing growth in the plants!
Well done on making your own lid.

 

The cinnamon is for the shrimps to eat as it breaks down, on shrimp sites they have a section called botanicals, stuff has really gotten advanced the last few years since they became legal to keep

 

Thanks! Guess I have more googling to do!

 

Yeah I was surprised at how many small changes there has been to the hobby, especially shrimp but nothing really massive otherwise seems to have changed much

 

Might be a silly question, but do you need to feed shrimp?
I somehow thought that with them being scavengers they just kind of find their own food around the tank. Same like snails.

 

yes they are scavengers, they feed on biofilm, but they do need to be fed , i feed my Crystal black a quality pellet and food powder, also botanicals (Indian almond leaves, guava leaves, cinnamon bark), botanicals help the production of biofilm and fresh vegetables once a week, also sometimes bee pollen as a treat, my red cherry shrimp that i keep with fish , they get pellet food once a week but they scavenge leftover food from the fishes.

 

@HugBug have a look at this online shop link with all the options for shrimps

https://saturnshrimp.co.za/product-category/shrimp-botanicals/

 

So long story short, I did some basic math wrong last night and shrimps are on the way... I will have to get bottled bacteria and do daily water changes once they are in, any other suggestions?

 

Cardina Shrimp

I have been adding Seachem Stability to the tank since the start as per the bottles institutions but ran out on Sunday Afternoon after my last water change.

Since they shrimps should be here in the next 48 hours, I think I should also do a 75% WC this evening to help prep as best I can and try to make up for a very idiotic mistake

 

Cardina i personally dont advise keeping in normal tap water, they wont breed and thrive and they need really cool temps about 21-23 , but if you keeping them in normal tap water be sure to do a slow drip acclimation because they will be coming from soft Ro water to our hard tap water

 

I am busy chatting to the LPS now to see if I can either pause the shipment or change the order to another species

 

Neocardina does really well in our water maybe you can swap out for them or if you get the cardina, sterlig nursery sells RO water then you just need to change your tank water to RO with the Gh+ salt, or you could just get a small 1,5ft tank just for some shrimp

 

Sure seems like you want me to get MTS fast... I will see what the LPS says about holding the order or swapping livestock to Neocaridena, but so far radio silence on all communication fronts. IF he says hes already shipped I think ill just have to go to sterlig and get some RO water and from there I can sort out the salts, any brand recommendations?

 

i use salty bee gh+(http://shrimpnation.co.za/products/salty-shrimp-bee-shrimp-mineral-gh-230g/), if your shrimp arrive before you have salt, i can give you some of mine until your salt arrives, lol you can never have too many tanks

 

Tough situation - I'd certainly try get some seeded filter media from someone in your area, even if you take a sponge filter over and squeeze as much filter 'gunk' as you can onto it. GH/ KH/ pH important to know as well, especially for Caridina.
Try get as much biological action going as possible, plus of course the RO and additives if you don't switch to neos. Good luck :/

 

At this stage I think it would just be easier to get another Shrimp Species as that would be less work in the long run, but then again i have often seen things working that should not and think maybe it should be worth a go to see if i can find a better way to reduce water hardness as i dont want to go and buy water every week after a WC