Pros and Cons on combining tanks - should I?

Hi All,
I was thinking on combining my shrimp tanks, basically use a bigger tank with dividers for the different colour shrimps. Currently I have 2 x 2ft tanks that has their own heaters, power and air driven filters, lighting... With Electricity becoming an issue (and space for that matter), I was considering combining the 2 tanks into a 3ft tank with 2 dividers in it (Basically giving me 3 x 1ft tanks)

I was thinking on useing a power filter on one side that feads into the other end, and have some sponse filters in each section for the shrimp...

Pros
Uses less space
Have 1 more tank for another colour shrimp (If I can find them)
Use less electricity as I will be running less filters and lights.

Cons
A problem in one tank (Disease/water quality/equipment failure) will mean a problem in all tanks...

So should I do this or leave the tanks as is?

 

Hi Caz, from what i googled and found, 1 tank with glass dividers, and sponge filter in each tank, one air pump running mulitply little tanks, only thing was 1 smaller heater per tank.

 

I am presently keeping my in a cold water holding tank with a small power head filter, reason for this is my Discus were eating them.

 

I think 1 tank will be easier to maintain.

 

What about dividing one of the 2ft tanks and then you still have another 2ft tank and the 3ft tank to your disposal. It will also save a bit on maintenance and give you a practice run if you do decide on dividing that 3ft tank for shrimps at a later stage. Just an idea.

 

Should work OK, for shrimp this is actually a cool solution :idea:

 

From what I understand about shrimp, they're pretty tolerant of different water conditions. So I think that removes your con of water quality/equipment failure, as you'd be able to sort it out before the shrimp were affected. I really like your idea, I think you should do it and post some pics!

 

I think I will give this a go, just need to decide if the dividers must be glass with holes drilled in them (with a plastic mesh) or perspex...
@Edward - I can do as you suggested, but that still leaves me with 2 tanks were I can have 1... (Still double everything)

 

Two tanks are always better than one, three better than two, four...

Just kidding, should work fine.

 

AFAIK baby shrimps are small, so it will have to be a very fine grid / mesh ... what you can do is use open cell sponge as the divider, this then also creates an HMF like filter wall and I would assume a good dinning place for shrimps to eat off the sponge.

see ... on some HMF stuff
HMF now and still to come


BTW all these filters are still working for me .. some 4 years on now.

Later Ferdie

 

The grids I saw had very small holes, but I think your idea is much better - maybe have a piece of perspex with a square cut in it for the sponge. I am only concerned that when I need to clean the sponge the shrimp will mix...

 

@Kola I already have 5 tanks in a townhouse, and we all now spacious townhouses are...

 

@Caz, just teasing.

In the end you must do what works for you, and as the hobby goes we experiment as we go.

Now, pleas post photos of your shrimp setups, I have not seen FW shrimp around here and it is something which interests me a lot.

 

The HMF is very efficient and in normal tanks doesn't need to be cleaned for a long time (probably 2-3 years).
There is a formula to calculate the surface area required based on your tank size, but in your case you will use the HMF as divider and will end up with a much bigger surface area as woukd be required for filtration only. Couple this with the fact that you have shrimps (and not big messy fishes) in your tank divisions and your filter cleaning maintenance schedule stretches out very far.

 

You can check these out
Blue shrimp - sold as Aura Blue Shrimp - but might be Pearl Blue?
Another 2ft Shrimp tank

Red Cherry
My 2ft Shrimp tank

 

Thanks guys, will deftly use a HMF separator then...