[Forumsnow]

Guess I just wanted to gloat a little haha and ask a couple of questions. So this snow has been fairly profitable for me, I decided to treat myself for all that hard work lol. I kinda went on a small buying spree. In the past couple days I have purchased a 150gpd PWC ro/di unit, 9L of ADA African, a duel sponge filter, a tds pen, and finally some Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner. Call it a late Christmas and a happy new year!

I already have a air pump and aqua clear 20 HOB. I also have a ten gallon tank sitting around but am contemplating buying a 20 long as I hear it is more stable. Do all the serious shrimp keepers on here find that to be a fact?

Next thing is I need to grab a canister filter, think I get another Rena as I like it a little better. This brings me to an under gravel filter. Do they really help that much. Keep in mind I want to keep some higher end bees in here way down the road. I will be starting out with some CBS to get a hang of this whole shrimp keeping jive.

My son Mason is due to be here February 18th so I will be waiting till the spring/ summer to actually set this bad boy up. I really do not want to have a freshly set up tank to worry about when he arrives, just buying all the parts now before money becomes super tight. The lower maintnence involved with shrimp tanks is what has really helped me decide. I already have 2 high tech tanks and a turtle tank going on, another high maintnence tank is just out of the question. A tank that only requires once a month water change almost sounds to good to be true.

I will be keeping this tank as low tech as possible. I also have a 30" t5no light kicking around. This light is good for moss and that's about it. Which will be perfect for me as I have a bunch of miss kicking around I will use.

That's about it for now. If anyone has any advice for me please feel free to share. With a new born I want to try to keep stuff as easy as possible. Really got the shrimp bug bad right now. Thanks for the advice all of you have shares on this forum already.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

The best advice I can give for a newbie to shrimp AND a new baby on the way is to get neocaridina. They are MUCH more forgiving when learning about shrimping, and any mistakes you may make from being tired... and you WILL be tired! LOL

All they need is a tank, inert substrate, moss, a sponge filter, and a cycled tank and you are good to go! Heck they even enjoy algae on the sides of the tank because it gives them food to eat!

 

[Forumsnow]

Sorry guess I should have said this in the original post. I already have a 12 long with supreme reds from speedie. They are doing great, so obviously I am looking to step my game up just a little. I will start with some CBS to learn from for the next year or so. Just wanted to set this new tank up right from the beginning.

Thank you very much for the information though and trying to steer me in the right direction.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'll let someone else answer for those as I don't have much experience with cards yet.

I do have experience with being tired though, as my twins have just turned 4 and my 8 yr old has adhd. LOL

 

[OrangeSoda]

Congratulations on the baby.

Honestly, I would still set the tank up now. Even though you're not going to add shrimp until later, having the tank set up for a few months beforehand will give a chance for biofilm to build. Even if you're just adding in water, driftwood, and a couple of crypts or moss.
This would make sure that things stabilize and will also keep maintenance down to R/O top offs. Maybe also throw in a fert dose once a week. Even if you forget or ignore this minimal maintenance, nothing really bad will happen.
No filter maintenance, no waterchanges, just let it run.

 

[Forumsnow]

I won't have to do a bunch of water changes for the first couple weeks? When I flooded my 12 long back in October I was doing daily/every other day 50% water changes. And I still got serious algae! Haha. My wife is. Getting pretty prego now so I'm having to take care of here a lot more. I'm not sure if I will have the time at the moment to be doing another water change daily. Plus I'm not sure my wife would be to keen on it at the moment haha. But maybe I can convince her if the daily changes are unnecessary. Thanks for your input on this.

 

[ThatGuyWithTheFish]

Don't get PFRs though. They've been quite difficult for me.

 

[Forumsnow]

I have supreme red neos at the moment which I believe are basically the same as pfr's. I have only lost 2 of them so far, one the day after they arrived which I attribute to shipping. The other I believe was killed by a planaria. I did not realize they could harm shrimp. But I have since killed them off with deworming meds.

I am getting some lower end and blonde oebt's to throw in with them to ry something a little harder out. My conditions should be pretty perfect for them. Getting them for pretty cheap so it will be good to try.

 

[Forumsnow]

Oh and thank you all for the congrats I am counting down the days till Mason gets here. He will be a fish/shrimp/plant expert by an early age! Haha

 

[OrangeSoda]

I won't have to do a bunch of water changes for the first couple weeks? When I flooded my 12 long back in October I was doing daily/every other day 50% water changes. And I still got serious algae! Haha. My wife is. Getting pretty prego now so I'm having to take care of here a lot more. I'm not sure if I will have the time at the moment to be doing another water change daily. Plus I'm not sure my wife would be to keen on it at the moment haha. But maybe I can convince her if the daily changes are unnecessary. Thanks for your input on this.

You shouldn't have to do waterchanges. I'm not sure if africana leaches ammonia like aquasoil does, but if it does then you won't even have to fertilize. Just don't let it get above 4ppm or so and the plants will be fine.

All of the water changes may have caused your algae problems if you were changing with tap water so frequently. Tap water can have pretty high levels of dissolved CO2. The constant raising of those levels with new tap water, then the outgassing that naturally happens through water movement lowering those levels causes fluctuations in the tank. CO2 level fluctuations can cause algae.

If you do this one. Set it up with low light and get the filter going. Then just let it go and top it off once in a while.

Edit: With a little one on the way, no one would blame you for just waiting either.

 

[Forumsnow]

I believe Africana does not leach. But between work and taking care of my wife free time is becoming few and far between. And I imagine it will get even sparse the first couple months.

I run pressurized co2 on my other tank so I do not think the water changes caused the algae. In all honesty it is probably just my insanely over powered led light I have on it. I started at 100% and am all the way down to 35% and still cannot get enough co2 in. I will continue to dim the light down each week till either the algae stops or my hc and tonina start not growing. I think I still have a lot of light even at 35%.

 

[Mrturritos]

I still don't get how I never ran into algae issues like mad when I did a fishless cycle. At one point nitrate and ammonia was so high the scales couldn't go any higher....The only algae I am getting 2 months later is a little bit of that brown algae. Good luck setting up the tank!

 

[Forumsnow]

Ya pretty sure my light is just way over kill! Lol. I must say being able to change your light level to co2 instead of the inverse has been a dream come true.

So how about under gravel filters? I am hearing such mixed reviews. Who uses them and who does not and why? That is about the only part of my new tank I am still undecided about. Will also be on the lookout for a canister for this tank. Just throwing it out there. Trying to get everything now as I know my wife will freak on me for spending money once the baby gets here. I think I should be able to get the ok on a shrimp purchase once and awhile though.

 

[Betta Maniac]

UGF is great, but if you're using a buffering soil, it runs out the soil more quickly than if you didn't have one. So it's really a question of how you're going to feel about having to swap out all the substrate (multiple times) when your kid is still under two.

 

[Forumsnow]

Very valid point. I am planning on starting with CBS for the first year or so. So maybe ill hold off on the ugf till I decide I'm ready for bkk. Not only does the work of changing soils sucks but aqua soil ain't cheap either! Haha.

 

[Forumsnow]

Thanks betta I think I will be holding off on the ugf at least until I switch the tank to do bkk and this won't be for quite some time. The idea of all the work involved is not to pleasing, not to mention aqua soil is damn expensive.
Been thinking about this tank for the past couple days. I am still planning to buy everything now but I think I will be holding off quite some time to set it up. I really want to be able to give as much free time as possible to my wife and kid. Not putting the brakes on it completely just will wait to see how things pan out.

 

[Forumsnow]

I forgot, I got a real nice piece of manzanita to use in there also.

I have all sorts of moss and subwasertang to put on the branches and such.

 

[Forumsnow]

So I went to petco today to look for some nacc, of course they didn't have it. I see they have the dollar per gallon sale and a whole bunch of 20 longs. I say to my wife that its so hard for me not to buy it right now. Hint one.

I get home and find the double sponge filter I ordered off of amazon arrived. I put it in my 12 gallon tank and my wife gives me a weird look. She says it looks very ugly in there and I say it's only temporary. Hint two.

She's on to might at this point so I admit to wanting another tank. I tell her it will not to be till the spring or early summer. She was completely cool with it. That is why I love my wife and the mother of my child. I really hope other guys are half as lucky.

So now that I got the green light from mommy I have the next 4-6 months to plan this thing out. Beyond stoked about it! Hoping people will leave any hints or tricks they have to keeping higher grade CBS. With the new ro/di unit on the way, any tips along those lines would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note: I got a little more than I paid for on the sponge filter. I won't come out and say it because I know this is a family forum. Here is a pic though, hint look at number seven hahahahaha

Hope you can read it and I hope I do not offend anyone. Can remove if it is a problem.