Preparing to add OEBT or CRS/CBS: The checklistening.

1936 Views 21 Replies 6 Participants Last post by wicca27, Aug 12, 2012

thechibi

Discussion Starter · Aug 9, 2012

Okay, I wanna be sure I'm ready for these. I made sure I can keep neos alive for at least six months. My orange shrimps are alive, happy and spoiled rotten. But I know other shrimps need more than that, so here's my plan:

1) Buy a second filter. Got my eyes on some canisters. Where are good places to buy spraybars to help diffuse flow? I am terrible at DYI.

2) Feeder dish. Do I put food in then sink it? I have trouble with the food floating out.

3) Bringing the temp down. It looks like low to mid 70s are best. I gave my scrimps a clip on fan and all seems well.

4) Humic does seem to be gently dropping the pH! Hooray humic!

I hope these aren't dumb questions, I just wanted to make sure my tank is clean and happy.

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dubels

· #2 · Aug 9, 2012

Since you are advancing to shrimp with more specific water parameters it is best that you post up what the tank currently has. Also what the tank is currently setup with? A little more details regarding what you currently have now would help out a great deal.

The feeder dish can be sank with food or you can just leave it in your tank and drop food on to it. If you have problem with blanched veggies try blanching them for longer. If you have trouble with shrimp taking the food out of the feeder dish like I do, I don't know what you can do. Any thing your figure out will help me too.

Temperatures would be best set a a certain range and kept there with the more sensitive shrimps. Huge swings in temp can be stressful. I went a little overboard and set up a temperature controller that controls my heater and fan to keep the tank at 71 degrees for my OEBT. Having the fan come on only when needed not only keeps the temp swings down but also cuts down on unnecessary evaporation. Top off to account for the evaporation with RO or DI water.

OEBTs like higher PH. CRS and CBS like lower PH. If you are deciding between the two and are stuck choose the one that requires the least modification to your water conditions. If you have a tank with 7.0-7.4 PH go for the OEBT. Tank with PH around 6.6 go for the CRS. PH is not the only deciding factor, TDS, KH, and GH all play an important role. I only addressed PH because you said you are lowering PH.

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acitydweller

· #3 · Aug 9, 2012

Agreed, keeping shrimp that closer match your parameters will likely have a higher rate of success not to mention less work for you and happier shrimp....

sunyang730

· #4 · Aug 9, 2012

I would like to know where did you get your temp controller. Lol sorry to hijack your post.

dubels

· #5 · Aug 9, 2012

I built my temperature controller from a STC-1000 (found on evilbay) following instructions found on youtube and a brewing site. Really easy to make and I have my fan and heater set to it so everything works in sync. During the summer I Have only seen the heater come on twice. You can do the temp controller without the heater but its nice because its a safety to prevent a heater from cooking the tank, especially in smaller tanks.

Here is a picture of it:

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sunyang730

· #6 · Aug 9, 2012

Wow! that is nice! Can you share the link to the youtube and brewing site?

dubels

· #7 · Aug 10, 2012

PM Sent to sunyang730. It can be smaller but I opted for the bigger RadioShack Project Box so I can have room to wire things. Besides the temp controller itself everything can be bought at homedepot and radioshack.

OP post up your tank setup when you have a chance.

acitydweller

· #8 · Aug 10, 2012

That is wicked cool!

thechibi

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 10, 2012

That's pretty cool! I'm actually trying to find my gh/kh testing kit.

It seems to have gotten away from me. I'm gonna make a trek to the petstore and borrow the TDS meter from a friend, too. My pH is about 7.4 at the moment (I'm sloooooowly lowering it from 7.8, so I've been adding teeny bits of humic periodically). For what it's worth, I use San Marcos, TX tap water. I may start cutting it with RO water.

dubels

· #10 · Aug 10, 2012

If you want to raise OEBT you are getting into the range they like. If you want CRS you have a long way to go. For some reason I have a feeling that your water is going to have a very high TDS number. But don't let that discourage you because people have raised tigers in water with high TDS. You want your GH around 6-7.

pejerrey

· #11 · Aug 10, 2012

Hey Chibi!
Go for OEBTs, that way you won't be forcing anything thus more stable.

You can try adding a few bees to that alkaline water, if they don't breed at least you can keep them. I believe CRS and CBS are hardier than we think.

I keep CRS/CBS and OEBTs in 5.6ph, bees are breeding and OEBTs are happy but not breeding. So that would be the reversed situation.

wicca27

· #12 · Aug 10, 2012

i keep my tiger shrimp (oebt and reds) in a ph of 7-7.5 and my crs and cbs 6-6.5. the thing with oebt and crs/cbs is they will cross breed so unless that is your goal i would keep them apart and the only thing i run on my tanks is small spong filters

thechibi

Discussion Starter · #13 · Aug 10, 2012

Would the bees and OEBT breed? I suspect I may be better off just trying the OEBTs so even if pH fluctuates .1 or 2, it won't be lethal. Would super tigers do similarly well?

pejerrey

· #14 · Aug 10, 2012

They can, but is not easy for them to want to do it in the wrong ph. Mine are in a too acidic environment to try with the bees. I was expecting this to happen but it didn't so the only Tibee I have is my avatar.

I guess bees won't want to breed in an alkaline ph? I don't know tho.

thechibi

Discussion Starter · #15 · Aug 10, 2012

Well. As dearly as I want some CRS or CBS, I think I may look at super tigers or OEBTs then. And I may need to buy some new test kits, since my Gh/Kh have gone AWOL. Screwing with the pH too much seems like a bad idea.

pejerrey

· #16 · Aug 10, 2012

thechibi said:
Well. As dearly as I want some CRS or CBS, I think I may look at super tigers or OEBTs then. And I may need to buy some new test kits, since my Gh/Kh have gone AWOL. Screwing with the pH too much seems like a bad idea.

I still "believe" you can keep them together without interbreeding if the ph is too acid or too alkaline (in your case) for one of the breeds.

So if you set up for tigers (ph 7+), they will breed but bees won't in theory. I'm in the reversed case because my ph is 5.6

My OEBTs still all there but not breeding.

Just theory tho, based on my experience.

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wicca27

· #17 · Aug 11, 2012

there are several tiger types out there. super tigers are nice, oebt, black orange eyes, black eye black tiger, royal blue, and red. i keep the red and oebt not in the same tank though

acitydweller

· #18 · Aug 11, 2012

Tigers all the way... I wish I had the tank space and time for them.

if your shrimp aren't breeding, they are probably stressed and likely not doing as well as they potentially could be. It sort of comes down to the happiness of the owner outweighing of that of the shrimp. Be a responsible shrimper chibi, and you and these tigers will be very happy together.

thechibi

Discussion Starter · #19 · Aug 11, 2012

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. As much as I pine for some CRS and CBS... I should set something up just for them. I couldn't keep them knowing they were unhappy.

Tigers are kinda keen too. I like how the red, OEBT and the um, black ones look. Super tigers are cool. Oooh, choices.

pejerrey

· #20 · Aug 12, 2012

Sooo, what about all the people that keep amanos in conditions that are not ok for them to breed?

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