# Taiwan Bee Nano



## Iain Sutherland (15 Mar 2013)

Hey all, set this up a couple of days ago for some more Taiwan Bees.
Nothing too fancy and got a few things that need tweaking like the detail stones etc but the idea of this one was always function over form.

Tank- optiwhite 40x30x30
Filtration - eheim liberty
Lighting - 11w CFL with 9w par38 led for emersed and night lighting
Substrate - EbiGold
Heating - reptile matt at 21c
Hardscape - MapleLeaf Rock and Sumatra
Ferts - Tropica specialised
TDS - 135
Plants - Microsorum pteropus narrow and needle, hygrophilia pinnatafida, Hygrophila sp. ''Araguaia'', lilaeopsis NZ, cryptocoryne parva, fissidens fontanus, riccardia graefei.










Ficus colomba still going well if painfully slow!


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## thelats1981 (15 Mar 2013)

function over form! I'm sure enzo ferrari said the same!


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## Ady34 (15 Mar 2013)

Bee-e-a-utiful!
Great set up and amazing attention to detail 



thelats1981 said:


> function over form! I'm sure enzo ferrari said the same!


+1, it may work great for your bees, but wow it looks the part too.
Love that maple rock.

You not a little worried Iain that your bees will try to fly up your Ficus?  ......seriously though, ive had shrimp climb out my tank with too high a water level, your offering them a lemming ladder 


Cheerio mate,
Ady.


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## Iain Sutherland (15 Mar 2013)

Haha thanks guys, i say function over form as there would be things id change if it wasnt for shrimp such as having a sand bed (you know all about that Ady) different plants id be happy using with LC etc..
Im really pleased with the tank, both size and quality, thanks Ed i know you didnt really want to part with it    the 40 gives so many more options than the old 30.
Now ive spent more time looking at it i would change the left most front rock, its a bit flat and dominating but the substrate is stacked up behind it now... hmm its going to bother me now 

In regard to the ficus Ady, wasnt worried until now lol Never noticed it as problem last time but then my shrimp did vanish!


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## Alastair (16 Mar 2013)

That's stunning Iain really really nice mate


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## Ady34 (16 Mar 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> i would change the left most front rock, its a bit flat and dominating but the substrate is stacked up behind it now... hmm its going to bother me now


Nah, that rock adds extra depth, to me its the perfect size and with the texture it doesnt look too flat imo. The shape is great too, it works great with the lines of the hardscaping to the right, yet draws the eye back into the scape from the left due to its slightly triangular shape....the more i look at it, the more i like it 



Iain Sutherland said:


> In regard to the ficus Ady, wasnt worried until now lol Never noticed it as problem last time but then my shrimp did vanish!


sorry mate, im sure if they had climbed youd have found them....it looks really cool though  Paulo has loads of stuff growing out of his tanks without issue.

Cheerio,
Ady.


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## Ian Holdich (16 Mar 2013)

Looking lush mate! Very nice set up and well aquascaped. 

Ps I still have that ranunculus floating in my kitchen tank. Do you still need it?


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## Iain Sutherland (16 Mar 2013)

Here's hoping they don't start jumping Ady, I'm dying to have a shrimp tank thick with life like yours.

Thanks Ian, I'd really appreciate the ranunculus as another texture, will be interested to see what it does in here. Ill pm my address to you mate.
How is the kitchen bowl going?


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## Ian Holdich (16 Mar 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Here's hoping they don't start jumping Ady, I'm dying to have a shrimp tank thick with life like yours.
> 
> Thanks Ian, I'd really appreciate the ranunculus as another texture, will be interested to see what it does in here. Ill pm my address to you mate.
> How is the kitchen bowl going?



Will send it Monday, the bowl has yet again become a holding tank for cuttings. The sword is doing well though.


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## Iain Sutherland (16 Mar 2013)

great Ian, much appreciated. Good to hear its doing well even if just for cuttings.


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## Stu Worrall (16 Mar 2013)

why do I keep missing new threads!   This tanks a stunner Iain.  Loads of detail and those new rocks look really nice with the green contrasts.  Is that parva or lileopsis tucked in the gaps?


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## Iain Sutherland (16 Mar 2013)

Bit of both stu,  lilaeopsis NZ with 4 or 5 parva mixed in.  I found the lilaeopsis grows at only 1-2cm without the 'sword' shape to it when low tech, kind of grass like.  Also has some Hygrophila sp. ''Araguaia''in the gaps in low tech form but looks like it will race to the surface so may come out
Ill fill in the plants list before i go to work 
The rock is really attractive, would look great in your next 90.


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## bridgey_c (17 Mar 2013)

How are you finding the heating mat? does it have a temp probe that goes into the tank?

cool looking tank too, a hob filter and no heater makes these tank look slick!


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## Iain Sutherland (17 Mar 2013)

no temp probe fella, just set on a timer.  Takes a while to find a on/off pattern to keep a steady temp but works a treat, only down side is that come spring/summer it'll need tweaking again.
I may look into a probe that will turn it on and off for me but hobby funds are tied up in the big tank at the moment.


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## Iain Sutherland (2 Apr 2013)

quick looky from tonight, moss and pelia are settling in nicely.


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## martinmjr62 (2 Apr 2013)

Iain,that's a beautiful looking set up you have there.The colour of the rock really stands out against all of the greenery 

Cheers
Martin


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## Iain Sutherland (7 Apr 2013)

Had the pleasure to go and visit ed today which meant a candy shop experience at the showroom.   Very impresive selection of hardscape, equipment, plants, substrates, additives  and heaps more... that not to mention the ever impressive range of shrimp.  So i filled my pockets with substrate, rock and ferts for the NA and shrimp food for these dudes.


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## flygja (8 Apr 2013)

Very nice! Do you have "money plant" growing out of the HOB? I don't know what that plant is really called, in Malaysia its just money plant.


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## Iain Sutherland (8 Apr 2013)

Its a species of Philodendron in the filter, no idea which though. Unfortunately it may have to go as have a bit of staghorn around, as nice as it is it make filter maintenance very difficult as the roots grow through the sponges.

EDIT**
I have recently been reading that philodendron may have toxin issue in an aquarium??  I'm not sure how true this is and i removed it from this tank very early on but worth consideration....


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## Ady34 (8 Apr 2013)

looking good Iain, those shrimp are beauties!


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## Iain Sutherland (13 Apr 2013)

cheers ady, the bees are cool, they are a great way to have high grades at a lower cost.
Got a bit of staghorn algae appearing which has made me rethink the filter situation. The eheim is great and i cant praise it enough but i will have to remove the plants from the filter as it makes cleaning it out almost impossible as the roots grow through all the sponges. So the philodendron will come out and replaced with a new plant idea, its a bit of a daft idea but might be fun...
Glass is in need of some cleaning and i need to rethink the lighting, the 11w CFL i have is only 30cm long, tank is 40, so some plants suffering from a lack of light which means i have to keep repositioning it. I have a 40cm LED from a client at work which is super bright visually but is untested on plants which i need to find some time to mount in a ADA aquasky style ripoff i will build from acrylic.
Aside from that not much going on, shrimp seem happy enough, mould on the sumatra wood persists and amanos have no interest, TDS stable at 135, added an eheim jager 50w heater as the reptile matt couldnt keep it stable while it was cold so may look into a controller to turn it on and off for me but the Jager heater is awesome! Temp doesnt move more than 0.1c either way of 21.5, best internal heater ive owned. Lots of ghost shrimp around so now just waiting to see some berried.
I added some bolbitus difformis, mainly as i'm considering it for some detailing in the 4' tank, i really want to like it but it looks like flat leaf parsley and i cant shake that thought. I hope its current leaf form in emersed and it will change however i dont have that long to wait lol

Also had a fiddle with the camera settings following a bit of advise from Ed, let me know what you think..?


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## Ady34 (13 Apr 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> I added some bolbitus difformis, mainly as i'm considering it for some detailing in the 4' tank, i really want to like it but it looks like flat leaf parsley and i cant shake that thought. I hope its current leaf form in emersed and it will change however i dont have that long to wait lol


Does anyone actually grow this stuff submersed successfully, i got the impression it may have been non aquatic when i tried it....did nothing at all.....but like you say could be a very slow burner.

Tank looking nice mate, riccardia and fissidens seem to be taking nicely and the shrimp look great.
Cheerio,


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## Iain Sutherland (28 Apr 2013)

bit short on time for a full update ATM but all is going well aside some diatoms and BBA which i just discovered is because sunlight was hitting the tank at 6/7 am which is a time im not often conscious for, hopefully it shouldnt be an issue managing it and its fading already.
Anyway i did catch a pic that made me giggle so thought id share..


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## Piece-of-fish (28 Apr 2013)

That is a quality smile, the shrimp must be happy 
A bit oversaturated maybe. Try to turn saturation down just a bit.


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## Iain Sutherland (28 Apr 2013)

cheers ed, they seem to to happy enough, just hoping to see some berried soon.
yeah, i didnt have time to change any settings as they wont stand still... quick point and shoot but maybe should have edited it better.  Fortunately housemate just bought an imac and photoshop so im going to try and figure that out soon


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## Alastair (28 Apr 2013)

Great pic mate


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## Ian Holdich (28 Apr 2013)

What a great pic! That's going on the Facebook page!


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## Iain Sutherland (28 Apr 2013)

haha thanks ian. It does make me smile, i think it appeals to my inner child


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## Gill (28 Apr 2013)

Love that pic, Did not know your shrimp had a classification of grade SSSS. Just had to share the pic with the crustahunter himself and he liked it.


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## Iain Sutherland (20 May 2013)

Berried shrimp  Feels like its been a long wait to see some. I started dosing 0.5ml ferts a day so TDS has been rising through the week to around 145 and didnt water change this week as busy with the other tank and work, maybe these changes are what triggered it?  Oddly there has been an explosion of red ramshorns too.
Anyway seen 4 berried and most of the other females are curling and flapping but no visable eggs. Is this getting ready to carry or has she ditched a load already?


As you can see BBA is a feature for the time being, only on hardscape and not spreading, the shrimp like picking through it. Ill deal with it another day..


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## Ady34 (20 May 2013)

Great news Iain


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## Iain Sutherland (26 Jun 2013)

I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet in this tank  yesterday spotted my first shrimplets, about 1-2mm long.  Counted 9 which i hope means where are  from just the smiley face as the other 6 are still berried.  What is amazing is i noticed she had dropped the eggs on sunday night and now she is berried again!! Can only guess that she was getting jiggy while still berried the dirty slut 

Sadly havent seen any pandas or blue bolts  I can see the numbers in this tank are going to rise pretty rapidly over the next month or two.
I know its just one young tank so hard to really tell but the number of berried shrimp does seem to go up when i remember to use BT-9, might have to investigate this a little...

Will try and grab some images later...


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## Ady34 (26 Jun 2013)

Great news mate, they must be happy with several berried 
Any chance of an up to date photo?


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## Iain Sutherland (27 Jun 2013)

grubby tank shot.  All is well though, slowly working the bba out and shrimplets getting braver by the day. Counted 14 today. 

See how many you can spot 


and spotted this bad boy, you cant imagine the grin on my face lol


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## Alastair (27 Jun 2013)

im going cross eyed trying to see babies in there mate lol. can see 1 on the branch though


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## ~firefly~ (29 Jun 2013)

Great looking tank. I like the scape you've done.

I have the same light as that - be aware that that bracket is *really* weak. I'd be very nervous about having that light over an open topped tank. I've been through two cracked brackets in 9 months. My tank has a glass top and one day I just came home to find the light resting on top of the lid as the bracket had given way.  Like I said, it's happened twice now so I give up with those brackets.


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## Iain Sutherland (30 Jun 2013)

Thanks for the heads up firefly, this light is a couple of years old now which means one of two things... either its fine or its now weak and could break any minute.  Either way ill leave it in the hands of the aquarium gods


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## Iain Sutherland (30 Jun 2013)

Alastair said:


> im going cross eyed trying to see babies in there mate lol. can see 1 on the branch though


 
lol, think there is 8 in that pic however cant really see them in the reduced size pic.
Counted 26 this morning, seems that all the berried mums are dropping at the same time... maybe its the warm weather?!  Pretty hard to tell but think ive seen 2 pandas one of which is also blue and one that may turn out to be a red wine.  
When people talk about survival rates, is that the survival rate while berried as that number seems to reduce the longer mum carries for or is it after hatching to sub adulthood?  
Its quite suprising how quickly they grow too,  would guess about a mm a day.


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## Alastair (1 Jul 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> lol, think there is 8 in that pic however cant really see them in the reduced size pic.
> Counted 26 this morning, seems that all the berried mums are dropping at the same time... maybe its the warm weather?!  Pretty hard to tell but think ive seen 2 pandas one of which is also blue and one that may turn out to be a red wine.
> When people talk about survival rates, is that the survival rate while berried as that number seems to reduce the longer mum carries for or is it after hatching to sub adulthood?
> Its quite suprising how quickly they grow too,  would guess about a mm a day.



I was reading on another forum somewhere (cant remember which one) where a breeder simulates the water conditions of shrimps natural habitats ie down pours etc which cool the water and then he upped the temp to 25 and hed see the majority of his shrimp all buried. 
Im hoping I get lots of babies from my current crs and some cbs ive got arriving friday 

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## Iain Sutherland (6 Jul 2013)

Update time, all going well aside some crypt parva showng some deficientcies so tried up'ing the fert dosing a little but this was throwing the TDS out of wack, rose to 180 in a couple of days. Along with the high temps i didnt want to chance it so reduce back to 1ml a day with 10% wc every 3 days. Gave it a bit of a clean and added some elantine just to try low tech. Im a little nervous about upsetting the tank too much at the moment so still in need of a proper clean and finish dealing with the BBA.

feeding time by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Also spotted some nice shrimplets, they are tiny though 1-2mm so early days.
Shadow panda

shadow panda by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

And over the moon to see a king kong 

King Kong by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Now im going to have to consider another tank to separate higher grade, tank 4 here we come?


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## Iain Sutherland (6 Jul 2013)

Alastair said:


> I was reading on another forum somewhere (cant remember which one) where a breeder simulates the water conditions of shrimps natural habitats ie down pours etc which cool the water and then he upped the temp to 25 and hed see the majority of his shrimp all buried.
> Im hoping I get lots of babies from my current crs and some cbs ive got arriving friday
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2


 
Will be interesting to see what happens with this warm weather and fluctuating temps al, just hope it doesnt get too warm.  This tank does stay cooler than the big one though strangely, can only guess that the waterfall effect from the liberty helps cooling..

Just saw your CBS, they look like good quality mate im sure youll have hundreds soon enough.


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## Iain Sutherland (28 Jul 2013)

Temp holding steady at 25c, no obvious signs of issues. I was thinking that i may be loosing some as i hadn't seen the king kong for a while but while looking for it i found a different one 

318 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

will grab some tank images shortly.


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## Ady34 (5 Aug 2013)

Pleased its going well mate, some really nice offspring there.


Iain Sutherland said:


>


Saw this in PFK too, think they should give credits, but I remembered the photo


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## Iain Sutherland (18 Aug 2013)

Little vid update. Population is booming at the moment, BBA is slow retreat.


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## aliclarke86 (18 Aug 2013)

Looking awesome mate. And booming is then word. What number did you start out with?

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## Iain Sutherland (18 Aug 2013)

cheers ali, started with 14 i think.  No breeding for months then an influx to this number in the space of couple of months.


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## aliclarke86 (18 Aug 2013)

That's great to hear and can see some berried in the vid too so more on the way. 

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## Ady34 (19 Aug 2013)

Looking really well mate, shrimp are thriving and the tank looks great too.


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## Iain Sutherland (18 Oct 2013)

Again another well over due update.  This has been some what neglected of late, no water change for 2-3 weeks, bit of surface scum, TDS i darent check yet all seems well as far as the livestock go.  Plant wise not... not as great, needs a little love as the pelia is all detaching as not been trimmed and a few plants showing deficiencies. 
Population is still booming though even after moving some on.


IMG_3568 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Have spotted 3 of these recently though... blue bolts with black heads, no doubt have a name of some sort but for now ill just go with f'in cool 


IMG_3573 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


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## aliclarke86 (18 Oct 2013)

They look ace mate!

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## hydrophyte (18 Oct 2013)

Really nice! I like that first shot of the tank above.


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (18 Oct 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Again another well over due update.  This has been some what neglected of late, no water change for 2-3 weeks, bit of surface scum, TDS i darent check yet all seems well as far as the livestock go.  Plant wise not... not as great, needs a little love as the pelia is all detaching as not been trimmed and a few plants showing deficiencies.
> Population is still booming though even after moving some on.
> 
> 
> ...



Still looking nice mate! 
Think they are referred to as 'Blue Pandas' could be wrong though.


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## Iain Sutherland (18 Oct 2013)

aliclarke86 said:


> They look ace mate!
> Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk


cheers ali, im loving them. Its so cool trying to spot new pattern and colour variations.


hydrophyte said:


> Really nice! I like that first shot of the tank above.


even when dirty lol this super low tech malarky has really suprised me, so much so that i have hatched a plan for something else when i get time.



Nathaniel Whiteside said:


> Still looking nice mate! Think they are referred to as 'Blue Pandas' could be wrong though.


i dont know mate but i thought pandas were generally thick banded CBS like the image further above with a blue shadow?? Its time someone made a shrimp directory...im hoping there may be one in breeders and keepers at some point.
Is your shrimp tank still running?


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## RolyMo (18 Oct 2013)

Really cool looking tank Iain. Blown away. It looks awesome with all the shrimp hanging around. 

I too second the shrimp Dir. I am finding it frustrating trying to understand what strains and why, and thus what justifies the cost on the shrimp.

Can you import shrimp from other countries? (apart from the time taken to get them into the UK) Is it allowed to ship live shimp from say Japan?
R


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## Deano3 (18 Oct 2013)

Like said still looks great mate and very dense with plants just how I like it


Thanks Dean


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## steveno (18 Oct 2013)

Really nice looking tank, really hope mine is half as good when I start mine...


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## Iain Sutherland (2 Nov 2013)

Had a chance to get a movie of this tank, they go mad when the flow goes off!!


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## Timms2011 (3 Nov 2013)

Absolutely love it, those shrimp are incredible and so many of them!


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## MARKCOUSINS (3 Nov 2013)

Fantastic video,so Intresting a Taiwan bee tank,definately my dream somewhere down the road.Have you got any idea of PH,Gh and TDS in your tank?Cheers Mark


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## steveno (3 Nov 2013)

Really lovely video you've uploaded, so many shrimp and looking very health... What additive if any do you use to maintain your water parameters? And what is the plants you have carpeting? seem to filling out nicely...


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## Iain Sutherland (3 Nov 2013)

Timms2011 said:


> Absolutely love it, those shrimp are incredible and so many of them!


 
cheers timms, there are a few too many now, i have noticed the population is starting to level off so will be moving 50 or so on soon.



MARKCOUSINS said:


> Fantastic video,so Intresting a Taiwan bee tank,definately my dream somewhere down the road.Have you got any idea of PH,Gh and TDS in your tank?Cheers Mark


 
they are pretty cool mark, one of my favourite past times is staring at the tank to see what weird and wonderful morph's have appeared.
I remineralize with bee shrimp gh to tds of 100 for new water at WC to bring the tds back down to 150ish from ferts and food etc over the 7-14 days between wc. I have no idea what the other param's are but being as the substrate is ebigold which buffers shrimp tanks well and the reminerizing i would guess Ph6, gh around 6/7 ish... only measure TDS and temp. TDS is in the 200's at the moment which could also be the reason for slow breeding now, trying to bring it down with more regular WC as been busy of late.



steveno said:


> Really lovely video you've uploaded, so many shrimp and looking very health... What additive if any do you use to maintain your water parameters? And what is the plants you have carpeting? seem to filling out nicely...


 
As above mate, Bee Shrimp Gh+ to maintain params and just 1ml of tropica ferts every few days... could really do with more you can see issues in some of the plants.
Carpet plant is sold as Elantine Hydropiper by tropica in 12grow but this is wrong. It generally sold as MonteCarlo3, think it is being reclassified properly at the moment. Its the same plant as in my 60 as high tech yet there is no difference in appearance which is unusual. Its one of the few carpet plants ive had a success with in ultra low tech like this.


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## Bufo Bill (3 Nov 2013)

Hi, just found this journal as I have got very into low tech nano tanks, and I just think you have a tiny slice of paradise there! 
One thing I am unsure about, are you lighting this with the LED's you mentioned? I really struggled with my TMC tile on my little nano until I got hold of a controller. If the brand you use has some sort of control unit I would definitely invest when you get funds, as they are a super cool toy as well as making life easier algae wise.  Just explaining my thoughts, you are clearly a lot more talented than me however, so just my ideas mate. 
All the best from Bill.


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## Otto72 (15 Nov 2013)

My Dream in the future, Lovely Tank, Lovely Shrimps, Simply Awesome! Subscribed


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## Piece-of-fish (17 Nov 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Again another well over due update. This has been some what neglected of late, no water change for 2-3 weeks, bit of surface scum, TDS i darent check yet all seems well as far as the livestock go. Plant wise not... not as great, needs a little love as the pelia is all detaching as not been trimmed and a few plants showing deficiencies.
> Population is still booming though even after moving some on.
> 
> 
> ...


Shadow mosura. A litttle crawling fortune!


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## aliclarke86 (17 Nov 2013)

Dibs  

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## Iain Sutherland (17 Nov 2013)

Piece-of-fish said:


> Shadow mosura. A litttle crawling fortune!


thanks ed, got 4 of these now, can i retire?


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## Iain Sutherland (1 Dec 2013)

All really good with the bee tank, no issues at all and even some positives which ill come back to...
So i sent out 50 odd shrimp to Alastair but in my stupidity i bagged them all together, subsequently they were all DOA   Sad times.  I now know that 15-20 is the max to bag together without issue, really wish i had asked before hand!!
So back to those positives..since  removing those shrimp all the adults are berried again which i hadnt seen for ages and there is even a few new babies popping up already.  So i now have a rough idea of what the max stocking level is before breeding stops and will endever to keep it below that number.  Funnily enough the water is also crystal clear with no surface scum at all for the first time since starting this tank... not sure if the lower numbers are the cause but its good to see.
In the same vain i have ordered another NA 40cm to go next to this one, idea being that i can strip out the shadow pandas, king kongs,blue bolts and shadow mosuras (which there seems to be more of now) and start selectively breeding them with this tank being the cash cow to pay for my inclination to keep buying stuff for this hobby.
Given i have an extra tank in the shed that is also coming to work for my desk for the a few higher grade crs/cbs with blue tigers in the hope of creating some mad looking tiger bees... who knows.  I understand that they need to cross breed back again to get the genes to work so will leave them all in and just see what happens.

So opinions time... should the new 40 next to this one have the same scape to create either a single cental island/two island effect and swop the tanks around to change the scape as i please or should it contrast with just rocks, wood and leaves.... what do you think??
Going down to eds in a week or two so will be picking up the bits needed....

night all


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## Lindy (1 Dec 2013)

I fancy breeding some of the tibees, the white with black marks look lovely

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## Alastair (1 Dec 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> All really good with the bee tank, no issues at all and even some positives which ill come back to...
> So i sent out 50 odd shrimp to Alastair but in my stupidity i bagged them all together, subsequently they were all DOA   Sad times.  I now know that 15-20 is the max to bag together without issue, really wish i had asked before hand!!
> So back to those positives..since  removing those shrimp all the adults are berried again which i hadnt seen for ages and there is even a few new babies popping up already.  So i now have a rough idea of what the max stocking level is before breeding stops and will endever to keep it below that number.  Funnily enough the water is also crystal clear with no surface scum at all for the first time since starting this tank... not sure if the lower numbers are the cause but its good to see.
> In the same vain i have ordered another NA 40cm to go next to this one, idea being that i can strip out the shadow pandas, king kongs,blue bolts and shadow mosuras (which there seems to be more of now) and start selectively breeding them with this tank being the cash cow to pay for my inclination to keep buying stuff for this hobby.
> ...



I was heart broken when I saw them all at the bottom of the bag mate 

I think a similar looking scape will contrast perfectly with the current one. Might look odd with sonething totally different next to it..
But then again...........


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## Iain Sutherland (26 Jan 2014)

Not much to report as just ticking along.  Haven't had time to collect the other tank yet, hopefully saturday.

weak bolt but i kind of like the markings.

weak bolt by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


panda by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


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## aliclarke86 (26 Jan 2014)

I think it gorgeous. Looks like a jelly bean 

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## Jason King (26 Jan 2014)

Very nice tank iain and some wonderful photos  im loving the shrimp.

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## LondonDragon (27 Jan 2014)

Lovely shrimp Iain, you gotta let me know the secret, always struggled to keep CRS on London tap water!!


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## Iain Sutherland (27 Jan 2014)

Cheers Paulo, I'm quietly chuffed with it at the moment.
No secret, RO and neglect  touch wood they seem pretty robust... At least now the tank is mature. 


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## darren636 (27 Jan 2014)

Christ man!

How many tanks have you got?


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## Iain Sutherland (27 Jan 2014)

Just 3, back up to 4 next week. That's the max or I start resenting them.


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## KrishP (27 Jan 2014)

Did you start off with with mixed tiawan bee f1 and then get the king kongs and blue bolts from that?


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## Iain Sutherland (28 Jan 2014)

Don't know if they were f1 but started with 12 mixed bees then the rest followed.


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## MARKCOUSINS (4 Feb 2014)

Iain,could I ask you how long you had the tank cycling before you put in your first Taiwan bees?And do you do change your water every week and how much roughly?Cheers Mark.


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## Iain Sutherland (4 Feb 2014)

Think it was about 3 weeks before I could get down to collect the shrimp. It depends on the substrate though as with ebi gold you can add livestock straight off.

I'm supposed to do it every week but it's been nearly 3 weeks now, it's my job this morning... As long as the tds doesn't go too high I'm not really worried.... Think it's about 215 at the mo, I water change about 1/3rd with water remineralised to 100 which will bring it down to 180 ish.


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## cookie3985 (4 Feb 2014)

Hi Iain, the variations of colours in the shrimp is great. Can I ask how many did you start with and what grade were they? Don't think this has been asked already


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## MARKCOUSINS (4 Feb 2014)

Thanks Iain I have a nano set up with Shirakura red bee sand(should be fairly similar to yours being an active substrate)for almost 3 weeks levels are good but I am going to wait a while longer.My god it's hard to be so patient!Just trying to make sure I can give the micro organisms a chance to build up in the substrate and mature the filter slowly.Once a week W/C is the plan and like you say try and keep the TDS within certain levels.One thing strikes me when looking at your splendid thriving tank that I don't see any leaves(guava,cattapa.....).Why is this?Please correct me if I'm wrong!Cheers Mark.


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## MARKCOUSINS (4 Feb 2014)

cookie3985 said:


> Hi Iain, the variations of colours in the shrimp is great. Can I ask how many did you start with and what grade were they? Don't think this has been asked already





Iain Sutherland said:


> Don't know if they were f1 but started with 12 mixed bees then the rest followed.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cookie3985 (4 Feb 2014)

Thanks Mark must have missed that one


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## MARKCOUSINS (4 Feb 2014)

cookie3985 said:


> Thanks Mark must have missed that one


No probs  I don't know how many times I have missed info.Too many to count for sure,glad I could help!


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## Iain Sutherland (4 Feb 2014)

There is oak and cattapa leaves in there mark, I just stuff them down behind the plants otherwise they block the light to the carpet.



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## Iain Sutherland (4 Feb 2014)

So tank 2 is up and running, will give it a few weeks to settle and let the inevitable mould on wood set in so I can clean it before introducing any pandas. Etc
However the shrimp seem to have taken a liking to it as 2 have made a leap of faith into it already, which is weird as they have never jumped before! 

Plants are pretty much the same...
Microsorum narrow and needle
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Monte Carlo
Bit of dwarf hair grass
Fissidens fontanus
And as a temp home two awesome small leaved bucephalandra and one larger.

iPhone pic, wood being held down.






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## MARKCOUSINS (4 Feb 2014)

Very nice Iain!You must have so many shrimp in there they are going for the great escape Weird though you say they have never jumped before and you put a tank beside and they go for it!They must prefer the other tank or are not happy that you are behind with your water changes Cheers Mark.


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## Iain Sutherland (4 Feb 2014)

Very odd, I'm surprised they are happy as the water is pure RO and unheated...

Just to say the sloping substrate isn't a design feature. Learnt in the last one not to bank the substrate as over a year, even with rocks and substrate supports, a few hundred shrimp will relentlessly try to level it!   So I just matched it up and they can move it around at an equal pace. 


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## tim (20 Feb 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> So tank 2 is up and running, will give it a few weeks to settle and let the inevitable mould on wood set in so I can clean it before introducing any pandas. Etc
> However the shrimp seem to have taken a liking to it as 2 have made a leap of faith into it already, which is weird as they have never jumped before!
> 
> Plants are pretty much the same...
> ...


Twins  they look good together Iain, hope the new one is ticking along nicely.


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## Iain Sutherland (20 Feb 2014)

hey tim, all is ticking along fine at the moment.  Had a massive diatoms outbreak after the first week but 5 amanos made short work of it.  I will do some up to date pictures over the weekend now it is all settled and showing some growth.


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## Iain Sutherland (21 Feb 2014)

Morning all, as said above the second tank is doing well and i shall get some images sorted out tonight for them both but for now just a quick image of some spring sunshine.  This seems to hit the tank for about 4 months of the year during the end of winter and spring.  It doesnt do any harm to the tank, no algae etc but does make the monte carlo pearl like mad.


IMG_4206 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Otherwise not a lot of changes for this one, WC is now bi-weekly, i have increased feeding  after seeing this video...
http://shrimpkeeping.com/feeding-baby-shrimp/ 
the link doesnt seem to be working at the moment though?	It scares me everytime i do it as it seems like a lot of food but been trying if for 2 weeks now with no adverse effects... ive also been reading about not feeding foods that cause shrimp to gather in numbers as infants can be damaged or killed during this process, so my powder mix is now bio plus, gravidas, bt9, organic spirulina and crushed white pellet.

I need to get some shrimp moved out in the next week or so as the population is reaching critical mass, true taiwan bees will go into the new tank and then ill sell 20-40 on soon.  Also looking a little thin in respect to the microsorum as i stole a load for the other tank but should recover in the next 12 months lol

The new tank is all ok, large diatom outbreak was handled admirably by the amanos that will be moved to another home soon.  I still have 3 bees that have jumped from the other one that are healthy if maybe a little lethargic...my thinking is that there is too much food at the moment with whats left of the diatoms and plenty of mould from the wood.  Water changing this one once a week now, same param's as the other one, around ph 6, kh 0 gh 5, tds 160-180, dosing one squirt tropica specialised per day in both.

Monte carlo took its usual beating moving into the low tech, can see roots against the glass and new dark green leaves now though so will cut it back as far as i dare next waterchange.  Dwarf hairgrass seems to be struggling, may be the transition to low tech so will cut that right back also and see what pops up after.
Lil. Brasiliensis is doing great in both tanks, seems more than happy low tech where as Lil. novae-zealandia just died when i tried it.

Fissidens is mad as always, just seems to spread around the tank without assistance.   Not that im complaining, its awesome! but is in need of a trim which i hate as im pretty sure i kill some tiny babies everytime its trimmed. Its their favourate hangout and ive spotted the mothers dropping their eggs directly into the fissiden balls.

Thats enough rambling for now, more images to follow tonight hopefully.... sadly dont have use of a macro lens anymore so no close ups until i get a chance to buy the canon 100mm.


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## Arne (21 Feb 2014)

ah I was curious about what you were feeding them, good to know 
I've started looking into getting a "start package" of F1s and I found someone not to far from here  now I need to wait for my new tank to mature, transfer everything from my nano cube (20L) and then set the cube up for some shrimps!
There's just something about the whole "random offspring" that's just wondrous and exciting that it makes it worth it getting into the genetics of it


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## GlenFish (21 Feb 2014)

Lovely tanks! Really nice to see scaped planted bee tanks....Do the hang on filters make any noise?


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## Iain Sutherland (21 Feb 2014)

twins by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


IMG_4214 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


IMG_4210 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


IMG_4211 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr


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## MARKCOUSINS (21 Feb 2014)

Great Iain,new tank is getting nicer and nicer.Look great the two tanks together


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## Iain Sutherland (21 Feb 2014)

just noticed how out of place the extra piece of manzi is!!  Will be taking that out next WC.


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## cookie3985 (21 Feb 2014)

Hi Iain where did you pick up your nano's from I can't seem to find them online? Got to convince the other half that I need another tank


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## Iain Sutherland (22 Feb 2014)

both were from ed at freshwatershrimp, sadly NA arent making them anymore....
could be worth a pm but dont hold your breath...


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## Ady34 (22 Feb 2014)

Both tanks look great mate and compliment each other perfectly.
I'm sure that piece of wood would darken overtime but it does stand out a little now so can see why you'd want to remove it.....maybe store it in some water until it darkens and add it back in if you feel the tank needs it.
Cheerio
Ady


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## Iain Sutherland (22 Feb 2014)

Hey Ady, thanks fella I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of the true bee breeding... Not looking like many, any, female true bees though so may have to buy a few.
Think ill just remove it, once the ferns grow in then theyll get lost anyway...

how's your marine coming along? 





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## Iain Sutherland (24 Feb 2014)

A working link to the video i was trying to post...


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## aliclarke86 (24 Feb 2014)

I watched this when I last had babies and thought it seemed like tonnes of food but I crushed some pellets and mixed them with some biozyme and chucked it in. It all seemed to be eaten within a day 

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## Iain Sutherland (28 Feb 2014)

oh dear, 4 dead shrimp in two days. First ever deaths in this tank which cant be good news.

any advise welcome.


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## MARKCOUSINS (28 Feb 2014)

Bad news mate sorry.Is your new second tank being used yet?


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## MARKCOUSINS (28 Feb 2014)

Obvious could be lots of things,but just looking at your recent posts do you think it something to do with food going down un the substrate and spoiling causing a problem to water quality?Maybe if you change water give the substrate a good clean with a gravel cleaner especially where you drop pellets or wafers.
I saw a video from a German top shrimp retailer(Garnelen Tom) showing the state of the substrate over a period of time due to waste and uneaten bits the shrimp could not get.He went right down to the bottom glass with the gravel cleaner,also releasing gas that came out in bubbles.Just a thought.
Up filtration if you can and aeriation can definately be beneficial.
Fingers crossed for you,!
Cheers Mark


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## MARKCOUSINS (1 Mar 2014)

How are things going?Have you managed to transfer any shrimp over to the new tank?


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## Iain Sutherland (1 Mar 2014)

Hey mark, I had been thinking the new feeding could be part of the problem so knocked it on the head.
Gave it a large WC this morning with matching tds and temp, no new deaths so figures crossed.

Haven't moved any yet as need to get an intake guard, will pop some sponge round it for now and get some moved when I'm home again.



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## MARKCOUSINS (1 Mar 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Hey mark, I had been thinking the new feeding could be part of the problem so knocked it on the head.
> Gave it a large WC this morning with matching tds and temp, no new deaths so figures crossed.
> 
> Haven't moved any yet as need to get an intake guard, will pop some sponge round it for now and get some moved when I'm home again.
> ...


There is a good chance it is the new feeding levels you used.As before you had no problems.Very glad to hear that there are no new losses Let us know any progress on shrimp transfer to new tank.Cheers Mark.


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## cookie3985 (3 Mar 2014)

Hi Iain, I was wondering how you perform maintanence on the substrate ithout hoovering up the little shrimplets. I have sand in my nano that is in desprate need of a vac but everytime I look there are tons of babbies on it so I don't want to hoover them all up.


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## bogwood (3 Mar 2014)

I stir all the exposed  ada substrate in my shrimp tanks every few days, and the shrimps love it.
They come from all corners of the tank to pick from it. i assume as well as debris, and waste and decaying leaves, its the boi film that attracts them to it

From my point of view, any surplus gets darwn into the external filters, and it keeps the substrate fresh, and reasonably clean.
Whatever, it works well for me, and I've  had no shrimp deaths in over a  couple of years.

Great thread to follow, particularly having just acquired a group of Taiwan bees.


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## Arne (3 Mar 2014)

bogwood said:


> I stir all the exposed  ada substrate in my shrimp tanks every few days, and the shrimps love it.
> They come from all corners of the tank to pick from it. i assume as well as debris, and waste and decaying leaves, its the boi film that attracts them to it



That's a good trick. So you're using ADA (amazonia)? I have some left from the 60P I just set up and was wondering if I should use it for a small 20L cube or order Red Bee sand...
Once the 60P is fully up and running in a week or 2 I'll clean out the cube and set it up for a small Taiwan Bee group 
This thread has been great info indeed!


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## bogwood (3 Mar 2014)

Arne said:


> That's a good trick. So you're using ADA (amazonia)? I have some left from the 60P I just set up and was wondering if I should use it for a small 20L cube or order Red Bee sand...
> Once the 60P is fully up and running in a week or 2 I'll clean out the cube and set it up for a small Taiwan Bee group
> This thread has been great info indeed!


When i started planted tanks , ada came highly recommended.
So i went with it and never changed, and my Four Tanks of plants and shrimps thrive. I appreciate there are several other highly recommended substrates out there.


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## Arne (3 Mar 2014)

I've read a few threads/posts where the ADA substrate turned to liquid mud after 3-4 years of intense shrimp "handling". It appears they just pluck it apart and then the water turns to mud 
I'm guessing special shrimp substrates are harder and don't deteriorate like this.


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## MARKCOUSINS (3 Mar 2014)

You would be lucky if a substrate lasts 3/4 years!Most shrimp substrates will stop buffering the water after 1 year or 18 months max.Cheers Mark


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## aliclarke86 (4 Mar 2014)

More than anything they will stop buffering the water and your parameters will go all wonky after about a year, so may still look OK but you will end up with alkaline hard water ....

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## StevenA (5 Mar 2014)

Hi Iain, we met a few months ago at the MA in Coton where Tai works. Just read the whole thread, love these setups and the shrimp are stunning. How often do you feed them, and also how often do you deep clean the substrate? I've only ever kept Red Cherries myself, but am thinking about progressing more with different species of shrimp. This journal has been very helpful.


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## bogwood (18 Mar 2014)

Hi Ian.
Been following your thread with great interest, and some expense .

My Taiwan bees have been with me for a couple of months now and all going well.
I have about 10,  spread between blue bolts. king kong, and 2 f1.
In your experience would you sugest, anything else.

Having done CRS for some years now, looking fowards to whats produced, anything like yours, and will be well pleased.
Cheers


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## Iain Sutherland (20 Mar 2014)

Hey Steve, sorry for the tardy response... Been a bit busy of late.
I'm back to my old feeding regime now as I had a few death after feeding them like in the video.  My theory is that maybe the MC carpet stops the shrimps from getting to the food so a lot is decaying??? 
So now I feed maybe 4 times a week with one scoop either gravidas, organic spirulina or bio plus along with bt9 a couple of times a week. 
I also supliment this with once a week with white pellet and once a week something like dried pumpkin or nettle pellets.
I'd only feed this often as there are so many now, the new one has maybe 15 in and I feed that at best once a week but for my enjoyment to see them together, no more until it gets closer to 50.

Never cleaned the substrate, it gets mixed review wether is beneficial or not, most breeders in breeders and keepers magazine say they don't clean but do replace annually. 

If you want to pop round anytime for a chat or if you want some  taiwans to try out just flick me a pm.


Hey bogwood, nothing to suggest really mate aside bits I've mentioned recently. Once the tank is past 3 months it was fairly plain sailing... Try to keep a steady maintenance routine, check tds and ensure good surface movement then just sit back and enjoy.



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## Lindy (20 Mar 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> maybe the MC carpet stops the shrimps from getting to the food so a lot is decaying???


I had to take out my Lilaeopsis mauritiana carpet as the shrimp really struggled to get though it to food.


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## Iain Sutherland (25 Apr 2014)

Kinda lost motivation at the moment for planted tanks, life has other priorities at the moment so the tanks just tick along.  Haven't touched these for 4 weeks aside top ups... Mature one does fine where as the newer one is stag horn fest.  I'll fix it eventually.






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## Andy D (25 Apr 2014)

Still looks good to me!


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## Iain Sutherland (20 Jun 2014)

Still all running well, started populating the second one again last week after the first lot of pandas disappeared.  I fear the filter ate them as the intake had no guard on.... Stupid.
Iphone pics











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## Vinkenoog1977 (20 Jun 2014)

Very lush, love them both!  Shame about the Pandas though.


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## Alastair (21 Jun 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Still all running well, started populating the second one again last week after the first lot of pandas disappeared.  I fear the filter ate them as the intake had no guard on.... Stupid.
> Iphone pics
> 
> 
> ...



Ouch. Vicious intakes on those liberties too mate. 
Tanks look great. Almost like one scape split in two 

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## Alje (21 Jun 2014)

Like both tanks and tempting me to get shrimpy
Really like the King Kong and shadow panda


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## Iain Sutherland (22 Jun 2014)

Vinkenoog1977 said:


> Very lush, love them both!  Shame about the Pandas though.


cheers vink, pandas were my own fault so and only beat myself up.



Alastair said:


> Ouch. Vicious intakes on those liberties too mate.
> Tanks look great. Almost like one scape split in two


hey al, that they are, shrimp guard on and up to 30 odd in there now.  They've made all the difference after all the algae, detritus and neglect issues.
That was the plan but considering changing the mature one as its best part of a year old no doubt the substrate will stop buffering soon..... quite fancy trying salawesi's.....



Alje said:


> Like both tanks and tempting me to get shrimpy
> Really like the King Kong and shadow panda


So did i, sadly the king kong was one of the ones eaten by the eheim monster.


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## Edvet (23 Jun 2014)

Couldn't find it reading back, which lights do you have above them atm, and wich filters?


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## Iain Sutherland (23 Jun 2014)

running an 11w cfl clip on with the younger tank and the same light but 18w on the mature one.
Both filters are the eheim liberties, one mid sized and one of the largest... good flow from both.


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## Edvet (23 Jun 2014)

Thx


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## Iain Sutherland (29 Aug 2014)

Pulled out about 40 of these little buggers tonight and still more to go!!


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## Andy Thurston (30 Aug 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Pulled out about 40 of these little buggers tonight and still more to go!!


Are they on your hand? Their tiny


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## Iain Sutherland (30 Aug 2014)

lols, no, kitchen counter, they are small and stupid so easy to catch.  Bigger ones are a nightmare to catch!


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## Alexander Belchenko (30 Aug 2014)

Dragonfly larva?

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## jose_j (30 Aug 2014)

Hi Ian, 

looking at the leaf-like gills on abdominal segments I would say that your bugs are Ephemeroptera larvae (Mayflies). They usually feed on algae and detritus, only few species are predatory. But let's wait for other members comments.

Cheers,

Jose


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## dw1305 (30 Aug 2014)

Hi all, 
They are definitely Mayfly (_Ephemeroptera_) larvae, I can even tell which species, they are the "Pond Olive"  - _Cloeon dipteron. _The adult mayflies are attracted to light, so you often get the eggs in tanks. 
Fish love them, but they are very fast swimmers (these are Baetidae "swimming mayfly").

cheers Darrel


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## Iain Sutherland (30 Aug 2014)

Do you know if they are a threat to shrimp fry Darrel? 

I've now fished out 60+, with the tanks being next to the back door and it being open a lot I guess it's no suprise..

Been keeping them in a jar though so the Paros should enjoy them


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## mr. luke (31 Aug 2014)

I would deffinately recomend sulawesi shrimps. Very different in behaviour to anything else i have kept.
The thing i loved about them when i had them was the challenge of them. Far more difficult than bee shrimp in my opinion although they will reward you eventually


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## Iain Sutherland (31 Aug 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> They are definitely Mayfly (_Ephemeroptera_) larvae, I can even tell which species, they are the "Pond Olive"  - _Cloeon dipteron. _The adult mayflies are attracted to light, so you often get the eggs in tanks.
> Fish love them, but they are very fast swimmers (these are Baetidae "swimming mayfly").
> cheers Darrel


licorice and pencils went mad for them.  Your right though they are super quick swimmers, think it was frustrating the paros since they are used to daphnia.  Think they may still be chasing them next week 

Tempted by the sulawesi Luke, only concern is my tank tend to  have to take a bit of neglect from time to time which i dont think they will appreciate...
might just add some tigers and see if any ti-bees appear.


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## dw1305 (31 Aug 2014)

Hi all, 





Iain Sutherland said:


> Do you know if they are a threat to shrimp fry Darrel?


 No they are detritus feeders. They are different from nearly all other mayfly larvae in that they don't need very high quality water to live in, so you get them in urban areas in water butts etc. 





Iain Sutherland said:


> licorice and pencils went mad for them.  Your right though they are super quick swimmers, think it was frustrating the paros since they are used to daphnia.


 A slow fish and "fast food" is always quite entertaining. I often mind the adult mayflies in the kitchen (where the home tanks are), so plenty must evade capture.

cheers Darrel


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## Iain Sutherland (14 Feb 2015)

little video update folks... right hand tank is over populated now and the shrimp are eating all the plants.  Breaking it now in the very near future...
Enjoy in HD


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## Nick_V (14 Feb 2015)

very, very nice tanks and shrimps!!


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## parotet (14 Feb 2015)

Wow... Awesome! This Fissidens is really incredible. Congratulations, an excellent example of what can be done without using co2.

Jordi


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## rodoselada (14 Feb 2015)

very nice!


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## StevenA (16 Feb 2015)

Absolutely stunning Iain, you must be very very pleased?


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## Maurice (16 Feb 2015)

Hi Ian,

Stunning little breeding setups!
do you use any form of co2 in the tanks?


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## flygja (17 Feb 2015)

Great little low-techs!


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## Iain Sutherland (18 Feb 2015)

Hey all, thanks for positive comments 
I'm have been pretty pleased with these tanks up to now, they have been abused and neglected and just keep of thriving! Unfortunately the right hand one looks taty now as the shrimp are eating all the microsorum new growth so it hadn't re established since the big trim months ago... So it's time for it to go.
The left hand one also suffers a bit from BBA, I'm pretty sure it's because this tank always has surface film. It has the bigger filter but it seems to sit lower in the water and visually has less flow. Once I break down the right hand one I'll swop the filters to see what happens.

They are still both no tech... No co2, little ferts, low light etc... Just lots of added patience!

Thinking coral pellia and OEBT in the new one  


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## Graham Bell (8 Apr 2016)

Bump


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## Iain Sutherland (9 Apr 2016)

Haha, can't believe it's been a year since an update! One of the tanks is still running, will get some pics over the coming days...

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## Iain Sutherland (19 Oct 2016)

Long over due update....

So this tank has now been running for 32 months!! Same substrate, plants and shrimp.  Currently only had 2 water changes in the last 9 months since moving house and yet the shrimp still breed although not prolifically.  No ferts, Tds 190ish.








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## parotet (19 Oct 2016)

Love it! What about a FTS of the large tank that can be seen in the first pic? It looks great also!

Jordi


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## imak (19 Oct 2016)

Wow,  wow,  wow,  beautiful tank.    Love the plant in the filter.


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## Iain Sutherland (20 Oct 2016)

parotet said:


> Love it! What about a FTS of the large tank that can be seen in the first pic? It looks great also!
> 
> Jordi


will be doing an update on the paludarium sometime real soon.....  might even knock out a video


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## buttons (8 Feb 2017)

Lovely shrimp and tanks, is there any updates on the shrimp? Have you decided to move on to breeding taitibees? 


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## Iain Sutherland (4 Aug 2018)

So it's time for this one to go...

It's amazing that it was set up 4 and a half years ago and in the last 12 months it hasn't had a water change ( I think it might of only had two changes in the last 3 years when I moved) just rainwater top ups.  
The Eheim liberty hob filter has never been cleaned, it wouldn't fill a tea cup in an hour now the flow is so low, being clogged up with ficus doesn't help.
Even more amazingly is that the Tds is 322 and the shrimp are still breeding.
Now this isn't to say you should keep tai bees like this as I'm of no doubt the mortality rate of juvilines is high, likely due to low gh.  
Also anyone that tells you to change your shrimp soil each year is likely the one selling the stuff...
So here is a picture from tonight and one of the fresh tank all this one will be moved into in the coming weeks, as soon as I finish the tile grouting!

Cheerio





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## alto (4 Aug 2018)

New tank looks awesome 

What substrate did you use this time 

If you see photos/video from commercial breeders (in Asia) no “special” soils in view, mostly bare tanks, some various assorted substrates, maybe some (special?) leaves & whatnot ... all very basic looking but for the masses of stunning shrimp 

Great to see you back


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## rebel (5 Aug 2018)

New tanks is looking awesome!

You must have a hard time cleaning that kitchen splashback that seems have multiple areas of grout and surface area for the oils to collect!


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## Iain Sutherland (5 Aug 2018)

alto said:


> New tank looks awesome
> 
> What substrate did you use this time



Hi, I'm not entirely sure, was from my old iwagumi which I think was a mix of tropica soil and amazonia powder.

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## Iain Sutherland (5 Aug 2018)

rebel said:


> New tanks is looking awesome!
> 
> You must have a hard time cleaning that kitchen splashback that seems have multiple areas of grout and surface area for the oils to collect!


Thanks

Haha, I'm having an even harder time grouting the edges!  I'm sure cleaning it will be fine 

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## CooKieS (5 Aug 2018)

Lovely...4 years..that's nature aquarium.

Low tech is the way to go to do that...never maintained my high tech planted tank more than one year, after that it always became an overgrown mess...


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## Iain Sutherland (5 Aug 2018)

CooKieS said:


> Lovely...4 years..that's nature aquarium.
> 
> Low tech is the way to go to do that...never maintained my high tech planted tank more than one year, after that it always became an overgrown mess...


Haha it is an overgrown mess!!  
The pelia has taken over, I pull out a fist full every month and it just keeps coming back! 


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## Iain Sutherland (24 Aug 2018)

New tank and journal here...

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=53779&share_fid=58521&share_type=t

Which brings this 5 year journal to an end.

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