# New shrimp 60l cube, a few questions...



## Vyncenze (21 Nov 2011)

Hello folks

Looking for a bit of advice on my new setup.

I've just bought a 60l cube tank on eBay. It's filtered by a Dennerle nano external, and lit by a BiOrb LED light unit. My plan is to turn it into a shrimp tank holding 2-3 colourful species.

The substrate is inert dark sand, and the decor is a large stack of lava rock. I will be adding live plants once I;ve worked out what can live in the conditions provided, but this is shrimps first, plants second. I won't be adding CO2.

Where I live the water is very hard and alkaline (hence my main tank houses Tang cichlids...) In the past I have kept and bred cherry shrimp successfully in this water but I realise it's not well suited to the more "delicate" species like CRS and Tigers. I don't have space for my own RO unit but we have a Maidenhead Aquatics 2 minutes drive from here who will sell me RO. So, this is the plan:

RO water plus (remineraliser/tap water) to achieve a pH of about 6.6-6.8, kH 3-4, gH 4-5. 

Given this, I have a couple of questions -

1) I was initially thinking blue pearl shrimp (first) and then adding CRS later. Alternatively, I could do red or yellow cherry shrimp (first) and then add blue tigers later. Are tigers significantly easier to keep than CRS? Would they be a safer bet. Any problems with either of these combos?

2) Can I add "green" c. babaulti to this setup, or do they need harder water than I'm aiming for?

3) What sort of water change regime would you suggest? I do 30% weekly with my tangs with well matched prepared water. Should I aim for similar with the shrimps, or is stable water/smaller changes the way to go?

Any advice appreciated as always!

Pic of tank as it currently stands:


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## Vyncenze (21 Nov 2011)

Sort of answering my own question here, but leaning towards the second combo I suggested. Yellow cherries first up, then blue tigers as the "harder" species. It seems to me that blue tigers are somewhere between cherries and CRS in terms of difficulty, is that fair? That being the case I'd aim for a pH close to neutral, and I should be able to add babaulti eventually as well, leaving me with three species that can breed and won't hybridise. Sound reasonable?


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## Radik (21 Nov 2011)

My suggestion is do not mix species if you have no experience with shrimps. Get just one species for one tank. If you want to mix then you need 2nd tank (quarantine) and to acclimatize each group to bacteria they carry slowly. Otherwise you are running in to risk of bacterial war on your shrimps.


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## Vyncenze (22 Nov 2011)

Hi Radik

Thanks for your reply. I've been reading a little about the problems with bacteria in different groups. I do have a spare 20l in which I guess I could quarantine the second group - the idea would be to slowly mix the water between the two tanks over say a 2-week period, right?

I do want to go for two species really, as I said I've done cherries before so I'm fairly confident I could do yellows or blue pearls, but I'd like to try something a bit harder with either the tigers or CRS. Are blue tigers easier out of those two, would you say?


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## Radik (22 Nov 2011)

Yes over 2 weeks 2% water between tanks.

Generally more over-bred shrimp the more difficult it is.Tigers are more prone to bacterial diseases specially those  blue and higher grade blue or black, low grade CRS B-A or normal tiger is safer.


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## Emyr (23 Nov 2011)

I have never heard of the bacterial problems with keeping more than one species of shrimp together and the quarantine procedure. Im looking to set up a 30L Nano with blue tigers and CRS together. I have seen that people have cherry's and crs together along with black bee's but didn't realise they would have gone through a whole procedure before putting them together. Can you link me a good website explaining the problems with the bacteria? Seems like I need to read about this.


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## Dincho (23 Nov 2011)

Try this: http://www.crustahunter.com/en/node/894


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## hotweldfire (23 Nov 2011)

This is really useful Dincho, thank you


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## Vyncenze (23 Nov 2011)

Interesting reading.

Right, change of plan, I'm going to have a go at CRS in this tank, and leave it at that. Wish me luck...


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## jimmy james (23 Nov 2011)

> This is really useful Dincho, thank you



Ditto.


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## spyder (23 Nov 2011)

Very interesting, especially this part for me.



> the large abdominal muscle becomes opaque-whiteish, the reason for which is damage to the gills - this discoloration is a sign for oxygen deficiency (might also be due to other reasons)



I'm getting this in my cherries but only the males are affected. Losing 1 every wekk or so.


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## Vyncenze (5 Dec 2011)

I decided to upgrade the lighting, and have gone for the new TMC mini 400 LED tile. It's pretty powerful, but gives a beautiful shimmer to the tank. Added a few more plants (anubias and java fern) and I should be receiving some new mosses tomorrow in the post.

Plan now is for this to be a CRS tank only. I've managed to get the water to pH 6.4, kH 0, gH 4 which should be ideal - now I just need to keep it there! It's an inert substrate, so I've used benibachi fluvic grain to get the water parameters above. Very impressed with that. Now I'm planning to stick to small water changes using RO water and black control, in an effort to keep the water nice and stable.


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## Dincho (5 Dec 2011)

I am loving the tank! I always keep mine pretty bare and minimal, you've inspired me 

Where did you get the light from? it looks sexy!


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## Vyncenze (5 Dec 2011)

I got the light and mounting bracket from Aquaessentials in the end, might be able to find a better price but I had some loyalty points to spend.

The lava rock was all thrown in when I bought the tank, so it seemed a shame not to use it. It's great for mosses.


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## Radik (5 Dec 2011)

Light looks too bright. Be careful or you get algae on slow growers. Either lower time period or dim it by 50%.


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## Dincho (5 Dec 2011)

if its the 400 model it should be fine, its only 6500k, perfect for a nano tank.


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## si-man (5 Dec 2011)

Still needs dimming. Got mine at 40%


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## Vyncenze (5 Dec 2011)

I'm running it for 6 hours at the moment. I'm not sure about dimming, but even if it does need it it will have to wait - can't afford the controller at the moment!


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## Dincho (5 Dec 2011)

All my shrimp tanks run 10,000k lighting on an 8 hour timer. I get VERY little algae problems, i maybe scrape the sides about once a month.


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## Vyncenze (7 Feb 2012)

Just a wee update.

The lighting doesn't need dimming, so it turns out - it seems just about right for keeping my low-light plants going without too much algae growth.

I've had a rescape with wood, wasn't happy with the lava rock look. The tank contains 15 CRS and CBS at grades A-SS, and 6 zebra otos. Water is pH 6.4, kH 0-1, gh 4. Here's a few pics:


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## basil (8 Feb 2012)

Looks lush - thanks for posting up!   

My main shrimp tank is similar jungle format with lots of rotala, a huge pelia mound and different mosses and ferns.

I spend alot of time face upto the glass looking at it. Not the most organised of tanks, but it's mature and really interesting. Most importantly the shrimp just love it and breed away very happily.

Cheers,

Mike.


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## Radik (8 Feb 2012)

Looks good, proper luxury shrimp tank with my favorite zebra otos


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