Advice for new shrimp tank

[jas328sport]

I have been given a biorb life60 that I want to use as a shrimp tank. I will be doing away with the stock filter set up so that I can use sand on the floor and I will be fitting a fluval u2 internal filter.
I am considering leaving the original airstone in place as I have an adjustable pump so that I can hopefully have a gentle stream of bubbles coming up through the sand unless you think that would be bad for the shrimp.
What else do I need, what is the best thing to keep on the floor for them to get under and climb over, was thinking about a piece of bogwood, does this all sound ok.

 

[BOGaming_]

Congrats on starting a shrimp tank, have you considered doing a planted tank? these are extremely common among any shrimp tanks. Are you looking to breed them?

 

[jas328sport]

Yes I will be adding a few plants as I think tanks look a bit bare without them.
Hadn't really given any thought to breeding, I won't be doing it intentionally but if they do breed then so be it.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Nice, I like shrimp tank set ups, can be really nice with lots of simple low tech plants.

Glad to hear you're not going to use the stock equipment with that bio tank. So thats a good start to your tank set up.

Will you be doing a fishless cycle on this or adding some established media to your fluval filter to do a boost to your cycle or if added enough bacterias, a pretty much instant cycle.

But shrimps add very little bioload really anyway so you could add snails for little variety if you like.

I'd suggest starting with Red Cherry Shrimps, these are amongst the hardiest and most forgiving when comes to water parameters as well as the cheapest to purchase as well. But you do need to keep a close eye on water parameters for say, the first 4 - 6 months, as all shrimps are more susceptical to changes in water conditions than most fish species.

Also fyi, shrimps tend to do best in established tanks so sometimes you may lose a few shrimps in the first few weeks / months until your tank and filter becomes more established. So don't be too disheartened if this happens, just replace the RCS if you need to. Suggest start with perhaps 6 - 8 RCS and see how things get on.

And btw shrimps are real good at hiding, so don't panic if you cannot see any shrimps as theyll likely be amonst the plants and decor doing their thing!

Lastly, RCS, once they are settled, chances are they will breed anyway as they are pretty profilic breeders, this is an intersting process in itself so it's well worth reading up and learning on that during some spare time.

Here is a decent little site about shrimps that I use at times, worth having a look through that and learning a little more.

Planet Inverts

Good luck

 

[jas328sport]

That's great advice thanks. What do you think about me leaving the airstone in for some bubbles up through the centre, is that likely stress them or are they unlikely to care.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Air stones that creates bubbles have little effect on most stockings, including shrimps in any tank.

In fact some fish species do like to play in the bubbles

Just so long it's not overly powerful so that the bubbles affect the flow and oxygen levels in the water column.

In most cases the bubbles are purely for decorative aspects and generally have no affects.

 

[jas328sport]

Brilliant thanks, as far as cycling goes, my mate has said that I can have some mature media out of his filter so that should speed things up, I could even have some water from his when he does his partial water change if that would help as he changes 50 litres at a time as he has a 180 litre tank, would that be beneficial or not do you think.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Old tank water has very little, if any, benefit at all. So best to just use fresh tap water, dechlorinated of course.

Some filter media would help enormously for your cycle. You won't need a lot for a little fluval filter so do replace however much media to your friends filter but don't take so much media as to affect his filter! Usually no more than a quarter to a third max of filter media is general rule of thumb.

Of course you should test with ammonia to ensure of the cycle's progress.

Think for a small tank for just shrimps and perhaps snails, 1ppm or 2ppm max of ammonia for testing will be more than adequate to ensure the tank and filter will cope with bioload.