How Do I Get My New Tank Water Right

[swimbladder]

hello,
 
im quite new to fish keeping but im already addicted, within 8 months i have gained a 200 liter tank which holds my tetras, guppy's and neon's, my latest tank is a 200 liter corner tank with mawalis (ive yet to identify as they came with the tank, although iv identified one as a demasoni).
 
but iv now got my heart set on a species specific shrimp tank, i did have a few shrimp in my first tank when i first started out but sadly they crossed over the rainbow bridge, but what i was wanting to know is when i get my new tank, (im thinking of a small tank about 1 and a half foot length) how do i get the water right ? do i have to add bacteria and how long should i wait before getting my shrimps ? im not too sure what type yet, any advice
 
thank you

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello and 

 
Seems you already have a little experience with fish keeping with two different 200L tanks already!
 
Pics of your stocking will help if you want us to help you identify what you have in your Malawi Tank.
 
Now you want to set up a Shrimp only tank, nice! 

 
Once you have bought a tank you'd like to set up for shrimps, you will need to do a fishless cycle first.
But would have thought you would have cycled your two 200L tanks?
 
If not, then a read of this will help a bit what the process is about and why this is needed to be done before adding any stocking.
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/
 
Seeding the new tank filter with some mature filter media from one of your 200L tanks will help enormously and speed things up a lot.
You will need to transfer about a third (max) of mature media from one of your filters (remembering to replace what you take with new media), sponge and ceramic media as well as some gravel from your mature tank will all help.
 
Shrimps like cover, so a few plants like Java Moss, Java Fern, moss balls, stem plants like Elodea will all help your tank as well as being easy low tech plants. A couple of small pieces of bogwood with small openings like caves will help provide hiding places which shrimps like to do.
 
Once tank is cycled you then can add some stocking, the thing is, for a shrimp tank, they will need an established tank really. 
 
Option 1 you can maybe start with a few Red Cherry Shrimps, see how it goes for a week or two then can add a few more of these are the hardiest and cheapest shrimps available and would recommend these as I keep these myself and are relatively easy to care for.
 
Or option 2 is to get a few small fish and perhaps some snails to help get the tank established a bit, for a month or two before adding any shrimps.
 
This is what I did when I set up my GF's Aqua Nano 30 shrimp tank, I added 8 endlers and some Malaysian Trumpet Snails, and then a month later I added a few Orange Cherry Shrimps ( a variant of Red Cherry Shrimps), all doing really fine, did lose a couple of shrimps at the start but that sometimes happens when moving shrimps and acclimatising to a new tank. 
 
That will get you started thinking about what you want and what you need to do. 
 
Am sure a few others on this forum will have other options and comments so I may be corrected on some things but for now, do a bit of research and do ask a few questions if you get stuck or unsure about anything. 

 

[Baccus]

Cherry shrimp certainly are the easiest of shrimp to start out with, being the most forgiving with regards to water parameters. I would personally start out with the most common red type rather than jumping in with some of the other varients of cherry shrimp. Since the line breeding done to stabilise the colour morphs also reduces some of the shrimps hardiness.
When you do purchase any shrimp try to find out from the supplier the exact pH and gH that the shrimp have been kept in, this will make acclimatising them a bit easier also these factors affect the intensity and depth of colour in the shrimp. So you could buy some excellent coloured shrimp, but if your water is very different to the producers water then yours can end up changing colour and showing less vibrancy.
Also I wouldn't mix all of the available colour morphs together because long term the offspring start reverting back to wild type colouration, which is not generally desirable.
 
As for cycling the tank, you could speed up the process if you use some filter media from your already established tanks. Keep in mind that shrimp have a small bioload ,unless they are in large numbers.
 
After keeping cherry shrimp with various fish and having varying degrees of success and failure I would advise against having any fish with the shrimp until a sustainable shrimp population has been reached. That way if there is any predation from the fish there is still a good chance that a good number of offspring will survive to keep the population ticking over. If you do add fish I would go for fish with the smallest mouths possible, and avoid even small sparkling or croaking gouramis because I have seen them happily dismember even a full grown cherry shrimp.
 
Plants with shrimp is a must, they will pick over the plants and find things to eat that you had no idea was there. Shrimp are eating machines but don't be tempted to over feed them. Instead stick to one feeding a day and then let them rummage through the plant life on their own for other tidbits.

 

[swimbladder]

thank you so much for the advice, when i got my first 200 ltr tank it came with fancy goldfish they went to my step daughter so i had that water for that one, when i got Malawi tank we took a bucket of his water that the fish had already been in plus we didnt clean the filter, we topped up with warm water, they all survived and are doing well, its just that shrimp seem a little different and so cute, i didnt no if i could use 'fish water' for them or not
 
absolutely brilliant advice, i never thought about using existing media and gravel ect but it makes so much sense, I really want to get this perfect for them, i was gutted when i lost my few shrimp when i first started out.
 
i dont know how to put pictures on but i will get my son to do it, my Malawi tank is stunning if i do say so myself, when we first got them they hid behind the coral but there out all the time now making little piles with the gravel
 
 
i learnt late in life but i love sea creatures they are