Zikofski's Ada 60H (45) Iwagumi Tank Journal

[Mamashack]

Yes Mosura Graze is another type of snowflake food and it's amazing to watch it explode into flakes! It CAN stay in the tank and not pollute it altho in my experience it doesn't hang around long at all - couple of days at most.
Just a word of caution, Zik - you are paying good money for good quality and good colour shrimp, but their blood lines may be lost if you are keeping neos in together as they will breed with each other and they may revert to wild type which is not very colourful at all or you may get other colour variations, but the lovely colour you've been after won't be preserved. You may already be aware of that, just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't know.

 

[Zikofski]

i was awear of that and its been playing on my mind all week i kinda regret getting the other lighter blue shrimp now and tbh they won't be available for a few weeks so i may ask to cancel those and get 10 fantasy's instead and i was thinking unmoving the red cherry to my veggie filter, which i got up and running tonight just now, few hick ups and a partly wet floor but its all good and all working now

 

[Zikofski]

okay so here is the veggie filter along with the crypts I'm selling in the classifieds section, i have one problem at the moment the overflow i made is not up to scratch and cannot withdraw enough water so i am going to make another overflow next week and have two running, as at the moment the pump is at a trickle and i guess won't be doing much in terms of reducing nitrate. i am also thinking on running my co2 24/7 and i am thinking on moving the co2 into the veggie filter i am thinking on trailing this out once i can get my pump running at full speed and not at a trickle, this may reduce the mist in the main tank and keeping the mist in the veggie filter and not in the main tank, as when the co2 does come on there is a fine mist in the tank which does reduce the viability some what in the tank,
 
my other question is, what should i do when my nitrate reduces to 0, good, but won't that incur more algae problems? should i at least aim for some nitrate? and phosphate? obviously i am dosing nitrate, but if i do get 0 should i dose more? to compensate the fact i have instead of 8hr of light i now have 20hr of light as i run the main tank for 8hr and the veggie filter for 12hr may reduce this to 8 as well tho but then if my ferts are low, is there a reason for me not to run my lights 24/7 12hr split? plants will grow around the clock and out grow algae no?

 

[Dandyman3]

Where is it? Am I missing something

 

[Zikofski]

ah forgot the important part the pics haha sorry lol
 

 

 

 

 

[Mamashack]

Looks good! Is this what is referred to as a refugium?

 

[Zikofski]

i have never herd of that term but TTA told informed of this its a filter, and can replace a normal filter apparently, but i won't be doing that tho, the idea is during the main tank, lights are on so the plants will draw in nutrients, when the lights are off this is not the case and nutrients start to build up from other sources (fish poop), now with the veggie filter because the its on a reverse cycle the lights are on the filter during the night so instead of those nutrients building up they will continue to fall (hopefully) i need to fill with more and more fast growing plants more stems and maybe some of that plant weed that i have forgotten the name of.
 
but i have been doing some research today about breeding shrimp, in particular Red Cherry and Neocaridina Davidi (Blue Fantasy) i have found a few places state, that a higher temp of 26 to 27c is ideal for breeding RCS. now if i remember rightly these are all from the same family or breed of shrimp just a different variety. i really want to concentrate on breeding my fish now. i have changed my order from shambrook so i have now ordered 10 Fantasy blue and non of the other, i shall move the Cherrys into the veggie filter when i receive the new shrimp. and i also read, Chery shrimp are better algae cleaners than Amano's is this the same with Blue fantasy.
 
so i wonder is it safe to up my temp to 26/27c and will the shrimp live happily in that and breed? at the moment the temp is around 24c what you reckon mama?

 

[Mamashack]

They are said to breed quicker at the higher temps but it also leaves them more prone to bacterial infection.
I run my tanks between 22-24 C. Have had berried ones at those temps altho as 1st timers they unfortunately lost the eggs but I'm hopeful that they will saddle up and get berried again. 
 
[Transferred the white pearls from the QT to the 19L so that mean the 12L is free and am just about to set it up for maybe some orange sakura ones from Shrimpbay which is only about 30 miles from here so I can collect. No P&P and no shrimp trauma hopefully. Just waiting for them to replenish their stocks.]

 

[Zikofski]

sorry for the late reply mama, i sadly have lost another cherry, i am not down to 2 cherry and 3 fantasy blue, altho i am questioning one of the blue fantasy as its a clear dark brown colour where as the others are dark blue, and i noticed today the blue is more noticeable at certain angles i did take a video and il get that up later, i am still waiting on more fantasy's to arive the 10 i ordered still not posted i may contact the shop today to see where they are at, but algae is getting less and less, and the veggie filter is fully up and running, altho i am having a problem with plants melting and a lot of plant matter decaying and floating around in the filter so that needs a bit of loving care at the moment, the cuba is still growing nicely, i did trim the pice that was starting to float in the centre and moved it to the right hand side more,
 
i am still indecisive on wether to get a larger filter for more power, but seeming everything is doing well i may not. i shall get a picture later today to show how the tank is looking loving how it looks and how the cuba is turning out, i have also found another plant that i may add to the front of the two back rocks small plant called Pogostemon helferi but another plant means more maintenance and i am not 100% sure about adding anything else to the tank, i seriously don't want to ruin the look esp if i don't like the plant and then need to pull it up again destroying everything, well i bought some for my other tank and i shall see how it looks in there. 

 

[Zikofski]

here is that picture of the tank at the moment
 

 

[Mamashack]

Sorry for your loss. They aren't as easy to keep as some would say, are they?
I wonder if it's the change in season as I'm told they appear to be more susceptible to infections when the seasons change - I've lost 2 in total on 2 different days this week so I'm down to 8 now altho my berried female that I thought had lost all her eggs must have managed to hang on to at least one as I've seen a baby shrimp this week! 

 

[Zikofski]

ooh well thats a bit positive, and bacterial infection should be 0 in my tank as i have the UV steriliser, which kills all water born bacteria and viruses.
 
i am still convinced its from the high nitrite i had few weeks back, but time will tell, as my fantasy's seem to be doing really well and the red cherries not so, can't remember if i had the nitrite spike pre or post fantasy blues, but yea can't wait to get my new fantasy's maybe next week now 

 

[Mamashack]

Getting some new ones next week, but I'll not hog your thread I'll update mine, tho not tonight as I'm knacked and ready for bed! lol

 

[Zikofski]

Awesome and again congrats I bought 10 more cheery shrimp today and cleaned out my veggie filter omg there was more dead plant matter on the floor than plant in the filter was unbelievable, luckily its bare bottom. I wondering is bare bottom tanks okay for shrimp?

But so far all is going well and il get a filter pic soon

 

[Mamashack]

Yes bare-bottom tanks are ok altho they can look a bit messy but it's easier to spot what needs to be removed in terms of uneaten food and waste. Sometimes it's easy to remove the biofilm which just seems to drift about the bottom along with the food et. so care is needed not to remove that.