# New Shrimps, New Tank!



## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

*Jaysan's Shrimp Journal*

Hey Everyone,
I'm kinda new here but just recently got into the hobby of keeping shrimp.

I first got some Red Cherry's to see if I can successfully keep them alive, lol

Now I've recently acquired some Red Rili Shrimp and some Red Crystal Shrimp 

New Tank setup was purchased a few days ago. The filter was already cycled so I added some cycled water and some fresh water to ease the break in.

After a few hours running, here were my parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20
pH:6.8

After 1 day, here were my parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 40-80 
pH:6.6

I was not sure what attributed to the Nitrate spike so I cleaned the substrate (ADA) and did a 10% WC.

After a few hrs, here were my parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20
pH:6.6

Since Nitrate was down some, I added a few more plants and some duckweed to hopefully take up the rest of the Nitrates to bring it down to 0-5.

For now, I've acclimated the Rili shrimp into the new tank and they seem to be having a great time. Constantly swimming around. hard to snap a few photos.

Since the Rili shrimp seem to be okay in the new tank, a CRS is currently getting dripped and tested in the new tank before the rest goes in 

Lemme know what you guys think!

Here are a few pictures:


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Is that the new ADA or old version? ... it'll leech for a lot longer than a couple days.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

I believe it was ADA1.
It was already previously used for 3 months I think so I think it is done leeching, lol
And if it leeches, wouldnt it leech ammonia?


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

Ahhh yes! how you like the tank buddy?


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

brapbrapboom said:


> Ahhh yes! how you like the tank buddy?


Tank is running SOOO QUIET!
love it!
I believe my Rili shrimps are in love with this tank, haha.
The previous tank I had them in, I think the current was too strong, they never swam around. 
They've settled down a bit since I put them in a few hours ago, but they sometimes still swim around. 
I changed a few things around from how you had it. I'll take some better pictures of it once the cloudy water settles down a bit more


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

One of my rili shrimps just molted in the new tank.
Is that a good thing?


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Jaysan said:


> I believe it was ADA1.
> It was already previously used for 3 months I think so I think it is done leeching, lol
> And if it leeches, wouldnt it leech ammonia?


Oh, yes it should be far past leaching then.

Sometimes the ammonia will be quickly converted into nitrate so you don't actually detect much ammonia.

Nice cherries btw, wish mine would do better...


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Jaysan said:


> One of my rili shrimps just molted in the new tank.
> Is that a good thing?


Did it survived? If it did, then it's good. Most shrimp molt when they enter a different water environment. The new shell will help it to addapt propertly to the new water. It's like changing cloths ... well, with the exception that you might die from it if you don't do it properly. It should be ok, but if it's doing it every week, then it won't live long.

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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

They look pretty good.
They survived the molt 
I checked them this morning and they all look healthy.
I also did a water test this morning to see if the Nitrates went down.

Yesterday, Nitrate was at approx 20ppm.
This morning, it was down to 10ppm.
This is all approx. as the test kit colour for Nitrate is soo close -_-

I'll check tonight again when I get home to see how their doing. 
They seem pretty happy in the new environment as they started eating this morning when I dropped a small piece of algae wafer.


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

Jaysan said:


> They look pretty good.
> They survived the molt
> I checked them this morning and they all look healthy.
> I also did a water test this morning to see if the Nitrates went down.
> ...


Good to hear that! I wish you success in them bro!


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Thanks man!
I've been acclimating the CRS into the new tank for almost, 18hrs now.
I just let the drip keep going. I hope when I get home, the nitrates will be down to 0-5. 
Than I'll drop the rest of the CRS in.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Just did another water test.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrate: looks like 10ppm
pH: 6.4

I've been dripping the new CRS for approx 20-22 hrs now? lol
Going to start adding them in


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Jaysan said:


> Just did another water test.
> Ammonia: 0
> Nitrate: 0
> Nitrate: looks like 10ppm
> ...


22 hours. Thats insane. Plop and drop. lol.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

lol
I left it dripping and went to sleep, than I went to work so I left it. 
All the shrimps are in now. 
They seem to be enjoying the new tank.
I'll give them a day to get accustomed to the new tank and feed tomorrow.


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## ThaChingster (Feb 25, 2011)

try the bomb acclimation method -
do a WC with RO water, and then just pop the shrimp in 
(make sure temp is equalized of course)
it makes sense if you think about it, they're going from stale water with high NO3- that they've been packed in, to freshly changed water.


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

watch out for those lava rocks!


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

lava rocks? 
What do lava rocks do in the tank? lol


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

I just did another water test today.
Here are the test results:
Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm
Nitrate: 0
Nitrate: 20-40ppm
pH: 6.4
kH:1 drop made my water turn yellow = 17.9ppm
gH:7 drops made my water turn green = 125.3ppm

I'm not yet sure how to read the API gH and kH test kit so if anyone knows what the results are, please let me know.
Also, what could be causing my Ammonia to be a bit high like that?
What is causing my Nitrate to be steady around 20-40ppm? 
I've attached a picture of my current tank setup.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Each drop is one degree, so you have 1 kH, 7 gH which is good for a shrimp tank.

Your tank is planted well, so I can't say it's a lack of plants lol. My guess is there's some source of ammonia quickly being converted into nitrate, as your tank is cycled. The source of ammonia could be something decaying or dead in the tank, or your substrate is still leaching. Was it you who used it for 3 months before or did you buy it used?


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Hey splur,
Thanks for letting me know the 1kh and 7gh is good for shrimps!
I get a bit worried. 

Most of those plants wont be staying in the tank, their only in there temporarly to use up the Nitrates.

Someone mentioned that the Ammonia spike to 0.25 could be the result of adding 25ish CRS into the tank so the bioload has increased. 
I'll check my ammonia levels in a week to see how it is.

All the CRS have got their white back after the 2 days they were in a bucket.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Are you using tap water at all? I mean, it'd never explain the 20-40 ppm of nitrate. I'm surprised your plants aren't getting rid of the nitrate, but I don't know how many of those plants actually take nutrients from the water column.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Actually, 
All I'm using is conditioned tap water.
I'll have to test out what gH and kH my tapwater gives me, but I'll do that tomorrow since I need the tap water to age a day first


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Have you test your tap water for ammonia? Could be the source of your nitrate problem.
Also, keep in mind that it's possible that locked ammonia; that aren't detected in your test kits, will be converted by the bacteria. This will lead to a spike in nitrite and nitrate. So the more water change you do, the more locked ammonia you are adding into the tank. Hence resulting in a constantly hight nitrate. You may need to slow down on your water changes.

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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

I've tested tap water for ammonia and it has 0-0.25ppm.
I will hold off on the water changes for now. 
Should I top off the water or just leave everything the way it is for now and test the water out next week?


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Jaysan said:


> I've tested tap water for ammonia and it has 0-0.25ppm.
> I will hold off on the water changes for now.
> Should I top off the water or just leave everything the way it is for now and test the water out next week?


Yeah, we have chloramines in our tap water in Toronto, which if you treat it with conditioner will release ammonia. I've tested tap water before and 0.25-0.5 ppm is what I got as well.

But that doesn't really account for 20 ppm of nitrate, I mean the nitrogen doesn't just magically pop out of nowhere.


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

Jaysan said:


> lava rocks?
> What do lava rocks do in the tank? lol


From what I know they can possibly raise ph of water xD


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

brapbrapboom said:


> From what I know they can possibly raise ph of water xD


haha really?
Hrmm, that will make the soil work harder to buffer the ph.
Maybe I'll put them in my other tank.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

I find the best thing for testing ammonia is the Seachem total ammonia kit. It will give you a total ammonia and a free ammonia amount, so you can tell what is bound, and none-toxic ammonium and what is toxic ammonia.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Jaysan said:


> I've tested tap water for ammonia and it has 0-0.25ppm.
> I will hold off on the water changes for now.
> Should I top off the water or just leave everything the way it is for now and test the water out next week?


Top up is perfectly fine. Unless you dectect that big spike in nitritre or nitrate. Scale back your water changes to once per week to allow the plants to absort the nitrate.



getochkn said:


> I find the best thing for testing ammonia is the Seachem total ammonia kit. It will give you a total ammonia and a free ammonia amount, so you can tell what is bound, and none-toxic ammonium and what is toxic ammonia.


Yup, most of the other ammonia test kits does not detect ammonia that bonded with chlorine (AKA chloramine). So you have no way of knowing how much ammonia is in the tap water. If fact, all of the product don't even test for the presence of ammonium; after you dechlorinate your water. But the bacteria could care less about which form it is. It will process them and convert them to nitrite and later nitrate.

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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Top up is perfectly fine. Unless you dectect that big spike in nitritre or nitrate. Scale back your water changes to once per week to allow the plants to absort the nitrate.
> 
> Yup, most of the other ammonia test kits does not detect ammonia that bonded with chlorine (AKA chloramine). So you have no way of knowing how much ammonia is in the tap water. If fact, all of the product don't even test for the presence of ammonium; after you dechlorinate your water. But the bacteria could care less about which form it is. It will process them and convert them to nitrite and later nitrate.


Yup. The seachem test saved my butt though. I was setting up a new 20gal I got at the last auction with netlea soil and letting it leech its ammonia and my other tank crashed large and I had crystal deaths so I had to move them. Normal test kits showed I had 4ppm of ammonia, but the seachem showed it was 4ppm ammonium and 0ppm ammonia so I added them and they all made it through. Whether it was the purigen in the filter converting the ammonia, the low pH converting the ammonia or the netlea just releasing a bound form already, I'm not sure but it did help regardless in letting me know the tank should be safe.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

If you put some duckweed plants in the tank ( they can become a problem so its a personal choice) they suck up nitrate/nitrite very well and are great for shrimps to hide in, especially babies.

I have both duckweed and frogbit in my shrimp tanks at all times and even in my Angel fish tanks and don't have too many ammonia problems.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

I guess I will use this thread to post updates.

From the liast time, I've added 2-3 male Rili Shrimp as I noticed all my Rili's were female -_-
I've added Shrimp ceramic tubes with pellia moss attached with fabric string.

Shrimps went straight for the tubes once it was introduced into their environment! 
I got lil explorers! haha

I've been moving some plants around trying not to disturb them too much...1 plant at a time 

Oh, and a berried Rili!!!
My first one!
unfortunately, since I took the picture, I think it was the first time the female was berried and it lost most of the eggs 

Hoping to see a few berried CRS soon....if I have any females...lol


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Update:
I was gone to Taiwan for two weeks so I had my mom take care of the shrimp tank while I was gone.

Came back and my amazonia frogbits took over the tank -_-.
I took most of the extras out and placed them into a holding tank and some I fed to my kois, lol.

I fed them when I came back and to my surprise...berried CRS!! 
So happy!


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## jesse (Aug 11, 2011)

Where did you get your CRS?


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

jesse said:


> Where did you get your CRS?


Hey Jesse,
I don't remember who I got it off of, but it was a member off the forum.
They were clearing out their CRS tank so I believe I grabbed their whole lot 

It seems more CRS has been doing the 'love dance'...
Yesterday's feeding time I saw 4+ berried CRS


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

*Update: March 25th, 2012*

Thought I would post a little update on how my little 7G tank is coming along.

I picked up a few CBS and added them to the group!
They have since settled down and have started exploring the tank.
The first stay they got in, they went straight for the corners and driftwood and stayed there for a couple hours...
Thought that was strange, but once it came time for feeding, they slowly crept up to the front 

I've attached some pictures.
Sorry the pictures are unclear. There's biofilm all over the glass and since I have baby CRS in there now, I don't wanna scrap them off, lol
If you look closely at the drawf hair grass, you can see the tiny CRS on it


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

*Update: May 1st, 2012*

I took out majority of the drawf hair grass and put them into the 9.5 Starfire tank. 
This tank will go through another rescape once I'm done my focus on my other tanks.
For now, I took some pictures of the inhabitants 




























Upclose. It looks like its going to be a V band S grade. =)


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