# End of shrimp tank life



## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Just wondering how often do you restart you tanks during its natural life cycle? I'm referring a tank that got restarted because of age rather then it getting infected with bugs/bacteria or one that nuked from chemicals or other accidents.


















One of the CRS tank is approaching 30 months but should have been restarted a few months ago. I realize this depends on a lot of factors so I'll try to give as much details as I can from my log.

10g 
2x13watts compact florescent.
ebay double sponge filter.

1" substrate (50/50 mix of FFS and ADA 1)
a lot of peilia moss 
jungle vals

80/20 RO/tap water
*10% water change every 3 months and only top off in between.
*

No issues with hydra or other bugs
0/0/5 readings 7.6ph(soil is lost all buffering almost a year ago)
150-180 tds
7gh/2kh

I'm restarting as the survival rate is much lower than before. This always increases the rates.

CRS breeding and babies surviving to adulthood. At the peak there should have been about 300ish CRS of all ages.

Please share you experiences on time frame and how you restart


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

I just started a new tank for my CRS after 2 years.


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## RCode (Dec 12, 2010)

I'm starting my original two tanks after about 20 months. Mistakes were made and I've learned enough to redo them now. 

I think the two biggest factors are what's comprised to make your TDS, what it is (I dont think there is a reasonable way to see what's in the water, as in there is a lot of organic waste built up in the tank). Which causes higher ph and more fluctuation which when topping off. I don't think this gives the bacteria you need a chance to grow properly, or too much of it in the warm months.

My tanks have moved to 8+ ph and even if I do a 25% water change with ph of 5 water, it doesn't want to drop appropriately. 

This is where your substrate helps....my old fluval stuff is junk. I only use a combo of Akadama & Netlea in my tanks. So far so good....


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The tank in the picture has what appears to be red cynobacteria (slime algae) on the glass. this usually means there is something off. Red slime appears to be a different colour form of blue green algae, and needs to be treated the same way.I don't know if that would influence your desire to re do or not.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

i did mine after a year and a half.
but i guess you should redo only/usually if your substrate loses their buffering effects, no other reason why i would want to restart a shrimp tank.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> The tank in the picture has what appears to be red cynobacteria (slime algae) on the glass. this usually means there is something off. Red slime appears to be a different colour form of blue green algae, and needs to be treated the same way.I don't know if that would influence your desire to re do or not.


You are correct that is red slime algae which has been slowly taking over the tank. Surprisingly the shrimps seem to be eating or at least grazing it. Its more of a sign of the tank is getting old rather then the reason for the restart. The main reason for the restart is that mulm has built up in the substrate after hundreds if not thousands of shrimp. I can't clean it as the soil is too light for a gravel vac so I have to replace it. If it was 2" thick and a 40g+ tank I think I could hold out restarting it for a few more years maybe but this is just me guessing.

The TDS has not increased too much since the water changes does help abit to level them. I imagine most people replace it after the soil loses it buffering ability(fluval looks great, doesn't last) but for me the tank continued producing a lot of shrimps even after and only when the mulm became too much did it hurt the survival rates.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

I just reset one of my shrimp tanks today. It was a year old. I wasn't happy with how many babies survived (less than 10%) so I'm scrapping the tank. I might salvage the ADA as it still looks like it's viable, but I might mix it with something else after running it through boiling water.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

Wouldn't run it threw boiling water, IDE clean it with water change water and it will help cycle your water in the next tank


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Yeah, don't use boiling water. If you really want you can dry it a bit and put it in the oven 250F for 20 minutes. One guy from China claims that he does this to all his new and recycled substrate and can add shrimps much faster, I have not tried myself, just what I read.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

randy said:


> Yeah, don't use boiling water. If you really want you can dry it a bit and put it in the oven 250F for 20 minutes. One guy from China claims that he does this to all his new and recycled substrate and can add shrimps much faster, I have not tried myself, just what I read.


Wouldn't that just cook and destroy the biofilm aswell, as well as destroying and breaking it down a bit more? It would def be better then boiling water tho


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

I have a leech problem (as in the pest) in the tank, which I suspect may have been a problem although I've never seen them attack any of the shrimp before. Kinda just wanna rid them once and for all. I might do the baking thing.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Dman said:


> Wouldn't that just cook and destroy the biofilm aswell, as well as destroying and breaking it down a bit more? It would def be better then boiling water tho


Biofilm is such a generic term and abused somewhat in this hobby. It can be of so many different microorganism stuck on the surface of anything. And not all these microorganisms are good. Pour hot water or bake will all get rid of it and it may not be a bad thing, especially when on tries to reset a tank.



splur said:


> I have a leech problem (as in the pest) in the tank, which I suspect may have been a problem although I've never seen them attack any of the shrimp before. Kinda just wanna rid them once and for all. I might do the baking thing.


Keep us updated. The guy claims that this reduces or eliminate the need to wait for substrate leeching and he put shrimps in new substrate (baked) only after a few days. I am skeptical and want to try, my wife has different opinion though... I have wait for next time she goes to the gym and I am home ;-)


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

All I can say is look for babies and look again and again and again before you fully tear it down. lol.

I'm in the process of moving some tanks around, had a 7.5gal cube with a few CRS in it. One just dropped but my baby rate has been low because of nitrates, neglect, etc, so pulled out the parents and 3 or 4 babies and figured that was it. Drained the tank to about 2" of water, turned off the filter, lights, let it sit for a week like that. Then I realized I had a nice clump of moss in it I wanted to save, so figured I would turn the light on. Few days later decided to fill it where it stood for the moss until I could tear it down fully, etc. I was setting up another tank using warm water, untreated since I was going to dump prime into the tank, so filled the tank with almost hot untreated tap water. Turned the filter on a few days later and I see a baby CRS. Must have missed one. Then another. And another. I have pulled 18 babies out of the tank so far and there is still at least 2 more, if not more that are being hard to net, so always check and check and check for babies. lol. Some of them already have a nice SS pattern on them and came from one of my nicer red leg momma's, so I almost nuked $150 in shrimp. lol.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

getochkn said:


> All I can say is look for babies and look again and again and again before you fully tear it down. lol.
> 
> I'm in the process of moving some tanks around, had a 7.5gal cube with a few CRS in it. One just dropped but my baby rate has been low because of nitrates, neglect, etc, so pulled out the parents and 3 or 4 babies and figured that was it. Drained the tank to about 2" of water, turned off the filter, lights, let it sit for a week like that. Then I realized I had a nice clump of moss in it I wanted to save, so figured I would turn the light on. Few days later decided to fill it where it stood for the moss until I could tear it down fully, etc. I was setting up another tank using warm water, untreated since I was going to dump prime into the tank, so filled the tank with almost hot untreated tap water. Turned the filter on a few days later and I see a baby CRS. Must have missed one. Then another. And another. I have pulled 18 babies out of the tank so far and there is still at least 2 more, if not more that are being hard to net, so always check and check and check for babies. lol. Some of them already have a nice SS pattern on them and came from one of my nicer red leg momma's, so I almost nuked $150 in shrimp. lol.


Damn... way too late for that, tore the tank apart. I didn't see any babies or berried for at least a month though so I think I'm safe on that one. Good tip though, I just looked over to my CBS tank and saw babies everywhere... definitely didn't notice that last night.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

splur said:


> Damn... way too late for that, tore the tank apart. I didn't see any babies or berried for at least a month though so I think I'm safe on that one. Good tip though, I just looked over to my CBS tank and saw babies everywhere... definitely didn't notice that last night.


They're sneaky. I just checked again and can see 4 instead of the 2 that I couldn't catch. lol.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Baking the substrate is just a safer way of sterilizing it, I prefer the 2:5 bleach:water solution and soak over night. Rinse and let it air dry. Bleach feels a lot more risky but dissipates fast and doesn't require an oven or the smalls of baking soil.

Either case won't remove the excess mulm though so starting with new soil would be best. I've reused some ada before in a Fire Red tank which resulted in high nitrates through the tanks life.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Any tips on pest control for reintroducing the plants? Can't really bake those!

I've used PP dip before for 30 minutes and it did absolutely nothing to the snails or leeches (presumably eggs). And the dip was aggressive enough because it killed almost 50% of the plants, so something didn't work.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

splur said:


> Any tips on pest control for reintroducing the plants? Can't really bake those!
> 
> I've used PP dip before for 30 minutes and it did absolutely nothing to the snails or leeches (presumably eggs). And the dip was aggressive enough because it killed almost 50% of the plants, so something didn't work.


Alum

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=55520


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I soak new plants in panacea for three days and hope for the best. I don't think there's a way to get 100% and with shrimp-only tank it's just a matter of time before you see pests. Just look at the shrimps and ignore other things unless they are harmful such as hydras and planarias.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

randy said:


> Keep us updated. The guy claims that this reduces or eliminate the need to wait for substrate leeching and he put shrimps in new substrate (baked) only after a few days. I am skeptical and want to try, my wife has different opinion though... I have wait for next time she goes to the gym and I am home ;-)


I went ahead and baked the substrate and it looks great, granules are still together and everything. I'll see if I get high nitrates, but I am going to let the tank sit with new water for a day or two before testing anything.

Really hoping this works though, I really don't want to spend another 40-50$ on new substrate when this substrate is only a year old.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Baking the substrate should only make them stick together better, that's why one should use the kind of Akadama that has been baked so it doesn't powderized too quickly. Please keep us updated on the result as I'd like to try it as well.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

0.5 ppm NH3
0/0 ppm NO2-/NO3-

Getting an ammonia spike, might be running into the problem arc did. Oh o!


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## RCode (Dec 12, 2010)

What about drying it out and microwaving it? I imagine you are trying to get rid of those tiny pesky snails that never get bigger then a pin head?

Let me know how it goes, I've given up. I just crush them when they are making a mess of the glass.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Baking it got rid of all the snails, as for the tank I let it dry out for an hour. The snails couldn't handle it. As for the plants, I'm going to try the three day alum dip and see how it goes. Hopefully I don't end up with a bucket full of dead plants.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

splur said:


> 0.5 ppm NH3
> 0/0 ppm NO2-/NO3-
> 
> Getting an ammonia spike, might be running into the problem arc did. Oh o!


You are still in the early stage or a new tank, the spike is hopefully just the left over organic waste decaying into ammonia. The problem I have is that the soil and dusk/mulm has too much organics in it and will in time produce continually high nitrates. The 45 cost to replace the soil is cheap compared to the hundreds of Shrimp (even just Fire Reds) lost. What I find is that tank with a lot plants will keep the ammonia and nitrates low but the tank still has issues. Remove the plants and it spikes nitrates up to 40+.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Tested the water today, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate = 0. Very happy with the result of baking the substrate. Also, no leeches or snails, although my alum dip killed maybe 50% of the plants I put in, maybe 2 days was way too long. It affected the wisteria and frogbit the most.


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