# Custome Acrylic Shrimp Breeder Tank



## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

*CRS 201: How to Setup Breeder tank Tutorial*

CRS 201: Breeder tank setup tutorial

Step 1: Find a good solid partitioned tank. You can glue glass panes into an existing long tank, put small 5 gallons side by side, or buy a used marine sump. There are many ways of setting up breeder tanks but I choose to have a custom made acrylic tank (design inspired from MananaP over at shrimpnow) for a few reasons. First of all the clarity is very noticeable, there is alot more wiggle room for design with an acrylic tank and when i did the math of buying a brand new (wanted a clear new tank for watching my crs) 30 gals long $70 + glass panes and cuts $20 + silicon glue $10 + cutting tools and miscellaneous $30 + hours spent on something I had no experience with, this was my optimal choice. Thankfully I found J_T for the job. What he produced for me was a truly beautiful, custom breeder tank. (dim 36"L x 13"W x 18"h, thickness 3/8" with 2" dia. holes)




























*These Holes will be covered with high density black filter foam. (so the shrimplets can't get through)*










*The Partitions have a 2 inch gap so the water can travel under the substrate creating more areas for aerobic bacteria to grow*



















Step 2: As with any tank setup build your flora. I use Mosura BT9 and Old Seamud and sprinkle a thin layer. Then I cover about 1 inch with Netlea soil then add a 2nd layer of the powders. I then add another half inch of netlea. Finally I finish off with a half inch of Netlea FINE grain granules. I find this helps with increasing surface area for aerobic bacteria and my CRS have an easier time picking them up have have 360 degree access.
































































*The last partition on the right will for berried mothers and babies so I will be making a special setup.*




























Step 3: Now it's time to work on the pipping or guts of this tank. My setup is pretty straight forward, the outlets (spray bars) are on the left side of the tank and the inlet is on the right side of the tank connected to a double sponge filter. The inlet is connected to Eheim 2213 #1 inlet (which is kept turned off and has the propeller removed) Eheim 2213 #1 outlet is connected to Eheim 2213 #2 inlet. The eheim 2213 #2 outlet is connected to the outlet spray bars. Both Eheims are filled with a coarse sponge, then eheim pro, then filter floss. Only eheim #2 is powered. (if you want to restrict the flowrate with the valves only restrict the ones on the eheim #2 outlet.










I poured the water into the mini breeder tank so the water pressure wont disrupt the substrate too much.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

pics or it doesnt exist.


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

*Here's the Video to put it all together*






k


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

beautiful setup what shrimps are you planning to put?


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## jumpsmasher (Oct 1, 2012)

Very beautiful tank! I always wanted to do a custom tank like this and for looks and quality, this is definitely the way to go!

I am in the process creating similar breeding tank but using plexiglass to partition out some existing 20G/23G/30G long tanks for my next rack project. It's been a learning experience since it is my first time using silicone so we will how well they stay once I put some water in there... lol

What do you think about the division of the partitions? Of course the default is a even 3-way split but I was thinking of doing it with a larger main partition for the breeding group and 2 smaller partitions for either nursery / selective pairings / culls - so like a 50 / 25 / 25 or 45 / 27.5 / 27.5 split.


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

oh man, that looks awesome!
is that tank from JT?


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## MananaP (Jul 6, 2012)

Nice tank.


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

chinamon said:


> oh man, that looks awesome!
> is that tank from JT?


Yes, it it the tank I brought to the shrimp meeting.

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

camboy012406 said:


> beautiful setup what shrimps are you planning to put?


thanks, i'm hoping to put high grade prl crs from korea.


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

jumpsmasher said:


> Very beautiful tank! I always wanted to do a custom tank like this and for looks and quality, this is definitely the way to go!
> 
> I am in the process creating similar breeding tank but using plexiglass to partition out some existing 20G/23G/30G long tanks for my next rack project. It's been a learning experience since it is my first time using silicone so we will how well they stay once I put some water in there... lol
> 
> What do you think about the division of the partitions? Of course the default is a even 3-way split but I was thinking of doing it with a larger main partition for the breeding group and 2 smaller partitions for either nursery / selective pairings / culls - so like a 50 / 25 / 25 or 45 / 27.5 / 27.5 split.


Thanks buddy, your racks looks freaking awesome. 
I understand your reasoning for the 50/25/25. 
Personally, I would keep it a even split. 
I would use 2 partitions for color and pattern. All culls will go to a 2nd independent tank which I would sell off but will re-introduce babies with better colors/patterns tot eh main tank. The nursery can be used for shrimlets, berried mothers, and for a pair of selective breeding. As you can see from my pic i also have a breeder box with an airstone/filter built in. You can fit another couple in there once the female is saddled.

http://aquainspiration.com/nproductdetail.asp?PIN=OS&PNAME=UP&PSIZE=ICBB&PTYPE=Breeding Box

if you want good colors, breed your best offsping with the original mother and remember you can't get better colors if the genes aren't there. You'll have to introduce a new gene with very vivid colors and hope >30% of the offsprings will carry that gene.


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## jumpsmasher (Oct 1, 2012)

CrystalMethShrimp said:


> Thanks buddy, your racks looks freaking awesome.
> I understand your reasoning for the 50/25/25.
> Personally, I would keep it a even split.
> I would use 2 partitions for color and pattern. All culls will go to a 2nd independent tank which I would sell off but will re-introduce babies with better colors/patterns tot eh main tank. The nursery can be used for shrimlets, berried mothers, and for a pair of selective breeding. As you can see from my pic i also have a breeder box with an airstone/filter built in. You can fit another couple in there once the female is saddled.
> ...


I guess my main concern would be if the colony grows the first partition might be too small but I guess I could always set up a regular grow out tank or be more aggressive with the culling. I guess I always envisioned myself having a nice big colony with hundreds of shrimps like you see on youtube 

I saw that breeding box before and am tempting in picking up some to try out. I do know from using some of the Up Aqua sponge filters that their outlet design is not very good (opening is too narrow) but the box itself seems pretty interesting. How has your experience been with them?

The next rack will be for my PRL tanks - hoping to get a couple different lines in the near future and I plan on keeping them separate. If you do well than maybe after a few generations and might taking some of them and use them in improve the genes of my current shrimps -that would be rack project#3


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