MiniShrimps

[Varanus]

Well, all the shrimp survived the journey and are happily swimming about and enjoying their new home. Just observing them from last night to this morning it seems many of them are regaining some color too... I'll have to bust out the D3 and get some sweet macro pics up here soon. The shutter speed on my phone is just not fast enough...

my 5.5 gal. tank has an ammonia reading of about 1.5 ppm. Nitrites and Nitrates aren't that high right now but I'd like to try to get ammonia down more quickly. Can I remove half the water and replace with new water to get it lower faster? Or wait it out?

If you don't have any shrimp in the 5.5 gallon I would just wait it out. Making a water change removes ammonia via the water you are taking out and dilutes the ammonia in the water that remains, but as far as I know it doesn't make the cycling go faster.

[minishrimps]

If you don't have any shrimp in the 5.5 gallon I would just wait it out. Making a water change removes ammonia via the water you are taking out and dilutes the ammonia in the water that remains, but as far as I know it doesn't make the cycling go faster.

Nothing in that tank except the algae ball and some macro algae strands... But I'd like to add some snails and crabs soon. I know I need to wait until the ammonia goes down. I'm hoping that there is some beneficial bacteria on the algae ball from my other tank to help to establish the bacteria column. I know the ph is a little low compared to my other tank. I will probably add some prime and keep the water rolling through the filter over the biomax. Hopefully that will help!

[erica]

As long as there are no animals that's fine I don't think there's any reason to add Prime; what's the reasoning there? I would wait until the tank can take some ammonia and turn it into nitrAtes in 24 hours, so from a reading of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates 1/0/0 to 0/0/something. Not just once it gets rid of the first round of ammonia, but when it can take new ammonia and translate it to nitrates quickly, that's when it's properly cycled.

[minishrimps]

As long as there are no animals that's fine I don't think there's any reason to add Prime; what's the reasoning there? I would wait until the tank can take some ammonia and turn it into nitrAtes in 24 hours, so from a reading of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates 1/0/0 to 0/0/something. Not just once it gets rid of the first round of ammonia, but when it can take new ammonia and translate it to nitrates quickly, that's when it's properly cycled.

I guess I was thinking Prime would help re-condition the water, just to make sure the beneficial bacterias can take hold more efficiently. I used distilled water but my hands were in that tank moving everything around, stirring up the substrate more than twice... guess i don't really need to add it again...

[erica]

Prime makes ammonia/nitrites/nitrates and chlorine/chloramine safe for animals. Since you don't have animals in there, adding it shouldn't make much of a difference Seachem's website does say Prime can make nitrites and nitrates easier for bacteria to handle, but I think you're waiting on ammonia->nitrite bacteria, and since that effect only lasts 48 hours, you may as well wait.

If you didn't have clean hands when you moved things around in the tank it might be a good idea to do a total water change and scrub everything off. But if you had clean hands I think it ought to be fine!

[minishrimps]

Prime makes ammonia/nitrites/nitrates and chlorine/chloramine safe for animals. Since you don't have animals in there, adding it shouldn't make much of a difference Seachem's website does say Prime can make nitrites and nitrates easier for bacteria to handle, but I think you're waiting on ammonia->nitrite bacteria, and since that effect only lasts 48 hours, you may as well wait.

If you didn't have clean hands when you moved things around in the tank it might be a good idea to do a total water change and scrub everything off. But if you had clean hands I think it ought to be fine!

I don't think I had anything gross on my hands, just trying to help the biofilter along. It does say on the bottle that "Prime may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity"

[erica]

Yep, that would be for any animals in the tank. If you won't be putting animals in until it's done cycling, no need to worry about the toxicity.

[minishrimps]

So my shrimp have all decided to go hide in the cave I have in my tank and I haven't really seen them since the first 24 hours when they first got here... I also noticed some sort of gelatinous stuff in my tank. It's kind of milky white looking. Up close it's a bunch of what look like tiny white dots... pic below... Should i try and suck it out?

[Varanus]

Not sure about the dots, I can't really see any in the pic, just some cloudiness.

As for the shrimp, based on another topic I read here a while ago, if they stay hidden in one place for a lengthy time it is simply because there is enough food there that they don't have to move much. So definitely don't feed until they get more active.

[minishrimps]

Not sure about the dots, I can't really see any in the pic, just some cloudiness.

As for the shrimp, based on another topic I read here a while ago, if they stay hidden in one place for a lengthy time it is simply because there is enough food there that they don't have to move much. So definitely don't feed until they get more active.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on the weird stuff, make sure it doesn't spread... Everything in my 2.5 seems good aside from that...

2.5 gallon tank

The new tank is definitely cranking away. The Ammonia is slowly dropping and the Nitrates are starting to go up. The Nitrite is about the same as it was a couple days ago. I'm seeing a huge algae bloom on the stuff in there too.

5.5 gallon tank

[minishrimps]

My shrimp seem to be enjoying their new home, they love the little lava rock cave I built and quickly dart in and out. They are pretty entertaining to watch. I'll try and get some pics now that they are out and about more.

My Crab tank is going strong, the ammonia is almost down to zero about .25ppm. The nitrite is still pretty high, about 1.0ppm and NitrAte is at 40ppm. Anyone know how long it will take before nitrites start to drop? Hopefully, they will dissipate fast. I received the crabs already and they are in a holding tank for the time being... C'mon Nitrifiers, do your thing!

[minishrimps]

Here's a pic of one of my shrimp!

[Varanus]

Interesting pigment on that one. Some of mine are red with a pale blotch, but I don't think I've seen one that is pale with a red blotch.

[jonesinfershrimp]

red eyes its an albino

[KenCotigirl]

Very interesting color on that shrimp. Or lack of color. Are your shrimp from Mustafa? I have not kept good track but it seems a few people got unique shrimp color from him.