Mustafa wrote:I never siphon/vacuum. The organic "waste" turns into shrimp food over time as bacteria colonize it. Then the shrimp eat it and process the rest into water soluble (or near water soluble) organic matter which will either get sucked up by your filter or partially removed during the next water change. That's exactly the reason why I only use enough substrate to barely cover the bottom. That way, no waste can fall through the cracks into deeper layers of a gravel substrate(where shrimp can't reach them) and rot.
So your tanks have not been fouled by shrimp waste to the point of having harmful/foul water ? If this works for you I would like to try this especially when there are so many baby shrimp all over the tank!
I've actually done the same as Mustafa. The 20 gallon tank I had housed 12+ RCS, 3 Bamboo shrimp, 3 unknown shrimp, 10+ otos, and over 30+ Endler's. I only syphoned the water, never touched the gravel. If you have good bioligical filtration, then allot of the solid waste will eventually break down.
Last edited by crazie.eddie on Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
I've never siphoned the gravel/coral mix in my 10 gallon. It has been running for about 6 months now. There are at least a couple hundred shrimp in there, more young than adults, and plenty of snails as well. I do 40-50% water changes weekly. The MTS insure that no food is left in the substrate.
My 15 gallon shrimp tank has never been siphoned. I really can't do it because of the fluorite substrate so I've never really tried. I do wish I had less substrate, but it is needed for the plants since this is a show tank.
? If this works for you I would like to try this especially when there are so many baby shrimp all over the tank!
