First Tank

[KenCotigirl]

Skittymars let's try a simple experiment. Do you have any reef/ocean salt left over. If you do mix a small batch say a gallon/half gallon or less if you can measure the salt some what close. Use tap or whatever water you used to make the 20 gallons. Mix thoroughly. Wait 24 hours. Test the pH. Should read 8+. Did you have your pH checked at a fish store?

Finally I would not worry. Also stop adding and removing products. Just let the tank settle. You will drive yourself crazy and could create more issues.

Ken

[Mustafa]

These shrimp go by the axiom KISS. Keep it simple silly. Just wait a month or so and all will be alright. The more you fiddle the more issues you may have. Mustafa should add another step or two to his supershrimp setup. What you should do when you should be doing nothing.

Ken

That's actually an *excellent* idea. I may do something in that direction, especially since I'm about to publish a whole new version of the website (focused on Supershrimp mostly).

[Mustafa]

What Ken said.

[skittymars]

Cycling looks like it is in high gear now. Lots of nasty brown bacteria growing on the plants, glass, and sea shells. Lots of green algae on the surface of the water by the light. I'm also seeing one or two gravel with green surface algae.

[InSoOverMyHead]

I don't really have anything to add but I just started cycling my first tank a couple days ago and I wanted to wish you all the luck!

[Mustafa]

Cycling looks like it is in high gear now. Lots of nasty brown bacteria growing on the plants, glass, and sea shells. Lots of green algae on the surface of the water by the light. I'm also seeing one or two gravel with green surface algae.

Looks like your tank is ready for shrimp actually.

[Mustafa]

I don't really have anything to add but I just started cycling my first tank a couple days ago and I wanted to wish you all the luck!

Thanks! Good luck to you too!

[skittymars]

The water parameters looks good. Even the pH is looking better better now that I have a few Texas holey rock in there. Looks like it is close to 8.0 instead of 7.4 I was seeing before

[skittymars]

I think the aquarium is fully cycled now. Seeing lots of green algae growth now on the gravel and rocks and on the tank glass. Also added in a zebra nerite, tiger nerite, and horned nerite snails. They don't seem to make any amount of dent in the algae growth. I was expecting them to really clean the tank walls up based on previous posts that said the nerites have a voracious appetite. The horned nerite seems to be the most active, then the tiger, and the zebra is quite lazy. Zebra is always hiding above the water during the day.

I think the macro-algae is growing, but it seems very dark green compared to when I originally got it. Is this normal? Am I not providing enough light?

I didn't want to wait until the weather improved in March/April, so I was able to find a local shrimp reseller and will be picking them up tomorrow morning. Very excited to get them.

How long before the snails from Mustafa start reproducing? I can still only see about 4 of them.

Final water parameters before adding the shrimp looks pretty good.

[Varanus]

I think the aquarium is fully cycled now. Seeing lots of green algae growth now on the gravel and rocks and on the tank glass. Also added in a zebra nerite, tiger nerite, and horned nerite snails. They don't seem to make any amount of dent in the algae growth. I was expecting them to really clean the tank walls up based on previous posts that said the nerites have a voracious appetite. The horned nerite seems to be the most active, then the tiger, and the zebra is quite lazy. Zebra is always hiding above the water during the day.

Nerites seem to go through periods where they don't do much, sitting out of water for days, etc. only to suddenly start gorging themselves.

I think the macro-algae is growing, but it seems very dark green compared to when I originally got it. Is this normal? Am I not providing enough light?

The macro algae does turn a lighter green the more intense the light is, but it being a darker green isn't a sign of poor health as far as I know.

How long before the snails from Mustafa start reproducing? I can still only see about 4 of them.

Hard to say, depends on factors like how much food there is, how fast the snails grow, and how young they were when you got them.

[skittymars]

Picked up the shrimps from a local reseller.

Getting them acclimated to my tank parameters over 4 hours. After that I transferred 2 into the tank and observed them for about 30 minutes. They were doing fine, so I transferred all of them into the tank.

Shrimps had no problems at all adjusting to their new home and they were swimming happily around.

Just one week after putting the shrimps into my aquarium, I started to see some of the shrimps molting. So far I have seen at least 5 shrimp exo-skeletons. I was kind of surprised they started molting so fast, but tank parameters must be good and maybe because they didn't go through the stress of shipping it was easy for them to adjust.

Tank walls are getting overrun by the diatoms and getting very hard to see inside the tank. It's even worse on the other two sides. Snails are just not doing their job adequately at all. 20 Gallon and all of the surface inside the tank is just too much for them. I think I will have to go inside and clean off the walls even though I don't want to disturb the shrimps.

It's been 3 weeks now since I got the shrimp and they seems to be growing in size quickly. Do the shrimps keep molting after they reach adulthood? Or do they stop molting after they reach their adult size? Anyway to tell the difference between male and female besides the visible signs of eggs? I haven't seen any of those yet. Are the females smaller or larger than males?

I have not fed the shrimps since I got them. There is plenty of algae and bio-film and other muck in the tank.

It's amazing how acrobatic these guys are swimming upside down and doing flips and loops. They're so small and light that they can just hang upside under the surface of the water and the water tension will just hold them up.

[Ace]

They will always molt. A water change can cause molting. For this reason it is advised to do small water changes when keeping freshwater shrimp. It can be disruptive to breeding.

Sexing is a mystery, unfortunately.

As for the overgrowth you are having, it would help to cut down the lighting hours.

[KenCotigirl]

Skittymars I am a fan of nerites. One or two in your tank will do an amazing job. They have few drawbacks. They are voracious earters at least as compared to the shrimp. Put too many in a tank and they eat all the biofilm. Two they don't reproduce. So you will need to buy more every few years. They lay eggs on your decorations that many find unsightly.

Ken

[skittymars]

I have 3 nerites in there. 1x zebra, 1x tiger, and 1x horned nerite plus the 10x MTS from Mustafa in there. I thought 3x nerites would get the job done, because I read from others how they have such a huge appetite, but I think my tank is considerably larger than the typical size tank that others in the forum have for their opae ulas. I think I'm jut asking too much of them for a 20 gallon size tank.

I also find it weird that 2 or 3 of the snails from Mustafa hasn't moved in maybe a month. I'm wondering if they're dead or something. Seems strange they would be at one place for so long.

Water parameters are fine though, so if they are dead, they're not fouling up the water since they're so small.

[KenCotigirl]

Don't feed the shrimp. Wait a another month or two. I am sure the snails will make a difference. If you feel the need just clean the front of the tank.
For the nonmoving snails turn them on their sides. If they are alive they should turn themselves.
Ken