I have a tank getting ready now to free ecosphere shrimp into. I followed the awesome instructions on this site exactly (at least I think I did- hopefully I didn’t screw anything else up!) but wrongly assumed a piece of plastic I had around would make an okay lid... but I notice now the plastic has little cracks which seem to have gone moldy (don’t think it’s algae since it’s grey and not growing in the water, just on lid, smells like mold, and closely resembles mold I’ve dealt with elsewhere in this house). It’s just substrate, buffer, decorations, and brackish water in the tank right now. No visible algae or biofilm yet. Is it okay to just change the lid and leave the water alone? I saw someone say mold wasn’t a big deal in a general shrimp forum when I searched but wanted to be sure that was true for an Opae Ula tank. It’s 5 gallons if that matters!
my partner made me the “SHRIMP NOOK” sign lol. She has been very patient... this is all I’ve talked about for weeks! I got ecosphere as a gift a year ago and wanted to give them a better environment but could only find results from people using much more complex setups that if I tried (as someone with very little aquarium experience and a pretty small hobby budget) I thought I’d just end up killing them even faster than the sphere. Finally found this site and very much appreciated all the clear and detailed advice on how to keep them healthy without so much work! Such a relief to not feel like a neglectful mother every time I look at that damn sphere 
