New SuperShrimp Fan!

[Arquisto]

So I went to buy most of my other supplies today. Was really happy with the selection of dragon stone they had. It was hard to decide. Also bought some nice inactive black sand as a substrate! Now I need to wait a month for the opae ula.

Will show you guys what the layout will look once I figure that out.

[JennyPenny]

That is going to be a nice setup! The dragon stone with the hole is nice. This makes me want to set up another tank.
Are you going to add anything to help buffer the water?

[Arquisto]

I got the Dragon Stone with the hole in it at the request of my fiancee who was looking at them with me. I was about to put it back into the box and she gave me a very disappointed look. She's happy you agreed with her.

What do you mean by helping the water with a buffer?

I just spent the last couple of hours rinsing and cleaning the dragon stones... now im going to move onto the nightmare of the black flourite sand which i've heard nightmares about online.

[Edwin]

The rock that caught my eyes was the one with the hole too. It's a very nice rock that I'll love to have found too. Good choice there.

The tank in the background seems a little bit small; suspect you may have trouble squeezing all of them in but let's see if you can since the scale in the photo may be off.

I got a similar substrate: black flourite from seachem. Great stuff as well but do need quite a thorough rinse and wash

Can't wait to see your set up!

[Edwin]

Buffering the water probably refers to the ph. Something such as crushed corals or limestone. Since water gets Acidic over time which is not a good thing. These buffers ensure ph stays around a healthy alkaline range.

[Arquisto]

Ah I see. I decided to go with inactive substrate that wouldn't change the pH too much cause it's what Mustafa would usually suggest. I do have some pieces of coral and shells that I picked up on my trip in Australia last summer that I may use. Of course I'll boil them and wash them first to make sure they are good.

I don't anticipate the pH to be that big of an issue, I've bought distilled water which should be good to go.

You're right about the rocks being a tight fit... I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get all of them to fit. Here's what I've come up with.

[Edwin]

Is this going to be your side or main view? Just thought it looks narrow from this point of view but it has good depth between foreground and background for sure. There are a lot of hiding spaces behind those rocks though which your shrimps may hang around, preventing you from seeing them even though they are not hiding intentionally. So you may consider sloping the substrate level as well to force them into view if you want. Have fun putting in the substrate.

Substrate could be inert and not alter ph. But you could add in other things that can help provide ph buffer e.g. the white crushed corals found at the back of my tank.

[Arquisto]

Here are the three photos, main view and then on the 2 sides.
There are definitely a lot of crevices for them to hide in but luckily not much room underneath the stones.
I took a chopstick and broke it slightly near the tip to make myself some sort of landscaping raking tool and used it to move the substrate around.

I'll boil up some of my coral now to make sure i kill off any unwanted organic waste and find a place to put that.

I think it was a good move to rinse off my black sand cause now the water has settled pretty nicely. It was a mess in the bathtub but it was worth it.

Now i got to figure out where i want to place some of my moss balls. I don't think I have the heart to tear them up and use them as flat carpeting. I may just divide them and make them smaller and stick them in some of the crevices.

Thanks for all your input!

[KenCotigirl]

Nice layout. A comment. The rock with the hole is in the lower left. Hard to make out the hole. I am a fan of that rock an especially the hole. If it was rotated 180 degrees counterclockwise the hole would be more prominent. Just a thought. Easy to make changes before the shrimp arrives.

KenP

[Mustafa]

Your tank looks great! Now if you could just ditch that filter it would be almost perfect.

[Arquisto]

LoL Mustafa, I will be ditching the filter once i get the shrimp.
Don't worry I'll be a good apprentice, I've seen enough posts on here to know that .

I used the filter to clear out the cloudiness when i initially put in the black sand.

@KenP It's harder to see the hole in the rock from the photos but I tried to make it the focal center of the tank. I actually played around with having it the way you suggested the only thing about that is that the crevice that the hole forms will mostly likely be where small shrimp will hide and if i face it the other way I won't be able to see it. At this angle I might not get the best hole but I still see the hole and i get to basically see into the cavern it makes more easily.

Uploaded photos of the tank now with some moss that I've added in as well as a closer shot of the hole.

I'm going to add some small pieces of coral that I've boiled on the side of the tank, don't want to take away from the dragon stones too much. I've also contemplated about using something to help cycle the tank... any suggestions?

[Edwin]

How's your cycling coming along? According to Mustafa's guide, he did not mention anything about adding bacteria but I added for mine hoping to make the water cycle faster and better. Used Special Blend and Nite Out II for that purpose but I'm not sure how effective these were. At the very least, by the end of week 3 my ammonia had hit near 0 while I can see a bit of algae and biofilm growing on water surface and tank wall.

[Arquisto]

Hey Edwin,

Cycling i believe is going well. I had taken some gravel from the jar where my Marimo balls were and put them into a tea bag to help with the cycling. The last week I've been adding Seachem's Stability into it as well. Been doing daily water tests and really i have no nitrates and super low nitrites, less than 20 ppm.
My salinity is at 1.010 which is a good range but I want to get it as close to Mustafa's as possible which I believe is 1.080 but not too sure. The water isn't super hard either and my pH isn't as basic as I want it to be so yesterday I decided to add a tsp of baking soda and well see how that goes. pH at the moment is between 7.0 and 7.5. I also got some pieces of coral rock and some sea shells in there so that should bring it up slowly as well.
Temperature has been cold too at 18 celcius but as the weather warms up it should climb on to a comfortable level.
I'm playing with the parameters now but once I get the shrimp in hopefully 2 in weeks I'll just let it be.

[Edwin]

I'm really envious of the rocks you have got! The arrangement looks really good and I love the fact that it looks so much like a volcanic island and the marimo looks great on the rocks too! Would love to try something like that

In terms of salinity, I think it's fine as long as it's around 1.01. If your aim is to match Mustafa's for the sake of easier acclimatisation, you can do it by gradually adding water into the bag with the new shrimps as well.

I put in crushed corals and they have been immensely helpful in raising my pH. So give it time to work its magic

[Arquisto]

Hey guys!

I got my super shrimp, algae, and snails from Mustafa. However they will only get to the tank in 2 days and have been in the same bag since 5 days now. Should I take them out or just wait until I drive back to Canada in 2 days? I'm concerned about the ammonia build up from their detritus.

Thanks !