thorough cleaning or new tank

[casingram]

Hi everyone. I have a approximately 1 gallon vase that’s had 12 opae ula for about a year now. The vase is unsightly. There is a lot of hair algae and the water has quite a bit of a green tint. I put in 3 MTS when I added the shrimp and now there is probably 100 or more. I think one of the problems was that I used dirty sand that was taken out of a freshwater aquarium which it had been in for 10 years (and had been sitting in a container for about a month after I took the aquarium down). I would like to either totally clean it, change the sand, and rid the system of snails, or just set up a new vase and transfer the shrimp over. What do you recommend? I know the existing lava rock is full of beneficial bacteria which I don’t want to lose, but then again I don’t want to risk reintroducing the MTS if I stick with the same rock.

[Vorteil]

Why mess it it? It's doing great. If they are breeding in there leave it be. Why not just start up a new one?

[casingram]

It looks really dirty and gross. It’s at my office and it’s became an eyesore. No, I haven’t had any breeding. I have had 2 females carry eggs, but they were dropped on both occasions.

[Vorteil]

I thought you started with 12 and now have 100. I reread your post and saw that you added the additional shrimp. Yeah for sure I would clean it all out if it's an eyesore. I'm about to add a tank to my new office. I have a 2.5 gallon ready to go but now I'm think maybe a 5 or 10 gallon.

[Super Jess]

Unless you really like that particular vase, I would cycle a new tank with all new stuff to avoid transferring hair algae. It will be fun! Your shrimp can live in their unsightly home until the new tank is ready.

[casingram]

Yeah, that may be a good idea. I really don’t want to introduce the snails either.