Check out my new CRS tank

[eklikewhoa]

Good luck with that.

IMO wit any nutrient rich substrate I would have at least let it cycle out and stabilize since they are suppose to alter water params too.

[moganman]

Well I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens. Im not mad if it all comes crashing down. Mostly a fun experiment for me.

[LooksLater]

Nice looking tank! Hopefully you'll be allright, if it's just a layer of stratum over gravel maybe it won't be too bad...? Crossing my fingers for you!

[Complexity]

I wouldn't get tetras with shrimp if you want them to breed. I tried out the smallest tetras I could find, only 3/4", and they still ate the babies—every single one of them for months. I finally moved them out of the tank, and I'm beginning to see babies again.

I've kept boraras with shrimp without any problems. However, I'd hold off on adding any fish until the tank has cycled.

[myjohnson]

I have boraras, o-cats, and plecos in my shrimp tank with zero issues.

[moganman]

Hopefully the cycling doesn't kill off anything. I acquired this tank from a guy that had plants in it. I kept some of his water and primed it good. We'll see. Thanks for the inputs.

[bikeguru]

Dude what were you thinking??
Cycle is extremely important. It can take 2 - 4 weeks or more to fully cycle a new tank. Make sure you use dechlorinator because you do not want chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals on your water. Tap water delorinator will remove them. Seachem Prime is a highly popular and recommended dechlorinator for any tank. Now, if you are using aqua soils or aquarium substrate, the water may get cloudy about 2 days or more. As time passes, the water will clear. Oh yeah, you should have started running the filter from the very beginning. It can help process your water clean faster. When water gets a little clear, you can start planting plants or setup tank.
Final step is getting water test and getting shrimps. After 2 – 4 weeks of cycle, test out your water pH, nitrate and ammonia. Those test kits should be selling at your pet stores. They aren’t that expensive to buy. Most of the shrimps are safe with pH range of 6.0-7.5 and nitrate/ammonia should be close to 0. Here, Planet Inverts has pH range of different kind of shrimps also located in the individual species information pages.

http://www.planetinverts.com/Invert%20Tank%20Setup.html

http://www.planetinverts.com/for_the_newcomer.html

[moganman]

I'm not new to keeping fish, just shrimp. The tank has good bacteria. Has media from other well cycled tank and water from cycled tank. I had the tank running for a week or so before I added anything. Parameters were good. I drained water into a bucket, added FSS and added new water and old water and prime. Soil didn't cycle but tank was already cycled.

[myjohnson]

+1!

A used filter negates the need to wait a month for tank to cycle.

[TexSun]

+1!

A used filter negates the need to wait a month for tank to cycle.

++1

[R_sustaita]

come one man, you should know better. havent you seen EK yell at me for trying to skip a cycle? shame on you! j/k good luck with those shrimps. and post more pics. if you decide shrimp are not for you let me know

[eklikewhoa]

Using seasoned filters does skip the cycle, DIRTY WATER IS DIRTY WATER and has no beneficial properties, now the main concern is the FSS altering water params and causing fluctuations which could kill the shrimp.

Just saying, you did good josiah on the using a seeded filter ad attempting to levitate the cycle but more research on the substrate would have informed you of it's abilities and with that (in comparison to our tap water) you would have seen the differences.

Regardless though, you seem to have a handle on it. Good Luck!

[moganman]

Using seasoned filters does skip the cycle, DIRTY WATER IS DIRTY WATER and has no beneficial properties, now the main concern is the FSS altering water params and causing fluctuations which could kill the shrimp.

Just saying, you did good josiah on the using a seeded filter ad attempting to levitate the cycle but more research on the substrate would have informed you of it's abilities and with that (in comparison to our tap water) you would have seen the differences.

Regardless though, you seem to have a handle on it. Good Luck!

Thanks man. We'll see what happens. Just waiting game now. Shrimp are growing pretty fast. Moss is growing too. I enjoy looking at the tank without looking at the shrimp. I was gonna purchase some Taiwan Painted Reds but I'll hold off until I see what happens. I'll update with pictures frequently. For now, my focus is growing out my troph fry and acquiring more canary cheeks. Today about 6 of them colored up like males and had a fight club (midget style). Thinking I may have too many males.

[R_sustaita]

oh no dont say that. then ek will say you cant breed them lol....

[eklikewhoa]

oh no dont say that. then ek will say you cant breed them lol....

Nope, that's just you. R_couldn'tbreedanythingifinstructionsonlysaytoaddw ater.