[Ann]

Are you thinking that the lava rock is more healthful than the ocean rock?
Ann

[odin]

No not at all Ann, it just brings out the red colour of the shrimp a lot more I also like how they are all fist sized peices and stack together well while my breeder tank has just one large chunk of ocean rock, maybe I should of broken it up a bit instead of leaving it in a huge rock. Then again it's hollow inside and underneith which gives them a dark place to hide.

[Ann]

I bought some on eBay. I'm going to place a few in with the Texas Holey Rock (lol, those Texans) It should provide the same benefits.
Ann

[doozer999]

Amazing! The things the internet throws up!!!

I stumbled across this journal/blog whilst looking for shrimp inspiration. Having had muted success with freshwater shrimp (crystal red) - no colonies wiped out, but not over run with babies, i was looking for advice...

Always forced to... not cut corners, but have to skimp on things due to finances, i was going to throw caution to the wind and this time try and "just do what the experts say", so set up a shrimp tank as Borneo Wild say...or, as i searched, the Dennerle way.... And here i am!

I never even knew about these shrimps!!

Your tank is inspirational - always good for people like me when one doesn't have an artistic bone in their body, and i think i know where I'm headed with my next tank!

Thank you!

Now i need to find out all i can about these beautiful looking brackish shrimp!

Of course next stop is a rummage all over this site, but I'll ask some questions still... But please just point me to a relevant thread if needed...

Hardware wise, am i ok with what i currently have - 20 litre Dennerle cube, 25W heater, sponge filter (running off air pump), 5W light?

Will all my freshwater test kits work still NH4, NO3 and 2 and the cycling of the same? Or I need to get marine kits, and hydrometer i guess?

New to salinity, I understand what brackish is, but what substrate(s) do i need - what do they do differently to the freshwater soils? You used ...substrate but also crushed coral? What do i need to look for or research?

Rocks - loving your black rocks. Do they serve any chemical purpose?

What is the opposite colour scheme - black substrate/coral and white rock?

What kind of plants does one have - or is that a no no?

This is a whole new world... Thanks for sharing!

[odin]

Welcome to our forum doozer999, I'm glad you are enjoying the site and hope you will find it useful.

I have a set of guides that will help answer most of your questions hopefully, you can find them here.

viewforum.php?f=6

These shrimp are very easy and fun to keep, you don't need any special equipment either! In short all you need is a tank (yours is perfect) fill it with RO water and add around 350grams of marine salt and let it dissolve, add any substrate and rocks (shrimp safe - free of dirt and metals) add a light and leave the tank as is until you get some green algae growing. Add the shrimp and that's it! No water changes needed and feed once a fortnight.

Obviously you can use something to measure the salinity as you need to hit around 1.010 - 1.015, testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates is always great and you need to keep your PH very high, this is why I use crushed coral or ocean rocks as this keeps it high constantly. If you measure all parameters and keep them tank perfect you will have much happier shrimp that will breed. The black rocks are just lava rock and they do hold a lot more beneficial bacteria than standard rocks but it's not compulsory. Plants are a difficult thing in brackish waters as most die pretty fast, other members have gotten mosses, algae, macroalgaes and marimo balls to survive so have a browse over the members tanks and setup section for ideas.

The most important thing with these tanks is to feed extremely little and not very often, you are just supplementing their diet which is algae and biofilm that grows naturally in your tank. You don't need a filter so keeping the nitrates low is priority number one because doing less water changes and disturbing the shrimp the better.

I hope this helps, I'm writing on my phone so please excuse my grammar lol, any more questions then please post again :)

P.s here is a step by step guide to setting up the tank in this thread: http://opaeula.co.uk/page/how-to-setup- ... 5913#guide

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[doozer999]

Thanks Odin, really useful reply...i have been reading around the site from your links, gleaning what i can!

A couple of questions - again, may be off topic so please move it, or direct me as necessary(!)

I am loving the "starkness" of the black/white look of the tanks... So I'm guessing that'll be some crushed coral substrate (white) and i think my LFS may, fortunately, sell it by the kilo...

But the black lava rock - I'm finding that hard to source. Is it likely to be pretty standard stuff in my LFS, or more specialist?

Can i use any other inert rock?

Is there the opposite colour scheme, out of interest - dark substrate and white rocks? If so... What do i need to look for materials wise?

Finally, the site looks quite new, but do you know of any tank images, for inspiration?

I only ask as i am concerned the tanks may look a bit hazy? If they do is that because there's a parameter issue? Should they be crystal clear like freshwater set up? Or is the nature of brackish to be a bit murkey?

Thanks again!

[odin]

Depending where you live you may find it difficult to source black lava rock, I could only find a small amount here in the UK but the site no longer sells it. You can use standard lava rock but it's not black, more of a dark brown/red.

I have black sand with white ocean rocks too here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4 which is the opposite to the black rocks with white substrate. Black lava rock seems to be readily Available in the USA though if you really want that.

When you first setup an opae ula tank it will go through stages of looking hazy as the bacteria settles and blooms but it will go away, then you will get a large amount of brown and green algae but the shrimp will start to eat it. If it annoys you then you can buy Nerite snails that will clean everything perfectly.


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