Opaeula.co.uk

A dedicated forum and online store for the Opae ula shrimp! 

Share photos/videos, journals and logs for your Opae ula tank setups for others to read.
 #2540  by odin
 
If you are only adding 10 shrimp you wont need to worry about cycling the tank with ammoina first, that sort of setup may go to waste because there wont be enough shrimp waste to feed the huge amount of friendly bacteria you created with the initial ammonia start up. Setup your tank with your sand, rocks, salt water and heater etc and just let it sit with 12 hours of light a day until you start to get some nice algae growth. Test the water with a test kit and make sure ammonia, nitrites are 0ppm and nitrates are below 10ppm, (if nitrate is higher you can always change out a small amount of the water for fresh brackish water and this will bring it down). if all is good then put in your shrimp.

Dont be afraid to change some water with shrimp already in the tank if you ever get ammonia spikes etc, some people add ALOT of shrimp in one go and this can sometimes make the ammonia spike pretty fast so a water change brings this back down to a level that the friendly bacteria can remove it fast enough to provide healthy water for the shrimp and stop the ammonia lingering around for any amount of time.

When all is good then the only thing you really need to do is just top-up the tank with fresh unsalted water when evaporation kicks in and feed them once in a blue moon :grin2:
Last edited by odin on 12 Jan 2017 23:11, edited 1 time in total.
 #2541  by rossantpat
 
Thanks Odin it's much appreciated and I think I'm clear now on what I need to do to get the process started this weekend. One more question, for now anyway ;) I'm using a one gallon jar that with the lid closed would be airtight, should I create a hole in the lid or just open the lid once a day or week?
 #2542  by odin
 
Haha ask as many questions as you wish, that's what the forums here for. You can do either to be perfectly honest, I'm more of a fan of having holes but if you do go with the sealed lid and open it once a day be sure to have a decent gap between the water line and the lid so a good pocket of oxygen can sit in it.


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 #2687  by rossantpat
 
Tank has been sitting for a couple weeks now. Looking forward to testing the water next month...
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 #2689  by odin
 
Awesome! have you noticed any brown algae starting to grow yet?
 #2699  by rossantpat
 
No visible signs of algae yet. The LED was something I already had at home. There's 3 LEDs in the centre underneath so a hole in the jar lid allows it to shine down, it's more for viewing rather than algae growth as the jar is in a light room that is also artificially lit for 10-12 hours a day. Hopefully algae growth it not too far away :)
 #3122  by rossantpat
 
It's been about 8 weeks now and no visable sign of algae. Am I doing something wrong. More light required? Thanks in advance.
 #3123  by odin
 
I think you should try more light or add a few flakes of fish food to the container, this will break down into Ammonia and in turn end up as nitrates and should all help kick start things for you.
 #3442  by rossantpat
 
I think the tank is finally ready for shrimp :) Water tested using dip strips and readings look good. I was planning to buy the shrimp from 'pacmed04' but I see he currently has no shrimp advertised. Is opaeula.co.uk now planning to sell shrimp through eBay? Is there a predicted date they might be available? Thanks