Best products from r/ShrimpTanks

That could be good enough, but I like to over-filter so I'd buy this one is bigger and, though it will take up a side of your tank, I believe it is better. The lift tube goes up higher so it has more pull and you can bury the bottom tubes a little into the sand to make it look better.

I have both and I like the bigger one better. Think soda can vs 1/2 of a red bull can.

Lighting is great, but pricey. My roommate and I just use a lamp with a high-temp (light temp is in Kelvins ~6000 is good).

Heater looks great.

Good luck!

(read your other post and I'm not sure about a pump but that one will get you by for at least cycling. If you want to upgrade, pumps aren't that much so no worries)

>
I'm particularly interested in Red Cherry Shrimp. But when I look to see how many I should put in, there are about 200 different answers. Can anyone give me a specific range of how many I should put in?

Do NOT put 10 shrimp in there. Put maybe 3-4... make sure you get a mix of males and females, any decent fish store guy should be able to sex them. Get 2 males and 2 femals, they will breed like MAD. In about 2-3 months, you'll get 20+ shrimp in there. One clutch of eggs from one female will get you around 10 shrimp. After releasing the eggs, they will be ready to breed again in approximately 1 month. You'll notice that as your tank gets crowded, the shrimp will stop growing to full size, you can try and sell them for a buck or two.

>I'll be going to college soon. Obviously I'm not planning on bringing Shrimp on a plane. But would a 4-5 hour car ride be too much stress? If thats the case I'd just leave them at home and give my brother instructions on how to take care of them.

A car ride is fine, put them in an opaque container with a bit of moss for them to cling onto. Remember, these dudes come (usually) from asia on a plane.

>Are there any specific heaters you can recommend me? I'm going to school where it is cold and room heating is not really a sure thing so I'd like to be able to ensure the shrimp are well heated

Cherry shrimp are VERY adaptable. If you're comfortable, the shrimp should be comfortable. What you're after is stability in temperature. If the room temp fluctuates a lot, get a heater. If you have a Fluval Spec (a very popular 2.5gal tank), then this fits right into the water pump compartment.

Okay this is easy then.

Don't use tap water for anything at all.

1. First we need to get your TDS down to where it should be.
   We are going to do what is called a water restart. You are going to empty the water (save 5 gallons of water in a bucket and put the little guy you have left in the bucket).
   
   You will have to purchase this product (http://www.hanaquatics.com/salty-shrimp-shrimp-mineral-gh-kh/)
   If you get 200g it will last you a lifetime.
   
   Once all the water is drained you will fill the RO/DI water into buckets and add the salty shrimp to RO/DI water until the TDS is between 200-250. Add this water to your tank. Now your tank should be between 200-250 TDS.
   
   Wait 24 hours with the filter running etc.
   
   Take a small bucket of water and drip acclimate your shrimp (see: https://youtu.be/ZSnJjTEjWyU).
   
   This is going to take a few hours. Every 30-45 mins make sure to take some water out of the bucket. Eventually the water in your bucket and the water in the tank will be within 20 TDS of each other. When the water in the bucket is close to the water in the tank you will be set to transfer the new shrimp into his home.
   
   
2. Top off water with RO/DI water. Dont worry about pH swings you will have enough kH in your water that it will be a non issue.
   
   
3. Neos are pretty hardy. You could probably go 3-4 weeks easy before you will need a water change depending on how much crap you add to your water. When your tank gets to 250-300 TDS (or 3-4 weeks depending on which happens first) it's time for a water change.
   
   
4. When doing a water change the end goal is to make sure the TDS will end up between 200-250 TDS. It's a little bit of a guessing game (since I hate sitting down and doing all the math) but lets say your tank is at 300 TDS. I would do a 20% water change and when I am adding new water to the tank I would add gh/kh+ to the new RO/DI water until the TDS was 120-150. Once I added that to the tank the tanks TDS should normalize to about where I want it.
   
   A few pointers about your tank:
   
   
5. You will want a new filter. From the picture I saw I would araid of shrimplets getting sucked up into the big cracks you have on the filter you have. I would suggest a small aquaclear and to purchase one of these (http://www.hanaquatics.com/ss-filter-guard/)
   
   
6. I would purchase a small air powered filter (http://www.amazon.com/XinYou-Aquarium-Biochemical-Sponge-XY-2821/dp/B009V3UGDS) or (http://www.amazon.com/XY-380-Aquarium-Biochemical-Sponge-Filter/dp/B0051XIN78)
   
   The sponge filter will grow mincroorganisms that the shrimp love to eat. It will allow your shrimp to graze and be healthy at all times.
   
   I know this is a large wall of text but once you get the hang of it Neocardina are quite forgiving.
   
   NOTE: The salty Shrimp gh/kh is very concentrated so a little will go a long way.

I have this one, and a whisper 10 air pump. Standard air tubing and a check valve that I tbh haven't installed yet. My tank is ~5 gallons and the sponge filter doesn't put out too much flow for the animals--a betta would be very happy. There are corner ones that are more discreet than the stick on one. But for the stick on one debris doesn't get trapped and decay in the area around the little weight.

They are desk light with a very long flexible neck. https://www.amazon.com/Ikea-201-696-58-Jansjo-Light-Black/dp/B0055IVM1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466993900&sr=8-1&keywords=Jansjo+Desk+Work+LED

I would get a small sponge filter for it. I have these:

http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Sponge-Biochemical-Corner-Filter/dp/B008FM6HW0/ref=sr_1_5?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1422564820&sr=1-5&keywords=jardin+sponge+filter

They have round ones as well. They are very small so they won't be too intrusive and they serve the dual purpose of aerating and filtering.

Yes, I'm using the yeast reactor method. I have a 2 liter with a recipe I found online (most seemed to use the same amounts more or less) paired with one of these. The airline with the chopstick/bamboo from the reactor would be rubber banded to the side of air pump to diffuse. I guess what I'm saying is because I don't know the exact amount of CO2 I'm using & because this system cannot be 'turned off' I have no way of regulating or shutting off the system at night.

try using some of this:

http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-Shrimp-Mineral-Supplement-2-Ounce/dp/B004H2N3OM

I put off getting a timer for a long time because I assumed they were expensive and hard to use, but I was wrong on both accounts.