Reddit mentions of XINYOU XY-2821 Aquarium Biochemical Sponge Filter Fish Tank (1-Pack)

I was in your shoes not too long ago, it's overwhelming! Here's a list of things that I bought, but I am not an expert so if others have better input go for that:

Equipment

• 10 gallon tank with hood
  
• Broad Spectrum Light The one that came with the hood did not provide enough for the plants, you definitely need to invest in a broad spectrum bulb.
  
• CaribSea Flora Max Substrate I learned that shrimp prefer darker color substrate, this was worth the investment! My shrimp were so unhappy with cheap gravel, after switching to this substrate they are very active.
  
• Air pump
  
• Sponge filter
  
• Heater, maybe optional for you?
  
• Thermometer
  
• Gallon Bucket
  
• Siphon
  
• Seachem Prime Because it's a smaller tank, I ended up poking a pinhole sized hole in the seal so that I could use it as drops rather than pouring it in.
  
• [Seachem Stability] (https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-67101230-Stability-500ml/dp/B0002APIIW/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1499786377&sr=1-1&keywords=seachem+stability) Use this while you're cycling your tank, follow the instructions.
  
• API Test Kit
  
• Feeding Tray For the longest time I was really confused as to how the feeding tray worked, you can either get a tube or pre-soak the pellets and then drop them into the tray using long tweezers. This will help prevent ammonia/nitrite spikes.
  
• Long Tweezer Set
  
• Pellets Do also feed them blanched vegetables, make sure to peel the skin and buy organic to avoid chemicals/pesticides
  
• Timer Outlet Worth the investment! So you don't have to keep remembering to turn the light on and off.
  
  Shop for whatever is cheaper, I have a huge heater because I had an extra one from before. I've read that it's not necessary but also have read that if you want them to breed you need to stimulate warm water. For now, I keep the heater off and leave it at room temperature of 72F. They seem very happy! Most important in my opinion, add plenty of plants and a marimo ball or 2.
  
  Lastly, I'm unsure of the siphon, I think it's good to have a bucket and siphon just in case your water parameters are looking bad so you are prepared to do a water change. From what I read, shrimp have a very low bio load and should be able to sustain themselves. Make sure to do tests regularly.
  
  EDIT I just read that this is your first aquarium, so here is a detailed write up:
  
  Setting up your tank
  
  
• 1. Find a stable top to place your aquarium on, keep in mind a well sunlit room will mean more plant/algae growth. Make sure it's sturdy and made for heavy objects, don't want to place it on a flimsy shelf or it might break! I keep mine on top a waterproof place mat because water drips are going to happen.
     
• 2. Rinse everything as a precaution! NEVER use dish soap!! If you must sanitize, vinegar is okay. Just make sure to rinse thoroughly. Also, NEVER use any kind of soap on your hands before handling things, just rinse well with water. Add your substrate, I lightly rinsed mine as there are beneficial bacteria living inside the substrate, pour it in. Make sure it's at least 2" of floor. Your water will be cloudy if you bought the substrate I listed, don't worry as it will settle after an hour and be clear.
     
• 3. Fill water half way, use a small plate and pour the water on top of that to avoid the substrate being pushed around. NEVER use hot water! If you're using tap water be sure to always use cold water. It's also recommended to purchase "RO water" (Reverse Osmosis Water) as some times your tap water can be too "hard". The best thing to do is use the test kit on tap water and go from there. If the kH/gH are very high 100+ you will need to use RO water. I like to place my plants and decor now while the tank is half full. Place in your thermometer, heater, sponge filter, etc. After that, continue to fill all the way to the top remembering to aim the stream on top the plate. Leave about a half to an inch from the top.
     
• 4. Take out plate, plug in filter, add in Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability. Please read the label for instructions and dosage according to your tank size. Since there is nothing inside you can add it after you've added the water to the tank. Moving forward, be sure to add the chemicals in the water bucket BEFORE pouring into the tank.
     
• 5. Turn on filter, wait for the water to settle and temperature to come up. They say shrimp can tolerate 52F to 86F but ideally room temperature water is best, this is where your water heater will come into play. Follow which ever cycling method you choose before purchasing your shrimp. This can take up to 6 weeks.
     
     After your tank has cycled
     
     
• 1. When adding your shrimp, there are many methods, the way I acclimate my shrimp is:
     
• 2. Put the shrimp in a 1 gallon tub using the water that they came in.
     
• 3. Drop in a tablespoon of the tank water, ONCE every 2 minutes.
     
• 4. After the water has reached 1/3 old water, 2/3rd new water, your shrimp are ready to be placed into your tank.
     
     Please don't skip the important step of acclimating your shrimp! They are very sensitive to water changes and this ensures that they will survive.
     
     Here are my water parameters, people have all kinds of ranges but this is what works for me:
     
     
• kH: 60 / gH: 40 / pH: 7.0 / NO2: 0 / NO3: 20 / Ammonia: 0 / Temperature: 72F
  
  I hope this helps... again, I was in your shoes not too long ago, it was really overwhelming. But after a lot of research I think my tank is in a good place :). Other users, if there's anything in my list that seems incorrect please let me know!

Well, I'm still in the planning stages but I'm going to be using a sponge filter for my aquarium. I have some activated carbon at home I use for terrariums and I'll just place it in the clear exhaust tube so it can do its work after the main sponge. It removes tannins, some bad bacteria, and a lot of the smell. It's purely cosmetic, but the best method is just to keep changing water on a regular basis.

For the far side, a few options:

1. tiny power filter https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Blue-Professional-ADB88700-Aquarium/dp/B00BUFTI6Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467385633&sr=8-1&keywords=deep+blue+professional+filter (lfs guy has these on his mini shrimp tanks)
   
   
2. sponge filter: https://www.amazon.com/Bacto-surge-Foam-Filter-Large/dp/B00GOFPX9I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467385683&sr=8-2&keywords=sponge+filter
   
   
3. another sponge filter option: https://www.amazon.com/XinYou-Aquarium-Biochemical-Sponge-XY-2821/dp/B009V3UGDS/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1467385683&sr=8-8&keywords=sponge+filter
   
   
4. the wildcard (interesting product, no experience with it) https://www.amazon.com/Hydrodynamic-Perfecto-Marineland-Aquarium-Filtration/dp/B01BI02JMC/ref=lp_13691185011_1_2?srs=13691185011&ie=UTF8&qid=1467385743&sr=8-2
   
   
   ---
   
   for the middle one: https://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Aquarium-Stone-Sponge-Filter/dp/B008FLWY5U/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1467385522&sr=8-29&keywords=sponge+filter+jardin
   
   should be more than enough, get the 99c control valves or a 'hub' to dial in the airflow to each. (cheapest in box stores or walmart)

Due to the small size of a 3.5g, this may suit a bit better in terms of fit.

Alternatively Aqualighter's aLift sponge filter is similar and may (subjectively) look better.

Finally, if sound is an issue; I am running an aquaclear HOB with a makeshift prefilter sponge on my 3.5g cube (CRS) which is much quieter than a sponge filter.

this is what i'm using in all my tanks. if that's too big, this is a good alternative.

NEVER buy this. the connection for the air tube is too big and is nearly impossible to get a tube on.

https://www.amazon.com/XinYou-Aquarium-Biochemical-Sponge-XY-2821/dp/B009V3UGDS/ref=sr_1_11?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1465774279&sr=1-11&keywords=sponge+filter

Hook an air filter to that and you're good to go. I'm actually using 4 of the larger ones in my 20gallon partitioned tank.

http://imgur.com/ft6R7F7

and that's the only filter I'm using. Shrimps don't produce a lot of waste so a sponge filter works fine.


Here's my 2.5G tank setup:
http://imgur.com/zSssxHq

For my 10g I bought this filter http://amzn.com/B009V3UGDS
I also have the valve pointed towards the glass of the aquarium so the surface isn't too turbid for my betta

I recommend getting the filters off amazon rather than an LFS, they're a bit marked up at all the LFS I've been to.

Air pump Air line Filter

Sponge filters really are the best when it comes to shrimp tanks. I would only do a betta if you added a fish, but you also run the risk of the betta eating the shrimp. Ghost shrimp or neocaridina would be great.

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.

5g sponge filter, air pump

easy to clean just rinse the sponge filter in tank water, separated from the tank like in a bucket, every other week.

These filters will take up most of the side of a 10 gallon so they're pretty big. The single filter can do 10-15 gallons so two duble ones should be good too! (also, these have 10 larger rings per sponge, others have only six or seven and are much smaller (you can count using the darker, thinner places between them in the pics)). They may cost a bit more but they're quality as far as we can tell. I've heard they may last two years or so, even up to five years.

We're using this pump in the 40-60 gallon size and it has a 4 part gangway on it. It's running three of the smaller double sponges and two breeder box lifting tubes. It's decently quiet, sounds almost like the fridge when it turns on. Just recently got louder so we threw some towels in with it and it quieted down nicely. Doesn't get too warm either.

Now for the set-up. see that clear tube that ends 2/3 of the way up next to the larger tube? That's where you will stick an air pump line. The air bubbles will get ejected into the tube and end up in the bottom of the large tube. They will then go upwards, drawing the surrounding water up with it. This action draws water through the sponge, filtering it. I would recommend that you put this as deep as you can in your take and have the exit tube barely submerged but as high as you can get it. My engineering student mind thinks that it will draw more water this way.

I'm happy to help any way I can.