Sulawesi Shrimp Tank

Finally, after weeks of emotional "recovery", I've decided to give Sulawesi shrimps another try. This time, I'm going by the books i.e. setting up a dedicated tank for them with controlled water parameters.

I got a new 1ft glass tank, Shiruba XB-303 filter, DIY fan and an el-cheapo lamp for the setup. The substrate was laid with a scoop of Bacter-100 and covered with a layer of coral sand to increase the pH and alkalinity. The top is then covered with white sand and decorated with marble and lava rocks (with some moss tied) to give it a beautiful sandy look ... well, I did not have a place to put the moss tied of lava rocks and so I thought I'd just dump it in.

I also checked the water parameters for the past few days and it has been stable at pH 8.0 (did not get any test kit to check on the alkalinity but did an immediate pH check after a water change to ensure that there are no pH swings). The result was looking good and so I decided to do an acid test ... with a few green shrimps and a ramshorn snail. :)

Thankfully, the green shrimps and snail has been surviving for the past 2-3 days now indicating that the tank should be fairly stable. I've also added some Shirakura mineral powder to improve the mineral contents in the tank (heard from a friend (J-wing) that it could have helped his last Sulawesi Cardinal shrimp survive in his acidic planted tank).