My Shrimp Breeding Rack
As the number of different species and colours of shrimp I am keeping
increased. I set up this shrimp rack and sold some tanks rather than
adding more aquariums. The
main issue I had with having multiple separate tanks was the
maintenance. Each tank required individual water changes, top ups and
monitoring.
I'm
lazy and I don't want to have to worry all the time about fluctuations
in the water. With the shrimp rack I am able to have the tanks running
through sumps for filtration. This makes water changes and top-ups easy
and the increased water volume helps with stability. Having the tanks
running on the same water also makes it easy to move shrimp without
acclimatisation.
My Shrimp Breeding Rack Criteria
- minimal set up & running costs
- Minimal set up and running costs.
- Use the 2 available 120x45x45 tanks which I had.
- Be able to breed several different colours of neocaridina and caridina in their own compartment.
- Keep shrimp in their ideal conditions rather than add neocaridina to a tank set up for caridina.
- Be able to be dismantled and moved as we are renting.
- Be able to isolate chambers in the case of disease or infection.
As the focus of this rack is cherry shrimp, Taiwan bee and crystal shrimp,
to minimise cost and have the shrimp in their ideal water. I wanted to
be able to use one chiller for both water parameters as both species
like around 23-24°C.
I was able to purchase a second
hand Teco tc10 which is rated to 450 litre for cheap. After a test run
on one of the tanks I was able to get the twin tanks running two water parameters with one chiller.
The Shrimp Rack
Tanks: 2 - 120x45x4; 2 - standard 2';
Racking: Bunnings Rack-It 1800 x 600 mm with 3 shelves
Lighting: 30W T8 Halogens - Twin unit on the top tank with single on the bottom.
Pumps: 2x Pet Worx 2500 L/hr 50W (~1750 L/hr @ 1.8m head height)
Substrate: Outer Chambers (caridina) - ADA Amazonia normal, capped with powdered type
Inner Chambers (neocaridina) - Inert Gravel
Filtration: 3' sump divided into 2 with one side filtering each species.
Filter media: k1 fluid bed, blue japmat, seachem matrix and filter floss.
Optional - Purigen, Phosguard, Cuprisorb, charcoal as required.
The tanks are divided so that I have 9 sections with the middle 3 for cherry shrimp and the outside 5 for crystal and Taiwan bee varieties.
Strengthening the Shrimp Rack Shelves.
One of the main concerns I had read about the Rack-it shelving was the tendency to bend when under a large load. Even though it is rated to 750 kg per shelf, any bending causes unnecessary stress and potentially cracking or seam failure on the tanks. I wanted to make sure the shelves were stiff.
The shelves are made
out of 2 layers of plywood separated by hardwood battens. The top layer
is the full width of the rack with strips added so that the force is spread
over the top of the beam. This means the force is over the centroid
rather than off to the side which causes twisting. I was able to sit on
one of the shelves with over 300kg in water containers and was unable to
measure any deflection. Holes cut in the shelves between the battens
allow access for the plumbing.
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