Taiwan KingKong and Straw Pellet

I downloaded this picture from a Taiwan shrimp forum.
It seems like those black king kongs really enjoy the pellets.

CRS && Straw Pellets

The concept of using an organic carbon source to reduce nutrients is not new to the hobby. Straw pellet has good resource of carbon. Recently, hobby in Taiwan starts to use Straw Pellet to help reduce excess nutrients, like NO3 in Crystal Red Shrimp tank. It works well, and the pellets are eatable.


"I smell something delicious~~"

"Comming..."

"Never have this before, so yummy!!" ^-^


A good thing for your tank,, and it feeds your shrimps as well. Why not give it a shot?

(PS: The tank shown in the picture is my No-Substrate-System Tank. It is working well so far.)

Nitrate NO3

Introduction to Nitrate

Ammonia produced by shrimp as a waste product is oxidized by aerobic bacteria in the biological filter: first to Nitrite(NO2) and further to Nitrate(NO3). In nature a complete nitrogen cycle exists, where plants utilize Nitrate as a food source, thus maintaining the very low Nitrate level. In the aquarium we create a one way system rather than a nutrient cycle. The plant growth is mostly insufficient to use up all the Nitrate introduced by the left food and waste. Nitrate will slowly accumulate, so that unnaturally high concentration are reached. Shrimp reacts distressfully to high Nitrate levels and will eventually die. High Nitrate levels could also cause the development of blue-green algae and hair algae. Nitrate level should be tested regularly.


This is my test result of Amonnia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

To prevent the build up of high levels of Nitrate:

1. Keep the shrimp/fish density low.
2. Stimulate plant growth.
3. Remove debritus, dead plants and other dirt.

!! No Substrate System !!

After I watched a Taiwan Entertaining Show, which showed how a lady in Taiwan took care her crystal red shrimps(and she got lots of king kongs), I found that maybe a tank with no substrate would be easier to manage. Here, I try it out.

This tank is simply equipped, with two biological filters: one regular Oxygen Plus Bio-Filter, the other one is DIY plus. The DIY one is easy to made:
1. place the regular Oxygen Plus Bio-Filter in a quart container;
2. fill the rest space in the quart with ADA soil;
It works better to lower the pH level.


We clean the bottom every two days for most of time. When necessary, we may do more. Suck out waste and the left-over food. No problem with sludge and mug. And no problem with planaria or round worm, since there's no place to hide.


a crystal red shrimp hang over the sponge

They are doing pretty well so far!

The bottom is like a mirror, pretty but not easy for crs to walk around now. But it will get better after moss grows over the bottom.

Hm, time to clean it now!