New to fishkeeping, got a Peacock Mantis Shrimp on the way :)

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Good call on the skimmer, some models are a bit noisy and you don’t absolutely need one. You just need a way to keep nitrates low and skimmers are one way of doing that. Water changes, IMO, are a lot of work and don’t ultimately deal with the source of nitrates - dissolving left over food and waste. Neither does macroalgae but the benefit is that macro requires a lot less routine maintenance. I recommend only doing 10% water changes weekly otherwise it can really burn you out.

If you control nitrates well, you won’t need UV. It’s a nice emergency option but there are other ways to contain shell rot. One thing that’ll help is soaking freeze dried shrimp or krill in Selcon, a vitamin additive.

A filter bag is a small bag with a drawstring and you can put different filtering agents or media inside it and drop the bag into one of the baskets inside your canister filter. This ensures that tank water circulates through it. Activated carbon is great because it chemically purifies water. It will adsorb - chemically bond to - contaminants in the water which may come from the air in the room, from the salt mix you use, etc. It will help reduce odors too. I put about 3 tablespoons (~15 grams) of carbon in the bag each time.

You’ll do fine in this hobby as long as you’re willing to learn. I’ve kept mantis shrimp on and off since 2012 and every new tank teaches me another lesson.

My current tank is one of my most successful and it’s because I didn’t overthink things. I kept it simple, understanding the chemistry problems and just being a bit more relaxed with everything. My Peacock got shell rot initially because of high nitrates but I just treated with Selcon and he molted the diseased shell off and hasn’t had a problem since.

Thanks @nmotz. I'll take your advice and get some of that Selcon. I think I'll get rid of the UV from my order too. One thing that consistently comes up on the "top N mistakes for beginners" videos and articles seems to be to avoid over-complicating your setup in an effort to solve problems you don't have. I think I'm better off setting things up and seeing what my nitrate levels look like before I obsess too much about how to solve that problem - I can always do some combination of the things you've suggested in reaction when I have an issue.

I'll obviously aim for as few water changes as I can get away with, obviously without putting the mantis shrimp at any risk. I accept this isn't a low maintenance hobby, but where possible I'd like to reduce drudgery and water changes don't sound like a particularly fun job.

I'm definitely willing to learn - I've picked up a huge amount of information already over the past few days, but I'm sure it'll be a whole different game when I've actually got everything here in front of me.

Thanks again for all the really helpful tips!
 

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Welcome to R2R, good luck with your mantis
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I’m not unfortunately - I’m at least 60 miles from the coast and with the price of petrol in the U.K. at the moment I practically need a second mortgage of my house to fill my car up :)

I’ve ordered an RO unit though so I’ll make my own. Still need to pay for salt of course, but at least I won’t be hauling water from a local fish store every week.
 
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Just a quick update in case anyone is interested. I have my tank set up and all the equipment installed now. I've aquascaped the tank with Caribsea Life Rock, and installed a mantis shrimp cave made of black uPVC pipe with three entrances. Got all the sand in there now (this photo was when only about half the sand was in). Aiming to get the water in this evening - I've got all the RO water I need made up already.

I think I'm actually going to put a fish in there before the mantis shrimp - recognising of course that it may end up as dinner for the mantis, but as this is my first ever tank I'd rather take my first risks on water quality etc. with a cheap and hardy fish. Can't wait for the mantis to arrive!

IMG_2192.jpeg
 

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Just a quick update in case anyone is interested. I have my tank set up and all the equipment installed now. I've aquascaped the tank with Caribsea Life Rock, and installed a mantis shrimp cave made of black uPVC pipe with three entrances. Got all the sand in there now (this photo was when only about half the sand was in). Aiming to get the water in this evening - I've got all the RO water I need made up already.

I think I'm actually going to put a fish in there before the mantis shrimp - recognising of course that it may end up as dinner for the mantis, but as this is my first ever tank I'd rather take my first risks on water quality etc. with a cheap and hardy fish. Can't wait for the mantis to arrive!

IMG_2192.jpeg
I wouldn't worry about the fish at first. I have clowns staging before they go into my display tank and the Mantis could care less. He's surrounded by live emeralds, hermits and snails. Even those have been safe. He prefers the easy food (most predators do) I hand down to him with tongs (krill, clams on half shell, silversides). He's fun to feed. I'm sure if I neglected feeding him for a few days and he blazed through his free-range food, he might expel the energy to chase down a fish and try and catch it. Maybe. Also, for whatever it's worth, my peacock prefers his tube to the caves in his tank. He stands guard of that tube just poking his eyes and antenna out all day. Its pretty freaking adorable to be honest. Fun creature to take care of.
 
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I wouldn't worry about the fish at first. I have clowns staging before they go into my display tank and the Mantis could care less. He's surrounded by live emeralds, hermits and snails. Even those have been safe. He prefers the easy food (most predators do) I hand down to him with tongs (krill, clams on half shell, silversides). He's fun to feed. I'm sure if I neglected feeding him for a few days and he blazed through his free-range food, he might expel the energy to chase down a fish and try and catch it. Maybe. Also, for whatever it's worth, my peacock prefers his tube to the caves in his tank. He stands guard of that tube just poking his eyes and antenna out all day. Its pretty freaking adorable to be honest. Fun creature to take care of.
Ah that's good :) I'll be sure to keep the mantis well fed and hopefully he'll be willing to share his home with a few fish. I definitely won't go crazy with the fish until I know how well behaved my mantis shrimp is, but it'd be awesome if he'll let me have a bit of a clean up crew in there with him too - I know other people have managed that.

I'm fully expecting him to spend a lot of his time guarding the entrance to his tubes, so I've put them where I'll be able to see him and where it'll be easy to give him food with tongs. Exciting times!
 

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Just a quick update in case anyone is interested. I have my tank set up and all the equipment installed now. I've aquascaped the tank with Caribsea Life Rock, and installed a mantis shrimp cave made of black uPVC pipe with three entrances. Got all the sand in there now (this photo was when only about half the sand was in). Aiming to get the water in this evening - I've got all the RO water I need made up already.

I think I'm actually going to put a fish in there before the mantis shrimp - recognising of course that it may end up as dinner for the mantis, but as this is my first ever tank I'd rather take my first risks on water quality etc. with a cheap and hardy fish. Can't wait for the mantis to arrive!

IMG_2192.jpeg
Very nice looking so far!
 
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Thanks @nmotz :)

My mantis shrimp is arriving tomorrow! I've quick-cycled the tank using bottled bacteria and had a couple of small clownfish in there since Saturday - so far so good (I mean, they're not dead yet, so I must be doing something right). The tank parameters seemed good on Sunday, I'll check them again today just to be sure.

So excited for tomorrow!
 
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My clown fish pair. Fingers crossed my mantis shrimp decides to get along with them :)

IMG_2226.jpeg
 
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He’s arrived! His name is Oatmeal. Seems happy and healthy so far, I bought ten live feeder shrimp with him and he’s already whacked about three of them in the first hour. He’s properly whacked the glass three or four times whilst aiming for shrimp - sounds like a stone hitting the windscreen. I’m hoping I’ll have to be pretty unlucky for him to break the glass but it’s pretty scary when you hear that cracking sound!

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My mantis shrimp has been in the tank for about 18 hours now and isn't using the uPVC cave I created for him. Instead he's settled on a spot behind a piece of rock as his default home. Last night I saw him try out one of the entrances to the cave - he went inside and appeared to attempt to turn around inside, then instead backed out the same way he went in, and hasn't looked at it since. Have I made it using a pipe diameter that's too small? I read that it's supposed to be large enough for him to turn around inside, but it was difficult for me to understand what that translated to in terms of actual dimensions. I had read that two inch diameter (50mm) was about right so that's what I've gone for. I really hope I don't have to rip it out and replace it quite yet! The next size that's readily available in the UK is 68mm.
 

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What a pretty chap! I wouldn't worry too much about him not using his lair, unless he is a giant 2 inch should be adequate, it can take a while before they settle on a home and I wouldn't be suprised if you see him try out a few potential lairs over the next few days. I wouldn't worry about cracking the glass either and again his hitting the glass will probably die down once he settles in.
 
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Curious... until yesterday my tank water was starting to look slightly hazy - like if you looked at it from the side you could only just about make out the rock at the far end. It just seemed like there were lots of very tiny particles in the water. Then I put Oatmeal in the tank yesterday lunch time and woke up to find the water is gin clear. That's obviously a good outcome from my point of view, I'm just curious how it happened. or what was causing the haze in the first place. I had quick cycled the tank with JBL Denitrol bottled bacteria - perhaps the bacteria were in the water and they've now settled into the rock?
 
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He she’s quite happy in there now, Apennine most of her time in the cave at the moment but coming out for a stroll around the tank every couple of hours or so. I’m pretty sure now that Oatmeal is a she, but when I can get a clear side on photo I’ll post it and see if everyone agrees :)
 

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