journal My crystal shrimp nano jungle.

[Hyzenthlay]

Hi everyone,

Thought I might start a journal for my newest tank. In the past I've just done pretty heavily planted setups but I thought I might try something a bit more ambitious this time.

My crystal shrimp are currently boarding with my cherries (there was a sale and they were the last ones and I couldn't resist) and although they seem happy enough I intend to get some more and start a breeding colony so they will need their own pad.

The tank is a 27L Aqua One Xpression but I upgraded the light to a Up Aqua Pro Z Led.

This is the first stage of the scape. A bit messy at the moment and some things not quite where I want them (large goldvine needs a bit of shuffling). Also, the driftwood is currently held down by my trademark spare rocks (I soaked them but then left them out of water for a few days because I needed the bucket). And there is glue everywhere! Need to peel it off as it turned white in the water and looks gross.

Any suggestions or comments welcome!

Anyone have any ideas for plants? I was thinking of growing something on those wood pieces. Also, as I now have a decently strong light I was considering trying a carpeting plant. Stems might be restricted to the back as most would probably overgrow this tank.

[BlueBolts]

Thanks for sharing, very nice, I like it the way it is ATM…. I use to have planted tanks, and it's a difficult habit to break, as we tend to naturally fill in all the gaps with plants.

What's the feature rock you've got there ?

[Hyzenthlay]

Thanks! I'm planning to do some more work on it tomorrow if possible.

The biggest rock is Seiryu Stone. The smaller rocks are mini ones.

It's tempting to plant it right up but then I might never see the pretty shrimp I spent all my money on. Also, my big tank needs enough pruning for 3 tanks so I might try and make this one lower maintenance. :P

[Squiggle]

Awesome looking scape, definitely a lot of potential there, can't wait to see it progress, thanks for sharing. :victorious:

[Hyzenthlay]

Thanks for all your encouraging comments everyone.

I did some more work on this tank last night. I'm a bit sick atm and was dosed up on the trippy painkillers so it could have ended up looking quite interesting. Luckily I ordered the plants beforehand so my psychedelic colour rainbow explosion choices were limited. Here is what it looks like this morning.

I have ordered some Glossostigma to fill in a few gaps and get a carpet growing. Hopefully the light it good enough.

When the driftwood is saturated I can remove those rocks.

I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. I'm having trouble deciding what to house in it though. I have some CBS waiting in another tank and have ordered some Mishlings. Could I put another species in there too (eg. cherries or some zebra shrimp) or would they bully the crystals and stop them ever breeding? I'm not planning to mass produce shrimp for cash or anything but I would like to see some babies.

Filter is packed with matrix and running so it can start cycling. Should I put purigen or something in there too? Or is it unnecessary?

[jayc]

That looks nice now that it's filled in.

You'll need to block that filter inlet with SS mesh or sponge however. Shrimplets will get sucked into that filter inlet.

Macropore is a cheaper alternative to purigen, but it's not necessary yet. Your tank is still cycling, so you don't want to remove anything that Macropore or Purigen will remove.

[Hyzenthlay]

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I was planning to cut off a piece of sponge and wedge it just inside the intake to stop the shrimplets going through. Then just rinse it every water change to stop it clogging. Is a finer pored sponge best just in case they are really tiny? My other tanks have different sorts of filters that i just put guards on.

[jayc]

The sponge can't be too fine or it will block off too much water flow. The sort of sponge used in filters will be best.

[Hyzenthlay]

Excellent. I have a large bit of course sponge on hand that should do. Even if a really tiny shrimp gets sucked into the first filter compartment it shouldn't hurt it. I'll check regularly anyway even with the sponge.

[poeticwinter]

nice setup... agree sponge filter is best for keeping shrimp. keep posted

[Squiggle]

Very cool scape, looks amazing, thanks for sharing! :victorious:

[Hyzenthlay]

At the moment he tank is cycling and has gross looking fungus growing all over the wood as tends to happen. Even the rich fish food is not giving me enough ammonia to really get it started though. Hurry up liquid ammonia I ordered online! :P

[Hyzenthlay]

I've been putting liquid ammonia in to fishless cycle and not changing water.

Today readings are:

NH3/NH4+: 1ppm

N02-: 5ppm

N03-: 40ppm

I'm guessing it is getting close to being ready to put shrimp in? I'm not sure how much it needs to be able to convert a day just for shrimp, but I guess you can't overcycle.

[jayc]

You're almost there!

[Squiggle]

Are you sure NO2 is right, that's nitrogen dioxide? I'm guessing that's a typo & you mean NO3(nitrite) & NO4(nitrate) :encouragement:

[Hyzenthlay]

Yeah, I did mean nitrite and nitrate. I'm a bit sick and dazed at the moment and I just copied it off the API test kit. It lists the polyatomic negatively charged molecules because those are the ones that are found in the water I think. NO2 is nitrogen dioxide but NO2- is nitrite. And N03- is the negatively charged nitrate while the uncharged NO4 does not exist in natural conditions. I had to double check that though because it's been a while since I had to do much chemistry. :P

[Squiggle]

Very interesting, you learn something new everyday, thanks for the info! :encouragement:

[Hyzenthlay]

Tested the water today and we have….

0 total ammonia

0 nitrites

…and a ridiculous amount of nitrates.

I added a small amount of ammonia today and dropped the thermostat to CBS temperatures. I guess if it is still good tomorrow I might do some water changes to remove the nitrate and drag my sorry self out to get some of algae eating glass shrimp to clean it up a bit before I start putting the other guys in. If they start to compete with the other shrimp for food once they are done cleaning I'll move them into the community tank. (I could just catch some from another tank but I'm still pretty sick and not feeling up to an hour chasing shrimp with a net so I can probably spare the $5 and 15 min drive a decent number of new ones will cost me).

[Hyzenthlay]

I have shrimp in it now. Decided to put in some DAS the other day and as they seemed to be doing well I put in my carbon rills and army of baby mystery snails to grow out. Might monitor the tank for another week or two to make sure it is stable before I put the more sensitive CBS in there. (Sorry about the blurry phone pics)

Go my algae army!

And one off the carbons who has come out of hiding.

The carbons are culls with random patterns but some have coloured up really nicely and I want to try and selectively breed them. :)

[Squiggle]

Very nice shrimp, thanks for sharing! :encouragement:

[Hyzenthlay]

Another carbon photo!

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[shrimpstan]

tank looks sweet! love the carbon rilis :encouragement:

[Hyzenthlay]

Thanks! Also, I was wondering whether if when I move crystals in here whether I could use Deionised water with salty shrimp added because I can't quite afford an RO unit. Or would that harm them?

[Hyzenthlay]

I managed to catch all my CBS from the other tank and transfer them over last night. They were not particularly impressed by being chased around by nets but they are grazing around the tank this morning and the water in this tank should suit them much better.

All of them turned out to be female though so I have a couple of males that should arrive tomorrow.

And I decided to grab an RO unit as an early birthday present as my attempts to buy RO water went a little awry. :S

[Hyzenthlay]

More photos! I really need a decent camera but unfortunately I need to go have surgery in January so that will probably take all my money for a while. At least I already got my shrimp!

Do you think my shrimp should be ok while I'm recovering if I just do a water change and what not on all my tanks a few days before? I guess if anything dramatic happens and I need to do more maintenance I can always tell my partner how to do it but it seems a bit mean if he has to give up his only time off work to look after me and then have to look after my tanks as well.

Also, anyone used Borneowild Humic before? I'm thinking of using it to gradually lower the ph a bit for the crystals as well as the RO water changes now.

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