Best Kit For a Small Cherry Shrimp Setup?

[Rokuzachi]

Hey guys!

I've decided that my large and rather barren kitchen needs some decoration. I've never done inverts before, so I thought it would be fun to do a small planted tank with nothing but Red Cherry Shrimp.

My main question is - what's the best kit for this? I bought my last tank piece by piece from a bunch of places, so I'd like to go with a kit this time. I was thinking of the Eclipse 12 or 3 system. Would that work alright? The 3 seems a bit small, but I don't know much about da shrimps. (How many can you house in tanks of those sizes anyways?)

I'd prefer to stay in the 5-10ish gallon range, so if you know of a good kit for a good price, let me know. Thanks!

 

[James_in_MN]

You should be careful with some of those kits. More often than not, the filter included with them isn't suited for the size tank it comes with. Sure, the manufacturer will claim that the filtration is adequate for that particular kit, but you should really be taking 50-65% of the manufacturer's claimed filtration capability when looking at the actual ability of the filter. For example, I have an Aqueon QuietFlow 30 on my 20g high tank, which makes the claim that it will filter up to a 45g.

A few of those kits have terrible access into the tank as well. I looked into a couple of the Marineland Eclipse kits at one point, and even tried and returned the 5 gallon hex. You had to practically disassemble the hood of the aquarium to do anything in the tank, from adding fish to doing a water change. Make sure you're thinking about that when you look into any of those kits.

That said, I did buy the Aqueon 10 gallon kit, which I'm currently cycling. The filter that comes with it is supposedly good for a 20 gallon tank, which is what you really want. The deluxe hood that comes with it (standard 15w florescent) is OK for low light plants, and it comes with a 50w heater.

People on the boards will recommend AquaClear filters over Aqueon, which is another reason why the majority will suggest avoiding kits altogether. They really do have a point; the biological filtration on a Aqueon Quietflow is kind of bizzare. I actually ended up enhancing mine by adding a Fluval Chi foam pad between the biological plate and the outflow back into the tank to add more surface area for bacteria to grow.

 

[HUKIT]

I have this one on my kitchen counter and I love it. Easy to clean, maintain, great lighting and ease of use.

Fluval 7.9 US Gallon Ebi Nano Shrimp Glass Aquarium with Cover - 10511#

 

[Durvish]

That's a nice looking Nano kit!

 

[BigJim]

I use a Marineland Eclipse 5g hex for one of my RCS colonies. It does the job.

 

[James_in_MN]

I use a Marineland Eclipse 5g hex for one of my RCS colonies. It does the job.

That's the exact kit that I tried and took back. I hated how restricted access to the tank was with that setup. I had to take off the filter cover, take off the light, and take off the plastic protection for the light just to access anything in the tank. And I'm not sure of the quality of the filter that came with it either, but that might not matter for a shrimp tank.

Have you replaced that entire hood with something else, or does it work well as a shrimp tank?

 

[Rokuzachi]

Whoa, the Fluval Ebi looks awesome! I'm going to order it as soon as Friday, and my paycheck, get here!

Thanks for pointing that out, I was all over amazon last night and never saw that thing.

 

[BigJim]

That's the exact kit that I tried and took back. I hated how restricted access to the tank was with that setup. I had to take off the filter cover, take off the light, and take off the plastic protection for the light just to access anything in the tank. And I'm not sure of the quality of the filter that came with it either, but that might not matter for a shrimp tank.

Have you replaced that entire hood with something else, or does it work well as a shrimp tank?

The restricted access is a bit of a pain, but the tank is low maintenance with only RCS. I tore apart a stock cartridge, filled the frame with canister filter foam, and seeded it in the filter on my 29g for a few months. It does a pretty decent job and I only have to clean it once every couple months.

I do a PWC once every two weeks or so. I have a bucket that's just about the same size as the tank. I start a siphon with a couple pieces of air line and I let it run until it stops itself and I work on my other tanks in the meantime. I've got a mess of java moss and anacharis in the tank that I pretty much leave alone. I've trim the anacharis once every few months.