first planted shrimp tank ?'s

[mrmaronick]

I was looking at doing a ten gal all moss planted tank (java, weeping, flame, willow ect.) with rock and drift wood. I am going to stock with roughly ten RCS. my questions are.1. do I need co2 for an all moss tank with RCS.2. Do I need fert. for the moss.3. best lighting schedule. also I do not mind if I have to trim the moss weekly I have lots of uses for it. just don't want PH swings when lights out on that small of tank.

always wanted a low/high tec planted tank. wife says I cant have any more water till we get a bigger house already have some plans, drift wood and rocks picked out and stored till I we get a new place any input on planted tanks in general for a newbie are greatly appreciated. plans always changing. always make better, newer, fancier (pretty as the wife calls it)

 

[Huffers]

This would be a cool setup. For best results I would use some kind of water column fertilizer like API's Leafzone or Flourish Excel. I personally wouldn't invest in a full blown C02 system for a tank of this size but I've had good luck using liquid C02 additives in small tanks and that will fill your C02 needs.


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[mrmaronick]

Thank you I'll look into both. Plan to up grade it later to 29 gal if the wife likes enough. That was the main ? Was the co2. shrimp small not a lot o2 used = little co2 available for plants. And that's a lot of moss. It doesn't require a lot of co2 but I'd image there's very little to none with shrimp unless supper over stocked. Or small fish but I don't want them to eat the babys. The intention was to breed a bunch and feed the extras that would over crowd the tank to two of my bichirs For snacks and Cuz like mentioned earlier always wanted a planted tank so small to big if I like it.

 

[Fresh2o]

For a low light moss tank you don't need CO2. You could run it but if the lighting is low enough, there is not much demand for it. Ferts are not always necessary, either. May depend on your stocking.
I have a shrimp tank with snails and they get fed 2-4 times a week with various wafers/pellets. I am lighting it with a Finnex 24/7 at its lowest setting. About 8 hours per day. Hair algae was a problem when I used higher lighting.
The tank started out as Fissidens fontanus (moss) mounted on driftwood.

Over time, the fragments of Subwassertang took over.

Maintenance consists of weekly water changes and the usual feedings. Shrimp did NOT breed for several months but have started getting back into it (seeing baby shrimp in the last 3-4 weeks).


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[mrmaronick]

Been reading that everything needs to be just right for breeding. Ten gal should be pretty easy to maintain for the breeding. Its set up on a trickle water change that's set to do about a 23% change over a 7 day week. The drift wood should keep pH in check. Its not to bad out of the facet. What kind of lighting would you recomend ? A 4 red 2 blue 4 white LED lighting ok I think thats what it was or maybe 4 blue 2 red 4 white. Or different colors for moss?

 

[mrmaronick]

Nice tank to btw. Second pic looks kinda what going after a partial jungle theme/scape

 

[Caliban07]

For a low light moss tank you don't need CO2. You could run it but if the lighting is low enough, there is not much demand for it. Ferts are not always necessary, either. May depend on your stocking.
I have a shrimp tank with snails and they get fed 2-4 times a week with various wafers/pellets. I am lighting it with a Finnex 24/7 at its lowest setting. About 8 hours per day. Hair algae was a problem when I used higher lighting.
The tank started out as Fissidens fontanus (moss) mounted on driftwood.

Over time, the fragments of Subwassertang took over.

Maintenance consists of weekly water changes and the usual feedings. Shrimp did NOT breed for several months but have started getting back into it (seeing baby shrimp in the last 3-4 weeks).


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I wonder what the par is at the lowest setting. Seems like this could be a marker for co2 uptake and getting a balance without using it.


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[acewiza]

I'm doing something similar with a 20gal tall, lighting 12hr/day. RCS, Malaysian Trumpet Snails, plants and Guppies are all happily procreating like crazy. Using a combination of Flourish and Excel seems to be keeping Java Moss, Duckweed and a couple other plants I forgot the name of healthy as can be.

 

[mrmaronick]

Sounds like mine diff snails though. I was thinkg of running 14-16 hr/day might need to dial it back for algae boom though might not be to bad with only ten gal. What kind of lighting are you running

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[acewiza]

Don't know the technical designation, but a standard fluorescent bulb is what I'm using. That is literally all the light that tank gets because it is in the basement away from any window. It must be doing the trick, because the duckweed growth is just amazing. I've been skimming it off once or twice a week for feeding to the cichlids in our main tank and goldfish in the pond. The goldfish in particular, seem to love it. I was afraid it would catch on in there and overgrow the pond, but whatever I give them is gone the next day.

 

[mrmaronick]

Wow I havnt had to trim any of my plants yet and they are on a 14 hr/day full on and 10 hr 15% power on just white LED strips and the fancy goldfish I have completely destroy 60% of my plants getting ready to move them to a fake plant tank

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[acewiza]

Goldfish can be tough on plants. I see them nibbling on the water hyacinth roots all the time.

 

[mrmaronick]

Water sprite is the worst. They leave moss alone though. My pleco likes nothing but moss but keeps it trimmed nice. That's the thinking of a shrimp tank. More less a refuge for the plants and food source via shrimp for my Senegal and armored bichir to eat. Why pay for food when I can raise my own food and use an unused tank

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