Graham's 5.5g planted tank

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gboduszek

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Jun 25, 2013
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So I made the thread in the invert section since I am going to keep shrimp but it's kind of morphed into more of a planted tank.

Inhabitants are:
5 ember tetras
5 Pygmy corys
2 otos
Sumatran blue cobalt goby

I also just added 4 cherry shrimp a few days ago. So far everyone has been doing great

FTS
ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1436802891.367872.jpg


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Cool tank! Plants look great! Be prepared to deal with a whole ton of baby shrimp in a month or two, those cherries breed non stop!
 
Cool tank! Plants look great! Be prepared to deal with a whole ton of baby shrimp in a month or two, those cherries breed non stop!

At least some of the shrimp fry will definitely be food for the fish in that tank.
 
Thanks Nils.. And ya I knew the risk of the baby shrimp being eaten.. That's why I decided to start with just cherry shrimp and see how many, if any of the offspring survive. If all goes well I'm going to get 5 or 6 red crystals in a few weeks. For now though everything is doing great and very stable since the tank re-setup. (About a week ago my tank sprung a leak right before I went to bed so I decided to just get a new 5.5 tank but with black silicone this time)


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So thus far only RO water has been used in the tank with the idea it would be best for delicate shrimp since I have no idea what's in the tap water.. Should I be using some sort of buffer when I do WC's or is my shrimp substrate enough to keep the pH stable? I haven't had any deaths in the tank but was just wondering for down the road when I give the red crystals a try


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Great start.. Tank looks cool. Have you tested for TDS? I think the shrimp substrate will be enough to buffer the ph for sometime. Are you reminerlizing the RO?
 
I make sure TDS is 0 as use the unit for my reef tank. I am not doing anything to the water before I put it in the tank at this point.. Should I be? And if so can you suggest something. I know that substrate will do for some time but obviously it will lose its capacity at some point


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It's good to reconstitute the RO before adding it to the tank. There's different requirements for shrimp species but I think around 150 - 200 TDS is good. I use a product from Brightwell Aquatics called Remineraliz-P. But I know the pros that keep high grade CRS, OEBT, etc use products specifically made for shrimp like Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp GH+.

I basically scoop my remineralizer then test with a meter until it gets to my target TDS. Then just add. I'm not a pro shrimp keeper as I've only had neos and tangerine tigers. But I do plan to try some CRS.

Edit:
Pretty good thread on target TDS and GH with remineralizing product
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=282450
 
Last edited:
Added some more anubias petite to the base of the tree. I really like the look. The left side of the tank however I just cannot find something that I really like. Right now I have the purple cabomba with some green wendtii in front of it but I just not doin it for me. Any thoughts or ideas?
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So I changed my light schedule to 3 hours on, 1 hour off, then 3 hours on. Is this alright? I've read the breaking up the photo period can help with algae so I wanted to give it a try. Should I increase the lights on intervals to 4 hours each or is the 3 hours each fine?

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Quick FTS update:
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Things have really settled in well. For not having CO2 the plants have grown nicely and needed a couple trimmings as well.

Current (most likely final) stock list:
4 galaxy rasboras
4 ember tetras
3 pygmy Cory
2 otos
1 cobalt sumatran goby
Some cherry shrimp.

Just to clarify there were no deaths at all I just moved fish around to another tank I have. Hopefully I'll be adding some red crystals as soon as the LFS I work at gets some in.

Question when it comes to trimming the blyxa.. it is getting a bit taller than I'd like and was wondering if trimming the leaves shorter to about half as tall is alright and won't hurt the plants? If not I'll just let them be as I don't see CO2 being added anytime soon to support a shorter carpeting plant.

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Life of a bro..

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Nice tank! That moss tree is a nice touch.


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Great layout on this tank. The CPDs in the pic are stunning.
Can't say I've trimmed blyxa before; I just remove the extra crowns periodically. It appears to stay at a nice size in this tank. Would suggest staurogynes repens in here but under lower light it tends to get leggy IME.
Is that a fugeray on top?


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Love it! Having any problems with algae at all? Blyxa is a huge attention grabber front and center :) Overall great tank, you've done a good job! (y)
 
Great layout on this tank. The CPDs in the pic are stunning.
Can't say I've trimmed blyxa before; I just remove the extra crowns periodically. It appears to stay at a nice size in this tank. Would suggest staurogynes repens in here but under lower light it tends to get leggy IME.
Is that a fugeray on top?


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Lighting is the ray2. So far it's been doing the job pretty well for what I wanted in the tank

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Love it! Having any problems with algae at all? Blyxa is a huge attention grabber front and center :) Overall great tank, you've done a good job! (y)

I get some hair algae on on the blyxa and moss tree from detritus settling in them but it easily comes right off using a syphon w/o the gravel vac attachment. It gets on the glass some but that's a quick fix with a small mag float as the tank is just a nano. Pretty much just normal maintenance takes care of it at this point

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