5 Gal FW Planted Shrimp Tank

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fort384

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Wow, 3 months into the hobby and already I have started a second tank. I have been looking around for awhile - I knew I wanted a nano type tank, and something that looked really sharp. I finally decided on the ADA Cube Garden Mini M.

I picked everything up this morning for it, and the wheels are already in motion. I am trying to do a little bit more of a scape this time, then with my 29 gal, which was my first attempt. With the nano, I have built a bit of a level in back with black ADA aquasoil, and added a "river" of brown sand to the front. It is divided off by some slate.

As of now, no fauna in the tank. I am going to do a fishless cycle with it. Ultimately the plan though is to fill it with Crystal Red Shrimp, RCS, blackberries, etc (and maybe 1 or 2 small fish).


I did however put some plants in from my 29G to help out - some Blyxa Japonica, Rotala, anubias nano petite, and some fissendens.

I also bought a couple of runners of some dwarf grass that I am going to try and get a carpet going with.

There is also a small piece of borneo drift wood with some java moss and a lace java fern tied to it.

Anyway, I know it looks like crap now, but I will post another pic later as the water starts to clear. As always, give me your opinions - now is a good time to move around and rearrange.

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Here are some clearer pics of the tank now that it is clearing up a bit.

Anyone have a ballpark of how many CRS or RCS I can safely put in a tank of this size?

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Depends, you can certainly have around 100 in there, but you problly don't want to do that haha.

I would say a good balanced amount would be about 10-15 each of RCS and CRS.
 
Did a bit of a rescape, arched the driftwood up. Ammonia is still off the charts. Here are some clearer pics of tha tank now that the dust has settled (pun intended).

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Can't wait to get some CRS in there, but I know it's going to be some time yet until this thing is cycled and safe for my expensive little friends...
 
Hey, that's fab! You have a good eye for design. Turning up the DW makes a whopping difference... and it was pretty nice before you did that.

As I'm sure you know, hold off on the shrimp until both Ammonia and Nitrites are zero.

Your ADA mini can accommodate dozens of Red Cherry Shrimp.... and RCS are inexpensive - if you buy them on ebay from the guy who sells 18 of them for $25 (free shipping). His handle is colgatewhite. The female shrimp he sells - after a week or so of settling in - are deep red in color. (See the links to my images below my Avatar... I bought them from him... and they are breeding now.)

As for Crystal Red Shrimp, it may be more a matter of how many your wallet can accommodate than your shrimp tank. They are expensive and - from what I hear - considerably more difficult to raise.
 
Thanks for the lead on the rcs larry. Will def give that a look when it is time. Ammonia levels in the tank are still pretty high even after a couple of Pwcs. My guess is it will be another couple weeks until I look at getting any rcs. Will let the tank stabilize after that and look for some good S or S+ crs after that. I know it is going to set me back, but they are the reason I got the tank. Now so long as the wife doesn't start doing any research... :)
 
Well, I was hoping to be able to get some RCS in this thing soon, but I am afraid I am still a long ways off unfortunately. Ammonia is still very high and no sign of any nitrites yet. I am going to try and find a mini heater of some kind tomorrow... hoping my LFS carries the AZOO titanium heaters since they had my HOB filter for the tank. I think that may speed the cycle a bit. Right now the tank is hanging steady at 72-74. I have been doing water changes every 3 days or so, about 40% I would say. On a good note, the plants are growing like mad... I think the CO2 combined with the CF fixture, the fert dosing and the aquasoil = plant heaven.

My LFS is growing out some Rotalla W... I hope they are selling it when I head over there tomorrow. I think something red will look nice with the scape. I think it will grow in this tank.

I have had a piece of sponge in the HOB on my 29G for about 10 days. Should I put that in the nano tank's filter now, or continue to wait?
 
I'm sure that combo you have going is perfect for plants. I say add that sponge filter in there now, any kind of seeding will be beneficial towards the aquarium.


Update on pictures? :lach:
 
1. Take out all of that light colored river junk that is in the tank. You should have a dark substrate for both RCS and CRS or else you won't see their full colors, especially the RCS.

2. You plan on keeping RCS and CRS together...are you aware that the requirements for them are completely opposite? CRS need soft and acidic water in order to LIVE, not only to breed. RCS need hard and alkaline water, though some keep breed them in a pH of 6.8 or so.

3. 72-74 is where you want the water temp to be for the CRS and RCS will do okay in that temp too. CRS show better colors IME at cooler temps. Take the temp to 78 and you will probably start to see CRS dying off.

4. You are going to need to find a source of pure/filtered/RO/DI water if you plan to keep CRS alive for more than a couple of months. I can see by the mineral deposits on your tank that you have hard water, and most likely a pH of around 7.6 or higher...definitely not acidic like the CRS NEED.

5. If you decide that you want CRS still and take the river rock out, you should use more ADA Amazonia (I/II, sand or gravel) since it will remove some of the hardness out of your water and it will buffer the pH right where it needs to be for your CRS. Don't rely on that to remove ALL of the hardness and lower your pH from the water you put in. You will need to do a mix of RO/DI/distilled water and tap water in order to keep CRS alive.
 
bs, thanks for the info. I am going to stick with the mix of light and dark substrate for now. pH in the tank is 6.4-6.6. It is fairly hard water, but my plan is to switch over to RO water once the tank is cycled.
 
I'd switch over to softer water before adding any shrimp, but you probably plan on doing that.

Also forgot to mention that RCS and blackberries will interbreed and will produce poorly colored offspring if kept together.
 
Yup, thanks. I think after our PM conversation, I am going to stick with just RCS and CRS (RCS first for awhile). So i guess temp is ok for shrimp... should I buy a cheapo heater to put in just to move the cycling along, or leave it as is?
 
I'd eventually get a heater (before you add any CRS) to maintain the temp of the tank around 72-74 but you don't need one now if you have those temps. The cycle won't speed up by that much.
 
bs, being in AZ, this is as cold as it gets. I am thinking I might have to get a chiller for both tanks when summer roles around.
 
I was talking to someone in NM and they said it got down to the upper 30's-low 50's at night there sometimes so I thought it might be similar in AZ. You might want to think about having a fan blow over the top of the tank during the summer then. Definitely will want to get soft water if that's the case because of the amount of evaporation. The GH will increase over time if you don't remove some of the hardness during water changes and replace with softer water.
 
Good call. I think I saw a clip on fan that I can get to blow across the surface. That should help out some. It does get down in the 40s at night, but the house never really dips below 71-72. In the summer, it is usually 78 in the house... Do you have an RO system that you use for your tanks? I was thinking I could probably just get by with buying the 5gal bottles of water from the local H2O store. But, it looks like RO systems have come down in price over the past few years - I was just looking on EBAY and it looks like you can pick 1 up for 70 or 80 bucks.
 
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