My 5.5G Shrimp & Moss Nano Tank - Aiming to convert into iwagumi layout

[HiJaC]

Hi,

This is my shrimp tank, which sits next to my home office computer.
It's usually much more "mossy" but this is after a trim.

-It has been setup for about 6 months now.
-Currently has two Arc Pod 9w lights (CF plant bulbs with reflectors).
-I dont fertilize at all but really should do now i have more light on it. I use water from my main EI tank with some fresh for nutrients.
-Eco complete is the substrate.
-Tank currently has Java Moss, Anubias Nana and the tall stuff at the back i cant remember the name for.
-I wanted to make a bigger home for my cherry shrimp to breed (which they have once) so just started chucking bits of wood and sticks in.

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It is usually much much fuzzier.

When i get a bit more free time i aim to plan to convert this into a Igawa layout and try some ricca or other carpeting plant, which ive had no sucess with my 46G corner tank (which is very deep).

For this ive bought some aquascaping rock from the uk online retailer aqua essentials as well as some dragon stone. im not sure which one to break up and use yet. I'll post some pictures of both to aid discussion/help.

Current occupants are 8 cherry shrimp and 2 oto's.

Best Regards,

John

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Wow looks great. When I get one of my coconut huts in my 5 gallon. I'm thinking about putting a small peice of driftwood in there aswell leaning against the hut and put moss all over that.

 

[Tifta]

those are really cool little shrimp. I've never seen those! Where did you get them?

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Most of the time the RCS come from online, either a vendor or I know there is at least one person on here that sells them. Sometimes you can find them at a local LFS.

 

[HiJaC]

those are really cool little shrimp. I've never seen those! Where did you get them?

As mentioned above they are Red Cherry shrimp. They are great although not quite doing what i bought them to do.

I have been a huge fan of amano shrimp since i started my planted tank, saw cherry shrimp in here somewhere are tried to source some in the UK.

The same week my LFS had some at £5 each (is that like $8.5?). I found two suppliers online in the UK at £2.5 each with discounts for more. So i picked up 20 and made a "Shrimp Vase". It was about 4 litres with a small heater and HOB filter. The intention was to have them in there breeding like crazy (which they are meant to do) and sell them to my LFS.

Unfortunatly my underwater bonzi (driftwood plus moss) tree shrimp face failed to get them breeding so i bought this tank to replace it. The remaining 10 are in there and have had 3 breed with a few surviving shrimplets (now running a normal filter so there is more die off of babies).

I don't fertilize because of them, but ive read other people's tank blogs where they are spawning happily in EI or other heavy planted dosed tanks.

So i think i'll just keep the same occupants when i switch this to a iwagumi layout.

Q to readers - Will I have to modify the standard EI dosing much when i only use a liquid carbon source not CO2? If so what way? Is EI the best method for nano tanks with high light?

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

Really EI can be adjusted to any situation. I'd just watch your plants for signs that you need to adjust your dosing and go from there. If EI works for you on your aquariums, the size really doesn't matter. It's about picking the dosing solution that fit you and your aquarium needs best.

 

[HiJaC]

Really EI can be adjusted to any situation. I'd just watch your plants for signs that you need to adjust your dosing and go from there. If EI works for you on your aquariums, the size really doesn't matter. It's about picking the dosing solution that fit you and your aquarium needs best.

good good.

For the lighting ive got two 9w CF arc pods on the tank currently and have another spare that I can possibly fit on.

Arcadia - ARC-POD

I'm wanting to try all the lovely carpeting plants i'm not able to grow in my main quite deep 46G corner tank.

Does 18 to 27W CF arc pods sound good for things like HC or glosso on a nano?

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

I've currently got 36 watts over my 5.5 gallon, and I have a hard time with carpet plants. I suspect that you'll need more light for your goals.

 

[HiJaC]

I've currently got 36 watts over my 5.5 gallon, and I have a hard time with carpet plants. I suspect that you'll need more light for your goals.

hmm,

after a bit of reading elsewhere ive found a couple of references to people using a couple of the 11w arc pods over a nano and growing hc well.

i guess this is confusion/complexity is the WPG rule falling apart on nano's.

I notice your 5.5 is a hex, what fitting do you use for your 36watts? is it a lamp mounted quite far above the tank?

edit - i read through your 5.5 G tank thread again and see your using 2x18 Watt Coralife Fixture.

The 3 x 9w arc pods ive got are all fitted with internal reflectors and lenses so there is pretty much no light loss. They are also mounted about an inch from the top of the water. With specalist arcadia plant bulbs.

I'm hoping this will be enough but i guess the only way i'll know is to try.

The vision of what i want to try is to have the rocks clustered to one back side with the substrate raising up to them and between them. The HC i want to try growing between the peaks of the rock clusters and have it cascading like waterfalls out of them. So it is pretty much going to be right under the lights, at 3 or 4 inches from them.

With possibly ricca stones below, and maybe something else at the boundary between the bottom of the rocks and the plains. Maybe a couple of Pogostemon helferi which are growing pretty well in my other tank.

I'll post some pictures of my two rock options later today.

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

Actually, the 5.5 gallon is a standard aquarium. While I started out with a 5 gallon hex, it was later converted when I got sick of the dimensions of the hex.

HC can be grown under medium light conditions as long as you have good carbon supplementation and fertilizer dosing. With the layout you have in mind you'll have a fair chance at growing the HC if you start using CO2 or Flourish Excel.

 

[new2betas]

John,
I just wanted to comment that is a beautiful tank. I am pondering starting a small red cherry shrimp tank. I just love yours! Also, do you have any sort of filter in there? I keep reading that sponge filters are the best to use. I would love to see what a sponge filter looks like that would be good for a shrimp tank.

 

[HiJaC]

John,
I just wanted to comment that is a beautiful tank. I am pondering starting a small red cherry shrimp tank. I just love yours! Also, do you have any sort of filter in there? I keep reading that sponge filters are the best to use. I would love to see what a sponge filter looks like that would be good for a shrimp tank.

Hi,

I have the standard filter that came with the tank.

It is a little too powerful so i swapped the active carbon in the top section for a tightly bound pack of purigen granules (helps keep the water clear) which slows the flow alot.

For idea breeding with shrimps and small fish fry you are meant to use the sponge filters or a sponge pre filter. This tank however is in my bed room and since most sponge filters use an air pump method i find them too loud to sleep in the same room at night.

If my shrimp were berrying (the first stage of pregnancy) more, with few surviving babies id consider using a sponge pre-filter over the bottom part of the internal filter i have. But my water param's or tank arrangement isnt quite doing it for my shrimp labido's. There not quite getting it on as much as i'd want.

As for the layout, i've not been keeping this up as much as i should have, this can look alot better. But hey, at least it's low maintance.

I'll post a slightly better shot later today, with black background and a few more things added.

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

There may be another reason for a lack of breeding. Are you sure you actually have some males? If you purchased your shrimp from a local LFS you may have only females since they are more colorful and easier to sell.

 

[HiJaC]

There may be another reason for a lack of breeding. Are you sure you actually have some males? If you purchased your shrimp from a local LFS you may have only females since they are more colorful and easier to sell.

lo,

ive actually bought groups of 10 from three different online retailers over the last year and a bit.

Not all have been in this tank but the smaller, less colourful males are/were present. They did breed a couple of months ago. Two at the same time. It's just not constant. They don't seem to saddle that often.

I know the breeding process is started by a saddling female who gets preganant when molting as far as i can remember. They just don't molt that often.

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

What are you feeding them? A nice varied diet will help encourage breeding, just like it does with fish. Hikari Crab Cuisine, Hikari Algae Wafers, and Omega One Veggie Rounds are some excellant options. I generally try to feed one of these every other day, and leave a second day for any left over food and scrounging for algae in the rest of the aquarium. This generally gets fairly good results.

 

[HiJaC]

What are you feeding them? A nice varied diet will help encourage breeding, just like it does with fish. Hikari Crab Cuisine, Hikari Algae Wafers, and Omega One Veggie Rounds are some excellant options. I generally try to feed one of these every other day, and leave a second day for any left over food and scrounging for algae in the rest of the aquarium. This generally gets fairly good results.

Generally i use Hai Feng - Red Bee Shrimp Food (for crystal reds and cherries), one pellet per shrimp most but not all days, but the oto's also munch some. There is plenty of algae for them to much, especially lovely green fuzz that accumulates at the back of the tank. I occasionally drop a wafer in for the oto's and they munch a bit of that.

A few other pics.

Tank with a black background and another a.nana. Notice there is a brown leaf in the bottom left. That is a dried cappa leaf, which is meant to help the water get to the correct params for their breeding and they also munch on. I occasionally stick on in to give a little interest in their shrimp lives. Boiled first thou.

Look at fish while you work. Everyman's dream.

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Before i mentioned i was wanting to convert this to a iwagumi layout. Here are the two big rocks i have to choose from. They will be broken into bits for the final choice.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/atta...881386_3_6799be347923071944bed41b4216b412.jpg
rock 1

rock 1

rock 2

rock 2

Both rocks came from aqua essentials in the uk. The first one is called Mini aquascaping rock. The second is dragonstone, if i remember rightly (i think made famous by oliver knott).

I'm leaning towards using rock type one, but rock two does have some funky tunnels in it which would be good for planting or shrimp hidouts. I think the grey and white streaks of rock 1 will look good under water though.

What do you all think?

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

Ooooooo... I love that first rock. It's absolutely beautiful. That's definately the one I'd choose.

 

[new2betas]

The updated pics are just gorgeous, John! What kind of wood did you use and how do you get the moss to stay right on them in place like that? I just got my 10g tank today from the lfs. I am cycling it for the next couple of weeks (using filter media from another tank of mine). I am going to be researching aquascaping, etc., for them in the coming weeks. I am so excited!
I like both rocks, but lean toward #2 because of its color and all of the nooks and crannies in it

 

[HiJaC]

The updated pics are just gorgeous, John! What kind of wood did you use and how do you get the moss to stay right on them in place like that? I just got my 10g tank today from the lfs. I am cycling it for the next couple of weeks (using filter media from another tank of mine). I am going to be researching aquascaping, etc., for them in the coming weeks. I am so excited!
I like both rocks, but lean toward #2 because of its color and all of the nooks and crannies in it

The wood is a bit of redmoor wood/twig and some black/bog wood that came in a bag, salt treated, both from my LFS. Remember the scale, these are mostly twigs.

Tieing stuff on stuff puts me into the stage 5 of the aquascaper according to that tom barr post stickied at the top of this forum

You teese the moss out, reasonably thin, along the wood and wrap it up with string, not too dense, enough to hold it on. Tie off. Then ive found if you repeat with another layer of moss on top of that it grows out better and fuller.

Once it grows in (java moss i'm focusing on here) if you trim it back it grow's back denser and in my opinion looks better.

I love moss. I've tried Weeping moss (very like christmas moss) in this tank too but the lack of ferts meant it didnt really get going well. The remains are now in my 46G on a small stump trying to revive.

I'd love to try fissden's or however you spell it.

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The rock debate is still raging in my mind. Anyone else have an opinion?

Best Regards,

John

 

[Purrbox]

I'd love to try fissden's or however you spell it.

It's Fissidens fontanus and one of my favorite mosses. I'm actually at a point where I should trim mine back fairly severely. Feel free to PM me and I can see about putting together a plant package for you.