new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well, I am in the process of cycling my new 10g for red cherry shrimp. Here are updated pictures. I will update pictures as I get it going over the next few weeks! 
Future 10g red cherry shrimp tank
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neilanh
Sliced Bread
Plan on planting it heavily?
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
Oh yes....I have only had it up for a couple of days. I am researching what kind of plants I want to have in there for them. Since I have to wait for it to cycle I am taking my time deciding what I want to put in there Did I say I was excited?....lol
Did I say I was excited?....lolHiJaC
Aquarium Advice Freak
Shrimp rock.
Nuff said.
Nuff said.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
HiJaC -- I am not sure what you mean?.....is there a plant called shrimp rock or is there a certain type of rock they like? Forgive my newness...lol
HiJaC
Aquarium Advice Freak
HiJaC -- I am not sure what you mean?.....is there a plant called shrimp rock or is there a certain type of rock they like? Forgive my newness...lol
hehe,
rock - as in rule, are the best, fun, quality, class.
Oddly enough there is a shrimp rock for sale on the aqua essentials site here in the UK. It is for crystal red shrimp tanks and is meant to adjust the water param's to give ideal living environments for the shrimp to breed.
Best Regards,
John
kimo
Aquarium Advice Freak
Guppy grass (Naja sp) or any of the mosses are great for shrimp tanks.
Yeah, those are great. They also seem to REALLY like driftwood; I think lots of the microfauna that make up the main part of their diet grow really well on natural driftwood.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
Update with photos
Today I have added some things to the tank thanks to a member here that I bought plants from (Thanks Alt300zx)! I added a huge bunch of java moss and a couple of ferns. I also went around to three of my betta tanks and took out a little bit of gravel and put them in a stocking (the one hanging in the picture). Don't get alarmed, even though it is black it doesn't leech dye....I tested it first! I found an awesome piece of wood at the lfs (I am boiling it now) and will need to soak it also, but I will get a picture of it when I can! My tank is slowly, but surely, coming together for a red cherry shrimp tank! I also now have nitrites! Yay! Not a whole lot (between 0-.25ppm). My ammonia is around 1-2, so I will keep dosing that also! This morning I had none....so adding those plants and gravel helped! I made my order with Drs. Foster & Smith yesterday and am getting in quite a few filter sponges for all of my betta tanks and for this new one also along with pumps and a new adjustable heater for my new tank.
Today I have added some things to the tank thanks to a member here that I bought plants from (Thanks Alt300zx)! I added a huge bunch of java moss and a couple of ferns. I also went around to three of my betta tanks and took out a little bit of gravel and put them in a stocking (the one hanging in the picture). Don't get alarmed, even though it is black it doesn't leech dye....I tested it first! I found an awesome piece of wood at the lfs (I am boiling it now) and will need to soak it also, but I will get a picture of it when I can! My tank is slowly, but surely, coming together for a red cherry shrimp tank! I also now have nitrites! Yay! Not a whole lot (between 0-.25ppm). My ammonia is around 1-2, so I will keep dosing that also! This morning I had none....so adding those plants and gravel helped! I made my order with Drs. Foster & Smith yesterday and am getting in quite a few filter sponges for all of my betta tanks and for this new one also along with pumps and a new adjustable heater for my new tank.
SpeedEuphoria
Aquarium Advice Addict
looking good!!
I can tell you with new bulbs it will grow nice, I've only had mine for less than a week and I moved stuff around in the mean time and things are nice and green/red. I also have some plants coming from atl300zx.
I can tell you with new bulbs it will grow nice, I've only had mine for less than a week and I moved stuff around in the mean time and things are nice and green/red. I also have some plants coming from atl300zx.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
Here are some pictures of the piece of wood that I picked up from the lfs....it was a used piece, but I couldn't beat the price ($7.00). Normally, that size piece would be around $20-30. Anyway, I just got done boiling it and now it is getting ready to get soaked. I think it is going to take a lot of soaking because the water it was boiled in is nearly black it is so dark!
Looks like a really nice piece! You know when I saw it, the first thing I thought of is you could stick a nice handful of java moss in the center part (the indentation) and once it attached itself and grew out a bit it would probably look really neat. In m RCS tank I had a cool piece of driftwood that was (very roughly speaking) sorta bowl-shaped and I stuck some java moss down in the bottom of the bowl area it was great...as the java moss grew if it got too large I could just sort of prune it from the top area and there would always be plenty left in the depression area to keep on re-growing. The shrimps (especially the baby shrimplets) loved spending time in the java moss and it gave it a real natural look to have it attached to the wood like it was.
Just an idea. No matter what you do with it, it should work out great.
As for soaking it, I wouldn't worry too much about putting it in your tank earlier rather than later. If you've boiled it thoroughly then you've already released most of the easily-releasable tannins, and whatever (small) amount of tannins it may release to your tank in the future aren't a big deal. Plus, driftwood never really entirely stops releasing tannins; I've had pieces in a tank 2+ years still giving them off (though only slowly, just barely enough to color the water a tad). The sooner you get that piece in your tank, the sooner it will start "growing" the microfauna that your shrimps will find so tasty! And in the meantime, if you decide to soak it for a while in some sort of bucket or other container besides your tank, then I would suggest when you do that:
1. Treat the water you are using to soak it as you would tank water (i.e. be sure to treat the water with Prime or whatever you use to dechlorinate). Whenever the water discolors and it's time to do a water change, dump out the old water, remove the wood from the bucket, put in the new water, treat the new water for chlorine (mix it up well!), and only then re-add the wood.
2. Keep the container somewhere where it will get a least some indirect sunlight (and maybe even a little direct sunlight) each day.
The idea, of course, being even while you are soaking the wood, you are encouraging microorganisms to grow on it. So you are killing two birds with one stone: leaching out tannins, and growing microfauna. Be sure the wood never sits out of water long enough to dry out, as that will begin to kill off the microorganisms that you want growing on it.
Please keep the information (and pictures) coming!
Just an idea.
No matter what you do with it, it should work out great.As for soaking it, I wouldn't worry too much about putting it in your tank earlier rather than later. If you've boiled it thoroughly then you've already released most of the easily-releasable tannins, and whatever (small) amount of tannins it may release to your tank in the future aren't a big deal. Plus, driftwood never really entirely stops releasing tannins; I've had pieces in a tank 2+ years still giving them off (though only slowly, just barely enough to color the water a tad). The sooner you get that piece in your tank, the sooner it will start "growing" the microfauna that your shrimps will find so tasty!
And in the meantime, if you decide to soak it for a while in some sort of bucket or other container besides your tank, then I would suggest when you do that:1. Treat the water you are using to soak it as you would tank water (i.e. be sure to treat the water with Prime or whatever you use to dechlorinate). Whenever the water discolors and it's time to do a water change, dump out the old water, remove the wood from the bucket, put in the new water, treat the new water for chlorine (mix it up well!), and only then re-add the wood.
2. Keep the container somewhere where it will get a least some indirect sunlight (and maybe even a little direct sunlight) each day.
The idea, of course, being even while you are soaking the wood, you are encouraging microorganisms to grow on it. So you are killing two birds with one stone: leaching out tannins, and growing microfauna. Be sure the wood never sits out of water long enough to dry out, as that will begin to kill off the microorganisms that you want growing on it.
Please keep the information (and pictures) coming!
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
JohnPaul -
It is funny you should mention that about putting the java moss in there. As I was looking at this piece of wood I was thinking about all of the places I could stick the moss. It has so many nooks and crannies...it will be fun putting it together!
I wish I could put it in my tank immediately...but it isn't water logged. I have it soaking right now. BTW - thanks for those pointers about putting the declorinator in....I almost forgot when I was soaking it and remembered about halfway through filling up the water and put it in....whew. I hadn't thought about it needing to be in partial sunlight. I will make sure it gets that part of the day. Whenever it gets good and water logged I will be adding it to the tank, as I can't wait to play with it and get some moss on/in it!
I will be sure to keep the info. and pictures coming as I progress!!
BTW - I really want to keep those nice slab rocks that I put in there already...I am trying to figure out how to keep at least one of them with that massive piece of wood also! I don't want it to look overcrowded. I want to be able to see those cute little shrimp once they are in there.
It is funny you should mention that about putting the java moss in there. As I was looking at this piece of wood I was thinking about all of the places I could stick the moss. It has so many nooks and crannies...it will be fun putting it together!
I wish I could put it in my tank immediately...but it isn't water logged. I have it soaking right now. BTW - thanks for those pointers about putting the declorinator in....I almost forgot when I was soaking it and remembered about halfway through filling up the water and put it in....whew. I hadn't thought about it needing to be in partial sunlight. I will make sure it gets that part of the day. Whenever it gets good and water logged I will be adding it to the tank, as I can't wait to play with it and get some moss on/in it!
I will be sure to keep the info. and pictures coming as I progress!!
BTW - I really want to keep those nice slab rocks that I put in there already...I am trying to figure out how to keep at least one of them with that massive piece of wood also! I don't want it to look overcrowded. I want to be able to see those cute little shrimp once they are in there.
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SpeedEuphoria
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yeah that wood looks large for a 10G from the pics. I just added a large piece to my 10G also, its almost too big for mine, would be much better in at least a 29G, especially from an aquascaping perspective.
I think you should prop the wood up so it lays at an angle from the middle bottom and goes up leaning on either back corner. So it will look like this(/) or (\), then you can still see around it and under/behind it. Hard to explain, just have the wood high up on one back corner of the glass, like 1/2 way to the top or more. Basically it would be leaning on the glass rear corner, then use gravel and one of your rocks or both in the opposite corner front to anchor/keep it held in there.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
Gotcha Speed! Now I am really worried about this piece. I don't think it will fit in at the angle you described and be fully submerged. I knew it was a large pieice, but I also thought that the shrimp would probably love it....not thinking about it from an aquascaping viewpoint, I guess. It was just a lovely piece and with all those nooks and crannies, I just knew it would look great with moss in/on it. Well, once I get it water logged I will see how it fits and if I think it is going to be overpowering for the tank...
Well if it is too big, you could always cut it down to a smaller size and use only half (or two-thirds) of it. If you had it at an angle with the cut part pushed down into the substrate no one would know the difference.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
I just measured this sucker and it is too long to be put in width wise. It is around 17". So, I will need to put it in the tank length wise and still possible lean it to one side of tank (if it will all stay submerged). I don't want any pieces sticking out of the water. I also don't want to have to cut it now as it is all wet. It isn't even close to being water logged yet either. I don't think the rock slabs I have in the tank are enough weight to keep it submerged either. I will just wait it out....I still have time as my tank isn't cycled yet anyway. Although, I know it would probably further the cycle along if I could get it in there.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
I definitely now have nitrites in my new 10g....they are a very vivid 0.25 this morning with ammonia around 2. I am on my way now. I really want to get this wood in here so it can help things along, but it isn't completely water logged yet....although one end of it seems to be (the bigger end).
SpeedEuphoria
Aquarium Advice Addict
If the water your soaking the wood in is clearer, I would put it in the tank. put the big end in the gravel and lean the other end on a back corner of the glass, maybe use one rock on it to hold it in place.
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new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
I was thinking about doing that, Speed....but this morning when I looked at my log where it was soaking the water was so very brown. I think I will soak it for a little while longer and see if I can get a majority of the tannins out. I don't mind a little, but I want to be able to see my shrimp once I get them. The water is just still too dark for that.
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