Hello from California!

[Reykur]

Hey folks, I'm Reykur, a beginner hobbyist interested in shrimps and NPT, as well as aquascaping. I've recently purchased a 5 gallon tank (Marina 5 gallon kit and some accessories like 50w heater, thermometer, fluval shrimp substrate, live plant keeping tools etc.) in the hopes of setting up a NPT and then introducing Neocoridina (probably cherry reds to start and maybe some others later to experiment with breeding and color)
I have a few questions that my research online has not answered, and I've finally broken down and decided to join a forum in the hopes of building mutually beneficial relationships with members in similar situations, or that have been in similar situations, due to all the most lucrative of my research having come from previous posts on this site, this was the obvious choice. Admittedly I'm kind of anti-social and thus have a difficult time keeping up with forums, I'm the type that just does my own thing usually, so please no one take offense or otherwise.
I've decided to use local lava rocks that I scavenged off the side of the (dormant) volcano I live next to, partly because they're free and partly because I've found a couple of rocks that fit perfectly with the scape I've designed in my head. I've read that it's optimal to scrub them, soak them in bleach and water solution, and then boil them to eliminate any bacteria or otherwise from entering your tank. The rocks that I've found have moss and plants growing out of.. Every single one of them. I view this as being perfect, once the work is done, since those pockets will be home to beneficial bacteria and plants of my own choice. If anyone has any input about this it would be awesome, because I'm using a medium stiff bristle brush and having little to no luck removing the plants that currently exist in the rocks. I'm going to pick up a steel bristle brush tomorrow and do it that way, but I'm nervous because I've read it damages the rocks pretty badly.
My other major issues are mostly due to where I live, in California it is illegal to have plants delivered to you due to agricultural laws, so the convenience of online shopping is gone and I live about an hour and a half from the nearest major pet store, or pet store without a terrible reputation. So I've decided to try and germinate my own seeds, but I don't know where to get them from. I don't know if california law prohibits seeds from entering, and none of my googling has proven useful.
I will post pictures of my rocks in processing, since I'm currently processing them, but I have not received my tank yet so I can't show you guys anything else yet.
The first 2 pictures are of the largest rock I found, to give an example of the plants growing on it, the 3rd is of the other rocks I've found in a 5gallon bucket in bleach. At this point, the boiled rock hasn't been bleached, and the bleached rocks haven't been boiled. It'll probably stay that way till tomorrow, so I'm hoping someone will tell me if I'm doing something wrong at this point. I guess I should also say that I'm boiling the large rock to try and make it easier to remove the plants.
Happy days everone,
Reykur

 

[DreaminginBlue]

Hello! Welcome, it's nice to see a fellow Californian
Hope all goes well for you, best of luck!

 

[Reykur]

Thanks for the well wishes Blue, I hope everything goes well for you too.

 

[Reykur]

Just an update, I just purchased a small hood and full spectrum light for the tank, as well as proper seachem biomatrix filter media. And to address the plants, I finally found the ca.gov page about it and it turns out fairy ferns are cheap and legal, running $23 on amazon with shipping. The plan is to cycle the tank using fluval biological enhancer, plant the ferns and let the system adjust for a little before getting shrimp in the tank.
Edit to this post: fairy ferns, or mosquito ferns are now what I actually ended up buying. It was advertised as fairy ferns but they were ferns for micro gardening... Back to square one.

 

[Reykur]

Update 2: rocks from the bleach treatment show expected and unexpected results. The moss turned white, but is still impossibly difficult to scrub off.
On the other hand, my largest rock which I boiled for an hour on each side maintaining a temp of 206.4F the moss looks alive still, but some of it is coming off easier, but not by much. Looks like a trip to the hardware store is in order. I think I'm going to look for a brush for horses instead, but it might be too expensive.

 

[Barliman]

Hi Reykur!

I live in California, too, and, while the agricultural laws are strict here, you can order plants online and have them delivered. I've done it myself from a firm in Arizona. Did you mean just certain species?

 

[Reykur]

Thanks for the welcome Barliman, and you are correct, it is restricted to certain species of plants, and thus you have to select from a list of about 20+ (from what I remember seeing on the ca.gov page) in order to purchase online and have them shipped. I actually just ordered from aquatic plants website, they were the only ones that I found that would ship to me (they're located in LA I guess) and I tried amazon sellers, and other websites as well.
I now have wisteria, coonstail, ambulia and bacopa australis coming.
Also, I've read that some people use lead weights so their plants can grow into the substrate, is this necessary though? My other research shows you can just plant them in using tweezers, and I'm just trying to do right by my plants.

 

[Barliman]

Some use lead weights, I just use tweezers. Clumsily, but I do use them.

 

[Reykur]

I don't know if I would trust lead weights in my tank tbh, so I'm going to use tweezers as well, and if it doesn't work then I can always switch. Just finished processing my rocks, 5 hours of work all together, 2 bleach treatments, 2 boil sessions of several hours a piece, and several hours of shaving down the rocks to get the plants out. They're looking great now and I'm confident they are tank ready.

 

[Barliman]

Good luck, and post pics when it's up and running.

 

[Reykur]

Can do! I'm just really hoping that my tank gets here (bought it online) in one piece. My marimo shrimp balls got here yesterday, and I had to put them in a glass jar full of water for now.

Anyone have any experience with aquaticplants.com? I ordered like 3 days ago and they haven't sent me an email stating its been shipped, and they haven't answered my emails about substituting an item, since I didn't see it was prohibited to CA residents. Worried I need to contact my bank to cancel the transaction.

 

[Reykur]

Quick update, got my tank and most of my supplies in today and set everything up, my 4500k light came broken, so the replacement and my plants should be here tomorrow. I bought plants from PlantDrafts (found currently on Etsy, just search plantdrafts) and I would recommend using their service for every plant purchase you possibly can. Fast shipping, professional and friendly service and fair prices are everything you could ask for, and then some.
I didn't rinse my fluval stratum, and I didn't need to. My tank looks clearer than any I've seen in the pictures online regarding it clouding peoples tank. I will add though, I poured my 4.4 bag (perfect for a 5 gallon) into the tank, scaped the rocks, then poured the water over the largest rock. I filled my 5 gallon over about 30 minutes, very slowly so as not to misplace my substrate.
My water tested 6.4 ph (the substrate lowers water around .6 from my research, so I'm right on target for the first day) .25 ppm ammonia 0 ppm nitrite and 10 ppm nitrate after about 4 hours of culturing beneficial bacteria on the filter cartridges (waiting for biomax and sponge) I believe this to be properly in range on all accounts. I tested with API master test kit.
I broke the larger rock into several smaller chunks yesterday and boiled them for 5 hours @ 215.7f
I've placed marimo 1/2 inch shrimp balls in the tank as well.
My biggest current issue is that my heater is either really slow to heat the tank through and through, or it is not strong enough for the cold weather I've been having. The tank water seems to be right at about 60f according to my thermometer. I bought a tetra 50w heater thinking it would be enough for a 5 gallon, was I wrong?
Once I've gotten my plants and light I will post a picture.

 

[Barliman]

How cold does the room get at night? Most heaters are designed to heat to (IIRC) 10-15 degrees above ambient. My living room gets quite cold during the winter, so I gave my 10g a second heater. For your 5g, that 50w heater should be fine.

 

[Reykur]

You're correct barliman, it was just taking its sweet time. Its been steadily climbing, slowly though.
Do you have any experience with biological enhancers? Some people say they require weekly upkeep doses, other people say if you cycle it properly you can maintain an established colony of bacteria. I'm planning on feeding ammonia via some fish flakes that came with my tank tomorrow after the second dose of fluval bio enhancer, and I should have some snails and plants coming, but I want to establish a good colony of bacteria for once I introduce my shrimps.
The water came out at 38f and I let it adjust to room temp (68f) for 3 hours while letting everything settle before putting the heater in the tank. Tbh I ran out of time during my lunch break and didn't have time to put the heater in.

 

[Reykur]

Update: tank is planted!

These pics are of the tank now that it's planted. I immediately planted everything, without quarantine. I believe anything that comes with them will be a bonus for me, either as experience (i've already removed a nematoad, or something very small and wormy and white that squiggles a lot) or free snail and shrimp fry. I tucked the java moss into a cave like structure of rocks and I tried planting the micro swords into the substrate as much as possible, so hopefully it's runners will shoot through the soil. My narrow leaf java fern is chill in in the back on the right in the pot it came in. And while a lot of snails did not survive, I have about 7 small snails in here now that are actively seeking algae on the side of the tank, and they are also riding the plants up and down. I have 2 very small ramshorns that survived, the rest are the ones in the picture, although I don't know what they're called. I fed some fish flakes in and they liked that a lot.
My moss balls aren't looking very healthy though, any tips? They've noticably gotten a bit bigger, but they're getting lighter in color as well.

 

[UntimelyLord]

Looking good! Hello to a fellow Californian! Those snails look like what are commonly called "pond snails." Keep in mind that ramshorns and pond snails can reproduce with any other snail of thier kind so if you have two you will get more! I don't mind them in my tank though; they only eat dying plant material and they eat some algae, and if I don't overfeed the fish their population never gets out of control. Some people just don't like them in their tanks though.

 

[Reykur]

I'm going to be keeping shrimp in here in a few weeks, I decided to add the snails just to make sure the tank was going through its cycle properly, and keep it cleaner during the period where I have no inverts. Once I get shrimp, I'm going to prune the pond snails completely (or as much as I can) and leave a group of ramshorns to eat off the sides and the dead plant matter. Thus far my pond snails are an active and thriving group of buggers, they've been doing laps around the tanks glass and traveling across every plants. They haven't touched the rocks though. My ramshorns have been keeping to the java fern though, I've been watching them go up and down each grind eating the melt from the shipping. All the plants are still looking like they like it too.

Thanks for saying it looks good, it's my first NPT and I'm a little concerned the micro swords won't carpet, but we will see. I could easily replace them with a myriad of options.

 

[flchamp89]

Looks good. Are they real marimo or java moss balls ?

 

[Reykur]

Flchamp, I believe they are real. They were purchased from Amazon the seller was Marimo Per Store, and their reviews pretty much all say they are real.

 

[flchamp89]

Keep rolling them so dont get flat. Might be dirty too can squeeze out. Some reports of glut being and issue but never experienced that myself.
I got some from there.