Tex Gal

Well I have set up a 10 gal. with ADA aqua soil. DIY CO2, HOB filter. Gonna try my hand at shrimp. Here is a px of my tank. Have been fighting diatoms. I think I'm winning. Added purigen to filter tonight. Hope that will clear them up. I have been changing water a lot to also try to get rid of them.



As you can see my downoi is having a hard time getting started. Some have begun to put out some decent roots so I think I may be finally on my way with them. I still have riccia floating. I have to get some netting and tie it down to some of the lava rocks in there. I will take some of the stem plants and the sword out after things really get growing. The tank has been up about a month. I just took some wysteria out as it was growing out of control. I just trimmed the rotala and replanted some of it. I have some flame moss coming with my shrimp. I plan to have some areas with the downoi and some with the flame moss. We'll see how it all works out.

Plants
riccia
downoi
bylaxa
Kiler bar sword (baby)
Rotala magenta narrow leaf
ludwigia
marimbo balls (added from other tank, recovering from an accidental run in with bleach dip )
frogbit
Stargrass
Java fern wendelov
Java fern regular

bencozzy

youll need to put a prefilter sponge on the HOB intake if you plan on baby shrimps.

looks really nice though.

i wouldnt worry to much about the diatoms my shrimp love it when i add algea laden plants to their tank for them to clean, they eat alot of the blue green and diatoms.

trenac

I like it! The colors are really nice

Tex Gal

Bencozzy: Yes. Thanks! I do have a bag guard on it like John N put on his in his Colossal shrimp farm. It is fine mesh so they can't get through it.

Trenac: Thanks. I kinda like the red lava rocks. They are different from what you usually see. They are great for nutrifying bacteria colonies!

Got my shrimp! Got my flame moss! Got some of my riccia around a rock. Still have some rocks I will cover. Moved some of the Rotala magenta to back. I will probably switch the star grass to back right corner and bring lava rocks out in front (switch places).

I'm looking for horse nose loach or zebra loach to add with otos. I have some pond snails (hate them) and so I want them to eat those puppies! I want to keep threadfin rainbows with the shrimp. I think they will be ok. What do you think?

Here is a new px.

bencozzy

i have pond snails in all my shrimp tanks when you get a decent amount of shrimp built up they will out compete the snails for food and youll notice a rapid decline in the pond snails.

thats a good indicator its time to thin your shrimp "herd", also when the snails shells start to look bad it means your calcium levels need supplemented for the shrimps. they also help clean up any uneaten food.

i gave some of my cherries to someone with rainbows, not sure what kind but they were all killed or eaten by them same thing with yoyo loachs.

Tex Gal

Thanks for the heads up about the calcium. Did you mean that you thought the threadfins would eat the Cherries? The threadfin I'm thinking of is Threadfin rainbow fish (Iriatherina werneri). They have really small mouths.

Did you mean the loaches would eat them? The loaches I'm talking about are really small, like a khuli loach. I don't think they would eat them. They aren't big like a yo yo or botia.

bencozzy

not sure about mouth size for the rainbows your talking about but the khulis at full size can eat baby shrimp no problem.

and i have had my male endlers eat baby shrimp, they have pretty small mouths.

and calcium sources, cuttlebones, those mineral rocks they have on ebay for CRS, or calcium sulfate.

Tex Gal

Tank doing better. Downoi looking better, some new leaves. Ammonia is cut in half but still high. Been changing 50% water every day. Added Seachem Stabilizer. Have purigen and ammo chips in filter. What a pain. I thought ammonia issues would have been over after a month! My little shrimp need to go in!

gotcheaprice

Great looking tank! Dunno why your ammonia levels are still high. I don't think cherries are that sensitive, since I never even cycled my tank and they did perfectly fine.

Also, you never mentioned this, but what kind of lights are you using?

Tex Gal

Thanks! I'm trying! This is one of those 10 gal kits you get at Petsmart. The hood comes with 2 incandescent bulbs. I got those twisty flourescent bubls 13 watt that say they output 26 watt. They are doing great. My plants are going to town. I'm getting tons of pearling and growth.

My substrate is Aquasoil. I think that is what is putting off the ammonia. Amazing that you don't even cycle your tank. Have you used the Aquasoil?