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Day 74 Update (24 May 2017) After flip-flopping back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to fill the tank with shrimp or cories+tetras, fate decided that I would win a local RAOK and receive some PRL. Here are some of the changes since the initial update: added several varieties of buce from buceplant added java fern from LFS had to treat the tank with fenben very early on due to hydra added a mesh bag of soil to the filter to drop the pH to 6.5 -- I still want it to go lower, closer to 6. Admittedly, I haven't been paying much attention to this tank in terms of upkeep. If you didn't notice, a lot of detritus has accumulated on the surface of the white sand, and there's various algae growth on the buces, especially on the ones in the middle of the tank where the light is more intense. At any rate, here are a few shots of the tank, and shots of the PRL I received from a generous local hobbyist.

To clarify, I used Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride for fishless cycling. I didn't use any bacteria additives. Edit: After reading the earlier posts more carefully, I see that OP used Dr Tim's Nitrifying bacteria. I had thought he was talking about Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution. IME, things labeled as 'nitrifying bacteria' never sped the cycle process up for me.

Personally, I didn't start changing water until I saw nitrates. By that point, the presence of high nitrites and nitrates was driving the pH way lower than I wanted, so I performed some water changes. You can do water changes whenever you want, just make sure there's a steady source of food (ammonia) for the beneficial bacteria to establish. Using an old tank sponge filter (seeded filter) should speed up the process by a bit. It would be a good idea to throw that in there

I used Dr. Tim's for all my tanks, and for me, it took ~2 months to cycle my 12" cubes and 20 gallon longs when I added 2ppm ammonia. Give it a few more weeks and you'll start seeing nitrite/nitrate

Take your time-- It took me quite a while to decide on a layout I liked! I drew a lot of inspiration from Takashi Amano layouts, and one scape from IALPC in particular. Thank you. I guess we'll find out... maybe I should only feed my shrimp white foods, ha! Thanks dazalea! Maybe I should add some more buce!

Yep-- precisely why there is no more seiryu stone in the tank, only lava rock. The seiryu was used to weigh down the spiderwood for a few days because it was very buoyant when first purchased. Tigers could be another way to go Thank you for the kind words!

Hello. I've been frequenting this forum for almost a year now, but haven't posted much, so I'd like to use this opportunity to introduce myself along with my newest tank. Keeping RCS and befriending a fellow shrimp hobbyist was my gateway into this rewarding hobby. Shrimp-keeping was an extension of my planted-tank hobby, and it quickly became my new focus. In the past I had kept RCS in my high-tech scapes and didn't really cater to their care, so I was still fairly new to shrimp-keeping when I finally decided to get some CRS. I was very, and still am, set on keeping only caridinas. From perfecting the water chemistry to figuring out all the little quirks in maintenance, learning how to care for caridinas was very challenging. Shortly after getting down the basics of caridina care, I put together a shrimp rack. I put together the rack roughly half a year ago. More recently, I got my hands on a Dennerle Scaper's tank and decided to turn it into a display tank with red TBs. I've generally been keeping my shrimp tanks fairly simple so that maintenance and netting shrimp would be easier, but with this new tank, I wanted to do something different. Which brings me to the... Display Tank Project Specifications: Hardware Dennerle Scaper’s Tank Complete 35L LED (~9 gallons) Nano Power LED 5.0 (included with the tank) Eheim 2213 Canister CHOICE Bubbler Substrate Brightwell FlorinVolcanit Planted Substrate Extra-Fine (Rio Escuro) CaribSea Super Naturals Hardscape Lava Rock Spiderwood Flora Java fern Needle-leaf Java Fern Anubias nana petite Bolbitis Bolbitis mini/micro Buce 'Silver Powder Thai moss Weeping moss Water RO+DI Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ This is the 'Day 3' (14 March 2017) photo of the tank. Water parameters: pH: 6.8 TDS: 149 GH: 7 KH: 2 Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 0ppm You can't see it in the picture, but the Brightwell soil is underneath and behind the hardscape. I figured I may need to add some more in order to achieve the desired pH of >6.5, since the pH has been hovering around 6.6~6.8 the past few days. As for the GH/KH, I'm trying to figure out why it is so high. I did use seiryu stone (which I believe is not inert) to weigh down the spiderwood until it would stay submerged, so that might be why the TDS and GH/KH are higher than I'd like. Hopefully it will just be a matter of a few water changes to fix those parameters. Also, the 2213 I am using was running on another tank that was already cycled, so in theory the filter should be able to take whatever shrimp bioload I throw at it. Will test it after I figure out the water hardness issues. Although I will be focusing on the display tank in this thread, I may make some posts featuring photos of my shrimp rack from time to time. Thanks for checking out the thread!

Thank you for the kind words, dazalea. Yes, the bottom tank is scaped with petrified wood. I have somewhere between 7~10" of clearance over each tank, thanks to the great advice all of you offered! As for the update; I replaced my LG G4 (which I loved for its camera quality) with a Sony Xperia X. Love everything about the new phone except for the camera. What a bummer. Here's my view of the rack at night: (Photo taken with the Xperia X-- I swear it's not that purple in-person. I don't have much control over the white balance settings) As far as functionality goes, the rack is pretty much complete. I still want to better organize the wires, and eventually replace the 24" LED light I have on the upper shelf with a 48" light, like the other shelves, for uniformity. I think I will start another thread in the Journal section of this forum, however, I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone may have regarding the rack. Thank you for everyone's help. Your advice definitely made the process much smoother, and I am happy with how it came out. Cheers!

Played around with some texture filters in Photoshop. Would be pretty cool to have a canvas printout like this: Original photo:

Update postponed. Phone (that I use to take pictures with) has bricked. Will probably update once I get a replacement. Here is a picture of the rack my girlfriend took a couple of weeks ago:

Yep! It's almost completely set up. Just waiting for a few more items. I'll probably make an update post sometime during the holiday weekend.

Personally, I really like 20L because of the excellent footprint I get with it. There's space for me to place a few rocks with buces / some DW with moss on one side and still have the rest of the floor space open for shrimp to roam/easy viewing for me. But I do have to admit, 10G are more space-efficient, and you can keep many lines or projects separated that way

I agree OEM. It makes sense to take a few extra precautions to ensure the safety of our equipment/shrimp... (and to avoid possible damage to the house). What's a few extra dollars when compared to $1000 of livestock, as you said? dazalea, the rack is going to have a total of 6 tanks! (the 4 existing and I will be adding two 20L) So each shelf will end up with around 30 gallons of water + equipment/decor etc. The shelves are rated for 600 lbs each, so I'm hoping it will hold, especially with the extra plywood! I went out and purchased the plywood today and will be working on setting up the rack in a few days. Stay tuned

Did you add an extra valve to bleed out some air so back pressure isn't built up in the air pump? I heard that it helps with the noise and prolongs the air pump's longevity. Personally, bleeding out some of the air made my tetra whisper air pump more quiet. Also, some people place their air pumps on some kind of mat / fabric / foam to dampen some of the vibration that causes the humming you hear Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

Hello OEM, and thank you for your suggestions! I will follow your advice for the 3/4" plywood base. As for the sheets going on top of the shelving, I would have liked to cut the plywood to a full 18" depth, however, the poles holding up the rack are in the corners of the shelving, giving me a 15" (depth) clearance if I want to place the sheets between the poles. If I want the full 18" depth, I'd have to further trim the sheet length-wise so that the sheet measures 443/4"x18" to clear the poles. What would you suggest I do? Which option gives the most support? Alternatively, I can get the plywood cut to the full 18"x48" and hacksaw the corners