ruuuey Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 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! oem, Shrimporama, skalia and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenteam Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 Seiryu stone will keep trying to bring that PH up. A good good option for this setup can also be Tigers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justabird13 Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 This is beautiful [emoji7]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Shrimporama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruuuey Posted March 15, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 3 hours ago, Greenteam said: Seiryu stone will keep trying to bring that PH up. A good good option for this setup can also be Tigers. 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 2 hours ago, justabird13 said: This is beautiful Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Thank you for the kind words! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justabird13 Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 I'm working on my first spiderwood tank currently. I can't get it anywhere near this! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 Looks great! I have always wondered how hard it is to keep the white sand clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimp Life Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) Beautiful!! love to see it when the moss grows in, ad a little more buce. Great job Edited March 15, 2017 by dazalea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justabird13 Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 Looks great! I have always wondered how hard it is to keep the white sand clean.It can't be any harder than keeping black sand clean lol. Everything shows Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruuuey Posted March 15, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 1 hour ago, justabird13 said: I'm working on my first spiderwood tank currently. I can't get it anywhere near this! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 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. 1 hour ago, OblongShrimp said: Looks great! I have always wondered how hard it is to keep the white sand clean. Thank you. I guess we'll find out... maybe I should only feed my shrimp white foods, ha! 39 minutes ago, dazalea said: Beautiful!! love to see it when the moss grows in, ad a little more buce. Great job Thanks dazalea! Maybe I should add some more buce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruuuey Posted May 25, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2017 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. DarkSeas and Shrimporama 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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