Axelrod's 20L shrimp tank

[Axelrod12]

This is great I've been establishing a 20L for shrimp with the hopes of them breeding and have been meaning to join a shrimp specific forum. Might as well start with a fresh one! 

 

Anyways this is the tank:

 

Specs:

Standard 20L

Lighting: 2x 8.5" shop light domes with 23w, 6500k cfls

Filtration: Aquaclear 50, sponge over the intake. 

Heater: 100w petco heater I had laying around, until I have some extra cash for an upgrade this will do. 

I'm dosing excel at 2ml a day, I may reduce this to 1ml when shrimp are in the tank. 

Dosing EI ferts, currently at full EI, but this will also likely be reduced a bit when shrimp are added. 

 

I would like to keep/breed OEBT. If they don't work out however I will likely move the CRS/CBS over from my 2g spec. The tanks parameters are right in between what each species prefers and I'm not too sure about altering the hardness at all. I may invest in a RO/DI unit in a couple months though. At that point parameters will be more controllable. 

[mosspearl]

Nice tank! I was drooling over a 20L yesterday at Petsmart, but I have nowhere to put one.

[Soothing Shrimp]

RO will be one of the best ionvestments you can make for yourself with sensative shrimp like OEBT.  Often people have to pick a high tech planted tank, or a low tech shrimp one.  CO2 and ferts can cause preoblems with shrimp health.  Also, some people keep OEBT at a low temp to ward off bacterial infections.  Always exceptions to the rule though. 

 

Your tank is lookin' good!  Really liking the hardscape in there!

[Axelrod12]

Thanks, I spent a lot of time debating over that hardscape and getting advice from others on tweaking it. It took a while for me to settle on one.

 

Maybe I'll keep some RCS in there until I save up for the RO/DI unit. I want to invest in a nice one as I will likely be using it for a long time and for a lot of things. I have plans to set up a reef tank down the line and have just recently begun keeping carnivorous plants and other terrestrial and epiphytic plants that need RO water. Continuously buying jugs of distilled from the supermarket is going to add up. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

Not to mention all the lugging from the store to home.  of course you still lug from home when you fill a bottle, but heck- it's home! LOL

[Axelrod12]

Still much easier to go from the laundry room where I would set it up to my room, than from the store, to the car, up 3 flights of stairs and into my room haha. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

This is the kind I got.  Resonably priced and I'm very happy with it.

 

I have very low water pressure, so to find any that would work well for me was a challenge.

 

I run the RO line to 10 gallon trash containers and just move the line to teh next one when one is full.

[Axelrod12]

Cool I bookmarked that and will keep it in mind. Our water pressure shouldn't be a problem, it's actually quite intense even up on the 3rd floor, I don't think I've ever had the need to turn it up all the way. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

You have my water pressure beat by a long shot!

[MarkNJD15]

Nice tank Axel. 

Hope everything works out for you in shrimp keeping. Eventually I wanna get some OEBT, but first I need to deal with the CRS and RCS I have. They have been a big enough learning experience.

[JerSaint]

Great looking tank! I really like how the lighting works with the hardscape, I think the darker central location adds a lot of depth to the setup.

[Axelrod12]

Here's an updated picture of the tank:

 

And a couple pictures of the shrimp that I've added today. 

10x BTOE

10x Fire yellows

 

 

BTOE:

 

Not the best pic but here's basically the only fire yellow that wasn't hiding:

[Soothing Shrimp]

That BTOE is killer, dude.

 

Is that a juvie yellow?

[Axelrod12]

Yup all the yellows were juvies. Most of the BTOE were also juvies with a couple larger ones mixed in. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

I would have though the juvie fire would have been more vibrant. (?)

[Axelrod12]

Some of them do have slightly better color. That was also only a couple hours after moving them into the tank. Hopefully they will color up more and I didn't get culls though.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'm sure it is just stress from travel.

[Axelrod12]

I hope so. They still haven't colored up too much and its been a few days. I'm also learning how stressful it can be keeping expensive shrimp in a planted tank. I know BTOE are sensitive so I'm constantly worried they are all gonna die off on me. I'll spend a good 10-15 minutes just watching the tank trying to count the BTOE. Most recently I was only able to see 1. Nerve wracking. It doesn't help that the seller shipped with no heat pack even though I requested one. The bags were very well insulated though and I got the package off the porch withing 5 minutes of delivery. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

I hear ya.  The only plant I use is moss in the corner for my shrimp because I selectively breed my neos.  In the beginning I went through exactly the same thing- trying to locate them in plants.  Then the 2nd crazy thing- trying to chase them through foliage.  Yeah, I just stick with moss now in the corner. LOL

[mosspearl]

I see I'm not the only one who obsessively counts every time I pass the tank.

[Axelrod12]

I hear ya.  The only plant I use is moss in the corner for my shrimp because I selectively breed my neos.  In the beginning I went through exactly the same thing- trying to locate them in plants.  Then the 2nd crazy thing- trying to chase them through foliage.  Yeah, I just stick with moss now in the corner. LOL

 

Haha I'm wishing I'd done that. I'm currently setting up a 10g for CRS and will be sticking with a similar planting scheme. Maybe a few floaters and a couple easy to remove plants in addition to moss. But much more simple than what I've got going on in this 20L.

 

I see I'm not the only one who obsessively counts every time I pass the tank.

 

I tend to count only when I get new shrimp in. I always have bad luck when I get shrimp shipped for some reason and they die after being introduced to the tank. I don't know if it's shipping stress or what. But the first 3-4 weeks I tend to count once a day or every other day. After they establish themselves in the tank I'm not as obsessive. Today I found 3 BTOE. So better than the 1 from yesterday but still not the 10 I'm looking for. 

[Axelrod12]

Green hair algae is starting to take over the tank. How do you combat this in a shrimp tank? I'm starting by reducing the photoperiod, but don't know what to do besides that. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'm ALWAYS combating green hair algae.  Shrimp love it, but it's just an eyesore.

 

I don't use CO2, so the only thing I've found that works is lots of moss to soak up the nutrients in the water and starve out the algae.  I imagine hornwort and floaters would do the same thing.

[mosspearl]

Green hair algae is everywhere! Seems like I pick it out constantly.

[GreenBliss]

Reducing how long the lights are on and raising them can help, but I could never get rid of the hair algae without removing the moss/plant that had it.