Two projects CRS and RCS

[lalfish]

I'm in the planning stage for two projects, both arising from recent experiences with a 19 liter Fluval Spec where I've been keeping CRS, for the first time ever, for the past five months.  Synopsis is that after two months I had a big spike in colony size (up to over 20 in May from the original 6 adults purchased at LFS) followed by crash of same, probably due to over-feeding and build-up of debris on substrate.  But things stabilized and more babies appeared and grew so life was good. And then last weekend there was a freak-out when it appeared that the tank was leaking significantly so I quickly moved the smaller colony of to another tank.  The relocation tank is not suitable for long term.  In the Spec, I was using ADG AZ soil over Akadama clay with no RO, no bio-film support, no beta glucans, no shrimp-specific nutrition. But I had lots of bog wood and catappa leaves and even a peat ball to further buffer pH a bit. Below is snapshot of part of the colony before it crashed. There is plant debris. The pink boulder looking things are bits of Akadama clay. I think the clay may have helped, but not sure whether to use it again in new projects.

First project will be a tank for learning and remediation.

Tank: Aqueon 20 Gallon Long 

Substrate: Controsoil prepped with Bacter-AE and beta glucans

Filtration: Sponge-only

Heavily low-light planted (0.50W, 6500K Beamworks LEDs) with bogwood and moss

The learning part: working with sponge-only filtration and air pumps, better shrimp husbandry, attending to nutrition whilst not over-feeding. 

The remediation part: stocking with RCS that have been thriving on neglect in Walstad planted tank but that have been losing color over the course of several generations, plus a shoal of tiny-mouthed Rummy-nose tetra from an overstocked community fishtank with higher pH than what is recommended for this species.

If all goes well, perhaps I'll also introduce some of the Tiger shrimp who can do well in less acidic conditions (even with the active substrate I suspect this tank will be neutral to slightly alkaline and somewhat hard due to local tap water parameters).

The second project is even steeper learning curve but here the goal is to prove that I can keep CRS humanely -- and to have a pretty little tank set up where I can relax and enjoy it.

Tank: "Arc" 6.5 Gallon glass bowfront

iSame substrate and planting as above, but with catappa leaves and cholla wood also, and peat ball bc shrimps like it. 

Lighting: what comes w/the kit, but may switch to Beamworks nano-sized low wattage 6500K

Filtration: articulated-sponge only, as a hack to the kit, but with a seeded sponge filter at the ready in case the hack fails.

Stocking: survivors (appx 10) of the above referenced CRS crash and tank leak freak-out. May add a few more CRSs if tank is successful.

Water:  Filtered 3:1 combo of bottled RO (TDS=9) and local medium-hard tap water

I really don't want to invest in RO equipment installation and maintenance, let alone tinker with remineralization.  For a tank this size I can commit to carbon-filtering 3:1 combo mentioned above.  Based on thriving RCS, I hope the CRS will also have sufficient minerals.  While waiting to get tanks ready, I will read up on the forum to know what are the tell-tale signs when CRS are struggling due to missing trace mins, too much calcium etc.  Grateful for any feedback or advice when things start to come together -- or even better now, to help me ward off design flaw!

[lalfish]

BEST LAID PLANS....

nix all of the above. Refugee CRSs are growing and doing well in their various resettlement tanks so despite the recent spate of purchases (substrate, filtration lighting etc) in the spirit of the "Shrimp like stability" maxim I'm postponing complex projects indefinitely.