First Timer - 5.5g RCS Planted Tank

[Hman]

Hello everyone, first post here.

 

About three weeks ago I picked up a $5 "Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys" starter kit, hoping to rekindle a bit of childhood nostalgia. I set up their little plastic tank and began to scour the internet for tips on sea-monkey health...and discovered freshwater shrimp. I was fascinated with the idea of keeping shrimp, and after a few days of research I put together a plan and began to gather materials. Three weeks ago I wasn't even aware that tank cycling existed; I'd had tetras as a kid, but we never cycled the tank.

 

So here we go, my aquarium journey!

 

The Tank:

• Topfin 5.5g Tank Kit
• Topfin filter with DIY sponge intake cover
• Finnex Stingray 16" LED light
• Inert black sand substrate, black gravel
• Cholla wood
• Indian almond leaves
• Shrimp cave
• Live plants: anubias, java fern, java moss, amazon frogbit, crystalwort, 2 miamo moss balls, dwarf tears (I think?, front left), dwarf sagittaria
• 10 red cherry shrimp (someday!)

Other Stuff:

• API Master Test Kit, GH KH kit, TDS meter
• Glass feeding dish
• Brine shrimp net
• SL-Aqua Snowflake
• Dr Tim's One and Only
• Dr Tim's Ammonia

 

I use tap water, here are my parameters straight from the tap:

• pH: 7.3-7.4
• gH: 8
• kH: 5
• TDS: 110

Day 1: Conditioned water for 24 hours before putting (almost) everything into the tank and filling it. I decided to go the fishless cycling route, and added 4 caps of One and Only and 13 drops of ammonia (double dose).

• Ammonia: 4ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm.

Day 2: Not much going on. Added three more caps of One and Only (why not?) and two drops of ammonia.

• Ammonia: 3ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm.

Day 3: Added more plants, did some rearranging, added a glass hood, and a plant light. Light runs 6-10AM and 3-7PM. Tank temperature with light is 75.5-76F.

• Ammonia: 1ppm, Nitrites: 0.25ppm.

Day 4: Ammonia and nitrites were low, so I re-dosed ammonia (back to 4ppm), possibly immaturely.

• Ammonia: 0.50ppm, Nitrites: 0.50ppm.

Day 5: Ammonia down, re-dosed to 4ppm.

• Ammonia: 1ppm, Nitrites: 1ppm, Nitrates: ~3ppm.

Day 6: More of the usual. Re-dose to 4ppm.

• Ammonia: 1ppm, Nitrites: 5ppm, Nitrates: 5ppm.

Day 7: One more re-dose of ammonia (4ppm). I plan on this being the last day I ammonia dose until my nitrites come down a lot.

• Ammonia: 0.50ppm, Nitrites: 5ppm+, Nitrates: ~30ppm.

Day 8 (August 18): Ammonia almost completely gone! Nitrites are still high, going to give them another day to see what happens. Hopefully I haven't stalled out the cycle. Should I dose a small amount of ammonia, or just wait? I've read conflicting opinions on this.

• Ammonia: 0.25ppm, Nitrites: 5ppm+, Nitrates: ~30ppm.

 

 

Any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc are greatly appreciated! 

 

Oh, and the sea-monkeys are doing great too!   

[High5's]

Welcome! Nice tank you got there.

[DETAquarium]

Welcome! We are glad to have you it looks like you have a great start! 

[chibikaie]

It's common for the cycle to stall a little once you get nitrites. Don't worry about it and don't try to rush things.

[Hman]

Last night I went ahead and dosed 2ppm ammonia, just to keep things rolling.

 

Day 9: Looks like I'm cycled! Or at least very close.

• Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: ~30ppm.

 

I went ahead and dosed ammonia to 3-4ppm one more time to verify that the cycle can complete in 24 hours. I think it's just about time to order shrimp!

[Hman]

Day 10: Slightly more hesitant today. I'm getting trace readings of ammonia and nitrite, and my nitrate hasn't gone up at all in several days. (And yes, I shake the bottle and sample quite vigorously.)

• Ammonia: 0.25ppm, Nitrites: 0.25ppm, Nitrates: ~30ppm.

I went ahead and dosed back up to 2ppm ammonia.

[Shrimple minded]

I find it difficult to discern the color change differences on nitrates in the 10+ - 40 range.

 

Considering you dosed 2ppm ammonia yesterday, and the majority of it has been converted, this seems reasonable for just day 10.

[RyeGuy411]

Unless you are using media or substrate from a cycled tank I doubt you are cycled at 10 days. Using filter bombs on brand new tanks and running temps at 86 I can cycle a tank in just about 12-15 days and that is fast. I will always let my tanks run a full 4-6 weeks before introducing shrimp to build biofilm and age the tank a little.

[Hman]

Several of the plants came from mature tanks, though I'm not sure how much of a difference that could ultimately make. I've read on a lot of reviews for One and Only that it can help to cycle a tank in under two weeks, as unbelievable as it may sound. I see this product touted as a miracle and also as complete trash, so. I'm trying to be hopeful, but patient.

[Hman]

Day 11: All signs point to cycled. 11 days falls in line with the average timeframe I've seen for a lot of the One and Only "success" stories. The tank may not be overly mature, but I'm planning on stocking very low to start. Most of my plants are also from mature tanks, so hopefully that helps. Doing a 90% water change tonight and hopefully picking up 5 Super Tigers tomorrow evening. Failing that I'll just keep ammonia dosing until I have my 10 RCS mid-next week.

 

• Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrites: 0ppm, Nitrates: ~30ppm.

 

Also did some re-scaping, added dwarf sagittaria, and tourmaline mineral balls.

[Hman]

I went ahead and dosed 1ppm ammonia late on day 11 just to see if the tank could cycle it through in just 12 hours...and it did!

I picked up 5 RCS to start with from a local store and ended up with 5 females; 3 berried and 2 saddled. About 16 hours have passed and they seem to be quite happy as they explore and graze around the tank. I plan on picking up about 10 more RCS later this week.

Water parameters are still spot on. So far, so good!

[Hman]

At this point it has been 11 days since I first introduced shrimp into the tank. Here's my recap:

 

One of the original five (saddled) ended up dying about 24 hours in, most likely stress from the long car ride home, parameters were good.

 

A few days later I received an order of 10 Grade AA Red Cherry Shrimp from The Shrimp Farm. Oddly enough they only sent 9, and one of those was dead. I contacted them and this has been resolved, very poorly, but that's an entirely different story... I also lost two more of the newest shrimp, two-day shipping stress.

 

After a few more days I did a 20% water change, parameters have been great throughout. I also started to spot a few babies at this point! I've counted as many as four at once, but there's SO much moss to hide in.

 

I currently have 3 males and 7 females; 3 are berried, the rest are saddled.

 

Here's an album of some hi-res images I've taken over the last two weeks, including a baby picture.

 

And a compilation video of random footage I recorded over the first 11 days.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Sometimes missing shrimp/crays get cannibalized along the way and the bag shows up with no trace of the missing animals.  It's good they resolved the issue though, and awesome you have some berried. :-).

[Faralon]

Tank looks great. Great video too. What camera are you using? Welcome to the 5.5g club! PFR's and Mischlings in mine.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hman]

I hadn't really considered cannibalism, but it does make sense.

I'm actually just using the camera on my phone, Samsung Galaxy S6. The digital zoom works wonders for macro shots.

Keeping shrimp has been a very enjoyable experience so far. I actually picked up a 10gal and a few more supplies at a PetCo grand opening sale a few days ago and am in the planning stages for a CRS and/or CBS tank.

Thanks for the kind words!

[Shrimple minded]

Those are great photos, especially so when considering those are taken with a phone.

[Hman]

18 days since I introduced the first batch of shrimp. I've not lost any more shrimp at this point, and it's hard to look anywhere in the tank without seeing a few fry.

 

Yesterday I noticed that two of my shrimp (both from the second batch) had a white dot on their rostrums. After some research I concluded that this was either scutariella japonica or vorticella. I made up an aquarium salt bath and dipped them each in for about 30 seconds. Parasites (I assume?) are gone and they are foraging about as ever.

 

Today I noted the first shrimp to actually become berried in my tank. The original three have all given birth at this point. Shortly after I noticed the second. And then a third. The three males have been making laps all week.

 

Here's an album of mostly fry.

 

Oh, and I started up my new 10 gallon tank today. Planning on keeping CRS or any other caridina shrimp. (Suggestions?) Started with Fluval Stratum Shrimp and Plant Soil capped with Mr. Aqua Aquarium Soil, RO water, and some media from my 5.5 gallon's filter. I'm planning on letting this one run for at least 6-8 weeks before I even consider adding shrimp.

[Hman]

Just over a month (34 days) since I first introduced shrimp to my tank. I've lost one female to what appeared to be a molting issue. The six remaining females are all berried, and there are already fry and juveniles everywhere.

 

Speaking of molt issues: I picked up a more accurate pH test kit and discovered that my pH had climbed to 8.2. I've done a couple of water changes and have brought it down just below 8. Adding a bit of peat to the filter on Monday.