Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 I have been thinking about redoing my 22g tank and finally decided to do it. My tank was in middle period. Not doing bad, but not at optimal breeding heaven. So I figured now would be as good a time as any. Reasons why I wanted to redo my tank. - As much as I love the piece of spider wood that was in my tank I couldn't hardly see many shrimp. I took it out and make the tank a bit "simpler". - Bacterial bloom: my tank was in a bacteria white cloudiness and I hate it haha. - HMF: going off the bacterial bloom I also wanted to try out a HMF and figured the extra filtration would help with the bloom. - Soil color: I had the brightwell cafe (light brown) and couldn't see my TT very well. I decided to go with the bw escuro ("light" black) and I'm glad I did. I don't have any full black/dark shrimp so I don't know how they will fair in visibility but I can see the rest of my shrimp wonderfully! Before After As you can see it is way more open without the piece of spiderwood. I am definitely going to keep it though. I will probably use it when I remodel my 37g jungle within the next couple months. The sponge filters on the left are from the old scape. I figured I'd keep them in the tank for a week or so to help with bacterial growth. I will take them out eventually, maybe hooking one up if I feel like the tank needs more oxygenation/flow although even after it only being set up for a couple hours I am really liking the HMF!!! As minimalist as I wanted the scape, I am not sure if I can ever go "full breeder tank". I did make sure to tone down my plants and other additions to the tank, but made sure to have a little fun with it. Hopefully I won't lose any shrimp and they will prosper!! My TT is currently berried and I think I saw an egg or two in one of my young black pandas but not 100% sure. Current stock: 4x CBS Mischling 9x low grade BB 5x BPanda 4x TT 4x Snowball 1x Tiger 3x Babies (TT I believe) As long as everything goes smoothly I plan to add some CRS variant mischlings and possibly more blue bolts. -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iagro Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Our tanks are setup nearly the same LOL. Edsal, Stingray, 22g ++ even the poster. Here's a before and afterish. Duff0712 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Our tanks are setup nearly the same LOL. Edsal, Stingray, 22g ++ even the poster. Here's a before and afterish. Hahahahaha that's awesome!! Like the setup! -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iagro Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Stingray is definitely perfect light for the tank when growing lowlight/moss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Stingray is definitely perfect light for the tank when growing lowlight/moss. First time with the light but I'm liking it so far -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Got a PSA. Make sure if you unplug, or power goes out to, a digital controlled heater that you double check its set temp. Apparently my ViaAqua reset itself after it was unplugged and instead of heating my tank back up to 72F it was heating to 79F. I caught it at 77F and turned it back down. No deaths yet and hopefully there won't be. Poor guys. Temperature roller coaster ride today. It was over a few hours so hopefully that helped. -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iagro Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 One more thing. Saw your photos in another thread, what camera you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Duff, mine does that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 One more thing. Saw your photos in another thread, what camera you have? Lately I've been lazy and have been using my phone. Otherwise I have a Nikon D7000 with a Tokina 100mm macro lens. Duff, mine does that too. It sucks. I know that now at least to keep an eye on it. Figured it would keep the temp in memory. Oh well -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenteam Posted November 22, 2015 Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Like the new clean look defiantly will get to enjoy the shrimp more. Makes watching the little ones go thru their growing stages sooooo much easier so no more 2 weeks of seen nothing hoping the young survived lol. Duff0712 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Like the new clean look defiantly will get to enjoy the shrimp more. Makes watching the little ones go thru their growing stages sooooo much easier so no more 2 weeks of seen nothing hoping the young survived lol. True that. When my TT dropped her clutch I kept looking and looking and could see 1 baby ever. With it opened up and the black substrate i still have to look since they are small but it is so much easier to find them. -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2015 Update: took a look in my tank and didn't see any dead. Yay! Will take another longer look when I get back from work when the lights are on and I'm not pushed for time. -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 First of all I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. Here's a better shot of the tank now that it has cleared up Been keeping an eye on the tank and nothing drastic has happened thankfully. No deaths, shrimp are molting. There is still that one shrimp that has a molting problem, but I haven't seen it happen to any others yet. Also the TT that is berried again looks like it is saddled too!! Any confirmations on that? Sadly there are a few things that are off and I have been trying to fix. I noticed that there is a bit of ammonia in the tank. I am dosing the tank with a ton of bacteria and some seachem prime to fix that. I wouldn't of thought the tank would have that problem since I kept the same sponge filters in for the bacteria, but it is newly set up so not that far-fetched. As long as the ammonia does not go up I will do some 10% changes everyother/everyfew days so the shrimp aren't as stressed. Also, I have noticed an interesting smell coming from the tank the past couple of days. It smells like a combination of the "new" HMF sponge smell and dirty/old substrate smell. Not exactly sulfur, but close. Not sure what that is from. Any ideas? Another thing that is bothering me is the TDS and GH. My TDS meter at home (which I will admit is pretty crappy by now and I have to squeeze it for it to turn on/work haha) says my TDS is around 150 (it jumped like 30 in a few days) and at work the TDS meter says it is 109... Both read at 0 with Distilled and RODI, but have two different readouts. I am not sure which one is messed up. Now for GH my test at home reads it at 5-6 and the test at work reads it 4-5. I mean I assume GH is about 4-6 which is fine haha, but man those API GH tests are not accurate. One last thing, more of a question really. I noticed that the back of the HMF filter is "dead". It looks like there's no flow back there. There definitely has to be since the jetlifter is working and there is water coming out the end, but I can't see much of any circulation. Anyone who has or has had a HMF filter notice that as well? Is that a bad thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenteam Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 The back of HMF is also very still but I know it's obviously not stagnant because I never get that nasty film build up on the surface of the water. I guess if you want you can always add a small air-stone but I honestly don't thing its necessary. Duff0712 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 The back of HMF is also very still but I know it's obviously not stagnant because I never get that nasty film build up on the surface of the water. I guess if you want you can always add a small air-stone but I honestly don't thing its necessary. I do get a little of the bio-film in HMF section. Not a lot and just topping off with RO breaks up most of it. If I notice it getting thick I might add an air stone. -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted December 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Haven't updated in awhile. It's been a couple weeks and things are going great! I had two deaths (old mischling and a BB) sadly, but I am deciding that was from the ammonia and stress of redoing the tank. Although ammonia is gone and my TDS isn't increasing from prime anymore since I no longer need it. Here is a shot of the tank today. New shrimp would include some shadow pandas and RKK mischlings I got during the Black Friday sale. Super excited to see some rkk in the next month or two . My TT is still preeegnant and I just noticed that one of my original mischlings is berried!!! I was starting to think she wasn't female haha. Overall things are going well!! -Duffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Tank looks fantastic! Always enjoy seeing a clean tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillznglass Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Just wanted to say this is a really nice tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Tank looks fantastic! Always enjoy seeing a clean tank! Just wanted to say this is a really nice tank. Thanks guys and shhh there is a bit of hair algae. Not a lot but enough to annoy me haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted January 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2016 So recently I have noticed a few more babies in the tank and more berried shrimp! I have two Low grade BB that are berried alongside my TT. My first ever berried Taiwan Bee! YAY! Here are are ladies. Only issue I'm having is more hair algae growth. Tried a 3 day blackout and it made it worse haha. Going to try small daily doses of excel. -Duffy Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted January 4, 2016 Report Share Posted January 4, 2016 Is that a TT? Going for pseudos, are ya? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff0712 Posted January 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2016 Is that a TT? Going for pseudos, are ya? It is indeed. I am going for whatever I can breed and randomness/off patterns are fine with me Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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