Advise on setting up a 2ft planted shrimp tank

[Wackytpt]

After reading up and chatting with some shrimps owner.

I am intending to set up a simple shrimp planted tank.

Still deciding to keep taiwan fire shirmp or step into the "dark side" of CRS.

The obstacle is that I don't have a chiller currently.

My intended setup tank is a 2ft 5 plan tank.

I need some advise.

Substrate

I am deciding which soil is suitable. My current options are

1. I got a packed of used ADA africana and amazonia mixed soil
2. Got some new amazonia
3. Get new soil suitable for shirmps. If so, which one to get? Currently in consideration is the shrimps soil from Silane, Azoo soil, any others to recommend?

Plants

I intend to use maybe 2 or 3 types of plants.

fissidens nobilis on mesh and driftwood.
mini needle java fern

Scaping
Anyone one got recommendation which website has sample for reference? Marle, I saw in your post that you get yours from a taiwan blog. Can share?


Filteration

1. Get Canister? If get which one?
2. Ebi's method. Canister, HOF and UGF. Ebi can share more on this.
3. Hamburg MAtten Filter (http://www.janrigter.nl/mattenfilter/)

Chiller or Fan
1. Fan what one is good? Currently got a Gen X one.
2. Chiller? which model and Hp?

Shrimps
Either Taiwan Fire Red or CRS

Anyone can advise.

Thanks

Cheers

[ciaossu]

soil and plant should be ok. scaping wise you might want to keep it as simple as possible, as this would make your counting of stocks more easier. filteration it's better to get a canister. jebao,eheim and etc should be alright. ehiem is much more expensive. if you intend to keep TWRS a fan is enough but if you intend to keep CRS, chiller is a must. if you intend to keep both, chiller is also must hehe. as for chiller resun cl 280 is good enough for 2ft. you might want to take note of the flowrate too before you get a canister to suit it.

actually chiller is not a must if you can maintain your tank temperature between 23-25

just my 2 cents

[marle]

Hey Wackytpt, good to hear that you are venturing into shrimps as well. I just got a male Breitbinden too.

Soil: I'll go for ADA Amazonia 2 or Azoo Soil. I am currently using Africana but i feel that shrimps colour look best with dark substrate and Africana's pH goes too low for shrimps especially at startups. Had to add coral chips to buffer. Another thing for substrate is the thickness, the thicker the better for beneficial bacteria's growth.

Plants: I am not too sure about java ferns, heard nasty things when mixed with sensitive shrimps. But its still a myth for me.

Scaping:
Website you requested:
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/joedanmix...ev=224&next=82

Filtration: canister, ios, sump. All are good i think, see which is most convenient for you. The more the merrier when it comes to filtration.

If crs the its Chiller.Chiller.Chiller. (Depends on your budget).

Happy shrimping!

[Wackytpt]

Great to hear you found a male breithbinden. It is one of my favourite apisto. The one I gotten got very nice blood throat cheek.

Currently I got a packet of used Amazonia / Africana mix. Used to use it for my apisto. Can I used it and top up need ADA amazonia on the top?

What is the suggested thickness for soil?

Such a pity for me that I can't used your centre piece for my tank. Did have something in mind for it. But do post it when your new tank is ready.

Cheers

[Spid]

Welcoming shrimping pal.

Thicker the gravel will be better if your talking about a long stable tank which going last you for quite some time.

Cycling part I guess you should know. The longer the better and haste usually brings trouble.

[silane]

What is the suggested thickness for soil?

If you want to keep Taiwan Fire Red/Sukura, a thin layer of soil will do. 5mm thickness will do, and such thickness of soil will result in not so acidic water, which is good for neocaridina shrimp.

I have a tank of Fire Red, just 3mm thickness of Dennerle quartz, hence soil/gravel for neocaridina is not critical, just need to keep the ph at around 6.8


If for CRS, thicker soil is better, like Spid said, but stabilising them at initial stage is alway a headache.

[marle]

This really shouldn't be here, but hope this helps.


Source: Fish Practical UK..borders..oops.

Sorry you might have to squint your eyes.

[Ebi]

Hi Wacky-san,

Sorry for the late reply. Was busy yesterday.

Here's the food ("meat"-based) i mentioned. Don't ask me what the ingredients are, i can't read japanese.
My shrimps don't seem to like Mosura Excel though.

For plant-based food i feed Mosura CRS Specialty Food and boiled spinach. I know there isn't much nutritional value in "very" boiled spinach, but they seem to go crazy over it, hence will boil them the spinach once a week or so.

Attachment 16047

By the way, here's a quick foto of the shrimps "fighting" over the efish food. (Sorry for the lousy foto. Still waiting to get a good camera for close-ups shots) These buggers normally will walk away when the bigger mosuras come for the food, but they won't budge much when i feed these pellets.

Attachment 16049

[Ebi]

About my filtration. As spoken, there's nothing unusual.

The UGF is by air pump.

The Cannister suctions through 4 x sponges, delivers through the chiller to discharge to the 2 x HOF at one end and routed to flow through the HOF, finally discharging back into the tank via the "waterfall".

There isn't much mechanical filtration here, mostly biological filtration.
I do the mechanical cleaning during water changes. Due to the volume available, I can easily do a 10-15 litre water change without affecting the water parameters too much or causing too much discomfort to the shrimps.

Hope this helps. OK got to go for dinner now. Will check back in later when have time.

[ahdex]

This really shouldn't be here, but hope this helps.


Source: Fish Practical UK..borders..oops.

Sorry you might have to squint your eyes.

Thank for copying the page for us to see, it save me some money.

[Wackytpt]

Welcoming shrimping pal.

Thicker the gravel will be better if your talking about a long stable tank which going last you for quite some time.

Cycling part I guess you should know. The longer the better and haste usually brings trouble.

How long will the cycling period me? I intend to used used ADA substrate with top up of new ADA substrate over it? Can't wait to get more quality Taiwan Fire Red from you.

If you want to keep Taiwan Fire Red/Sukura, a thin layer of soil will do. 5mm thickness will do, and such thickness of soil will result in not so acidic water, which is good for neocaridina shrimp.

I have a tank of Fire Red, just 3mm thickness of Dennerle quartz, hence soil/gravel for neocaridina is not critical, just need to keep the ph at around 6.8


If for CRS, thicker soil is better, like Spid said, but stabilising them at initial stage is alway a headache.

Silane,

Dennerle quartz are neutral on PH, so you just PH solution to maintain the PH at 6.8 is it?

This really shouldn't be here, but hope this helps.


Source: Fish Practical UK..borders..oops.

Sorry you might have to squint your eyes.

Hi Marle,

Which month publication is that? Can't really see it properly. Might want to buy the magzine instead.

Hi Wacky-san,

Sorry for the late reply. Was busy yesterday.

Here's the food ("meat"-based) i mentioned. Don't ask me what the ingredients are, i can't read japanese.
My shrimps don't seem to like Mosura Excel though.

For plant-based food i feed Mosura CRS Specialty Food and boiled spinach. I know there isn't much nutritional value in "very" boiled spinach, but they seem to go crazy over it, hence will boil them the spinach once a week or so.

Attachment 16047

By the way, here's a quick foto of the shrimps "fighting" over the efish food. (Sorry for the lousy foto. Still waiting to get a good camera for close-ups shots) These buggers normally will walk away when the bigger mosuras come for the food, but they won't budge much when i feed these pellets.

Attachment 16049

Is this the new japanese product that you told me?

About my filtration. As spoken, there's nothing unusual.

The UGF is by air pump.

The Cannister suctions through 4 x sponges, delivers through the chiller to discharge to the 2 x HOF at one end and routed to flow through the HOF, finally discharging back into the tank via the "waterfall".

There isn't much mechanical filtration here, mostly biological filtration.
I do the mechanical cleaning during water changes. Due to the volume available, I can easily do a 10-15 litre water change without affecting the water parameters too much or causing too much discomfort to the shrimps.

Hope this helps. OK got to go for dinner now. Will check back in later when have time.

Where do you put your filter media like biohome? In the HOF? Is it necessary to use undergravel filter if I already got the canister? Is a 2213 sufficient for now? Tank should be tentative for Taiwan Fire Red and maybe lowe end CRS.

[marle]

The current article!

[Wackytpt]

Where can I buy the magazine ?

[marle]

Borders @ wheelock!

[silane]

Silane,
Dennerle quartz are neutral on PH, so you just PH solution to maintain the PH at 6.8 is it?

Yes, you maybe you can do that, but I dont like chemicals or use products not poven for shrimps, theortically it will lower pH,but what chemical are they, how they react with shrimps, this is hard to say.

I use peat moss soaked water or a cycled tank with driftwood, the ph will be around 7, good for neocaridina like cherry.

There is no big science in keeping cherry, the setup can be very easy and low cost.

I have 2 setup:

Taiwan Fire Red F1/F2
- 2ft tank
- thin layer of Dennerl quartz
- driftwood with moss
- sponge filter
- 100 or so shrimps
TWFR has been breeding for 2 generations and this setup is also seem good for Atyposis, which I have 3 white bands mini Atyposis in that tank also.

Chocolate Shrimps
- 1ft cube
- bare bottom
- driftwood with moss
- sponge filter
- floating hornwort
- 30+ shrimps
It has been a few week, there is no casualty, females molted and pregnant and I have confidence this simple setup works well.

[Wackytpt]

Silane,

Thanks for the advise.

What is the ideal PH level for Fire Red?

[silane]

It depends on your seup, if bare or think quartz, a little lower then 7 will do. If use soil (thin layer will do), 6.X will be good. Generally, higher pH has better color.

Fire red can adapt to wide range of pH, effortlessly, gravel will offer u the pH, there is no need to increase the pH with pH up powder, then inject CO2 to lower it.

[Wackytpt]

Thanks for the advise.

Then I think I will use my current ada substrate.

And do a simple planted scape with driftwood for the shrimps.

[silane]

You are welcome.

Anywhere is your tank posted in the forum??

[Wackytpt]

For this shrimp tank?

It is still in the process as I need to look for a canister filter.

Will post picture once it is done.

Any chance of any recommendation of any website that has a shrimp planted scape?

The current few I saw the concept is very simple as I think it is for the availability to located the shrimps and spot any death.

Cheers