My 1.5 ft shrimp set up

[wthlolol]

Hi all, i am kinda new, and i am unsure of whether my lighting is sufficient anot, but here is my set up!

Tank Size: 1.5 ft
Filter: GEX Easy Power Size L
Lighting: Aquazonic Super Slim LED 6.72W
Substrate: H.E.L.P Shrimp substrate
Flora: Mixed moss of Christmas and Taiwan Moss tied to plastic mesh
Fauna: Intending to keep Fire Red shrimps
Temperature: 28-29 degree celsius

I am trying to grow a moss carpet and a moss wall, but my moss seems to be becoming slightly brown, could it be because my clip on LED is insufficient? And it is my first time tying a moss carpet, read somewhere that i should leave some space for them to grow, but is it too spread out??

The cylindrical mesh is something like a "moss tree", and the green dish is a $2 dish from Daiso!

[diazman]

Hey there, nice setup. No worries on the moss, they tend to brown out as they need time to adapt to the tank's parameters. They will spring back in no time.

The lighting should be sufficient, as moss are low light plants. Do watch out for them though just incase. As for the placement of moss, it should be ok as long it is not thickly placed.

More on moss placement info here: http://www.littlegreencorner.com/howtotiemoss.html

[wuguidan]

Nice tidy setup you have there. Woah, that's a big piece of mesh you got there. My little suggestion, you might want to cut the mesh into smaller pieces, easier to place, design and manage.

[wthlolol]

Hey there, nice setup. No worries on the moss, they tend to brown out as they need time to adapt to the tank's parameters. They will spring back in no time.

The lighting should be sufficient, as moss are low light plants. Do watch out for them though just incase. As for the placement of moss, it should be ok as long it is not thickly placed.

More on moss placement info here: http://www.littlegreencorner.com/howtotiemoss.html

Thanks bro! Now its 4th day into cycling of the tank, but still kind of kanchiong when seeing them browning out.

Nice tidy setup you have there. Woah, that's a big piece of mesh you got there. My little suggestion, you might want to cut the mesh into smaller pieces, easier to place, design and manage.

Thanks bro. The mesh wise i find smaller pieces feel abit messy though, but thanks for the suggestion, definitely will cut it soon when i have some ideas on what else to add in

[wthlolol]

Hi guys, update on my tank:

i have added 5 shrimps lately and all 5 died one after another daily. Could it be because my tank is not fully matured yet? Or the water parameters are not stable? i don't have a water test kit now because it's rather expensive for a set, but if I do have to buy one, which one would you guys recommend? Like just 1 parameter only

[SwordZ]

Did you acclimatise them?

[Naraki]

Hi guys, update on my tank:

i have added 5 shrimps lately and all 5 died one after another daily. Could it be because my tank is not fully matured yet? Or the water parameters are not stable? i don't have a water test kit now because it's rather expensive for a set, but if I do have to buy one, which one would you guys recommend? Like just 1 parameter only

Do invest in a test kit. API or Sera brand is normally used.

Tank till now only 17days. I doubt the nitrogen cycle is completed. You did not mention of adding any bacterial or speedup-cycle-product. The soil could still be releasing ammonia and the bacterial isn't enough to oxidize it to nitrites.

Acclimatizing is another strong factor. Did you drip acclimatize them?

[Urban Aquaria]

Could it be because my tank is not fully matured yet? Or the water parameters are not stable? i don't have a water test kit now because it's rather expensive for a set, but if I do have to buy one, which one would you guys recommend? Like just 1 parameter only

All those questions you have can only be answered by testing the water... unfortunately no one can just look at the photos of your tank and know what the parameters are.

You can't just test one parameter to find out either, it could be due to any of the other parameters so a full range test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and nitrates would be recommended. Note that test kits will not accelerate your tank's cycle, they will just give an indication of what stage your tank's cycle is at, you'll still have to wait until the cycle is stable before adding shrimps.

If you don't have the budget to get test kits, then just have to let the tank run for a few more weeks and then try adding shrimps again. You'll be working on trial and error in this case though, so instead of test kits you'll be using shrimps as the test subjects, so there may likely still be a higher chance of shrimp deaths along the way until the tank is fully stable.

[wthlolol]

Updates:

Moss walls are actually doing okay, but it got quite messy. But of course, i trimmed it already. No fauna yet as the tank is still cycling .

Can someone please ID these 2 new plants for me? The one in the foreground and the one in the background. Are they high- tech/demanding plants?

[wthlolol]

Do invest in a test kit. API or Sera brand is normally used.

Tank till now only 17days. I doubt the nitrogen cycle is completed. You did not mention of adding any bacterial or speedup-cycle-product. The soil could still be releasing ammonia and the bacterial isn't enough to oxidize it to nitrites.

Acclimatizing is another strong factor. Did you drip acclimatize them?

Yes i did drip acclimatised them at 1 drip per second, and they were actually doing quite okay, swimming actively around the tank and hanging out on the moss wall, but somehow they just start dying. I suspect it might be my tank temperature which hovers around 30-31ish during the day due to the proximity to the window.

[wthlolol]

All those questions you have can only be answered by testing the water... unfortunately no one can just look at the photos of your tank and know what the parameters are.

You can't just test one parameter to find out either, it could be due to any of the other parameters so a full range test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and nitrates would be recommended. Note that test kits will not accelerate your tank's cycle, they will just give an indication of what stage your tank's cycle is at, you'll still have to wait until the cycle is stable before adding shrimps.

If you don't have the budget to get test kits, then just have to let the tank run for a few more weeks and then try adding shrimps again. You'll be working on trial and error in this case though, so instead of test kits you'll be using shrimps as the test subjects, so there may likely still be a higher chance of shrimp deaths along the way until the tank is fully stable.

Hmm but are there any tell-tale signs of a cycled tank? Mulm on the ceramic rings? Or that will take too long already?

[Mystikboy]

Mulm is not an indicator of a cycled tank. A cycled tank refers to the establishment of a beneficial bacteria colony and while you can use time/health of fish as possible indicators, the best indicator is to test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, unfortunately the parameters which determine the tank cycle (ie. ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) are invisible, so there isn't any reliable way to visually check them other than using test kits. Just looking at the tank to find clues of a cycle is still at best going by trial and error.

I guess if you add fishes or shrimps and they are dying over time, then that's one of the indications that the tank parameters are not stable yet.

Note that shrimps can die even in a fully cycled established tank too, there could be 101 other reasons that kill them, but if you can test your tank and confirm its cycled, then at least you can narrow down the causes and respond better to the situation.

[Naraki]

Foreground is Jap Hairgrass. You should go get a fan immediately. Unless you want shrimp stew.

[wthlolol]

photo1 (1).jpg

Hi all,

updates on my tank. Finally put in some fauna consisting of 5 fire red shrimps this afternoon. Temperature still remains a sky high of 30 degrees, and i am starting to doubt the effectiveness of the stick on temperature strip, because it is consistently at 30!

Anyway, the hair grass seemed to be growing , while i have planted a few flowy looking plants( are they hornworts?) at the corners of the tank, and removed my ugly roll of ,what i initially wanted, a "moss tree".

I still can't properly ID the short green plant in the middle of the tank, is it Cambomba Caroliniana??

[wthlolol]

Hahha sorry guys, I wrongly ID the plant in the middle as Fanwort! Turns out those at the foreground and background are Fanwort

[Xiaogui]

Any updates pic?

[Mrhello88]

Any update of ur tank now?