12L Nano Shrimp Tank "Blacksand"

[NanoScaper]

So, I tried my hands at keeping Neocaridina shrimps previously for about three months but they kept dying on me. From there, I learned what could have possibly gone wrong and I'm going to try again.

All surviving shrimps were transferred to my daughter's nano tank as I prepare to reset the tank. This time, there were significant changes to the substrate, additives, conditioners and filter.

Substrate

I'm using inert sand instead of active soil. I know that it's possible to keep Neocaridina shrimps in a tank with active soil but I also understand that they prefer neutral to alkaline waters.

Additives

Previously, I was only using a substrate additive that adds beneficial bacteria to it. This time, I'm also adding a mineral powder to the base of the tank during setup.

Conditioners

I notice that in a shrimp tank setup, water conditioners in the shape of balls are used. I've used it before in the previous setup and will continue to do so plus adding mineral stones.

Filter

One of my mistakes was to choose a filter that was just enough for my tank. I realise that you can never over-filter a tank but it is possible to have too much flow.

As such, I'm using a bigger filter that has an added benefit of adding more types of filter media but at the same time, flow can be easily controlled using a knob.

Without further ado, let me share how I set up my nano shrimp tank.


Step 0 - Place tank on a flat and stable surface.


Step 1 – Sprinkle a thin layer of substrate additives.

• BorneoWild Minerax
• BorneoWild Enlive

Step 2 – Pour in substrate and flatten it.

• Dennerle Nano Shrimps Gravel Bed - Sulawesi Black

Step 3 – Add in water conditioners on top of substrate.

• BorneoWild Bee Ball
• BorneoWild Minerock

Step 4 – Place plants and leaf litter into the tank.

• Mini Fissidens on driftwood.
• Catappa leaf and alder cones.

Step 5 – Pour in treated tap water.

• Tap water treated with Seachem Prime.

Step 6 – Fix light and filter onto the tank.

• FLEXI-mini HCRI LED Light
• AZOO Mignon Filter 360

Step 7 – Switch on all equipment.

If there's a takeaway from the previous setup that is most important, it is to be patient with the tank cycling and letting the tank grow more biofilm and microorganism for the shrimps.

My plan is to wait at least four weeks before I add any shrimps.

During this time, I will do the following to let the tank cycle and hopefully grow enough biofilm and microorganism for the shrimps when they arrive.

1. Leave lights on for six hours daily during the first four weeks.
2. Add fish/shrimp food every two to three days to cycle the tank.
3. Change 50% of the water weekly for the first four weeks.

I hope this new setup will fare better. What do you think? Let me know if you have any questions regarding my setup. Also, if you have any recommendations, I would love to hear it.

[imtai]

hey bro!

looks like I'm the first haha (always stalking you for your new updates and threads)

gratz on the new setup! nicely done! would love to hear about your shrimps soon after the cycling is done! still keeping red rili? haha

I have always been eyeing that sand. but it will hurt my wallet too much =*(

btw would you like to share the kinda media u added into the hob filter? jus sponges? any bio media? =)

tai

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

[oberon4687]

Nice setup. Simple and nice.
What's the temperature of the tank?
By the way, since your daughter has a nano tank, possible to borrow some of her filter media to seed this tank? Or else some of her tank water would be fine too. Gives the bacteria culture a boost.

[NanoScaper]

hey bro!

looks like I'm the first haha (always stalking you for your new updates and threads)

gratz on the new setup! nicely done! would love to hear about your shrimps soon after the cycling is done! still keeping red rili? haha

I have always been eyeing that sand. but it will hurt my wallet too much =*(

btw would you like to share the kinda media u added into the hob filter? jus sponges? any bio media? =)

tai

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

Hey imtai

Thank you for being the first!

Will definitely update here when shrimps are in the tank. As for the choice of shrimps? Hmmm...

Regarding the sand, I had originally planned to buy the SUDO Real Black Sand. For some reason, I went to take a look at the Dennerle Nano Shrimps Gravel Bed and fell in love with the consistent colour, shape and size. It costs about 30% more weight-for-weight but I'm happy with how it looks like in the tank right now.

As for the filter, I'm using the following medias.

1. coarse filter pad (came with the filter)
2. fine filter pad (just a generic brand one)
3. Seachem Purigen (100mL bag)
4. Seachem de*nitrate (100mL bag)

They are placed in the abovementioned order as shown below.



As you can see, they fit the filter nicely in this configuration.

Hope that helps!

[NanoScaper]

Nice setup. Simple and nice.
What's the temperature of the tank?
By the way, since your daughter has a nano tank, possible to borrow some of her filter media to seed this tank? Or else some of her tank water would be fine too. Gives the bacteria culture a boost.

Hello oberon4687

Thank you for the compliments.

The tank temperature hovers around 28°C (±1°C).

I'm not too concerned with expediting the tank cycling process. Will take it nice and slow this time using fishless cycling.

Have a nice day!

[DreamerX5521]

I think you may not need to go thru fishless cycling, since you have purigen in your filter, which suppose to reduce ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate.
From my experience during my tank startup, i have purigen inside my filter. After 1 week of fishless cycling, i found ammonia and nitrite are all zero while only small amount of nitrate observed. I was surprised as my earlier experience found the fishless cycle took abt 1 month to fully cycled, without purigen. Then the next day i straight move some of the rcs frm another tank over to the new tank, and they still live happily after that.
On the other hand, purigen also cause the nitrate level fall to zero on my tank and i have to dose nitrogen to raise the level, which kind of defeat the purpose. So i removed purigen after that.

[fireblade]

shouldn't you place the filter materials the other way round? like horizontally instead of vertically? because that is how the water flows..

[NanoScaper]

I think you may not need to go thru fishless cycling, since you have purigen in your filter, which suppose to reduce ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate.
From my experience during my tank startup, i have purigen inside my filter. After 1 week of fishless cycling, i found ammonia and nitrite are all zero while only small amount of nitrate observed. I was surprised as my earlier experience found the fishless cycle took abt 1 month to fully cycled, without purigen. Then the next day i straight move some of the rcs frm another tank over to the new tank, and they still live happily after that.
On the other hand, purigen also cause the nitrate level fall to zero on my tank and i have to dose nitrogen to raise the level, which kind of defeat the purpose. So i removed purigen after that.

Hello DreamerX5521

Thank you for sharing your experience.

It's good to know that Purigen helped to keep ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in your tank very low (to a point that it's almost zero).

I understand from Seachem's website that Purigen actually removes organic but it won't directly remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Purigen will remove organics before they can be converted by bacteria into ammonia, nitrite or nitrate resulting in lowered nitrate concentrations over time, but it will not directly remove these chemicals from the water.

From Seachem Purigen FAQ

Having said that, I gave Purigen a go in my filter to help keep ammonia, nitrite and nitrate under control and I would like impeccable water quality (plus crystal clear water) for this shrimp tank setup (even though not many people I know of uses it).

Cheers!

[NanoScaper]

shouldn't you place the filter materials the other way round? like horizontally instead of vertically? because that is how the water flows..

Hello fireblade

Thank you for your input.

The filter medias are arranged vertically in my filter for two reasons.

1. I insist on using all four filter medias.
2. They will only fit vertically.

Believe me, I have tried putting them horizontally but they won't fit in nicely. Hence, I got creative a bit.

I'm not too worried about it, though.

As much as water flows from back to front, it also moves from left to right in the filter.

Either way, water will have to go through the four medias in my HOB filter. So, I believe it's not a big issue there.

Cheers!

[NanoScaper]

I was hesitant to post this video here initially, but what the heck.

If it helps anyone understand the whole setup process, why not?

So, here goes. The video created from this project's set up.



Hope you like it. Any question or comments regarding the setup?

[jamesmj]

Bro, where did you get your Flexi mini?

if i use it to grow mc. Do you it's enough? same tank as yours.

[NanoScaper]

Bro, where did you get your Flexi mini?

if i use it to grow mc. Do you it's enough? same tank as yours.

Hello, jamesmj

I got my FLEXI-mini HCRI LED from Sea View. You can also try Fresh N Marine because I have seen them selling it too.

As to whether you can use it to grow Monte Carlo, my guess is it's possible.

The Aquatic Plant Society recorded the PAR values of this light at different heights and they've come up with this graphic.


Taken from The Aquatic Plant Society website. Link

So, for a tank of about 24cm height, you'll be getting around 50 - 80 PAR. That should be enough to grow almost anything.

Scroll to the 4m 15s mark in the video below where Dennis Wong explains more about PAR value needed to grow plants.

I hope I have not misquoted him.


Taken from Dennis Wong YouTube channel. Link

[NanoScaper]

It’s been four weeks since I set up my nano shrimp tank and it has fully cycled. No shrimps yet but what’s a snail doing in a shrimp tank?



Water Quality And Water Parameters

I’ve been doing weekly tests to check the water quality and parameters. The quality is good but the parameters will need some tweaking. So far, this is what I’ve got.

Water Quality

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

Water Parameters

Temperature: 29ºC (±1ºC)
pH: 7.6
TDS: 100 ppm
KH: 2º
GH: 5º

Ideally, I would like to lower the temperature and increase the KH and GH.

What I did was to add a spoonful of BorneoWild GH/KH+ to 10ml of distilled water and mixed it as best as I can.

I then added the solution 1ml at a time until I got the TDS up to 200 ppm. At 200 ppm, I’ve got the KH to 3º and GH to 9º. Very close to what I want to achieve for this Neocaridina shrimp tank. Now that I know this, I will maintain the TDS at about this same value.

As for the temperature, I’m testing a small fan to see its effectiveness.

Planned Weekly Maintenance

My plan is to alternate between doing a water top up and water changes every week.

Additional Mineral, Bacteria And Photoperiod

As part of the bi-weekly maintenance (during water changes), I’ll be adding BorneoWild Minerax and BorneoWild Enlive for more minerals and beneficial bacteria. I hope this ensures the best condition for the shrimps.

Might be excessive but time will tell.

From next week onwards, the photoperiod has been increased from six hours to eight hours. Need to balance this for the plants’ health and also prevent too many algae.

Truth be told, the Mini Fissiden plant in my tank isn’t doing well. Totally my fault for the harsh chemical treatment that I gave it prior to the tank set up. I’ll see if it will be able to recover in the next few weeks.

If it doesn’t work out, I have a backup plan.

Snail To Clear Excess Algae

Biofilm has been growing all over the tank. It can be seen growing on the leaf litters, the tank wall and even the feed dish. At the same time, green dust algae and diatoms have been observed.

The next thing I did seems a little different from what most people do for their shrimp tanks. I added a nerite snail into the tank to clear excess algae and do general clean up.









What’s Next?

The next step is to let the tank mature a bit more while waiting for the shrimps to arrive. I hope to get a batch of shrimps before Week 8 and be able to show it to you if everything goes well.

Until then, stay tuned!

[jamesmj]

I think your fissiden will recover, but a long time i guess.

[NanoScaper]

This is embarrassing to say but I haven't got any shrimps in my tank yet even after 8 weeks.



No Shrimps Yet

Although the tank is fully cycled, I have not added any shrimps to it yet. That’s because I’m still waiting for one of my favourite LFS to bring in a new shipment of shrimps.

Undesirable Water Parameters

The hot weather of Singapore and adding a fan to lower the tank temperature (more on that later) does take a toll on the tank water evaporation rate. To compensate, I’ve been topping it up with treated tap water.

Topping it up two to three times weekly has an undesirable effect.

The general hardness of my tank water had risen from around nine to 11. This is not what I wanted for the water parameters. GH of around eight is what I would like to maintain and suitable for Neocaridina shrimps.

Plants That Didn't Make It

During the setup, I had placed Mini Fissiden tied to a driftwood into the tank. It makes a nice centrepiece for the tank but I had treated it harshly with chemicals before the setup.

Suffice to say, it didn’t make it even after eight weeks in the tank.

I kind of knew that it wouldn’t make it, so I had actually come up with a backup plan. About two weeks after setting up the tank, I had purchased a nice driftwood and a small tub of Christmas moss.

Lowering Overall Temperature

Before this, the tank water temperature hovers around 29°C. I experimented with a nano aquarium fan and was able to get an overall temperature of around 27°C. Not bad for a nano aquarium fan.









Crossing My Fingers

Sorry to disappoint everyone by having no shrimps yet in my tank to show you all but I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that I’ll be able to get some by this week or next.

[TTerry]

Hi Rezdwan, nice setup. What color neocaridina you intend keep?

[NanoScaper]

Hey, everyone

Apologies for the lack of update.

This current setup failed when I made a small yet silly mistake.

The tank has since been reset and a new thread will be posted.

Thanks.

[Saint888]

What happened man?

[NanoScaper]

What happened man?

Put a regenerated Purigen into the filter and the water turned acidic. pH 6.0 or probably lower. Should have checked the water that the regenerated Purigen was stored in.

The only inhabitant that died was a nerite snail. Sad that I realised it too late. But I'm glad I've not gotten a batch of shrimps yet at that time.

[NanoScaper]

Anyway, please read the new 12L Nano Shrimp Tank "Blacksand" Journal instead of this one.

The new journal supersede this one and there won't be anymore updates for it.