Advise on setting up a 2ft planted shrimp tank

[silane]

You may want to take a look at these tanks and pictures from novina of Poland:

I would say these are shrimps tanks with plant:



This is planted tank with shrimps from my Jap friend, Kochi:


Personally, I just have no luck with plants, they ate almost every plant in my tanks, including downoi, Echinodorus and even string moss.

[Wackytpt]

Novina's tank filteration looks interesting.

Is it the Hamburg MAtten Filter?

You mean your crs ate all the plants?

Power man.

Thanks for the reference.

[silane]

Yah, that is a HMF.

My CRS ate most of my plants, but moss, livewort and such they left it alone.

[Wackytpt]

I am still toying the idea if I should do A HMF or canister? or do a combination of both.

Currently doing a HMF for my corydoras tank.

I understand CRS love vegetables thus the interest for plants.

[silane]

More setup for u to see:

flashsilva from Lisbon:

This guy tank is very green, very nice. I would consider this is "planted tank for shrimp".


seetharam from Bangalore,

CRS with CO2 injection

[Wackytpt]

The Last tank is what we can a planted tank. Haha....

[Ebi]

Is this the new japanese product that you told me?

Hi Wacky-san,

Yes that's the Jap shrimp food I was talking about. It's new to me but don't think it's new on the market. Maybe other users can chip in on comments.

By the way, realised got "snooked" again by the seller. It appears that this is not "meat" based after all. OK for me though as long as the shrimps like it.
The translation reads:

[Materials] Brown algae extract, diatomaceous earth, alginate, lactic acid [component] nitrogen, phosphate, silicate, iron, manganese, molybdenum, arginine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, alanine, glycine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, cystine More

Anyway here's the translated link http://translate.google.com/translat...z%3D1I7GPEA_en if you prefer to read it. Think shouldn't be too difficult to understand the J-English

[Wackytpt]

Ebi,

Can explain more about your filteration of the link from canister to Hang On filter.

From my understanding your filter is only loaded with sponge and cotton right?

Then the filter medias in the Hang on Filter?

[Ebi]

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.

Biohome in the last tray of cannister and HOF.
HOF also contains mineral & coral chips.

Filtration capacity is primarily dependent on the bio-load.
Filtration type is more a personal preference, e.g. budget/space constraints, simplicity, etc. (I use UGF additionally due to the simplicity and very low cost, air-pump operated and the substrate is the filter media. It also acts as a back up in case the cannister clogs while I am out of town)
It's always prudent to provide a slightly higher filtration capacity than is calculated/required to compensate for the efficiency loss due to routing and dirt due to normal operations.
Anyway for biological filtration, volume of the filtration media takes precedent over the flow capacity.

Hope this helps.

[Wackytpt]

How about the Hamburg MAtten Filter method?

Have you read it?

Which combination should i used?

[Ebi]

Ebi,

Can explain more about your filteration of the link from canister to Hang On filter.

From my understanding your filter is only loaded with sponge and cotton right?

Then the filter medias in the Hang on Filter?

No Sir, the sponge is the suction piece. Some call it bio-sponge or something like that. For me it's just sponge. It's not part of the cannister filter package.

Actually it is sold as an air-operated sponge filter. I bought it just for the sponge and the suction tube (to replace the original suction piece of the cannister), the rest of the filter pack is "discarded".

I wanted the very fine suction sponge to rid the water of suspended "debris" before it goes into the cannister to prevent clogging the media, especially the biohome. Also I can avoid having to waste prime real estate (read as cannister volume) just to put some sponge/wool to trap debris. There is no wool or sponge inside all my filters.

[Wackytpt]

Ebi,

I can't really understand. Sorry.

Any picture for reference or one of these days can I pop by to see your setup?

Haha

[Ebi]

How about the Hamburg MAtten Filter method?

Have you read it?

Which combination should i used?

Errr... afraid I have yet to read the stuff. I went into the site, saw the long write up and decided I'll read it another time

Anyway, you have to decide what you want from the filtration system to make a good selection.

If it was more mechanical filtration, then a higher flow capacity and good water circulation is preferred to rid the "debris".

If it was more biological filtration you desire, then the filtration (media) volume is more important. In fact you would prefer a slower flow to let the water stay a little longer in the filter housing/casing.

For shrimps I don't think mechanical filtration is required much since they don't produce as much waste from excretions and food wastes as fishes.

[Ebi]

Ebi,

I can't really understand. Sorry.

Any picture for reference or one of these days can I pop by to see your setup?

Haha

Here's a pic I hijacked from Sianzation's page (hope he doesn't mind) that shows the black suction sponge at the right back corner (Only diff from mine is i use a larger piece)
Attachment 16076

The sponge filters are sold commercially as air-operated sponge/foam filters. See pic.
Attachment 16077

Did you also see the green rain bar (top left) in Sianzation's pic? Well instead of the rain bar, I just piped that discharge into the HOF and the water goes back into the tank via the "waterfall". Hope you can get the idea. I don't have the camera with me now and my hp cable is in the office, the stupid iphone bluethooth won't "discover" my laptop so no pic for now

[b0r3db3ar]

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.

Hi bro, just curious, how do you do maintenance for the above 2 tanks? Do you gravel vacuum? May i also know the water change regime? I have much to learn..

[silane]

I am still toying the idea if I should do A HMF or canister? or do a combination of both.

Currently doing a HMF for my corydoras tank.

I understand CRS love vegetables thus the interest for plants.

You are keeping firered? HMF is more then enough, my neocaridina tanks just have sponge filters.

[silane]

Hi bro, just curious, how do you do maintenance for the above 2 tanks? Do you gravel vacuum? May i also know the water change regime? I have much to learn..

I don't have something fixed..

Like that Fire Red tank, I have not been changing, But the Chocolate shrimp tank, I have been changing 15% once a week. No Vaccum is needed, a little layer of gravel will hide the wastes.

[Wackytpt]

Thanks Silane and Ebi for your inputs.

I finally gotten a 2213.

I should be doing a 2213 with the outlet discharge through a HOF

and the Hamburg MAtten Filter.

Hopefully I will be free this weekend to start it. =)

[silane]

Or inlet hidding behind HMF sponge?

[Wackytpt]

Silane,

Will consider that suggestion.

Thanks man.