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My First Tank-10 Gallon High Tech Shrimp Tank. MASSIVE UPDATE 10/2 Pg7!! 5 Months Old

13K views 99 replies 30 participants last post by  orchidman 
#1 · (Edited)
Edit: CHECK THE MOST RECENT PAGE! This originally started with a small betta tank on 4/9/11. I said screw that after going back to the store multiple times to upgrade tanks (everyday pretty much). had a way overstocked 2.5 gallon for 2 days and killed basically everything in it. Then I bought the current 10 gallon tank on 4/13/11. Zebra danios on 4/28/11. New filter (aquaclear) on 4/28/11. 3 ghost shrimp on 5/11/11. 2 Nerite snails and 6 Amano shrimp on 5/13/11. 3 cardinal tetras on 5/18/11. And took the zebra danios back today. The plants have been accumulated along the way. Since i upgraded i have not killed any fish except when i added back chlorinated water on accident after messing up all the rocks in the bottom when the zerbra danios were in the tank and i killed two of them(frankly i'm surprised that one even lived). Today i can only find 4 amanos in the tank, i think two of them escaped somehow so i switched around the wiring on the tank so nothing can get out (hopefully). And now the moment you've all been waiting for- Pictures!

Tank Info:

Water Parameters:
pH: 6.4
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
KH: 2
GH: 5
Total Ammonia: 0

Equipment:
Coralife 24" T5 HO light (6700k and rosette bulbs)
Aquaclear 30 filter, sponge pre filter
Aqueon Pro 100 heater
DIY Moonlight
CO2 System with Stainless steel double stage Airgas regulator. Clippard Mouse solenoid valve, manifold mount: 24V DC power input, 0.67 watt power consumption. Clippard three way manifold(modified), one permanent 1/4" OD tube port, two spare screws sealed 10-32 ports. Swagelok stainless steel M series metering valve. 316L stainless steel pipe fittings but the CGA320 nipple and nut(chrome plated brass). With a 10 lb CO2 tank, ADA pollen glass III, JBJ Inline Bubble Counter, and a shrimplab nano drop checker.

Fauna:
RCS colony: about 35 i think
5 amanos
1 tiger nerite
1 olive nerite
Some mts and ramshorn

Flora:
Java Moss: Vesicularia Dubyana
Banana plant: Nymphoides Aquatica
HC Cuba: Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Dwarf Hairgrass: Eleocharis Parvula
Anubias barteri var. Nana
Dwarf Amazon sword: species unknown
Java fern: Microsorum Pteropus
Cryptocoryne Parva
Rotala macandra
Hygrophila Corymbosa siamensis
Clinopodium cf. Brownei
Ludwigia Repens
Ludwigia Repens x Ludwigia Arcuata

Schedule:
Light and CO2 on 10.5 hours a day.
Seachem Flourish Comprehensive every other day, Seachem iron every 3rd day.
20-40% every other week water change.
Top off with RO/DI water.

Tank as of October 2, 2011:


It on 4/13/11:



The bamboo shrimp i had in it for about a week and the rainbow shark i had in it overnight:


Driftwood i added on 4/25/11 and mixed up gravel:


The tank with some more plants:


new layout 5/16/11:


Rock added 5/18/11:


Through the eye of a fish:


One of the amanos cleanin:


Layout now:


My HC seems to be doing fine without excel or ferts yet (they come on monday):


Thanks for looking! Comments and/or criticism appreciated!
 
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#2 ·
Update!!!!

Got some new stuff, i started using excel and ferts now. small school of 5 cardinal tetras. 9 amano shrimp. 2 ghost (whisker?) shrimp. 4 nerite snails. Still looking to get one blue ram or one cockatoo in the future, which would be better?

The whole tank:



zebra nerite:



Tiger Nerite:


4 of the 5 cardinals:


ghost or whisker shrimp, which is it?


One of the smaller amanos, I can't ever find all 9 at one time, but they are definitely all in there. 5 of them are gigantic, 2.5 times the size of this one.



Thanks for looking, as always, comments and criticism are welcome and appreciated!
 
#7 ·
i'm not sure if this is a tank that you like to view on both sides since i see some furniture back there but you might want to consider a background if you do not plan on viewing it from both sides. the background really makes a planted tank pop imho. Go with black and your plants will look a lot better. Seeing as you are replacing your gravel i see that you are on the right track to getting this to be a great looking tank. Co2 in the future?
 
#9 ·
HUGE update!

Changed the substrate! Jesus that was a pain. documented that [censored][censored][censored][censored] though. did a [censored][censored][censored][censored]ty job arranging stuff in the tank afterwards, prolly will rearrange tomorrow, i just tried to get everything in it today. took about 2 hours to change everything. added everything back in. one of my amanos has gone orange though, pretty sure it's dying from what i've just read. that was tiring as hell. i'm waiting for the water to clear, probably will stay here tonight and keep an eye on it cause i pretty much just stressed the [censored][censored][censored][censored] out of those fish. now, pictures. advice is appreciated. i didn't really pay attention to my camera settings cause i was so tired. :fish:


Before:



The stratum, used approx 12 lbs in the tank:


Everything out:


Looks quite a bit different:


One of my dawgs keeping me company while i worked on it:


the slope (kinda dark)


Dry:


filled up:





Fish in it:


shrimp seem to like it so far:


So before:


and after:


Vast improvement i must say! :biggrin: oh, and are aqueon pro heaters okay to be buried a little bit on the bottom?? forgot to say that i upgraded my lighting to 4wpg 6500k in the hood.
 
#11 ·
I am thinking i'm gonna get 3 ottos and two more cardinals in it down the road.


here is a really good new picture with the background too:





without background:



The orange amano i was talking about:


he molted, but remains orange:


my HC was pearling for some reason, didn't put anything into the tank


I like it a lot now
 
#16 ·
and more shrimps!



Thanks for following it! I like it a lot better too now! Thanks!


Looks good! Welcome to the green side.
That is a huge change.
Looks good.
Thanks!


Totally different tank with that new substrate and background, looks awesome.

I really like the look of that substrate, I'm thinking about doing it in my shrimp tank.. I would love t do my whole 55 with it, but oh boy it's expensive!
You can say that again, it was $50 for my 10 gallon, i bought two 8.8 lb bags and used about 12-14 lbs of it. but thinking about getting an ebi in the future so i can save the rest for that. But thanks it is totally different now! It's a real tank!

Got four new inhabitants today! Red Cherry Shrimp! One of them is already saddled, so i should have eggs coming along shortly. I'm expecting her to probably drop them from what I've read, but at least i know i've got one female. The cardinals should make sure their population doesn't explode too quickly, and it provides them with some good food. Also picked up a microsword. The LFS was asking $8 per shrimp, but i talked them down to $4 a shrimp, which is still a lot, but it's better than driving across town to find them cheaper.
So my stock on the tank is:
-5 cardinal tetras
-9 amano shrimp
-4 red cherry shrimp
-4 nerites
-and maybe a few ramshorns, i think they perished during the substrate change though.
-and a moderately high amount of plants

The reddest shrimp:


some of the Amanos huddling under the driftwood:


The saddled one (kinda hard to see):


In the micro sword:


And a full tank shot:


I think i might upgrade my filter to an eheim 2213 but i don't know if that would change that much over an aquaclear 30? Thoughts? also still probably gonna get three ottos in the future, after i go out of town for a week in july. Thanks for looking!
 
#17 ·
i have a question for you. i have a 10 gallon running an AC30 as well. how to you get good circulation throughout the whole tank? and do you get debri on the substrate that the filter doesnt pick up?

looks AMAZING compared to the first picture in this thread! what light are you running?
 
#19 ·
i have a question for you. i have a 10 gallon running an AC30 as well. how to you get good circulation throughout the whole tank? and do you get debri on the substrate that the filter doesnt pick up?

looks AMAZING compared to the first picture in this thread! what light are you running?
I take the position that a filter is only part of the picture. It catches everything in the water column (mostly) but plants and substrate should take care of the rest. Thats why a carpet plant like HC is good. But key to this is lots of plants to absorb excess nutrients.

I dont ever gravel vac any of my tanks.

Also EXCELLENT choice on substrate. Your shrimp will love you for it. It keeps PH, GH, and KH and perfect levels for shrimp.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Thanks a lot!

Ok, that tank is amazing. I just read the whole thread and I love the transformation it went through. I am going to have to try that substrate now for sure. Again, amazing tank.
Thanks so much! This substrate is awesome, it felt a little light at first, but after a couple days of planting stuff in it it's great. Definitely get it, it's expensive but seems to be worth it.

Okay. I didn't know you had a "cleanup crew" I don't have one as my Betta would destroy them.


You can call me Bob ;)
Well the crew does work, amanos and RCS clean the bottom, driftwood, and plants, and rocks, the nerites clean the glass and heater, and I'm probably gonna get some otos in the future as well to help clean even more. The tank is very low matinence, just weekly water changes, excel daily and fert every 5th day. Amanos (if you got big ones) would work as they are pretty damn big, I saw one in the store the other day that must have been a good 3 inches long.

So bad news today, woke up and saw a RCS was stuck in the filter. Pulled it out and of course it is the saddled one, but it is still alive. Put pantyhose over the intake, but noticed that there where only three in the tank. Did stuff this morning, came back. And found the other one on the bottom of the filter. Oh well, I didn't get a reciept yesterday for them, and because the lady gave me a deal I don't wanna return it. I'll just see how the other three hold up, and maybe drive out to Fish Den and pick up another 6 in a few days or so. I really wanna get them breeding so I can sell them to fish stores or on here or something.
 
#26 ·
Bored on a tuesday night = fish tiem!

Play this while looking:
http://youtu.be/qlJ27Dcv4fc



Pics from being bored tonight, i like my camera what can i say? :hihi:


all five cardinals:






The male RCS, more red in person:



an amano:



the tiger nerite:





One saddled female:






RCS:


The other saddled one, i think it just happened today cause i didn't notice it yesterday:


The zebra nerite:


amano:


Male and female RCS, male is on the petrified wood:


The cardinals like to eat algae wafers:


The olive nerite, its shell looks like it's melting from the acidic water:



The newly saddled RCS, can kinda see the saddle:



RCS size comparison with amano:



Some full tank shots from different angles:








Thanks for looking! criticism appreciated!
 
#27 ·
I don't think the HC is gonna work. Damn amanos are literally pulling it out. Watching them, it doesn't appear they are even trying to clean it. they are just pulling it out. :icon_mad: does anyone have any ideas to get it to work? I just keep replanting it but every time i go back to the tank some is pulled out again. I'm also looking at new tanks already. I'm thinking an ADA Mini L shrimp only tank. Who knows...
 
#29 ·

Cool you have nerites too...lol just wondering but are yours really slow and don't do very much :hihi: mine are...lol :icon_lol:
 
#31 ·
I thought nerites were really good algae eaters but mine don't eat much at all lol they just eat the strange white dust stuff that's all over my plants XD my fighting fish hates everything including the snails and me...lol so now I'm wondering why I got snails now...
 
#35 ·
Well keep following it it will only get better!

Great job! It does look great. I hope you dont take this the wrong way but I'm so glad you got rid of the clown puke and went with the shrimp stratum. I love that stuff!!!
I am too man. Thanks! I concur, the shrimp stratum is awesome!

I'm gonna make this a shrimp tank i decided. Some amanos, some RCS, and some CRS down the road. Anyone in Denver want some cardinals? I'll sell em cheap, they eat my little shrimpies! :eek:
 
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