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My Bedside 20L Shrimp Tank. (56k)

5K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  second 
#1 ·
I started this back in April with the intent on documenting the entire thing and keeping a journal for it...haha...well I took pictures of the whole process, but thats about it. Half points maybe? :confused1: Oh well I suppose its better late than never.

Anyways, so I really wanted a nice simple tank for my room and i needed a safe haven to put my shrimp if any were to survive the rainbows in my 75. I love the look of open top tanks as well, but my rainbows also seem to think they can fly. Oh and i also really wanted to try Aquasoil and didnt want to cycle it in a bucket or something. So really, when you add it all up i had to start another tank. :proud:

I decided on a 20L. There's so many amazing ones on this site and i had a 20L qt tank that was painful to look at full of plastic, pvc and terracotta.
This hobby is expensive. My plan for this tank was to spend money on what I felt was more important, a quality substrate and filtration. Scrap 2x4s and black paint for a nice cheap stand and i have a few dome cfls laying around so lighting was free.


Building the stand...simple, free and the exact height i want! lol


Stand and background painted...fill test...laugh...use half a bag of shims :icon_eek:


Light!...a bit too much...

Decided on AS Amazonia, bought the Power Sand S as well. Starting to waste money already haha. I was impressed by the AS, it was able to knock my ph from ~8.2 down to 6.8-7. Still waiting(being lazy) to test gh and kh.

Went with a 2215. I have a 2217 and love it so the choice was easy, battled with getting a 2213 but i'm happy with the overkill. Main concern here was noise since its the 2nd tank in my room and feet from my bed. Plugged it in and had to do the usual eheim touch my filter to make sure its on dance, the things are awesome.

Also got a 200w Hydor inline heater. Wont need it now but my room drops to like 15-16c in winter...Plan to have a cheap bedroom tank slowly falling apart...


Cycling...Lots o Frogbit = bye bye ammonia


More plants.


Cycled. In go the shrimp! Some rescued from the Boesemani massacre and some from the lfs.


Another collapse in the budget plan...well ive never tried leds before! What was i supposed to do? :wink:


And where we are at today. Things are growing in nicely, done a few trims already and there are shrimplets everywhere!

The plants are staying...for now. 3 kinds of Crypts, Vals, 2 kinds of Bacopa, Flame Moss, Rotala, Hygrophila, Dwarf Sag, Pennywort.

Well there it is. My condensed, yet slightly long winded journal for the past 3-4 months. Maybe I'll try and update this on some sort of normal schedule, maybe...

Questions? Ideas? I'd love some input!

Here's some camera phone eye candy :rolleyes:







 
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#5 ·
The are clip on dome reflectors from home depot, each with a 13w 6500k cfl. I just took off the clamp part and hung them from the wires. I actually liked the look as well, but with 3 on my 20L and 2 on my betta tank my room was getting a little too toasty on hot days.

The Fugeray is a great little light but makes everything a little washed out. Ive ordered the Current led fixture so we'll see how that looks...totally gave up on the budget at this point.... :)
 
#12 ·
Thank you everyone!

Everything has been filling in nicely and the shrimp continue to multiply :smile: I`m debating pulling out all of the vals, they need constant trimming in a tank this shallow and the runners want to take over the tank. The Hygro grows like wildfire and is quickly becoming one of my favorite plants, it brings a nice splash of colour to a low light tank.

I finally got around to setting up my Satellite+ and i couldnt be happier. Being able to customize the colours is awesome! Personally I like the orange setting with a little extra red added the best, it really helps bring out the non green plants in the tank and I love the "warmth" it brings to my room. The dynamic effects are more fun than i thought they would be and i cannot wait for the timer so i can setup the sunrise/sunset and cloud cover. Very impressed with this light and you cannot beat the price!! Only one problem, why the blue moonlights? Whats with everyone and their blue moonlighting?? Personally i think its a cool effect in itself but it certainly doesnt look light natural moonlight. Oh well :icon_roll

On a side note, I ordered 2 of Current's TrueLumen Lunar LEDs (1200k) for for my 75 gallon and they look amazing! Finally natural looking moonlights!! :icon_mrgr

Anyways here's the good stuff...

http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/ryan_1001/media/20130831_223154_zps27a7661c.jpg.html




Moss lawn that needs constant mowing lol


Hygro and Pennywort trying to leave!
 
#20 ·
I think that it looks great man without the vals! And yes once that background grows in, I think that it'll have a nice lush look to it. At first I was thinking that you should move that slightly dead center gap to the right so that the eye will naturally follow the moss towards the back right corner of the tank, but if your plants fill that gap, then problem solved!
 
#23 ·
Wow. I love it and am inspired. About to set up a 20 gal shrimp tank (set up lower) for my kids to enjoy. I am nervous about shrimp and ferts, what kind do you use and did you half dose at first? I have to admit I really liked the look of the 3 hanging lights... how is the led doing?
 
#24 ·
Thanks so much everyone!! Lots of love on this forum :biggrin:



That sounds like an awesome idea! I dose dry ferts, KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 and Plantex CSM+B, to be exact. You could easily get away with just using the first two and the csm+b. There are a lot of good fert calculators out there that can help you decide how much to dose, like this one :)

I've gone through a few lighting setups with this tank, I was very pleased with all of them. Right now I have the Current Satellite Freshwater LED+ and I love it as well, perfect light output for a low light 20 gallon long and its dimmable! There's all sorts of dynamic weather effects that I'm sure your kids would find very fun.
 
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