trapezoid 1 gal shrimp tank.

[calebkraft]

I have this odd little tank that I've used for all kinds of stuff like a couple gold fish, pet slugs, a tiny preying mantis, etc. I'd live to do a planted pico tank with it.

I recently set up a 40 gallon low tech, low light but didn't research anywhere near enough. This time I'd like to make competent informed decisions!

Decisions to make:
Goal- small planted shrimp tank, low tech


Substrate? - thinking soil possibly
Sand?
Filtration? -none? Maybe just a tiny sponge filter?
Lighting? - possibly DIY LED. Not sure.

[Ozydego]

I had one of these for a while and I never found a good lighting setup for it, I am thinking some sort of LED pendant would be useful, kinda like the pendants that some have used with the Fluval edge tanks.... I tried a 3 LED strip, but it was cheap and not bright at all... there is actually a lot of room in that lid, so most pendant types could be used, the plastic cover just comes right off for mounting the LED pendant.... Thats what I would do now if I still used mine

[Ozydego]

found the LED I was thinking about
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/pl...tml#post986904

[calebkraft]

Just got the OK from my boss. I'll be setting this bad boy up on my desk!

[xenxes]

Soil with at least 1/2" sand cap, unless you want muddy waters and fluctuating water quality :/

Get a tiny filter, I think cheapest/smallest is the Hagen Elite Mini @ around $7. Get or find some extra black sponges and glue it to the pre-filter so the shrimps don't get sucked in, also stick some in the output area. The flow is fairly strong.

Not sure about lighting, ppl here recommend the clip on Fluval Mini (comes with Flora/Ebi kits I think), but I don't think it would fit. If you have a window probably won't need one for low light plants or moss.

[calebkraft]

I planned on having shrimp only, and only a few at that. I was considering going without a filter at all, though that little one is tempting.

For light I might either do a single cfl for now or replace the desk lighting where it is at with a 6500k tube if I can. No one would even notice and it is less than a foot above the top of the tank. That way I could keep other plants alive too!

[calebkraft]

organic soil, then course sand. Plants next week hopefully...

Should I maybe NOT do soil? I hadn't planned on doing a filter.

[calebkraft]

I planted a bunch of dwarf hairgrass today. I'm still not sure if I'm doing this right, but I guess I'll find out. I'm not sure of the quality of the plant since it was a packaged plant at petsmart. I'll be ordering all my plants from now on.



my hill stayed mostly in place. I forgot my lamp though, gotta remember to bring that in tomorrow.

[Say Car Ramrod]

nice desk top tank! i have one of these floating around my house and maybe ill do something similar. i've had pretty good luck with the packaged plants for pet stores. as long as the plant still looks healthy it should be good to go.

[calebkraft]

Remembered to bring my light in today. It looks much better, though it is still a bubble extravaganza.

[calebkraft]

My plan was to drop a few red cherries in there, but I'm having trouble finding info on the best way to do that.

-Do I cycle this like a bigger tank first?
-how much water should I change regularly?

[FisheriesOmen]

thats looking GREAt i have 1 of those too and now you gave me the idea of using that for a gal shrimp bowl instead of buying a new one. Btw you wont need a filter and red cherries are very hardy just go on the swap n' shop section there are lots of people wanting to sell their cherries ( they breed quickly). Check out Newman's Shrimp bowl forum for more help and good luck!

[calebkraft]

Originally Posted by FisheriesOmen

thats looking GREAt i have 1 of those too and now you gave me the idea of using that for a gal shrimp bowl instead of buying a new one. Btw you wont need a filter and red cherries are very hardy just go on the swap n' shop section there are lots of people wanting to sell their cherries ( they breed quickly). Check out Newman's Shrimp bowl forum for more help and good luck!

Thanks! I'm going to order a ton of Red cherries and distribute them amongst all my tanks. I kind of feel bad that there's nowhere for them to hide in this one. Maybe I'll add something a little taller.

[diwu13]

You don't need to order a ton either. 10 will be more than enough for a small 1g like that! If they breed you'll have to start taking them out as well as the general rule for breeding is 10shrimp per gallon.

[FisheriesOmen]

I personally would like to start from square 1 and only get a pair and then slowly build up the pop. (eventually switching shrimp out for new ones to prevent too much inbreeding).