Jake's Halocaridina rubra Tank

[somewhatshocked]

Have been thinking about Halocaridina rubra for about a year. Finally decided to start putting together a tank about a month ago. So I've been extremely excited seeing all the new H. rubra posts on TPT of late.

Specs:

• 2.5gal tank
• Small 50/50 CFL
• Hydro Mini sponge filter
• Caribsea "live" aragonite/crushed coral/sand to help get a small cycle of sorts going
• 1.012 specific gravity, which seems to be a popular brackish/salinity point for H. rubra keepers

Posted a couple teaser shots of the rock work on other journals, so here they are again:




Couldn't get my hands on large pieces of black lava rock that I liked, so I used reef epoxy putty to rig up a structure.

The tank a few minutes after being flooded:



Will add the sponge filter sometime today.

Hope to find some Chaetomorpha or other macro algae to thrive in the tank so it can legitimately be planted. Maybe a bit of Java Moss will survive? Guess we'll see.

The tank is situated on the fourth floor and has a 20L above and below it so it's holding at a steady 76-77 degrees Fahrenheit with no heater.

Now to let things settle for a week or two while monitoring parameters before ordering critters.

Thanks for checking things out,

Jake