As I posted earlier, my akadama substrate is no longer buffering all that great so it's time to set up a new tank while taking my old one down. I will also be taking a different direction with the shrimp. Going forward I will only keep Ebiten PRL which are currently housed in a breeder net to keep them separated from the normal CRS/CBS population. I have a ton of juveniles so starting a new PRL colony will not be all that difficult. I was initially going to get a cheap 20 gallon tank again from Petco but decided on a new ADA 60-P with 4 bags of ADA Africana and 2 bags of Amazonia as a cap (I like the black color better). I would highly recommend that if you have just one or two display tanks that you go with an ADA tank. Sure, they are more expensive but the difference is night and day when it comes to clarity.
I purchased all my soil and tank @ the ADA store in Ridgewood New Jersey. Here is their link: http://www.ridgewoodaquariumimports.com/
If you are close to this location go pick up a tank since they are not all that expensive if you do not include shipping. I picked up the 60-P (17 gallons) for 150 bucks plus 6 bags of ADA substrate @ 20 bucks a pop. Not all that bad.
I'll eventually be updating this thread with charts/graphs as my water cycles. I plan on having a snail / scud free tank so I'll be dipping all my moss and plants in hydrogen peroxide. Same will be done to some old hang on back filters which I will be using to cycle.
I will try to make this thread very easy to read and will post a ton of pics. Hopefully it can benefit some new hobbyists looking to set up a shrimp tank. For this very purpose I'll be posting prices etc so you can get a gauge how much you are going to have to spend...it's definitely not a cheap hobby if you want it done right.
This tank will be taken down and all shrimp sold off at some point:
Amazonia and Africana comparison. Reason why I am using both is that Africana buffers a little bit lower than Amazonia. I like the look of Amazonia better so I threw it on top...I don't mind the look of layered gravel so it doesn't bother me.
Put down some driftwood. I will be tying all my fissidens moss to the top of the archway (not sure if I'm doing that today or put the plants in on another day).
Current layout...nothing fancy. I'm not the most artistic type nor do I care for layouts all that much.
Huge chunk of fissidens that will be used...I'll need to do a hydrogen peroxide dip since I don't want snails in this new tank.
Yup, I think I purchased too many. I actually needed 18 Liters for a 20 gallon high that I was going to purchase but this one is only ~17 gallons. According to the BorneoWild iphone app, I should be using about 13 liters for this tank. I'll probably be putting 5 bags (15 liters) but we'll see.
I just threw on a second coat of paint on the tank so it should be dry in about an hour. Will be filling it today.
I'll let you know when it's time to part ways with my regular CRS.
Yeah they only had the 3 liter bags left and it wasn't many. If you are planning on getting some then you better go this weekend, otherwise it might be tough to get this substrate until ADA USA gets a new shipment.
By the way, the AquaSky lights are pretty neat....I was thinking about purchasing one.
Good Mix of soil, as that is what I am cycling in 2 of my tanks now! Be ready for a 5.5 PH. Mine is sitting there now. After my 6.6PH 5 gal water change it has dipped down to 5.3 now. I might be adding a little crushed coral to get it to 5.5-5.7. The black substrate of the Amazonia looks amazing! How many Ebiten did you start with?
I didn't realize that the water would get so dark. It's literally black! I thought it would be somewhat cloudy and clear up within 2-3 days. Now I have this tank full of muck sitting in my living room. This is usually the worst part for me since I'm very impatient by nature.
Put a cheapo light on since I threw in some floaters after giving them a hydrogen peroxide bath to kill snails. Hopefully it worked. I also threw in a heater to bring the temp up a bit....much better for the bacteria.
Not yet but will be adding one shortly before I head out for the night.
Anybody have any suggestions as to what type of Eheim would be good for this size tank? I obviously would like to overfilter but not have too much flow where the shrimp cannot swim. It will not be used as an undergravel filter.
I decided on the 2213 as well. The specs on this filter seem just right for the 60-P tank. Anybody know the diameter of the intake tube so I can order a screen prefilter?
How about the filter media? You guys use what came with the filter or did you add matrix, purigen bags?
By the way, I generally like to help out the small guys instead of Amazon, Ebay etc. I purchase 90% of my stuff from Kensfish.com and have been doing so since 2005. I don't know how he does it but it even comes out cheaper with shipping than Amazon Prime. Even if Ken's was a few bucks more expensive I'd still buy from him since he just started out as a hobbyist. Luckily, Connecticut is close to his business so with shipping everything is very cheap.
Compare the 2213 price to Amazon. KensFish.com shipping is really cheap...then again, I'm very close.
Thanks Max. I am waiting until you get some more Grade A Ebitens next month so I can add some diversity. All my current Ebitens came from the one pair that you sold me....what a great deal huh?
The paint is just something that I picked up at Home Depot. I've used it on various other tanks without issue. Some advice for everyone: Even though the paint is dry to the touch, do not start hanging stuff on the back such as filters etc without putting a cloth on the part of the filter that touches the back. The paint may feel dry but you will leave scuff marks and you will have to paint again. I've had this happen on my older tank. The paint needs 24 hours to fully dry according to the can.
I hung a cheap HOB filter to get the water moving so I placed a cloth on the point where there is contact....no scuffing will occur.
The tank looks to be clearing up a little bit already after running overnight. Still not as clear as I'd like it to be. I've also had a girl rearrange the wood since she didn't like the original archway that I put together. You can't really see it yet but it looks better than what I did before.
I just use the media that comes with it add some matrix like you said abd a filter sock of purigen like you mentioned as well. That said I have that in all 6 of my eheim 2213 or 2215
The 2213 uses 12/16mm tubing. I will agree with you, that the classic series is more suited to planted tanks in general. I have a 2213 and a 2215, they typically run throttled down as their flow rate is rather high for most of my tanks. the ECCO line has a somewhat reduced flow rate and doesn't do quite the job on my 15 - 20 gallon tanks as a 2213 does.
I just use the media that comes with it add some matrix like you said abd a filter sock of purigen like you mentioned as well. That said I have that in all 6 of my eheim 2213 or 2215
Close to 24 hours later now. I will be measuring the parameters soon but probably wont post until I have a decent amount of data in order to make a graph in Excel.
I put a guppy in and some christmas moss which was growing on a metal screen. I dipped the moss in hydrogen peroxide to get rid of any scuds that might have been hiding in there (they all came out fairly quickly and died).
The thing in the middle is just a randomly placed heater.
It varies for the type of moss.....I've been able to dunk my christmas moss in 3% hydrogen peroxide (straight from bottle) for 25 seconds without ill effects. I'd use caution though since you might get different results. I keep all my mosses in a tank that has nothing else in it...I pump Co2 to ridiculous levels that would not be able to sustain any life. I get zero algae and my moss grows perfect.
2 days after set up. The waster has cleared up drastically. The substarte still has tons of dust if disturbed. Fancy Guppy is alive and eating.
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