Led's 5.5g Shrimp Aquarium Journal Update 9/5/2011 (Cherry shrimp)

[LedxZep]

Hi everyone ive had a planted tank for quite awhile now and finally decided to share my tank. My tank started out as a 3 gallon picotope with only a huge wad of java moss on a medium sized piece of driftwood and 10 cherry shrimp. My cherries multiplied to numbers of 150 in my little tank so I had to give many away and then upgraded to a 5.5g. I had the same scape in my 5.5g for months until just a few days ago I decided to rescape, and I also got a new camera so I thought it would be a great time to get my tank posted on this forum.

Tank: Standard 5.5g

Lighting: Saltwater T5 36 watt

Substrate: Eco Complete

Inverts: Cherry Shrimp

Fish: One Galaxy Rasbora
One Electric Blue Ram
One Otto

Plants: Dwarf Baby Tears (HC)
Micro Sword
Java Moss
Two Unknown Plants

Ferts: None

C02: None

Here is my pico, pic taken January 28th.



Here is another older pic taken June 7th.



Heres my new scape with a new light that I got off my saltwater tank. I have to keep a rubber band with a rock on the back of my driftwood to keep it submerged or else it would float.



Side View:



My rocks I assembled (1st try at iwagumi )















And heres my electric blue ram:






I couldn't get a shot of my galaxy rasbora because hes always hiding and he usually darts to the back of my tank when I try to get a picture.




Thanks for looking

[kifeter]

Nice! your not having any trouble with algae due to the light?

[PinoyBoy]

I like the wood, it looks unique and flows nicely. Same for the rock works. I'd raise the 2 rocks because once the HC starts to fill in nicely, it will sadly get covered. And with that much light, you might need co2 and start dosing ferts.

Keep up the good work and don't forget to update the thread with pictures on a weekly basis .

[Cboss]

Nice re-scape.

Is your ram eating any of the baby shrimp? I've been thinking of getting a ram but don't want too many of of the little guys to get gobbled up.

[LedxZep]

Originally Posted by kifeter

Nice! your not having any trouble with algae due to the light?

Thanks Nope Im not getting much aglae even after the light switch.

Originally Posted by PinoyBoy

I like the wood, it looks unique and flows nicely. Same for the rock works. I'd raise the 2 rocks because once the HC starts to fill in nicely, it will sadly get covered. And with that much light, you might need co2 and start dosing ferts.

Keep up the good work and don't forget to update the thread with pictures on a weekly basis .

Thanks, ive been thinking about adding a c02 system for it but its too costly, and ive heard that the diy is unstable for smaller aquariums. Ill raise my rocks when the hc starts rooting and spreading, until then ill leave them be.

Originally Posted by Cboss

Nice re-scape.

Is your ram eating any of the baby shrimp? I've been thinking of getting a ram but don't want too many of of the little guys to get gobbled up.

The ram is a new fish of mine and when I first put him in he did kill a smaller cherry of mine, but since then there have been no problems that I know of.

[dj2005]

Originally Posted by LedxZep

Thanks Nope Im not getting much aglae even after the light switch.

Give it a month or two.

Good looking scape.

[LedxZep]

Okay so its been about a month since my 1st post and I got alot of brown algae on my rocks, there is also alot of hair algae in my plants, moss, and between my HC . Anyone have an idea on how i can get rid of it?? I was thinking of a blackout where i just leave my lights off for 3-4 days. I think my light might be too strong for the plants... Should I swap back to my other one??

Here are some pics of the algae:

[PinoyBoy]

Originally Posted by dj2005

Give it a month or two.

Are you still using the t5 35 watts?

Manual removal and maybe an excel treatment? Just becareful with excel, some moss might not like it.

Your moss reminds me of this:

[LedxZep]

Originally Posted by PinoyBoy

Are you still using the t5 35 watts?

Manual removal and maybe an excel treatment? Just becareful with excel, some moss might not like it.

Your moss reminds me of this:

I just swapped lights yesterday from my t5 to my desk lamp with a cfl bulb in it. Im going to see if I can get some growth because ever since I switched lights all my plants have been going downhill. I'll also try mannual removal but the algae is very rough to get off. Ill post a pic of the rest of my tank later today.

[LedxZep]

Picture update 10/12/10: As you can see my wood got much much darker and there is a bit of algae growing all over it. My shirmp are scared to venture out when my ram is swimming around so they stay in the small cave under the wood.

Thx for lookin

[DANIELSON]

Like the scape. Not too sure about the ram in there though keep him fed really well but cherries multiply so fast picking of a few weak ones won't be too bad.

[LedxZep]

Im planning on ordering some flame moss online for all the branches of the driftwood. Also what do you guys think would look better for the base and "trunk" part of the wood fissidens fontanus, mini pelia, fissidens splachnobryoides, or mini fissidens?? Or even star moss..

[LedxZep]

Okay so now I ordered 10 crystal golden shrimp and flame moss which arrived yesterday. Also took off the rubber band & the rock attacked to my driftwood because the wood soaked enough water weight to stay submerged without any help. I dug up the cave under my "tree" and there is also a back entrance for all the shrimp that need hiding. One of my cherrys gave birth yesterday, I noticed an extremely small shrimplet while cleaning the glass with a nanomag.

Update 10/22:

Love this pic



Finally got a pic of my CPD


Shrimp cave and my rams favorite spot to chill


The plant finally growing through the algae

[SkyGrl]

I LIKE THIS WHOLE SET UP! subscribed!

Amy

[Cardinal Tetra]

Very nice indeed! I think golden crystals are really cool shrimp.