Burrito's Shrimp Tanks

[Jorge_Burrito]

I don't see people take to many top down pictures of their shrimp, but I thought this was a fun shot.

[AesopRocks247]

You have some beautiful shrimp there bubba, what substrate is that?

[Jorge_Burrito]

Originally Posted by AesopRocks247

You have some beautiful shrimp there bubba, what substrate is that?

It is about 2/3 Fluval Stratum and 1/3 Aquasoil Amazonia. Not some magic recipe, just had some leftover Aquasoil that I wanted to used up and Fluval is the only Shrimp soil I can get locally so just ended up combining them.

[GDP]

Pretty awsome tanks man. I tried to use FST before but didnt work out for me, so its pretty cool to see how well its working for you. Maybe the mix of FST and aquasoil is a perfect mix.

[green_valley]

I love your shrimps. Amazing tanks too.

[madness]

Try a heavy covering of floating plant like frogbit?

In my experience it tends to suck the nutrients out of the water as well as block a lot of light and the end result is that the algae gets cut way back.

Plus shrimp love the hanging roots of it. Not quite as much as they love moss but close.

[madness]

Now that I think about it the only tank that I have which gets algae on the glass or anywhere else is my 40B where one of the fish (loaches maybe?) eats the floating plants. This is my lowest light tank as well.

Every other tank is being blasted with dual bulb T5HO (20G tanks mostly) but has so much frogbit/hornwort that it cuts the light a lot and I don't get algae.

Not really sure if there is some trick to it or if I just get lucky. Not using CO2 or ferts in any of the tanks either (shrimp tanks).

[Jorge_Burrito]

I have recently added a floater to the tank in question, it is still filling in but maybe it will help. Typically BGA is due to a lack of nitrates, but I am not going to be dosing extra nitrates into this tank with the sensitive Taiwan Bees present, so I may just have to accept it and continue to do a blackout every once in awhile.

[Jorge_Burrito]

Some updates:

12 gallon long: I am pretty seriously considering getting rid of my Rilis, From the start I have been somewhat disappointed in them as I paid a price that I should have been sent high grades and I pretty much received culls. At first I thought I might try and selectively breed them to high grades, but I am not sure it is worth the work, plus at the rate they are breeding I am concerned they are going to start to out complete my tigers, which are really the stars of the tank.

Starting to see babies in the Chi Riparium, based on what I am seeing compared to the amount of eggs I am getting a really low survival rate, although it is possible they are still just hiding and there are more in the tank then I though. I may try taking out the substrate and switching for an active substrate, I have some akadama available I might use. I am not crazy about the sand as all the shrimp poo gathers on it and looks pretty ugly.

I'll be starting to update soon regarding the 20 gallon long as I start to build it.

[Jorge_Burrito]

Random Shrimp Picture Post

[Jorge_Burrito]

This will mainly be a breeder tank, although not entirely sure what shrimp will end up where, it kind of depends on if I have any luck in the crosses I am currently trying to breed. This tank is being setup as we speak so will be a bit more journal like. It will have a Liam style UGF driven by a SunSun cannister.

Tank: 20 gallon long
Lighting: Marineland Double Bright LED
Filtration: Pipe UGF driven by Sunsun cannister
Substrate: Akadama (first time using this)
Hardscape: Local lava rock, Mopani driftwood
Fauna: TBD
Flora: Somewhat TBD, but thinking Christmas Moss, Crypt Pavra, Fissidens, maybe some low light stems.

[Jorge_Burrito]

Step 1) Painting the background black on this tank, normally I go with no backgrounds and just try to keep a clean look behind my tanks but thought I would try something a little different on this one.

Step 2) Built a set of pipe undergravel filters from 1/2" pvc using this post by mordalphus as inspiration.

Step 3) Added some Seachem Matrix at the UGF pipes. This provides lots of surface area and also helps keep the Akadama from degrading too quickly.

Step 4) Added Akadama and some driftwood

Step 5) Filled tank, added some local lava rock, let the filter run a few hours...it was pretty messy when first starting up but cleared really quickly.

[King7]

nice setup, quick question about the seachem matrix as i'm planning on doing something similar. how much matrix did it take to fill up that area? Will 2liters be enough?

[madness]

Originally Posted by King7

nice setup, quick question about the seachem matrix as i'm planning on doing something similar. how much matrix did it take to fill up that area? Will 2liters be enough?

If you mainly put the Matrix between the two pipes you might get by with 2 liters.

In my Ebi set-up I had AS and I didn't have any lava rock or anything so I wanted the Matrix to completely cover/surround the pipe system and I ended up using an entire 4L bucket but I don't see any reason that anyone else would want to use that much.

I picked up some nice black lava rock (with smallish grain size like the GLA black lava rock) to use in conjunction with my pending 20L set-up so that I could conserve on Matrix while still covering the whole pipe system.

Nubster set up a 20L UGF pipe system with some pretty good photos as well over in the shrimp sub-forum he calls it his tiger tank thread I think.

Might try asking him how much he used as well.

[Jorge_Burrito]

What you see in the photo is just a little less than 2L worth.