Blyxa Island

[Newman]

its supposed to be cycled already.

I risked it a bit, and put shrimp in here >_< too impatient for my own good lol.

Most recent parameters were this:
Temperature: 75F
pH: 6.5
TDS: 286ppm
GH: 11 dGH
KH: 0 dKH
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitirite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 15-20ppm


With nitrates nearing the high end now, I am not sure if i should wait, or do a water change soon to reduce them.
I don't want to do a water change because it might stress out my new shrimp (who are getting used to the tank). I am waiting for my plants to use up the Nitrates...hopefully they can keep them down. Though if not, then I'll be forced to WC
Most of the female shrimp arrived saddled. Hopefully they will berry and then i will get to raise many shrimplets successfully.

Blyxa is doing well, and is growing =)
So is the taiwan moss in the back. you can't see it in the FTS because its behind the blyxa, but if you go a few pages back, you can find an FTS when I added the two moss clumps. the taiwan moss is growing on DW pieces.

I plan to grow the moss out then sell it and replace with Phoenix moss.

[Newman]

[Drift Monkey]

I'd give it a day or two...and if the nitrates don't drop to your liking, just do a small water (10% or less) change every few days until it drops.

The shrimp should be fine...Prime (if you use it) should help cut the toxicity of nitrates too.

[Newman]

Yes, I always use Prime

[Newman]

aww man I can't wait to see berried shrimp =D I hope they all do very well!

[Newman]

shrimp have been in here about a week.
no losses yet, but also no breeding. too early to tell if these will be successful or not.

I also added a piece of cuttlefish bone, in case they need any extra calcium.
update FTS soon.

[FisheriesOmen]

Nice so far Newman! It's weird seeing you use so few plants and a filter after the Newman Bowl

Hope it all works well for you! Just setup a 20L myself, except mine is a reef tank

[Newman]

thanks!
remember how the shrimp bowl started out? it was pretty barren at the start, just a dwarf sag plant, a chain sword plant, some DW and a little moss tied to it. a year and more later it is completely overgrown. i think this tank will be similar, it just takes time.

Reefs are very fun, I've had a few in the past. if you're new to reefing then check out nanoreef forums. they are very helpful! you might also find my 3 gallon pico reef and my 10 gallon nano reef on there (Newman's JBJ picotope, and Newmans 10 gallon nano. Piece of ocean or something like that...)

[FisheriesOmen]

I'm not new to it (was in the reef hobby before planted tanks), I'll have to check out your threads
Can't wait for this thing to get overgrown

[Newman]

update FTS
still no berried shrimp. taking their time.

[FisheriesOmen]

Newman, I found a good way to make the protective sponge (with taking up less space). Just buy some of that white filter media they sell in big sheets at the LFS and then cut a piece off and stuff it in the intake tube (leaving enough out to stuff the intake guard when you put it on). Only thing is it reduces flow, but for me that was a good thing (5-15 HOB got too much power).

Hope you get some berried! Love the large open area.

[Newman]

thats a good way to do it!
I'll try doing the intake guards that way next time i need to setup a filter

I'll give these shrimp 2 months to get babies in my tank. after that i'm going to add some tangerine tigers and see how those do.

[Newman]

no berries yet. defininetely saddled, but nothing going on. maybe i do not have any males? i thought i had at least one since he is clear with barely any brown on him. he has faint brown stripes and markings. but today i saw that he had a racing stripe on him, so now i'm confused...can males get racing stripes? i only saw those on females up until now.

all 7 shrimp are still alive and well.

[Newman]

yes, really confused about the sex of my shrimp now. i think i have most females. maybe the one juvie shrimp will wind up a male

[Newman]

maybe instead of tangerine tigers i should go with crystals? I'll just have to buy a fan for the summer to keep them alive.

Also now that i think about it, would i have been better off with orange Neos rather than my chocolate neos? i hear orange ones breed better in acidic conditions.