Navyblue's 22G Custom Rimless

[Navyblue]

I have no idea what the plants are. I asked the questions here and no one answer.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=208881

I am guessing it is dwarf sag. Of course it's either that or the microsword. Actually I didn't just added that, it was behind the java fern at the right the last time.

If I go shrimp, I think I'll skip the oto, unless there is a need for it. Since as you say, they eat the same thing.

I am quite undecided whether to go fish or shrimp. I think a tank without a water column dwelling fish looks like something is missing. And as you say there are no baby shrimp safe fish. But I would be content if a few of the baby shrimp survives every batch, that way at least I'd get a net increase of shrimp population over time. Not sure if the plant density is enough to achieve this.

Or I could start with shrimp first, then add tetra when the shrimps reach a sizeable population.

[skindy]

I think most tetras, rasboras, and nano fish are safe with adult shrimp. They would peck at the babies since they're so small and resemble brine shrimp. Of course if you provide great hiding spots by heavily planting then the babies will survive

If you check the Planted Nano tanks section you can see a bunch of hobbyists with fish and shrimp. There is also a list of nano fish there too, might help! The smaller the mouths on the fish the less shrimp casualties you'll have :P

I do agree that an empty water column looks a bit ... sad, haha. I'm running into that problem right now since I want fish but it's not heavily planted enough for the shrimp babies to hide and survive. I'm basically waiting it out.

[infamouz23]

I can say that I rarely had baby shrimp survive until I moved my school of 12 cardinal tetras out of my 20 long.

[Navyblue]

Well that is encouraging.

At the moment, I am inclining towards cherry red shrimps and cardinal tetra for their hardiness. Low maintenance is a priority for me. I think I'll add may be 3 pairs of shrimps and wait till it gets to a nice population before I add the cardinal.

[Navyblue]

I put in a Seachem Ammonia Alert today. I have some rotting squid that I have in the tank for a week or so. It is kind of hard to tell the colour, it could be yellow (>0.02ppm), or between yellow and green (0.05 ppm), but definitely under 0.05ppm. I wonder if I can remove the rotting squid and start introducing a small number of cherry shrimps?

[Navyblue]

I think one of the problem of this tank is it is too brown. I got some dark coloured pebbles to try cover up the exposed substrate. There is still a patch of brown in the middle that I reserve for the java moss that I have yet to add. After that the brown would be much less than before.

[xiaxia]

i think you should clear up the middle area and move the center row of plants to the left side along the tank side. Stagger it out try not to be too neat with planting (as in straight lines and such) be more 'natural'. That's what i think :P idk about the rocks they look kind of off :/ hmm.

[Navyblue]

I have a pet peeve. I don't like having things pushed against the viewing panels (all 3 of them), so the border area is kind of off limit for anything. I can make the border less boxy looking but that border has to stay.

As for the pebbles, I like the look of it in the middle around the wood (you probably can't see it in the picture). As for the borders it does look off to me too. But it was either this or the bright orange. My feeling is after that orange patch in the middle is covered (and also the column on the right), the pebble would look less like a frame and more like the ground.

Do you mean the foreground stem plants? I agree it looks too neat to be natural. To me it looks like crops growing in the country side. But that may be the direction that I seem to be going. I do think that patch of plants can be improved. The problem lies in I don't seem to have anywhere else to place them. Which is why it is in a neat row. As mentioned I can't push it to the side. I also can't push it to the back as the area is shaded by the anubias above (in the photo you can see that it is black, and I filled it with pebbles).

I also dislike the right rear corner, which to me lack definition. In an ideal world, I would remove the wisteria and move the bacopa in the middle to the back. Then I'll have a large piece of moss wood to cover that area along with the "hole" that I mentioned earlier. But I already have the plant, and in the short term I need good nitrate absorber like this.

[xiaxia]

Maybe you should add a variety to each section of the tank instead all just one type of plant. or maybe just move them a little within their section so it isn't too 'crop-ish' unless that's what you're going for ^^

ah well you can always make changes later when your tank is more ready and you want to add more plants in.

[Navyblue]

I know I said I am almost done with plants, but I added more again. I think I am done for good now, I really have no time to do all that planting. But I also removed the water wisteria.

[hydrophyte]

I like the shape of this tank. I have been pondering building something similar but a bit shorter.

[Navyblue]

Thanks. I was kind of influenced by this tank here and wanted to try build something similar.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1823130

In the end I think it is more suitable for a riparium style planted tank than reef.

[hydrophyte]

Originally Posted by Navyblue

Thanks. I was kind of influenced by this tank here and wanted to try build something similar.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1823130

In the end I think it is more suitable for a riparium style planted tank than reef.

Yeah I was thinking about doing a riparium planting in a low and broad rimless tank like this. It would looks real good with a nice stone and gravel substrate and tall plants.

[Navyblue]

I took the hands off approach for a while. And when I came back from a trip, the tank looked somewhat horrible.

There was a rather thick surface film. The anacharis had mostly melted. The rotala that were growing is now turning brown and melting. The water sprite are also started to melt.

Not sure what had gone wrong. My guess is the light was too strong and the CO2 was too little. The surface film is likely impeding the CO2 exchange. I did some water change and try to skim off the film but there are still some of it left. And I think I am going to change the photoperiod from 10 hours to 2x4 hours split photoperiod.

I removed the dead and dying plants and added more new plants. On a positive note, the anubias had sprout new leaves and the jungle Val had sprung out new plantlets through its runner.



I added 5 Sakura shrimps yesterday, but I only saw 4 max. I think all of them are female and most are berried. This morning I found 2 dead shrimps, and only saw 2 at most. However I also saw a 2mm or so long transparent shrimp, one of them seemed to have given birth.

I also saw some tiny crawling stuffs that is even smaller than the tiny shrimp I saw. What are those? Are there copepods in FW tank?