shalu's 10 gallon low tech shrimp tank(07-24-2005**56k warning)

[scolley]

Originally Posted by shalu

Here is a picture of the right side of the tank. At the back, there is the filter intake and heater, you can actually see the top of the heater sticking up.

Thanks for the tips Shalu. But I'll tell you, as much as I'm all for hiding equipment where possible, I'm hard pressed to call that "showing".

I think I'd call that "so barely visible it's not worth mentioning".

And BTW - those shrimp photos are, once again, nothing less than spectacular. Oh I'm sorry. Did I call those "shrimp"? I meant "tetra snacks". LOL

[shalu]

Here is an update pic of the tank,


I removed some demanding plants that survived but did not exactly shrive in the tank. Tonina fluviatilis browned up when my NO3 bottomed out again, I now have a new 10gallon dedicated to toninas, that is where it belongs. Glosso continues to spread slowly but steadily. Quite a few plants thrived in the tank, including Lagarosiphon madagascariensis, h. micranthemum, stargrass, weeping moss. Most surprisingly, ludwigia arcuata, it is actually pretty red,


hm.. seems like this is my first tank ever that actually looks a little "aquascaped", rather than a purely "collectoritis" tank, although it still suffers from it somewhat

[scolley]

I dunno Sha... I think you are about 2 trims and a just a hair of well considered planting away from an honest to gosh aquascape!

You are already competitive in a number of events, so watch yourself in this one. Once you raise that bar, your fans won't let you pull it back down!

[shalu]

hahaha, thx Steve!

Those cherries are breeding way too much. I think that has increased the bioload in the tank to the point where my crystal reds are frequently dropping their eggs, argggh, this did not happen in the first round. I am seriously considering baiting and moving all the cherries to other tanks, where I am sure they will manage to survive even with big fish . That way, the tank can just house the slow growing crystal reds, bumble bees and I hope to get some tigers soon.

The first batch of crystal reds are 50 days old. Some are turning out quite nice


The bumble bee babies are about 40 days old, they grow even slower than the crystal reds. They are cute too,

[amber2461]

Hey gorgeous shrimps you have there.

[BSS]

Great thread, Sha. I think it's the first time I've sat down and read through it. You have some great shots in there, especially of the critters. Getting quite a selection there.

Hmmm. I wonder if I could convince my daugther to drop all of her fish so I could make her (or is it really my ) low-tech 10g into a shrimp farm? I've got a batch of red cherry's in the mail, so I'll need to start plotting soon. Great inspiration here!

Brian.

[shalu]

Thanks, Marge and Brian.

Added more critters. Bought some SALTWATER Virgin nerites. Acclimated them a little too fast, some did not make it, three did and are doing great, they love eating algae and especially the green spot algae(GSA).



Put some asian freshwater clams into the HOB filter. They are fun to watch and improves water quality,


Also got two purple apple snails


a cherry red immediately went to check it out,

[skabooya]

awsome pics. I didnt know you could do that with saltwater snails. Hmmm makes me want to try turning them to freshwater.

[turtlehead]

Nice snail there!

[shalu]

Originally Posted by skabooya

awsome pics. I didnt know you could do that with saltwater snails. Hmmm makes me want to try turning them to freshwater.

Not every saltwater snail of course. The Virgin nerites are known to be able to live in freshwater, you just can't breed them in freshwater. In fact, Olive nerites and tiger nerites need brackish/saltwater to breed as well.

[bellisb925]

Sha, everything is looking great. It is hard to believe the quality of the ludwigia arcuata, and everything else for that matter, in a low tech set up. I think it would be helpful for me and others if you discuss how you are going about this low tech setup in terms of ferts.

Brian

[scolley]

Originally Posted by shalu

The Virgin nerites are known to be able to live in freshwater, you just can't breed them in freshwater.

I notice the good Dr's and Smith also add "will not tolerate high nitrate levels".

Care to comment? How's this working for you (given they don't say what constitutes high)?

[skabooya]

hmmmmm Interesting. thanks for the info

[shalu]

Brian, I use the same fert as high tech tank, just less, KNO3, K2SO4, KH2PO4 and Flourish. Right now, I settled to small amount KNO3(5-6 grains of stump remover) daily, 6 drops of Flourish daily, less than a smidgen of KH2PO4 and K2SO4 after weekly water change.

Steve, as you can see, I fert lightly in the above schedule. NO3 is kept at about 10ppm(most of it from food I feed daily). I now dose NO3 daily so that the amount is low but always non zero any given day, because I bottomed out NO3 a few times before stunting the plants severely. Based on my experience with my tanks(low or high tech), the measured NO3 is not all available to plants. The nitrogen from organic waste is not immediately available to plants until broken down by bacteria, that's why I have seen nitrogen difficiency sometimes even when measured NO3 is high, another reason to dose inorganic KNO3. I discussed that with Tom Barr.

One other thing, I airate 24/7 on my non-CO2 enriched tanks. I believe that way, at least plants get some CO2(3ppm) at all times, otherwise CO2 becomes a limiting factor shortly after lights get turned on. Critters are happy about the extra O2 as well. This is contrary to some other theory, where fish/critters are supposed to provide extra CO2. I don't count on that, after all, critters need O2 to breathe out CO2.

Here is an Olive nerite, not as fancy looking as the Virgin nerites, but still nice. It is becoming very popular for algae control in planted tanks.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by shalu

One other thing, I airate 24/7 on my non-CO2 enriched tanks.

Thanks Shalu. Do you only put these lovely animals in your "non-CO2 enriched" tanks?