The amanos I ordered came today. Only took a day despite the holiday rush. I tried to do my best to acclimate the shrimp, but probably rushed the process. I first floated the bag in the tank for 15 minutes or so then transferred the shrimp to a hang on convalescent tank and put a few drops of Seachem Prime in there. My tester said the temperature between the shrimp water and tank water had equalized.




Then I started to drip acclimate, but I could barely get a siphon going even with sucking on the airline and I kept interrupting the flow by accident. I probably only added 2-3x the amount of bag water. The KH differential was probably around 3 by the time I decided to just add them to the tank about 3 hours later.

The shrimp seemed to be acting fine after I added them to the tank. I'm starting to get some algae in the tank so the amanos arrived just in time. Planning on ordering ten or so glowlight danios in January.

Nice tank. I have a Landen 60P also. They are really well made and incredibly clear.

How well is the black filter material working in your skimmer?

I tried a couple of things to keep shrimp out of mine and they all really cut down on the ability of the skimmer to pull in surface scum.

So I am getting adept at rescuing shrimp from my Oase prefilter tube.

They survive but it takes a bit to separate them from the detritus for reintroduction to the tank...

Thanks! I've only had the coarse filter material in the skimmer for a few days, but the surface is totally clean. It's a little harder to control the bobbing of the skimmer because of the added weight, but even when weighted down it seems to work OK.

LOL I'm dreading shrimp escapes. One started crawling up the wire for the Twinstar right after we put them in. That's basically the main escape route right now.

Just wanted to say great job on the tank setup! I really enjoyed reading about your various DIY workarounds, and your success with the HC carpet is really impressive. Looking forward to seeing where things go next.

Been a little worried about shrimp (8x Amano) escapes on a 20g long myself. There's a lid, but with big gaps. For now it seems they've got too much algae to keep them occupied! But something they also took a real liking to as soon as they were in the tank, and which may have limited escapes for now, was the underside of a piece of driftwood. They basically all congregated there for days on end, just doing there thing. I'm sure there are lots of going theories about shrimp retention, but maybe as your scape starts growing nooks and crannies that twinstar cord won't look so enticing!

Thanks for following along! They've taken a liking to the nooks in the big dragonstone. I counted 8 on there yesterday. One also molted. I wonder if that's due to osmotic shock or something. I bought a feeding dish and tube so hopefully can get an updated headcount in a few days (assuming they like the food)...

I'm glad they're having a good time in the dragonstone. I'd never thought about the surface of that rock being honeycombed with shrimp-sized cavities and food traps. That makes for a different way of looking at things.

Looking forward to a post-holidays update on the tank.

Cheers

I've found that new shrimp tend to "stress molt" after transport, even between similar water parameters. If they survive that though they are usually good for the long term.

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I added 9 harlequin rasboras and 7 celestial pearl danios today. The CSPs are still in hiding, but the harlequins are already eating ravenously.

Here is a pic from today. Fish seem to be doing well, but I'm not sure they're all getting enough to eat. The shrimp are all hiding so I can't confirm how they're doing. I posted a question about it here.

Hey, very nice tank! I'm over here in Mission Hills, great to see another person on the forum. I've debated doing RO since the water is super hard here but so far things are growing okayish.

That sucks about the filter skimmer down the toilet, definitely a bit of bad luck

Tank is filling in great! that carpet looks lush, not sure if you didn't experience it or didn't post it but no algae at all?

Thanks! We're in North County. Algae has been pretty minimal -- just some I scrape off the glass once in a while. I use RO water and have a Twinstar reactor. Also 10 Amanos. So hopefully some of that combination has helped.

Looking great! That carpet is so lush. I really like the duotone color palette that's going on with the plants. Looks like some terrain is building up for the fish to explore too.

Well I lost two of the harlequin rasboras. They were the two smallest ones. There's no ammonia/nitrites in the tank. The deaths occurred about 2-3 days after my most recent water change. They were swimming funny all of a sudden and died overnight. I think what happened was that I rushed bringing the new water up to temp. My thermometer said there was 1 degree C difference and I was running out of time so I just added it. It was only a 35% change so I figured it was OK.

To rectify this, I purchased a heater and will heat my RO water in the future.

I also purchased some Bacter AE to provide some biofilm for the shy shrimp to eat. Hope that works and I can avoid any more deaths.

I saw 7 shrimp yesterday! They were munching on biofilm on the big rock. Big relief they are still around! Also getting better at feeding the fish. Instead of dropping food on the surface, I pinch the food and release under water. I'm not doing weekly water changes, but will probably do more changes soon since I bought a siphon to remove excess food. The plants eat up the nitrates so quickly, yet still grow well. I will need to do a bigger trim soon.

Well I lost a third harlequin rasbora this morning. I think it's because the water is too cold. I bought an Oase Filtosmart Thermo and will put it in this weekend. Will try to keep the tank at 73 -- it's probably around 68-69, which is based on the ambient temperature in our house.