[RadOtter]

Decided to start a 30c tank with some fun adventuring places for shrimps to explore. My idea is just a little shrimp playground, with tiers, lots of plants, a few caves, some epiphyte-covered knee mountains, and a beach.

I have a cypress knee collection from working in swamps over the years, so I decided to try to incorporate them. I was originally going to try to do a native swamp biotype, but couldn't figure out how to do it and still be able to actually see the shrimps. I really like Utricularia, but our native species are way to aggressive and capable of making snacks out of juveniles. So instead now it is Louisiana bayou by way of Borneo, by way of Japan. 😅 This is what I am working with. Suggestions for plants and layout modifications are welcome.

I have never attempted a dry start before, but I have failed at growing three separate orders of Utricularia gramnifolia in the past, and I refuse to be defeated by a plant. Seems straightforward, but also I could be doing it wrong?

I also tied a bunch of Java Moss to the hardscape for the shrimp, but I am not sure if it will survive the dry start. It is currently less than enthusiastic.

I created a 1-2 in substrate layer of peat, pumice, and lava rock to help keep things aerobic. Then capped all of that with Controsoil a half-inch on the bottom tier and 3-4 inches for the terrace. Capped the bottom tier with pool filter sand to make it pretty.

Hardscape is Cypress Knees, Unnamed driftwood from an LFS, and some fancy Japanese lava rock (Sansui stone?) that I feel like I paid way too much for.

Yes Yes I know. Sand paths are impractical and never stay perfect. But on the other hand they make me smile. I will die from cuteness overload if I see tiny shrimp actually using the path to travel between tiers.

Built two caves for the shrimps to hide/breed in while my completely overkill lights are running.

I think the UG is actually looking good? But I have had my heart broken before.

Stole the idea for this DIY canister filter from some smart individuals on youtube. Surprisingly effective for $30. Planned on filling it with lava rock and poly-fill. I'm sure it is complete overkill for a 30c aquarium, but I like the look of small aquariums with no visible equipment.

Top view. Still trying to decide what to plant in it. I think I have another week or so until the dry start gets the UG locked in place. I've broken it down into sections. Blue (behind the knee) should probably be some sort of stem plant or tall grassy business. For the purple section, probably another stem species, just lower growing. For red and yellow I have a leftover surplus of Crypt purpurea, Crypt Flamingo, Echinodorus Red Diamond, and Eriocaulon Cinereum. I might use all, or none of these if someone has better suggestions. I also have some leftover Buce and Anubius nano's I am thinking about securing to the knees and rocks.

 

[RadOtter]

Update: Finally finished and tested out the diy nano canister filter. It seems to be running pretty well. No leaks so far.

I ran several tests to see if it is strong enough to cycle the 30c. Inside I layered filter foam and seachem matrix, topped with filter floss. Surprisingly the media had no effect on the GPH. Not sure what that's about. It looks like it cycles about 35.6gph with the inflow and outflow pipes attached, or 44gph without them. That seems pretty low to me. That would mean it cycles the 7g around 5 times an hour. Everyone on here seems to have a different opinion about how many cycles per hour are required for a healthy tank. I have read anywhere from 5 to 10. I might have to look for a bigger pump for the canister.

In the meantime, while I am dry starting the 30c I hooked the filter up to my little hex tank to get a head start on the media bacteria colony. I had originally planned on making my own in/out pipes, but every time I bent them they ended up looking sloppy. So I just broke done and got some cheap FZone mini pipes. They were surprisingly effective, aside from dropping my filter efficiency by 22%.

 

[LidijaPN]

Woah why would pipes lower efficiency by so much? And what’s that purple thing, emersed plant holder?

Did your hex ever get any algae?

For the stems what are you considering? Something that has different colors in bottom and top parts could be cute, like a rotala... indica, h’ra, bonsai?

I got myself a crypt albida brown today and I’m taken by its tiny cuteness so I’m gonna recommend that too....

 

[Le duke]

Woah why would pipes lower efficiency by so much? And what’s that purple thing, emersed plant holder?

Did your hex ever get any algae?

For the stems what are you considering? Something that has different colors in bottom and top parts could be cute, like a rotala... indica, h’ra, bonsai?

I got myself a crypt albida brown today and I’m taken by its tiny cuteness so I’m gonna recommend that too....

Additional bends or necking down the inner diameter both equal reduced flow.

Similarly, my FX6 is rated at 563gph of actual flow. I measured right around that with the stock in/outflows. After the reactor, UV filter and custom made 25mm OD lily pipes, I measured (via bucket and stopwatch) ~450gph.


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[LidijaPN]

Additional bends or necking down the inner diameter both equal reduced flow.

Similarly, my FX6 is rated at 563gph of actual flow. I measured right around that with the stock in/outflows. After the reactor, UV filter and custom made 25mm OD lily pipes, I measured (via bucket and stopwatch) ~450gph.


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Is there any way around that or is it just that pipes will always reduce flow?

 

[RadOtter]

Additional bends or necking down the inner diameter both equal reduced flow.

Similarly, my FX6 is rated at 563gph of actual flow. I measured right around that with the stock in/outflows. After the reactor, UV filter and custom made 25mm OD lily pipes, I measured (via bucket and stopwatch) ~450gph.


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Yup, I went bucket and stopwatch as well. How many big of a tank do you run with your 450gph? Also like a dummy I ordered the 10mm lily pipe, even though my whole system is piped with 1/2 inch. In my head, I thought the bottleneck would create more force for circulation. Hydrodynamics is not my strong suit. But even without the pipe it's still only cycling the tank 6.3 times an hour. So I am thinking I should probably get a bigger inline pump. I just need to find one that isn't clunky looking and awkward. The cylinder sits on my bar, so it has to actually look good once everything is all set up.

 

[RadOtter]

Woah why would pipes lower efficiency by so much? And what’s that purple thing, emersed plant holder?

Did your hex ever get any algae?

For the stems what are you considering? Something that has different colors in bottom and top parts could be cute, like a rotala... indica, h’ra, bonsai?

I got myself a crypt albida brown today and I’m taken by its tiny cuteness so I’m gonna recommend that too....

The outflow is necked down unnecessarily. I'm going to have to figure out a workaround or order a new one.

My hex never got any more algae than my shrimps/snails couldn't eat. I did have that issue with BGA but I think that was due to my switching to night shift, forgetting what was morning and what was night, and dosing excell/niteout twice a day for a week. 😓 I am running that around 55umols at the substrate, but I also had a huge internal fountain pump cycling the tank 83 times per hour.

I am all over the place with the stems. I think for the back (Blue) section, I want something bright green and frondy, peaking out to highlight cypress knees because they are so dark and reddish. For the stems in the purple section, I could go with practically anything. I was actually tossing around using a rotala, but they are super invasive here. I was hoping to use species that are all from similar biomes. It will never be a biotype, but I like the idea of it at least being biotypish. Might be a pipedream though.

 

[RadOtter]

Woah why would pipes lower efficiency by so much? And what’s that purple thing, emersed plant holder?

Did your hex ever get any algae?

For the stems what are you considering? Something that has different colors in bottom and top parts could be cute, like a rotala... indica, h’ra, bonsai?

I got myself a crypt albida brown today and I’m taken by its tiny cuteness so I’m gonna recommend that too....

From looking around these genera at least have cousins here that fit into the estuarial/lowland forest setting: Hemianthus, Myiophyllum, Bacopa, Ludwiga, Lobelia, Proserpinaca, Eleocharis, Sagittaria, Vallisneria, Echinodorus, and of course Cryptocoryne. It's probably ok to dip into some of the south american river families as well.

 

[Le duke]

Yup, I went bucket and stopwatch as well. How many big of a tank do you run with your 450gph? Also like a dummy I ordered the 10mm lily pipe, even though my whole system is piped with 1/2 inch. In my head, I thought the bottleneck would create more force for circulation. Hydrodynamics is not my strong suit. But even without the pipe it's still only cycling the tank 6.3 times an hour. So I am thinking I should probably get a bigger inline pump. I just need to find one that isn't clunky looking and awkward. The cylinder sits on my bar, so it has to actually look good once everything is all set up.

Depending on perspective, it's going on a moderately to heavily stocked 75g. I'll likely be buying and using a DC pump, in-line, to run it in the long term.

 

[LidijaPN]

From looking around these genera at least have cousins here that fit into the estuarial/lowland forest setting: Hemianthus, Myiophyllum, Bacopa, Ludwiga, Lobelia, Proserpinaca, Eleocharis, Sagittaria, Vallisneria, Echinodorus, and of course Cryptocoryne. It's probably ok to dip into some of the south american river families as well.

That gives you a nice selection to work with!! Wanna jump on the Bacopa salzmannii SG variant bandwagon with the rest of us? Everyone but me has it in high tech, would be fun to have another low tech person on the train! We can compete with the high tech guys to see how purple we can make them

Lobelia I only know cardinalis and I love mine, has a cute leaf shape and stem sort of corkscrews? And it’s a slow grower which is good for a small tank. Ludwigias there is a lot of fun ones.... maybe some of the inclinatas? I like my sp. super red too even though it’s not even a little super red.

Crypts I’m in love with albida right now and theoretically will spiralis which I haven’t seen in real life yet. The little ones are fun. Lutea? Also massive frondy ones but that’s no good for a small tank.

Myriophyllum has some fun ones that can do the peeking behind the cypress knees, it’s refreshing how quickly and effortlessly it grows in all directions.

Echinodorus would be a challenge to find a small one? I think I want a fun one at some point but probably not right now..... I got a boring one and feel bad kicking him out just because he’s boring and he’s also entangled with my vals but he takes up too much room for a boring plant. In a small tank I feel like everyone has to earn their keep, more than in a bigger one...

 

[RadOtter]

Depending on perspective, it's going on a moderately to heavily stocked 75g. I'll likely be buying and using a DC pump, in-line, to run it in the long term.

Do you know what manufacturer you are getting yet? I have poured through tons of DC inlines and I have run into walls. Either with good manufacturers not listing dimensions or with tons of cheaper pumps that could be junk.

 

[Le duke]

Do you know what manufacturer you are getting yet? I have poured through tons of DC inlines and I have run into walls. Either with good manufacturers not listing dimensions or with tons of cheaper pumps that could be junk.

I actually started a thread in the Equipment forum about this exact topic. No responses yet.

I think I might run both the FX6’s pump plus a cheaper DC on top of that. Something like a Current USA eFlux 6010.

That way if one goes out, I’ll have some portion of the stock flow rate.


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[RadOtter]

That gives you a nice selection to work with!! Wanna jump on the Bacopa salzmannii SG variant bandwagon with the rest of us? Everyone but me has it in high tech, would be fun to have another low tech person on the train! We can compete with the high tech guys to see how purple we can make them

Lobelia I only know cardinalis and I love mine, has a cute leaf shape and stem sort of corkscrews? And it’s a slow grower which is good for a small tank. Ludwigias there is a lot of fun ones.... maybe some of the inclinatas? I like my sp. super red too even though it’s not even a little super red.

Crypts I’m in love with albida right now and theoretically will spiralis which I haven’t seen in real life yet. The little ones are fun. Lutea? Also massive frondy ones but that’s no good for a small tank.

Myriophyllum has some fun ones that can do the peeking behind the cypress knees, it’s refreshing how quickly and effortlessly it grows in all directions.

Echinodorus would be a challenge to find a small one? I think I want a fun one at some point but probably not right now..... I got a boring one and feel bad kicking him out just because he’s boring and he’s also entangled with my vals but he takes up too much room for a boring plant. In a small tank I feel like everyone has to earn their keep, more than in a bigger one...

Hmm. maybe I will do some bacopa Bacopa salzmannii interplanted with something else to break up the texture for the purple section.

What I find really funny about L.cardinalis is that it grows wild here in the swamps, as an annual with giant striking red flowers, an gets like 3 foot tall. I think I even have a few of the blue flowered varient in my back yard that comes back every so often.

Does the albida have pretty firm leaves like the purpurea? Or are they all floppy like the spiralis? I do like the look of C.spiralis and it might be cool to interplant the green and tiger together.

Myriophyllum is really fun looking. I probably wont use it though, not sure that the fluffy look goes with the aesthetic. I do have a bunch of Ceratophyllum demersum that is fluffy and at least native here. There is also ton of myriophyllum aquaticum clogging up all of our bayous.

Although for some reason google ads keep trying to sell me Purple Camboba. I am not going to lie it sure does look pretty, and I have seen it growing wild in Peru.

I really really want more Echinodorus. But the supposed dwarf one that I do have is ridiculously huge. I keep having to whack it down every other week because it thinks it wants to be an emersed plant.

 

[RadOtter]

I actually started a thread in the Equipment forum about this exact topic. No responses yet.

I think I might run both the FX6’s pump plus a cheaper DC on top of that. Something like a Current USA eFlux 6010.

That way if one goes out, I’ll have some portion of the stock flow rate.


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I also started one, but so far the only people who responded recommended the cobalt and the danner. Both of which arent really right for what I need to use it for. How the heck do you run 3 pumps on a canister? Current's look pretty good, but even their smallest 520 is way more pump than I need.

 

[Le duke]

I also started one, but so far the only people who responded recommended the cobalt and the danner. Both of which arent really right for what I need to use it for. How the heck do you run 3 pumps on a canister? Current's look pretty good, but even their smallest 520 is way more pump than I need.

In my case, it would only be two. The pump that is part of the FX6 + another, controllable DC pump.

Did you check out their head vs flow charts?

Keep in mind that’s at 100%, full wattage. At 30-50% you might get where you want to go.


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[RadOtter]

In my case, it would only be two. The pump that is part of the FX6 + another, controllable DC pump.

Did you check out their head vs flow charts?

Keep in mind that’s at 100%, full wattage. At 30-50% you might get where you want to go.


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You are right. I could dial down a 520. But dialing a down a $150 pump to 40% of its capacity just seems like a sign that it is too much pump for my needs. lol If I could even find something that I can operate at 70-80% for under $100 I would be much happier with my selection.

 

[LidijaPN]

Hmm. maybe I will do some bacopa Bacopa salzmannii interplanted with something else to break up the texture for the purple section.

What I find really funny about L.cardinalis is that it grows wild here in the swamps, as an annual with giant striking red flowers, an gets like 3 foot tall. I think I even have a few of the blue flowered varient in my back yard that comes back every so often.

Does the albida have pretty firm leaves like the purpurea? Or are they all floppy like the spiralis? I do like the look of C.spiralis and it might be cool to interplant the green and tiger together.

Myriophyllum is really fun looking. I probably wont use it though, not sure that the fluffy look goes with the aesthetic. I do have a bunch of Ceratophyllum demersum that is fluffy and at least native here. There is also ton of myriophyllum aquaticum clogging up all of our bayous.

Although for some reason google ads keep trying to sell me Purple Camboba. I am not going to lie it sure does look pretty, and I have seen it growing wild in Peru.

I really really want more Echinodorus. But the supposed dwarf one that I do have is ridiculously huge. I keep having to whack it down every other week because it thinks it wants to be an emersed plant.

Albida is floppy like spiralis and pretty small, smaller than spiralis by a lot even at full size I think.

You could mix salzmannii and salzmannii SG for a blend of purple and green?

There are some small chubby echinodori, like... parviflorus? Aflame? Reni?

I’m pretty sure there is a crazy pink myriophyllum but it might only work with CO2.... purple cabomba is fun, I like it, though mine isn’t purple per se.

 

[RadOtter]

Albida is floppy like spiralis and pretty small, smaller than spiralis by a lot even at full size I think.

You could mix salzmannii and salzmannii SG for a blend of purple and green?

There are some small chubby echinodori, like... parviflorus? Aflame? Reni?

I’m pretty sure there is a crazy pink myriophyllum but it might only work with CO2.... purple cabomba is fun, I like it, though mine isn’t purple per se.

Lol you have purple cabomba? Got a picture?

I think with the salzmannii I'll need something to break up the texture not necessarily the color. Because its a cube I think I'm going to need to do quite a bit of textural interplanting so that it looks more natural.

Don't those echinodori get pretty big though? You probably can't trim the chubby ones. And if I use that red tiger lilly, that might be as many chubby leaves as that tank could handle. lol

 

[LidijaPN]

Oh if the lily is in there then forget the echinodori lol.

I’ll try to snap a picture of my cabomba tomorrow, though fair warning, it’s more like green-dirty yellow-maybe pinkish cabomba... somebody gave it to me randomly to try, I wouldn’t have dared buy it lol.

 

[RadOtter]

Update: So far it appears that the dry-start method is not a fabled myth. UG is filling in nicely. Surprisingly, the very upset java moss is still hanging in there. An interesting fungus is moving in rearing its head though. I attempted to knock it back with gel hand sanitizer and a paintbrush for the verticle hardscape surfaces, and with H2O2 in a pipette for the flat surfaces. This appears to have no effect as the fungus comes back stronger than ever by the end of the day.

Unfortunately, I think this means I may have to cut the dry-start shorter than 2 weeks. I suspect that if the fungus moves from the hardscape and infests the UG it will turn it into mush. With how well the UG is filling in though, I am thinking it might have secured itself enough so that it won't float once the tank is flooded.

I will start planting the actual plants next week. Hopefully, I can keep the fungus under wraps until then.

It is really quite crazy looking. It is coming from the hardscape, so at first I thought it was just biofilm, but now that it has a full-grown beard I am thinking it is some sort of fungus.