[Blacksunshine]

OK so the bug has bit and yet another tank is added. So far this tank is a shrimp only. slightly planted but overall simple.

I started off with a 6gallon shelf tank. This is a pretty long tank for its size. its about 23in wide. and 6-7" front to back. its got pretty much the foot print of a long 10gal.
Heres a pic of the tank the first night I got it. I received some shrimp so I had to buy this tank in a rush. seems that worked out well because so far I like this tank's dimensions vs volume.

For now There are just a couple rocks that are to be the hardscape and some drift wood. The Cherry shrimp are floating in a fry box. I'm also at this point floating a amazon sword and some stargrass to help keep things clean while im getting the final plants laid out.

I don't want them running around while I'm trying to pour substrate so they have to wait to get acquainted with their new home
For hardware I have just a digital thermometer a little hagen mini and the lights.(I'll get back to the lights.)

Now I was getting the itch to get this going. And although I had already arranged to get some soil from another forum member I couldn’t wait. So I picked up a bag of eco-complete. This bag didn't go as far as I'd hoped it would. Anyway here’s a pic of after the eco went in. And before the cherries were let loose.

At this point I lost one of my shrimp so I figured I might as well let them loose.

While I let the tank clear I had to prep the plants that were to go in this tank. So I took some clippings from my 20 gallon and prepped them for their new tank.

And in they went.

As for my lighting options at the moment. This tank came with a regular flourescent I think 18W bulb. Its a little low but the color isn't totally horrible. Its kinda grown on me. I'm not totally sure on the specturm tho. I assume its in the 8-9K range.

But I also have a 36W PC that I like to put over the tank as well. It has a 10K bulb in it. It obviously does much better in lighting the tank up.

I think its a bit too much light for this tank right now. At least untill I get CO2 on it.
So I ordered some retrofits for the first fixture dual 13W from AHSupply. And I found a seller on Ebay that has some off the wall spectrum bulbs that i'm going to give a shot. hopefully it will be a solid mix.

I really like what the color of the lower light bulb does to bring out the color of my shrimp.

Specs.
------------
Tank- 6 gallon Shelf.
Substrate- Eco Complete
temp - 84deg
pH - Unknown. Estimated 7.0
Filtration- Hagen Mini Elete
lighting- Lowlight- 18w Flourescent 8000K (est.)
Highlight- 36W Power compact 10,000K

Hardscape- Bog wood, Granite Rock, Malasian Driftwood

Plants-
Front- Dwarfhair grass
left mid/rear- Blyxa Japonica
Center Rear- Ludwigia G.
Right rear- E. Tennellus (Narrow leaf Chain sword)

Livestock - 12+/- Cherry Red Shrimp

 

[eklikewhoa]

Nice so far!

Was wondering though, why so high on the temp?

 

[Blacksunshine]

Thats just where it is. I don't have a heater on the tank. But the PC bulb keeps it warm I guess. Thats one of the reasons I want to cut back the wattage some.

 

[Blacksunshine]

So any other thoughts? suggestions? I'm thinking I would like to add some more tall grass behind the bog wood on the left. Its the only spot left unplanted. Also does anyone have any ideas on what fish I might wanna put in there? they have to stay small obviously and get along with my cherries.

 

[TurtleBoyPW5]

Where did you purchase that tank? I want one!

 

[eklikewhoa]

Try raising the light off the tank suspending it somehow or don't seal off the tank too much to allow evaporation, that should help with your heating problem and not force you to get rid of your light.

Plant wise I think you should move the val(?) to the left side behind the wood and add more chainswords in it's place.

 

[plasko]

Those rocks are kind of bright compared to the plant & wood choices that you have made. If you are set on using those rocks, have you considered using some sandblasted manzanita & some brighter-red/green plants to offset the reflectivity of the rocks?

 

[Blacksunshine]

Those rocks are kind of bright compared to the plant & wood choices that you have made. If you are set on using those rocks, have you considered using some sandblasted manzanita & some brighter-red/green plants to offset the reflectivity of the rocks?

It's mainly due to the fact that the high light is a 36w PC. I am going to be swapping this out once my retro fit kit from AHS comes in. I'm hoping that won't illuminate the rocks as much since it will be a dual blub with space in the middle. so the new light will illuminate the sides more.

Where did you purchase that tank? I want one!

Petco. Its a bookshelf 6 gallon. they run 49.99. I had been looking at a couple Azoo and ADA and picotope glass nanos. But for the cost I realized I could do alot more with a slightly bigger tank. so I started looking for a 5 gal. Then while at the store looking for a decent 5 gal kit I came across this one and that was that.

Try raising the light off the tank suspending it somehow or don't seal off the tank too much to allow evaporation, that should help with your heating problem and not force you to get rid of your light.

Plant wise I think you should move the val(?) to the left side behind the wood and add more chainswords in it's place.

Well I had the heat up in the house too high. And I put warm water in to begin with. Once I removed the 36W and went back to the low light for a couple days it let the water temp drop. So today it is sitting at 76 deg. We will see how things are after I get the new light. and make adjustments from there.

I was thinking about moving the chain swords from the rear right or rather I was gonna prune some more out of my 20 gal and tuck them in on the left. I still like the green wall they make on the right. I just wanna accentuate it on the left.
Micro swords. Maybe. I don't think they will have the val like look to them once they establish. would look more like hard grass rather then waving grass. (Does that make sense?)

 

[Blacksunshine]

Bought Galaxy Ras's to add to the mix and hopefully they will breed for me.

 

[yoko]

Hi hi It's me again :biggrin: This is the Thread I noticed you in :0)
I am confused as to what lighting you are using :icon_surp

 

[RESGuy]

Very nice tank I like it. I think that 76F is perfect if you want to breed those RCS, they breed real nice in those high 70s. :icon_wink

 

[Storm_Rider]

that's a beautiful small tank! looks alot better than a 5.5gal, but it's quite expensive

 

[A Hill]

Looks great! I like those rocks a LOT its a bit different but works:hihi: ... now you spending $50 on a 6g from PETCO, I think you need a nice little talk LMAO thats a crazy ammount! You should of made your own tank:hihi: .

Looks good!

-Andrew

 

[Blacksunshine]

I do have some updates sorry it's taken me so long. i've been quite distracted. And this tank wasen't doing great. I had a horrible break out of some strange little worms. they wern't planaria they were something else. But I can say for sure i am never buying Eco complete again. I am tired of getting overpriced substrate full of bugs.
Anyways To treat the bugs I used prazi Pro. And learned that galaxy rasporas are sensitive to it. Well I had to rush them out and get them in another tank. they recovered just fine. Yesterday I decided to pick up some more from the same LFS. So I grabbed 4 more so now I have a total of 7 galaxys. 3 males and 4 females.
heres a pic. Lemme tell ya they are a pain to get a good picture of. Like with most danios they never stop swimming.

I still have one of my female cherries left. She's just hanging checking out he new tank mates.

Hi hi It's me again :biggrin: This is the Thread I noticed you in :0)
I am confused as to what lighting you are using :icon_surp

here in the new pictures you can see the new lighting on the tank. I'm using a dual 13W PC retrofit from AHsupply. I gutted the original housing and swapped it.

Looks great! I like those rocks a LOT its a bit different but works:hihi: ... now you spending $50 on a 6g from PETCO, I think you need a nice little talk LMAO thats a crazy ammount! You should of made your own tank:hihi: .

Looks good!

-Andrew

I know I know it was a litle pricey. But I didn't have time to make my own acrylic.. well then again maybe I did and just didn't think of it. DOH! but ahh well. I needed something fast. cause the shrimp got there that day and i didn't have anywhere safe to put them and I didn't want them to get lost in my 20 gal.

 

[yoko]

Your Eco-complete got BUGS?!?!?!

 

[Blacksunshine]

yep. all the eco I've had seem to either engourage or already contain a fair amount of nematodes. ( I've come to this conclusion as I've only had them in the tank's that I used eco in.) This particular bag also came with little worms.

 

[yoko]

yep. all the eco I've had seem to either engourage or already contain a fair amount of nematodes. ( I've come to this conclusion as I've only had them in the tank's that I used eco in.) This particular bag also came with little worms.

Jeez, where are you getting your soil? Has anyone else had this problem? Are you going to contact the company about it?
Hey, guess what, I just noticed I got a lot of scratches on my Petco tank!! So I ordered some Novus 1,2 &3 online and it came in today and I tried using it... it looks better than bedore, I can't say it got rid of them all, but it did help some. I think maybe I'd have better results if I buffed it with a car buffing... thingy.... hehe but EHH it's ok.. Did you ever have probs with scratches on your tank?? My scratches were caused by my gravel at the time... I was careless.. o well

 

[Boz]

I love the tank! I have one as well that is sitting empty. I'm trying to figure out how to get all the scratches out of it before setting it up again.

I'm not crazy about the light that comes with it either. Can you post some pics of what you did to yours? I can't say I'm the handy type with wiring and so forth, but I'd like to give it a shot if it's doable.

Really looking great, though.

 

[Blacksunshine]

Wow i 'm a jerk I totally left you guys hangin.

yoko- Yes I've noticed I've gotten a couple scratches. One in front I got when my mag-float picked up a small peice of eco. I caught it fast enough that it only made one mark. But its dead center on the bottom. Grrr. But other then that I just try and be as gentle as possible when moving stuff around. And just try to fight off algae instead of scrapin it. I really need to get some CO2 goin on it tho. its hurtin.

Boz yeah I do have some pics of the tank witht the new light
Heres a pic I took on the 20th of last month.

They are 6700K bulbs that i got with the dual 13w AHsupply kit. they aren't bad but I would like to try and get some combo 7000/10000 bulbs if I can find some. I'd like to highlight the color of the cherry shrimp and hopefully the galaxy's as well.

 

[RESGuy]

The tank is looking really nice, you have had some good growth there. And that RCS is really red :thumbsup: