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Office shrimp tank - Growing plants with only ceiling lights?

6K views 19 replies 14 participants last post by  richie_brave 
#1 ·
Hi everyone, I want to have a small shrimp tank on my office desk at work, 1 gallon or even smaller. I know almost all there is to know with saltwater aquariums, but starting a fresh water shrimp tank is totally new to me, I'm going a great deal of research right now.

So at work I won't be allowed to use any power, so powered pumps or lights are a no no. Are there any low light plants or moss that would survive using ONLY the florescent bulbs in the ceiling? The office is moderately lit and enclosed by 4 walls, so no natural sunlight.
:confused:
 
#2 ·
...
So at work I won't be allowed to use any power, so powered pumps or lights are a no no. Are there any low light plants or moss that would survive using ONLY the florescent bulbs in the ceiling?...
If you really want to do this, and you can't use any powered pumps or lights, your best solution would be to use plastic plants. Typical office lighting from florescent bulbs in the ceiling is not going to be nearly enough for live plants.

While I wouldn't want to discourage anyone, this may be a case of where it might be best just to forget the whole thing and get a picture for your office. The dim light is going to prevent the tank from ever looking that good.
 
#5 ·
With no power at all, you're going to have some problems filtering the water lol. You'll need to do daily water changes to keep the O2 levels reasonable, and that doesn't work well with shrimp. They need at least a little bit of water movement and some O2 exchange.
 
#7 ·
Might be with a try, but it's probably not going to work well enough for shrimp to breed. Best bet is something like this:

Go as big as you can - 1 gallon
Go for largest surface area rather than height
Minimal substrate to allow for more water
Cycle the container like you would a tank - the BB will develop on everything
About all you can get away with is marimo balls
Do as often of partial water changes as you can get away with
Use a turkey baster or airline tube to skim the surface clean whenever possible

If you can get away with using a desk lamp, you have more options. Tossing in dirt capped with sand may give you a few more options on top of that.

Cherry shrimp are quite hardy, and I do not use heaters in any of my shrimp tanks anymore. Unless your office drops into the 50's or something, they'll be fine.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
#9 ·
I'm in quite the minority here, but none of my shrimp tanks have heaters (except for the cherry shrimp that reside with the fish in my 33 long), and I have one that's been running filterless for over a year (filter broke, didn't get it replaced immediately, realized everything was just fine with out it). I perform regular water changes and feed lightly and the shrimp are fine and continue to breed. It is planted though, which helps with the oxygenation issue and keeping parameters in check, as well as providing surfaces for algae and whatnot to grow that they graze on. I've actually considered setting up a shrimp bowl at my office, using just the natural light from my window. My only hang up is what might end up in the bowl from the cleaning crew spraying stuff.
 
#10 · (Edited)
@ the OP:

Does the office have any live plants maintained green and healthy? That would be a fair indication if the light levels are sufficient. Nate pretty much suggested what I was going to say, but I'd be careful, the possibility of the janitorial staff to over spraying with something toxic to shrimp, is quite high. This is also something to bring up with your supervisor. It would suck to lose your employment over what you keep on your desk.

Some possibilities would be to bring in your own rechargeable battery to power a small USB reading light over the top to augment the natural light levels, if they will approve it. One gallon is a tiny tank, and it's going to have to be watched carefully for plant and shrimp health. This would be something to do at home first to see if it's even viable in an environment you control.

Speaking of which why wouldn't a nice tank you keep at home, which you either buffer a 15~30 minute looped video stream made of it daily ( or weekly..) and saved on your work computer as a screensaver work? Or if bandwidth isn't a big issue, livestream your tank realtime.
 
#12 ·
Wow, seems like the consensus for my plan is a bad idea. I'm going to look into possibility of a rechargeable battery. The politics in my office is so ridiculous, so I was just avoiding the possibility of them accusing me of wasting their electricity.
 
#13 ·
This is going to be a really silly idea that I haven't looked into at all but what about having a relatively large solar mat (some backpackers and campers use these things) to rig up a super wimpy pump? Maybe you could even just use an air bubbler to force water movement in a sponge or something. Light aside, you would at least get filtration and water movement.

You may have to turn into a specialty electrician to pull it off but isn't having a hobby all about going to insane lengths to do something esoteric and strange?
 
#18 ·
Company policy for no pets or fish is one thing but if they can't afford to have employee's run something that draws as little power as a small air pump I would be more concerned over if you are going to get paid... Just sayin. I'm going out on a limb here but did they issue you a solar calculator? Ok enough kidding around like @NickAu said you may want to ask if it will be a problem before setting it up. Maybe you will be surprised and they will make an exception for a small air pump if you can give them the rough cost per year, or better yet make them feel cheap as they seem to be by offering to pay that amount up front.

Dan
A lot of companies have a policy today that is more or less "no electrical device other than ones belonging to the company may be connected". In my former company people bringing in large power consuming device such as coffee makers, microwaves, refrigerators, heaters, fans and so on. All this stuff put together can consume a lot of power and be a fire hazard. Many were connected up using cheep extension cords. So the easy thing to do is just forbid everything.

It's often not the aquarium as such. A small tank doesn't really draw much power. It's all the other things people bring in.
 
#15 ·
Company policy for no pets or fish is one thing but if they can't afford to have employee's run something that draws as little power as a small air pump I would be more concerned over if you are going to get paid... Just sayin. I'm going out on a limb here but did they issue you a solar calculator? Ok enough kidding around like @NickAu said you may want to ask if it will be a problem before setting it up. Maybe you will be surprised and they will make an exception for a small air pump if you can give them the rough cost per year, or better yet make them feel cheap as they seem to be by offering to pay that amount up front.

Dan
 
#20 ·
hi, newbie in this forum and planted tank too...
so i have a question..
i have like 1 gal or maybe smaller bowl tank that i planted with glosso (dry start up) and 1 small dragon rock
and i notice that it produce small bubble when i put the tank at the side of my window..

but now since i move it to my office (indoor), i can't see any bubble from its leaves..
i'm worried because i recently put in few neocaridina shrimps in this tank,
with a small LED aquarium light

no filter though

i wonder the shrimp will lack of O2 ?

thank you
 

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