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60L Shrimp Tank - "Hope"

Spartacus

Spartacus

Member
Joined
3 Aug 2012
Messages
102
Location
Scotland
Hello All,

My name is Murray and I will do whatever it takes to make a shrimp habitat that is successful :)

My previous exploits failed so I emptied the tank and gave it a good preparation clean in preparation for trying again - And here I am.

This is my first ever "fish" tank - I look forward to enjoying the experience whilst learning.

Here are the details:

Tank - Dennerle 60L (38cm x 38cm x 43cm)
Filtration - Dennerle Eckfilter XL
Lighting - Dennerle 11w x2 (Will be on timers around 5 hours? TBC)
Substrate - Tropica Plant Growth capped with Dennerle Sulawesi Black Fine Gravel
Heating - 100w Nano Filter
Aeration - Eheim 100 & aqua Music mini air stone.
Hardscape - Seiryu Stone & Redmoor Root Wood
Ferts - Tropica Premium & Probably Specialised & Mosura BT9 / Old Sea Mud Powder
Plants (Provisional) - Echinodorus impaii, Eleocharis sp, Cryptocoryne wendtii brown, Eleocharis sp. 'mini', Echinodorus rose, Hottonia palustris, Ludwigia repens 'Rubin' , Fissidens Fontanus, Coral Pelia and finally Amazon Forgot.
Livestock - Sakura or Cherry Shrimp ( Would love to have CRS aided by our TDS 37 soft water but am finding my feet with an easier to handle shrimp)

Today I added the Mosura old sea mud powder then Tropica Substrate topped with the gravel.

Here are the photos:

photo_2_1.jpg


photo_3.jpg


I realise the brown band round the bottom may look slightly unpleasing to the eye to some - Personally I do not mind it so much and hope that the plants and shrimp will catch the eye.

Hardscape:

I have soaked the Redmoor and wanted to have a look at it and the Seiryu in situ before committing to plants as space may be limited.

Here is a rough idea of the layout (I have decided to stick with the layout in shot two for the time being)

photo_9.jpg


photo_10.jpg


Tonight I will be researching plants trying to finalise myself so I can place an order.

Just trying to work out whether or not to cover most of the Redmoor in Fissidens?

Look forward to posting the next update!

Thanks for your time.

Best wishes,

Murray
 
Thanks for the input as always :)

I have removed one of the small stones and flipped the big one on its side creating a taller more striking stone and freeing up more space for plants :)

photo_1_1.jpg


photo_2_2.jpg


I wasn't sure about the gravel cap - Tropica bag suggested a minimum of 3-4cm?

Need to keep my eyes open for plants as there isnt many shops round here that are great for algae & pest free plants so will probably try online.

Best wishes,

Murray
 
Hi Murray. Might I suggest placing the rocks in a pile near each other. It helps to create unity and strength in the hard scape rather than randomness.
 
Good Morning Peeps,

Thanks for the input as always :)

I have amended the stones to the following:

photo_1.jpg


photo_2.jpg


(Apologies for the poor pics - Its just provisional work will use the DSLR for proper shots)

I quite like the rocks - The left one is a nice shape but slightly whiter than the rest. One on the right has nice lines and features but is rectangular. Seems to give enough space for plants.

Its hard to work out the initial stages without having the wood in / plants but I don't want the redmoor to dry out. Will visit the LFS tomorrow see whats available (Probably pick up some stones for attaching Anubias & Java Fern)

Ah the waiting game :)

I live in Sunny Arbroath :D

Best wishes,

Murray
 
I would try and make the root and rock work together rather than putting rock at the front where it will detract from a nice bit of root. Remember big bits of rock can really mess up flow and result in algae or poor looking plants. I would also highly recommend using only one of your lights as you have no co2. You could always start with one to allow your plants to settle and then add the second after a few weeks while watching for signs of algae. It is possible to adapt our lovely Scottish water to be more suitable for crs using mosura mineral plus and mosura tds up.
Regardless of whether it has been soaked or not there is a good chance your wood will float so it is a good idea to attach it to a rock or some slate.
 
Id be tempted to remove middle rock and move the bigger two closer togeather and further back then use the wood inbetween rather than hiding the wood behind the rock. But at the end of the day its you thats got to look at it every day and im sure you will come up with something you like.
 
Hi Folks,

Thanks as always for the input! :)

I have done alot of "jiggery pokery" around the tank today and have moved the stones around to accommodate moving the wood forward. The wood & rocks take up a lot of space and trying to find the optimum between them and the plants is tough but fun. I like the rocks they are a particular shape and fashion that only suit a limited number of angles - the wood is nice but leggy yet again thats appealing.

Here is more than likely the final layout:

photo_3.jpg


I am going for hopefully ahigh density planted tank with Crypts/ Anubias & Echinodorus so it shouldnt look so dominated by the rock and wood.

Just working out how many plants and which type then will get them ordered.

Have fun :)

Murray
 
Your latest hardscape is a bit too unnatural to me. 4 rocks at each corner just doesn't look natural enough. Trying to bring them all together, like 3 rocks at the base in the middle, then the wood creeping up around it. Looks a bit difficult with the pieces of wood you have, but they look nice and gnarly.
 
I know you have said you don't mind the brown band but it would be fairly easy for you to take up the top layer (also looks a bit much to me) and just brush in the soil about a cm to allow the gravel down around the sides a little. Again I will second the moving together of the rocks idea and maybe sink them into the substrate a little more to give the impression that they have been there a while and sediment has built up around them, adding to the natural look of the scape.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4
 
Hi Murray, with the wood and rocks you have I'd be tempted to aim for a triangular style scape with the wood and rocks coming from either the left or right hand back corner flowing to the front opposite corner with the substrate banked the same way, stems behind the wood, with your shorter plants in the foreground, IMO this suits a cube aquarium, check out days aquanano journal for a good example of what I mean, Aquanano40 CRShrimp tank....spring clean. | UK Aquatic Plant Society
 
Evening Peeps,

Apologies for taking up your time - Your input is certainly appreciated! :)

I am currently away from home for a few days so cant do much to the tank but I will pop along to the LFS and see whats cooking. Will probably sort out the substrate layers and have a look to see what can be done 'diagonally' The wood is an awkward flat backed piece but it was cheap and maybe something else will turn up tomorrow.

Just trying to work out whats best.

I have double checked with Aqua Essentials for the plants and will probably aim for them to be delivered after Monday. Need to get the hardscape sorted once and for all though :)

Atleast I have a few days to work out my "cunning plan"

Best wishes,

Murray
 
Hi everyone,

Just back from the LFS (Discovery Aquatics in Dundee) with a haul im happy with.

Plan is for when I return on Saturday to move the bulk of th gravel to the middle to try and hide the brown soil then rescape it diagonally as suggested (thanks on both counts!) :)

Then I will add the wood and some of the rocks to see what happens.

They had a good selection or Seiryu at £4.50 a kilo (If only I had a bigger tank maybe next time lol) £18 for the lot. The block section is about 20cm the other two are about 13cm and the last one is just a small one for attaching say Anubias to? around 5cm:

photo_2.jpg photo_3.jpg photo_4.jpg photo_5.jpg

And a not so great selection of redmoor but I found a nice gnarly root section about 25cm long (£7):

photo_1.jpg

Hope you are all well - Thanks again for your time.

Murray
 
You could always take a hammer to the bigger bits, that's what I did to the ADA stone for my 30cm cube. It is scaped from a corner with root and stone too.
I think you are addicted to hardscape:)
 
Hi , lovely harskape materials over there. You can make it morte pleasing for the observer eye when group the rocks together as an island or a mountain chain. bare in mind that the big rocks are in the back ground and the small on the foreground. In the nature the small rocks are fallen off the big ones so they are not really spreaded around, but close to the big. You can achive great scale in those cube tank, flatter tanks are difficult to skape. Place the wood in between the rocks so will look like the roots crack the rock over the time;) observe the nature ...go to the near by river and see how the wood root in to rock and crack it. Lindy is wright break the UGLIEST rock in to smaller fragments. Use the beauti of your hardskape showing the most impressive part of the rock/ wood. The two different colours of substrate may distract observber eye. Me personally will pull close to the glass substrate and put some of the black one so will hide the brown, but that just my opinion. Use the gilden ratio and the golden spiral, many artist use that. Make visual triangles in your skape. Just an example: golden ratio lines in red / triangles in black
DSC_0062.jpg


hope that will help, wish you luck with the skape.......just make what will make YOU happy.:)
 
Morning Folks,

Again thanks for the input :) Wish I was at home so I could be making a start on it!

Should be back tomorrow.

Will be nice to see what I can come up with - As im sure your all well aware by now I love Seiryu & Redmoor lol :)

The prices were good - They had normal bogwood smaller than that piece of redmoor for £6 so it was a no brainer and it looks like a root of ginger :D

Hope you are all well.

Murray
 
Afternoon Everyone,

Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far :)

I have been working on the tank today and have done the following:

Moved the brown gravel away from the front and sides (Was a bit messy on stop of the surface but the sides are neat)

Here is the latest shots - I think it looks a lot better not anywhere near as good as every other tank here but its my second attempt at a fish tank in my life :)

It may be hardscape heavy - I will need to work out where to put the plants lol :D

Open to comments and criticism as always - Have tried to give it a more natural roots through rocks feel.

Apologies for the photo layout - Just trying to keep the pics as thumbnails :)

photo_1_2.jpg
photo_2_3.jpg photo_3_1.jpg
photo_3_2.jpg photo_1_3.jpg
photo_4_1.jpg
photo_4_2.jpg
photo_5.jpg

Will soak the Redmoor root (or could I just leave them both in there dry until I get plants then soak them in situ?)


Thanks as always for your time!

Murray
 
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