Aqua One Aspire 22 Shrimp Tank

[jameson_uk]

A few weeks ago I got the Aqua One Aspire 22 from p@h when it was on offer for £55 (including heater, LED, lid and filter).

I decided on going for Red Cherry Shrimp.

After a lot of indecision (and a big to-do list from the wife) I spent today visiting various shops and stocking up.

I decided to ditch the filter (as it looks pretty pants anyway and not particularly shrimp friendly). I had my eyes on the JBL CristalProfi M which looked like it would be good but other than a Maidenhead place a popped into on holiday a few weeks ago nowhere seemed to stock them. Today whilst getting bits and bobs I happened to check the bargain old stock area in Ripples @ Tamworth and there was a single one at the same price as t'interweb just asking to be bought...

Some of the indecision was around substrate as a lot of the stuff which says it is for shrimps is really aimed at softening water and lowering pH which is better for CRS but not so important for RCS. Also a bit concerned about plant substrate as a lot of things talk about them leaching ammonia, turning into mud, getting exhausted... also being a shrimp tank, I wasn't sure the hardy plants would benefit from it. Anyway in the lack of any real decision I ended up with some Tropica aquarium soil.

A couple of trips between Tamworth and Lichfield later I ended up with

• Anubias Nana
• Microsorum Windolev
• Limnophila Sessiflora
• Christmas Moss
• Monte Carlo

I also have a load of Java Moss from my main tank. I was I initially going for plants for the Anubias and Ferns but ended up paying a bit more to get some established plants already tied to driftwood.

The Monte Carlo was a bit of an impulse buy so will see what I do with that. I did nearly end up with a CO2 system which would have been a bit worse!

Still need to tie the moss to the wood and possibly plant the Monte Carlo.

Going to give it a dose of Flourish Excel in the morning.

 

[Aqua360]

A few weeks ago I got the Aqua One Aspire 22 from p@h when it was on offer for £55 (including heater, LED, lid and filter).

I decided on going for Red Cherry Shrimp.

After a lot of indecision (and a big to-do list from the wife) I spent today visiting various shops and stocking up.

I decided to ditch the filter (as it looks pretty pants anyway and not particularly shrimp friendly). I had my eyes on the JBL CristalProfi M which looked like it would be good but other than a Maidenhead place a popped into on holiday a few weeks ago nowhere seemed to stock them. Today whilst getting bits and bobs I happened to check the bargain old stock area in Ripples @ Tamworth and there was a single one at the same price as t'interweb just asking to be bought...

Some of the indecision was around substrate as a lot of the stuff which says it is for shrimps is really aimed at softening water and lowering pH which is better for CRS but not so important for RCS. Also a bit concerned about plant substrate as a lot of things talk about them leaching ammonia, turning into mud, getting exhausted... also being a shrimp tank, I wasn't sure the hardy plants would benefit from it. Anyway in the lack of any real decision I ended up with some Tropica aquarium soil.

A couple of trips between Tamworth and Lichfield later I ended up with

• Anubias Nana
• Microsorum Windolev
• Limnophila Sessiflora
• Christmas Moss
• Monte Carlo

I also have a load of Java Moss from my main tank. I was I initially going for plants for the Anubias and Ferns but ended up paying a bit more to get some established plants already tied to driftwood.

The Monte Carlo was a bit of an impulse buy so will see what I do with that. I did nearly end up with a CO2 system which would have been a bit worse!

Still need to tie the moss to the wood and possibly plant the Monte Carlo.

Going to give it a dose of Flourish Excel in the morning.

View attachment 92360

I haven't seen that soil before...I thought you'd bought the undergravel one, which is very, very messy unless under some gravel.

Looks good! I've read somewhere that mopani woof isn't recommended with shrimp, but I don't have the reference on hand...can't verify or dispute it.

Awesome tank though, you'll have breeding cherries in no time

 

[jameson_uk]

Any advice on ferts? Should I be adding ferts whilst everything is bedding in?

Do I even need ferts with the Tropica Aquarium Soil? Is there anything I need to do differently with an active substrate as there seems to be not much info on the bag..

I have Flourish, Flourish Excel, Tropica macro ferts from main tank.

 

[Aqua360]

Any advice on ferts? Should I be adding ferts whilst everything is bedding in?

Do I even need ferts with the Tropica Aquarium Soil? Is there anything I need to do differently with an active substrate as there seems to be not much info on the bag..

I have Flourish, Flourish Excel, Tropica macro ferts from main tank.

If you have rooted plants, I'd avoid using ferts while setting up; I would however be doing consistent water changes for the first week or so then gradually reducing. If you have plants not rooted into the substrate, I'd be tempted to add a little fert, but you'd probably get away with it tbh imo

 

[jameson_uk]

Did a 50% water change tonight but still not actually got round to planting the Limnophila or even opening up the moss or Monte Carlo.

Pondering a few things for the next few days when I get a few spare minutes.
Just wondering whether the Monte Carlo will actually survive this low tech anyway... Will it just grow slowly in low light, no pressurised CO2 or will it just die off? Will Excel and or Tropica Aquarium Soil help it out at all?

The lighting is (I believe) a 7.2W LED but no idea about temperature or spectrum. Is it worth / necessary to replace this with something a bit better or as the tank is so small will this be OK?

Also the glass lid is looking pretty manky and is all steamed up and condensated at the front but I suspect this is because it was not clean when I set it up. What can I use to clean this glass which, whilst not in direct contact with the water, is pretty close? Looks like a bit of Windolene would sort it out but obviously that is not a great idea. Any tips on what to use?

 

[Lindy]

Montecarlo grows fine low tech, its the shrimp you'll have to watch out for as they'll take great pleasure in pulling it up. The Windolev gets quite big too. Nice wee tank.

 

[jameson_uk]

Planted the Monte Carlo today. Was pretty difficult to actually plant it in this size soil without it floating off

Will see how this goes. Going to sort out the moss next weekend and then order the shrimp.

So far not found anything conclusive regarding mopani wood and shrimps but will keep an eye on it

 

[jameson_uk]

Moss attached a few weeks ago and have had to trim the limnophila back a lot (so much I have added a load to replace some rotala in my main tank that was not doing too well)

The Monte Carlo is looking OK and seems like it is rooting.

Will be away over Xmas so current plan is to add shrimp in the new year (although I keep seeing lovely Betta....)

 

[jameson_uk]

Ordered 10 painted fire red from sharnbrookshrimp.co.uk.
Floated the bag for an hour and then dripped them for 2 hours before adding them.

One didn't survive the acclimation but I have counted eight in there looking OK.

Will try and grab some pictures of them tomorrow

 

[jameson_uk]

Not sure how well they are settling in as struggling to see more than about three at any one time.
Lost another one yesterday which was just lying on the substrate.

Is surprisingly difficult to get a decent photo of them...

 

[jameson_uk]

A little update partly to remind me how things have changed...

Over the course of a few months the shrimp all died off. The tank ended up in quite a state

But I added three Horned Nerites who immediately started work on this

A few weeks later and the tank is looking a bit cleaner

But the moss wasn't doing to well and some filamentous algae has made an appearance. I removed the wood for quite a while and have only recently added it back with some Buce on it.

There is still some filamentous algae (particularly in the Monte Carlo) but this is not taken over yet so I figured I would wait until I get more shrimp in a few weeks and see if they will eat it. Failing that I think I may be starting again with the Monte Carlo.

Only problem is the Java Fern which is existing and certainly not thriving. Looking at these photos the plant is now a lot smaller and not really growing. I think this is down to flow in the that corner so I need to something about that (https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/flow-in-a-cube.52869/)