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First attempt with CRS & CBS

jose_j

jose_j

Member
Joined
11 Jan 2014
Messages
106
Location
Balearic Islands (Spain)
Hi friends,

I'm starting this journal to share with you my first CRS tank setup. To date, my experience is quite restricted to planted tanks housing Neocaridina shrimps, but I have never tried before with CRS & CBS Caridina shrimps.

Tank: Blau Cubic 38L

Sustrate: H.E.L.P Shrimp Advanced Soil 8L

Filter: DIY canister filter connected to gravel plates + cascade hang-on filter

Light: DIY lighting system using IKEA serving bowl stainless steel + 8W 6500ºK Philips bulb

Plants: Microsorum pteropus, Anubias barteri nana, local Fontinalis antipyretica from Majorca, Fissidens fontanus, Xmass moss, Limnobium laevigatum, Nymphaea lotus red, Staurogyne repens.

Fauna: Gyraulus snails, Ferrissia limpets, Cyclops crustaceans, ... and waiting for CRS+CBS that will arrive next week!

Water parameters:
pH: 6.3
KH: 0
GH: 4
TDS: 150
NO3: 5ppm
PO4: 0.5 ppm
Fe: 0.05ppm
Temp: 21ºC

The tank was set two weeks ago using a mature canister filter from other aquarium. After 2 weeks it seems to be ready ... I'm a little bit worried about the survival of the shrimps after their arrival, everywhere you can read that they are very sensitive and fragile species ... fingers crossed.

To keep water parameters stable I have done a DIY overflow device in order to do water changes drop by drop, in a very slowly way. I know that it's not aesthetically attractive ..., but it works and will be set in a hidden place.

Some pictures:

The tank
2vwbtao.jpg


2q9c27l.jpg


Ferrissia limpets
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jkyryf.jpg


Fontinalis antipyretica moss in the wild
21c8ap0.jpg


... and in the tank
2rmt5b8.jpg


DIY overflow device
2ducq4o.jpg


Hope you like the setup. I will keep you informed about its evolution.

Cheers,

Jose
 
Subbed, looking forward to the journal. Fontinalis antipyretica Is a great looking moss, there is a small stream that runs through the sand dunes near my home full of it, will have to collect some for the killifish tank I'm setting up. Loving the DIY kit, how did you rig up the DIY lamp?
The Ferrissia limpets are interesting, where did you get them?
You may be interested in this link, some nice info on this moss.
 
Hi, yes I like it especially your ingenuity. I noticed your in Spain? How do you combat your water temperature rises there, I remember here in the UK it got warm for a week and ours tanks rose considerably, but I wasn't keeping crs,cbs like I am now. wanted to go to Spain thus year but I couldn't hack the heat when we went in august a few years ago. Nice tank.
 
That's a nice informative video but that background racket sound just like my Koralia did before I fettled it.:lol:
 
Robbie X said:
Subbed, looking forward to the journal. Fontinalis antipyretica Is a great looking moss, there is a small stream that runs through the sand dunes near my home full of it, will have to collect some for the killifish tank I'm setting up. Loving the DIY kit, how did you rig up the DIY lamp?
The Ferrissia limpets are interesting, where did you get them?
You may be interested in this link, some nice info on this moss.
Click to expand...



Hi Robbie, thank you very much for your interesting comments and video.

The DIY lamp is really easy to rig up, just get some bowl like this one (there are four different sizes) and drill a hole in the bottom to introduce the electric line+bulb. I did three more holes laterally in order to allow air circulation and cooling. Then just hang it up over the tank and you are done.

I have no idea about the Ferrissia limpets' origin, they grow naturally in my tanks. I have heard that they are used as water quality bioindicators, but I really don't know much about them.

Cheers,

Jose[DOUBLEPOST=1396189656][/DOUBLEPOST]
kirk said:
Hi, yes I like it especially your ingenuity. I noticed your in Spain? How do you combat your water temperature rises there, I remember here in the UK it got warm for a week and ours tanks rose considerably, but I wasn't keeping crs,cbs like I am now. wanted to go to Spain thus year but I couldn't hack the heat when we went in august a few years ago. Nice tank.
Click to expand...

Thank you Kirk, yes the tank is in Spain and summer temperature here in the Balearic Islands are really high. I'm really worried about it, but others local aquascapers are succesfully breeding them here all along the year. They install PC fans over the water surface and this is enough to keep cool the water down to 23-25 degrees. Of course in doing so you promote heavy evaporation, but that can be solved with the continuous water change system through constant dropping together with the overflow device. But you are very right, temperature here is a problem for us.

All the best,

Jose
 
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Me too,, I thought they were snails, no wonder my assassins have no interest.:D I now have an idea where mine may be from :D
 
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I noticed some of those limpets in one of my tanks recently and wondered what they were - now I know!
 
Hey I hope you are not pointing the finger at me kirk? :eek:

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
:D I like them now all of a sudden. Bit more interesting arnt they?. No they turned up more recent that that lindy. How big can these get?
 
Hi,

just a quick update. Yesterday I got 10 CBS and here you have some pictures from their first day at home. They are not high grade shrimps, but this is my first experience so perhaps it is better like this. As far as I know the higher the grade the more difficult to keep.

Hope you like them as much as I do.

All the best,

Jose

PS: Image quality is low ... will have to try it with a better camera. Sorry.

2641k07.jpg


2i1cwf5.jpg


2afc0oi.jpg


2s6rha1.jpg
 
Hi,

just a few shots showing the DIY overflow device working. I have done some calculations (mainly differential equations) in order to estimate the amount of water I have to add to the tank using the continuous dropping water change system and I have found that to perform a 25% tank water change I have to add approximately a 30% of "new" water to the tank (this is because through the overflow system you are losing mainly "old" water but also "new" water). As the percentage of water to be replaced increased, the amount of water to add gets bigger and bigger.

I like this system of replacing the water because tank parameters remain very stable. They will never abruptly fluctuate, provided of course that you are adding water with your target parameters (pH, GH, KH, TDS, etc), the same parameters you have in the tank.

The DIY overflow is not very pleasant to the eye, but it is hidden. What I like the most is that it's working fine and total price is very close to 0.

Cheers,

Jose

2md1lsn.jpg


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Love the shrimp, been thinking about getting some CBS myself soon, what grade are your shrimp meant to be? The white seems good on them!

Also some nice DIY :).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks three-fingers, I strongly recommend you to get some CBS, they are lovely. Regarding their grade, they are supposed to be S or SS, but there are some A grade as well. This is my first experience with them so I don't really care about the grade, for me it's enough if I can keep them alive. Of course I would be very happy if in the future I can get some offspring. Fingers crossed!

I'm glad to know that you like the DIY :)

Cheers,

Jose
 
timme278 said:
those tubes look awfully familiar... do you happen to work in a lab?
Click to expand...

Hi timme278, yes I do. In any lab there is a lot of staff like this that everyday goes to to trash, and as you can see it is great to made DIY projects for our tanks!
 
I'm impressed that you managed top bend the polystyrene pipette without it collapsing. Any tips?
 
Hi Rasbora,

it is easy. Just fill the pipette with salt, and then wrap it using aluminium foil. Now you can put it over a candle's flame and start bending it carefully until getting your desired shape. I now it is not a very professional approach at all ..., but in two minutes you will have it ready. The salt prevents the pipette from collapsing, and the aluminium protects it from getting burnt when in the flame.

Hope you can use this info for your own DIY projects!

Cheers,

Jose
 
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