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Shrimptastic . . . (20 litre)

Wookii

Member
Joined
13 Nov 2019
Messages
4,283
Location
Nottingham
As my attempt to culture Moina in a little 20 litre tank has failed for the fifth and final time I have found myself with a spare tank. Also, as the new Chocolate Gourami's in my main tank appear to be hunting fairly proficiently, and, I'm assuming, reducing the baby shrimp numbers in my main tank, I've decided to convert the Moina tank into a shrimp breeding tank, to hopefully supplement the shrimp populations.

0E64F9AD-D57F-43CD-85A8-1A48FDBE78D9.jpeg


The tank sits up on top of a tall storage unit next to my main tank, where I also keep the brine shrimp culture. Its a nice position as it keeps this tank almost at my eye level. I picked up a new little light for the tank - it is a Chihiros CII. It uses the same/similar RGB based LED's that my Vivid II and WRGB II use, and uses the same blue-tooth set-up and control system. It appears to be a great little light, and looks to give me the same RGB colour rendition I've grown to love.

A8B34BB8-D318-46F4-B773-090D7705A510.jpeg


I want to keep this tank simple (or at least that was the plan), so I will mainly have epiphytes and moss, and minimal and easy to remove hardscape. Certainly not a contest winner 😂

3A86BBDB-36AE-4564-8BFC-F1B4FD1F9AEA.jpeg


For the soil, I didn't want anything loaded with ammonia, so went with Dennerle Shrimp King soil, which is apparently still rich in beneficial humic and fulvic acids etc.

81zHIB0lm-L._AC_SL1500_.jpg


I stuck the whole 4 litres in, which was probably a bit too much for the tank, but its fine. The sponge filter from the original Moina set-up has been in use for over six months and is likely sufficiently inhabited with bacteria, but I'm going to give it a couple of weeks before transferring any shrimp across to let the substrate mature a bit.

CCF5FA12-C673-4699-9BB3-03B8E053E885.jpeg


Thanks to an incredibly generous batch of Buce I bought from @SRP3006 (thanks again Sam), I had more than enough epiphytes to cover the lava rock. I also added a couple of anubias cuttings from my low tech tank too, and a small moss covered twig from the main tank.

EBE762E9-146D-417F-BD86-32E966A47F57.jpeg


02DD2D0A-ADC9-4359-9AD2-4D0342140188.jpeg


Before anyone asks, the little plastic cup is a small DIY feeding dish I've put in place - I needed something smaller than the standard 60mm glass dishes.

The tank will be kept at a consistent KH<1 and GH5-6 allowing me to house both some of my CBS and some of my Bloody Mary shrimp. I intend to cherry pick (pun intended lol) 6x well coloured specimens of each to hopefully be the initial strong-gene parents.
 
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Loving the anti-splash perspex over the sponge. Gonna steal that idea.

Lol that's actually a glass coaster - it's been upgraded to one of the kids old plastic baby plates currently 😂 I need to come up with something more permanent. The size of the bubbles that form means they manage to evacuate a surprising quantity of water from the tank when they pop. I didn't realise it was happen until I was taking a close took at the tank, and started to get drips of water hitting me in the face! I thought, if this carries on, I'll come down in the morning to find the tank half empty.
 
Yeah my 64L low tech cube loses a good 10-15% over the course of a week through evapo and splash. I'm going to commission a perspex lid for the winter, but hadn't thought of doing a dinky little corner cover like that year round until I saw your coaster!

Thought you might like to see Acme Bubble Cover 2.0 @Karmicnull (aka Baby-Plate) 😂

EEBA3DA6-CBD9-4861-A445-BC6083A57A75.jpeg


The turned down lip on the edging proves very effective! It’s also translucent so doesn’t block all that much light (though a clear on might be better).
 
@Wookii and @Karmicnull have you seen LRBs YouTube channel? He uses plastic lids from deli cups with a hole for the airline to go through. The lid just floats on the surface. A lid from one of those square sandwich filler/coleslaw pots would probably fit quite well in the corner and would be held in place by the airline.
I have cd cases covered in limescale from when I was a kid and had my tank next to where my CDs were.
 
As my attempt to culture Moina in a little 20 litre tank has failed for the fifth and final time I have found myself with a spare tank. Also, as the new Chocolate Gourami's in my main tank appear to be hunting fairly proficiently, and, I'm assuming, reducing the baby shrimp numbers in my main tank, I've decided to convert the Moina tank into a shrimp breeding tank, to hopefully supplement the shrimp populations.

View attachment 175305

The tank sits up on top of a tall storage unit next to my main tank, where I also keep the brine shrimp culture. Its a nice position as it keeps this tank almost at my eye level. I picked up a new little light for the tank - it is a Chihiros CII. It uses the same/similar RGB based LED's that my Vivid II and WRGB II use, and uses the same blue-tooth set-up and control system. It appears to be a great little light, and looks to give me the same RGB colour rendition I've grown to love.

View attachment 175306

I want to keep this tank simple (or at least that was the plan), so I will mainly have epiphytes and moss, and minimal and easy to remove hardscape. Certainly not a contest winner 😂

View attachment 175307

For the soil, I didn't want anything loaded with ammonia, so went with Dennerle Shrimp King soil, which is apparently still rich in beneficial humic and fulvic acids etc.

81zHIB0lm-L._AC_SL1500_.jpg


I stuck the whole 4 litres in, which was probably a bit too much for the tank, but its fine. The sponge filter from the original Moina set-up has been in use for over six months and is likely sufficiently inhabited with bacteria, but I'm going to give it a couple of weeks before transferring any shrimp across to let the substrate mature a bit.

View attachment 175308

Thanks to an incredibly generous batch of Buce I bought from @SRP3006 (thanks again Sam), I had more than enough epiphytes to cover the lava rock. I also added a couple of anubias cuttings from my low tech tank too, and a small moss covered twig from the main tank.

View attachment 175309

View attachment 175310

Before anyone asks, the little plastic cup is a small DIY feeding dish I've put in place - I needed something smaller than the standard 60mm glass dishes.

The tank will be kept at a consistent KH<1 and GH5-6 allowing me to house both some of my CBS and some of my Bloody Mary shrimp. I intend to cherry pick (pun intended lol) 6x well coloured specimens of each to hopefully be the initial strong-gene parents.
Wow, love this setup. You can't beat a beautiful little snail n shrimp tank. Very nice.
 
Added the shrimp the other day - 6 x Crystal Blacks, and 6 x Bloody Mary’s - a bit ahead of schedule, but all parameters were holding steady. I really like the Shrimp King soil, though it’s eating carbonates for breakfast, so I’ve given up adding any more K2CO3 and accepted zero KH.

A couple of the CBS have already moulted so I’m crossing fingers and toes that I see some babies in a month or two. The shrimp are so much more relaxed and out in the open with no fish in the tank.

2C12FD32-F9A9-4B6D-9FE7-E2C55D901E80.jpeg


7D5BDBF4-6051-47E1-B80F-DF7ABCEADBD7.jpeg


ED585C22-780E-4CCE-A257-1AD8D8417938.jpeg
 
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