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ShrimpieLove's 5.5G Nano Softwater Shrimpscape

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nano shrimp
16K views 79 replies 15 participants last post by  Ciddian 
#1 · (Edited)
Edit: i just noticed the other day how blurry my photos looked! I usually surf on my cellphone so on there they looked ok but when I saw on my pc they werent too good , so now all my pics will be taken with my digital camera, page 4 of my thread is where those pics start after my FTS for february, sorry bout that!

Starting out My 5.5G Nano Softwater Shrimpscape!
I plan on doing this tank on a tight budget, but mainly it is a great experiment for Me since I have never used "soil" substrate before... and never had low PH before either...so a good learning experience for Me with softwater, and keeping shrimps like Crystal Red which I didnt have so much luck with the first time I tried keeping them, probably the water was too hard.

This is what I have so far:
Tank: 5.5 Gallon with glass lid
Substrate: Fluval Ebi Shrimp Stratum
Filter: AC30 with some cycled media in it
Heater: submersable adjustable 25watt
Lighting: I have a choice of either an old used T8 15watt fluorescent tube fixture that I got for free, or a 13watt PC desk lamp fixture.... I will see which works best in the coming months...
Flora: I have some plants that I could trim from My other tanks, but I plan on covering a few rocks with pellia which I will be picking up from another forum member, but I havent really decided yet...
Fauna: I plan on keeping a softwater shrimp type in this tank... possibly Crystal Red shrimp, or I may try some of My Orange Eye Blue Tiger shrimp in this tank... not decided yet...
Decoration: I may try some small driftwood, and I also bought a cute Fluval Ebi Shrimp tree trunk that is good for breeding and can easily be covered with moss/pellia etc., and I have a nice rock from Menagerie that I was thinking of breaking into a smaller piece...

DAY 1-Contest Start:


Today I drained the tank to start My contest tank. Gave the tank a light cleaning. I then rinsed the new Fluval Ebi Shrimp Stratum out a bit in a large bowl and added it to My tank. I filled up the tank, being careful not to disturb the substrate too much... boy was it ever cloudy! But once I put the filter on and had it running for an hour I could see a big improvement in the cloudyness. Added My heater as well and set it to 76 degrees.
My PH was 7.6 before the substrate so I will be using My test kit tomorrow and the next few days to check the ph/kh/gh.

Starting to clear up slowly

Pics to come!
 
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#66 ·
Thanks Leon!
I hope the parameters are good for them, im trying to figure out what a good tds is for them now
The baby is soooo ultra cute :)
 
#69 ·
Congrats! I've read that Tds 150-200 is good for CRS.
which is what we have coming out of your tap (Downtown) :p
don't fuss over the params, stability is da key.
 
#70 ·
Ya my tap water is 150 tds, but im using ro/tap water mix and adding mineral supplement so thats why I asked about a good tds for them :) i have a tds meter now to get the mix right ... My tank is reading 125 tds so maybe I should increase it some
 
#71 ·
Update:
Well looks like theres more than just one baby crs! Ive found 4 babies so far now, and today to My surprize My female no-entry crs is berried AGAIN!
I am soooo loving this! :) :)
 
#73 ·
Yes camboy it does feel like the lottery :) So awesome! I can see tiny stripes on them :)
The sponge is by Fluval, and I got it at Menagerie, it is already precut to fit the intake and its black so it looks nice too :)
 
#74 ·
Today I added one more CRS to My tank,... I only have the one female in there and seems she is harassed by the 3 boys in there too much... so to ease the harassing a bit I bought a female crs, looks to be a Hinomaru, and in the hino symbol there is one white dot :) She also has a nice bright red nose that stands out nicely :)
I was looking at the babies really closely and see one of them is already a No-entry Hino... but in miniature form :) sooooo cute :) the count is at 7 babies now :)
The TDS of My tank is now around 130ppm, and I will be testing the PH when I do water change this weekend :)
 
#75 ·
I added some Cabomba that Igor was nice enough to give me, to replace where my Ambulia was, it wasnt doing to great all of a sudden...
and a few slate rocks with stringy moss and peacock moss on them, theyre looking like a little lawn now :) I still have all My baby crs too :)
heres My May FTS :)

A nice up close pic of the newest shrimp I added, she has a really red nose :)

a pic of one of My baby crs- this one is showing the No-Entry Hinomaru :)
 
#76 ·
Babies again!!!!

Well My no-entry hino mama had babies again last night!! This is her second batch of babies since I started this tank in january... I got approximately 8 babies in the first batch, and not sure how many this time but I did spot a few in the tank :) yipppeee!!! Poor mama must be tired lol

The babies from the first batch are doing really well, really solid white and red on them, and a nice mix of no entries, hinos, and maybe a Tt or v band in there too... Theyre just starting to swim around now and be more bold :)

My TDS is around 136 now...Once a week Im using about 1/3 tap water and 2/3 RO water for water changes, and adding Mosura Mineral Supplement that I bought from Igor to the water change before I drip it into the tank... I use My tds meter to check the water change water to make sure I added enough mineral supplement. My heater rarely needs to come on, ive been keeping the tank around 71 degrees, but I have yet to see how warm it will get in the summer... And Ive been adding Mosura Gravidas as well maybe 2 times a week, and only a tinnnny bit of it, probably 1/2 of what the directions say...
 
#77 ·
Looks like there are around 8 new babies in the tank that ive been able to count :) sooo the original 5 crs plus the first batch of 8 babies plus the latest batch of 8 more babies= 21 crs :) feels awesome that theyre breeding and new babies are surviving well :)
 
#79 ·
....any chance of getting another photo posted, all these months on?
 
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