20 Long Future Shrimp Tank

[Water7]

I have been making quite a few changes to my 20 long tank, in hopes of some day being able to make it a shrimp tank. It was originally filled with lots and lots of stem plants and had DIY CO2, an Aquaclear filter, and a good bit of fertilizer along with guppies, platys, and snails. 

 

Changes I've made recently include moving the DIY CO2 and the Aquaclear that diffuses it, along with many stem plants and vallisneria, over to my 29 gallon tank. The Hydrosponge 4 and air pump from the 29 gallon have now been put in the 20 long. The lights have been decreased, as has the fertilizer. The tank has been rescaped and currently houses java fern, hygrophila corymbosa, anubias nana, water wisteria, rotala rotundifolia, cryptocoryne petchii, vallisneria, pennywort, myriophyllum aquaticum, duckweed, hornwort, and an existing carpet of HM in the foreground.

 

With one T8 tube about 13.5 inches from the substrate and the DIY CO2 removed, I am not sure if all of these plants will do well. Additional changes may need to be made. Some, for sure, will be fine. However, with the tank still quite heavily planted, some fertilizers will still be needed. I know this is debatable with shrimp. I plan to ration them out on a daily basis so not too much is added at a time.

 

And where, you ask, is the moss? Good question! Those of you who know me from TPT might know that I've been having some challenges growing java moss, namely dark green (vs. bright green), non-branching strands of moss growing a healthy crop of hair algae. I've tried growing it in different tanks under different conditions. Finally I pulled out the best strands and am growing them in a jar in the windowsill (not in direct sunlight). While the moss is growing slowly, it is doing the best it ever has so far, and looking much better. So I hope to grow it out quite a good bit, and then try some in the tank again. For now, the little bit in the tank is not doing much.

 

As for the HM carpet, anyone who has one knows what a mess it is to give it a haircut. But it surely is pretty and grows marvelously for me. I am wondering, if I had it with shrimp, would I be likely to injure and kill shrimp when cutting it back? Should I consider doing away with the HM in that tank?

 

I'm hoping to get some cherry shrimp for this tank. However, for now the weather is rather cold for shipping, and also this tank is currently without a heater. The heater and fish from this tank are currently in a 10 gallon plantless tank having a salt treatment for occasional but repeated appearances of ich (which so far I have not been able to eradicate). So I need to wait until these fish are able to come out of quarantine before I can have the heater back in the shrimp tank to be.

 

By the way, this tank should be staying cycled as there are quite a few small snails in it. Judging by the mess they make, I think they have enough bioload to keep it cycled.

 

I'll include a picture of the 20 from the past. I do not yet have any current pictures. Please feel free to share your comments. This would be my first foray into shrimp beyond ghost shrimp. If you think I'm not doing something right, let me know.

 

 

 

[mosspearl]

No advice, but you have a lovely tank.

[Water7]

Thank you, Mosspearl!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Nice indeed.  I only use moss, but I admire people who can grow all kinds of plants.

[Water7]

Thank you Soothing Shrimp. I do not know how well all of these plants are going to do now with lower light and no CO2, but I surely do enjoy growing them and I hope they make it all right.

[GreenBliss]

Beautiful tank. Shrimp are going to love the plants.

[Merth]

Your tank is quite beautiful. A couple comments I would make, heavy fertilizing obviously could be detrimental to the shrimp however many have had decent results using root tabs and fert sticks. I wouldn't worry too much about the plants/shrimp so long as you are careful and meticulous in your trimming. Be sure to remove dying leaves if the lighting/ferts turn out to not be enough as they can lead to spikes with too much waste. 

 

Alot of folks have the misconception that shrimp tanks only do well with mosses. This is obviously a myth proven wrong time and again. The aesthetics of a fully planted tank can have its pros and cons. Lots of plants means lots of hiding places and you may become dissatisfied never being able to spot your babies. Also heavy plant loads requires good pruning skills and good husbandry practices. Many folks like using mosses because they provide lots of grazing areas while still allowing good viewing of the shrimp. And of course they require less lighting and nutrients to maintain good appearance and health.

 

On the flip side with a tank planted like yours obviously there is tons of grazing areas and is beautiful to look at. It will require a bit more maintenance however I would venture a guess the water quality if you can find that balance will be much more conducive to the shrimps survival rate and breeding.

 

One word of caution, many folks that switch their fully planted tanks over to non-co2 get a little discouraged in the plant growth rate and appearance and the temptation to use a product like Excel to help the plants comes into play. I have done it with little ill effects but used at maybe 1/10th the recommended rate. I can tell you it stressed me to no end worrying about the shrimp so wouldn't advise this. Try to find a good balance while waiting on better shipping weather and you will be more pleased in the end.

[Water7]

Thank you, Merth. It's all excellent advice. Yes, the time until maybe March will give this tank time to stabilize, and time to pull out whatever plants don't do well. Also hopefully time for my moss to grow out!

 

I do agree that having a heavily planted tank for shrimp has its downsides. This tank was DIY CO2 which was not extremely prolific, so removing that and lowering the lights, as well as removing the more demanding plants, may not be a drastic transition. I moved in easier plants like java fern, anubias, etc., which have been living in a non-CO2 tank for quite a while.

As for fertilizers, I am looking at basically 1/3 of the recommended EI dose, and that spread out over 6 days.

 

And yes, maintenance surely is needed with plants. I have two tanks and I do quite a bit of maintenance on the plants. I also have small snails which appear to keep quite busy devouring fallen leaves before I get to them. 

 

If it is a poor idea to start out as I'm contemplating, though, I could begin by keeping shrimp in my 10 gallon with nothing but moss, then once I have a stable colony, gradually try some out in the heavily planted 20. Maybe this would be a better idea. The 10 gallon is a hospital tank now and would be well cycled by the time I would have shrimp.

[Water7]

Well, it's been over a month since my original post and I'm glad to say the 20 long, while still not having shrimp, is doing great. Removing the CO2 has not created any trouble and plants are doing comparatively well. However, I'm coming to the conclusion that it will probably be best to remove most of the plants eventually (before shrimp), and stick with moss, java fern, some cryptocorynes, and some floaters. I would then not add any fertilizers. I am not sure how the crypts would do without fertilizers. I also have an anubias in there, and I am not sure how it would do without fertilizers either.

 

I am currently trying to come up with a list of things to buy before getting shrimp. There are so many stories of shrimp dying, that I am afraid I will end up the same way if I do not know what I'm doing. Things I'm considering: high range PH test, KH/GH test, TDS meter. I also wonder if it recommended to buy the Hikari Shrimp cuisine, or if there are other foods (such as algae wafers, which I have) that you would recommend. In other words, does a fancier shrimp-specific food make a difference?

 

I am looking at the HM digital TDS meter on Amazon, but the ad says that it does not measure biological contamination in the water. Is this correct? Is it true that such a meter lets you know when you need to do a water change if it does not (apparently) show organic waste in the water?

 

All opinions welcome!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Water, all TDS does is tells you roughly the amount of minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water.  This can be organic or inorganic.

 

That's why if doing remin with RO, you can do it to the desired GH once, measure the TDS, and then just remin next time to roughly teh same TDS again.

 

Some people use the TDS as a "marker."  So, after knowing their tank TDS, when TDS creeps over a given TDS, they just do a wc.  Other people prefer to do a wc religiously anyway.

 

TDS will also vary based on the type of shrimp.  A TDS too low and it will suck the minerals out of the shrimp's body.  Too high and it tries to infiltrate too much into the body.

 

Neos don't really need high brand food, but if it feels good to you then you are welcome to do it.  Blanched organic baby spinach would be fine as well.

[Water7]

Thank you, Soothing Shrimp. That's very helpful to understand just how the TDS meter is used in the keeping of shrimp. I understand it better now. I'm not sure if it would be needed in my case or not, but it might be useful. And with the food, that is good to know too. I think I might try growing some baby spinach under my grow lights, if that would be a good food for them. 

[Soothing Shrimp]

Soft foods such as zuccini, cucumber, baby spinach, mulberry leaves, etc. get eaten readily (depending on the colony) and won't cost you an arm and a leg.

 

There are some foods you can buy that are semi prepared that you make similer to jello for them.

 

And are ready made foods such as pellets, etc that can also be bought.

 

I prefer the pellets myself.  Just one less thing I have to do with my shrimp.

[Water7]

That's good to know. What I have is some Top Fin bottom feeder tablets that contain spirulina among other things, and I've also ordered the Hikari Crab Cuisine. It was cheaper than the shrimp cuisine, but hopefully they will eat it. And yes, I'll be adding tiny bits of vegetables from time to time.

[Water7]

So I have made some more changes. Gradually I removed more and more plants from this tank over to my 29 gallon until I'll have to say that this tank looked really sad. I didn't know what to do with it. Also, the large amount of water-bucket-hauling for water changes has been getting to me, especially as I know spring is coming on and it will soon be time for gardening and yard maintenance. With all that I have to do, I wasn't looking forward to maintaining two large (to me) tanks. So I decided to keep the 29 as my plant and fish tank, and start a 5 gallon for future shrimp. The 20 gallon is now waiting in the basement until maybe some day when my children are older and we might have more time to work on it.

 

My mother let me have an unused 5 gallon tank she had. I had to search her attic, storage building, and basement but finally found it. I set it up today and I really, really like it. I'll try to post a picture soon. It will feature only simple, easy-care plants such as moss, floaters, and java fern--nothing planted in the substrate. I'm cycling a sponge filter in the 29 for one month, and currently running an HOB with some cycled media in it, in the 5 gallon. My plan is to let this tank run with snails for two months before getting shrimp. Will that be enough? I will also add the cycled sponge filter a few weeks before getting the shrimp.

 

I also got my GH/KH test, and I'll have to say it was great fun testing my tap water, as well as that from the hand pump well I use. Tap water was GH 3 and KH 2, while well water was GH 16 and KH 17. I am planning to use a mixture of 75% tap to 25% well, in order to strike a balance, hopefully. I still need to test the pH of this proposed mixture and make sure it will be all right.

 

~~Amy

[Soothing Shrimp]

Sounds like a carefully thought out plan, Amy. Be sure to use water conditioner to bind heavy metals/chloromines/chlorines.