Planted Nano Shrimp Tank

[~firefly~]

I've been thinking about a shrimp tank for a good while now so finally I got one.

Here's the tank. It's a Dennerle 30 litre nano cube.



Here's the mess on my living room floor.



I had a decent piece of bogwood that looked like two tree stumps. It was a bit big for the footprint of the tank so I sawed them in half and chose the best one to work with. What I am aiming for is to have something that ends up looking like an actual tree (big mossy head). I read that bamboo sticks can start this off, so here's my attempt.



More to come...

[PhillipOrigami]

The continuing story of fireflys nano tank.

Go amazonia!
Never heard of bamboo sticks... will look unsightly in the beginning.. most people just use branchy wood.

[~firefly~]

The continuing story of fireflys nano tank.

Go amazonia!
Never heard of bamboo sticks... will look unsightly in the beginning.. most people just use branchy wood.

Haha, yes I've been peppering the forum with questions about it all haven't I?

The bamboo sticks are skewers (normally used for making kebabs for the bbq).

[~firefly~]

One last check of the angle...



Then I set to work on the plants. I separated out little bunches of grass. Jeez did this take a long time!



I have two types of grass. Eleocharis acicularis to be planted in the back corner. Eleocharis parvula to be planted along the front and side. I've heard Acicularis is prolific and grows tall if allowed. Parvula, I'm hoping, will carpet (although this is going to be a low-tech set up).



Each little bunch was trimmed to around 3cm long and had the roots trimmed to 1-2cm (if they were even that long).

[~firefly~]

Here's the first look after planting. I didn't have any planting tongs so I used scissors being careful not to grip the plant with them and cut them. I just opened the scissors a tiny bit, wedged in a plant, dug it in and let go of the plant by opening the scissors. Worked quite well considering!



Then I hacked up a nano anubia I had bought (but realised was way too big and bushy) and wedged this into the tree root.



I think it looks ok as a start. The bamboo sticks will be quite ugly for a long time but I'm patient!



Once I have nice growth and the tank cycles, maybe in a couple of months, I will venture to the LFS for shrimp.

[Gogi]

Oh this is going to come out great. What kind of shrimp will you be getting?

[~firefly~]

I stole a little bit of moss from my other tank to start things off. I really am going to need to get more though if this is ever to become a 'tree'.



Here's with both sticks moss tied. A bit sparse at this stage. I might get some different types of moss to mix up on the sticks so that some grows up (flame moss?), some grows across (chrismas moss...as I have here), and some grows down (weeping moss?)



I set it in the tank on top of some Dennerle DeponitMix and a bagful of ADA Amazonia. I didn't use the gravel that came with the tank.



...

[mojosodope]

I really like how this tank is looking, great job and nice pearling!

[~firefly~]

Cheers. The pearling is only down to the fact that I did a 70% water change about an hour before taking this shot. Everything is covered in bubbles after a change and I often tap the plants with a bamboo stick a few times to dislodge them. The next day there won't be any bubbles.

I'm really pleased with the boost in growth from the Alternanthera (the pink plant). It has shot up since the tree went due to the increase in light access.

[~firefly~]

Quick update. I'm still losing the odd shrimp here and there which is frustrating so I've made a few changes to see if it improves matters:

1. I've removed the plastic frame from inside the filter (that the felt mat was wrapped around) and put in some Sera bioballs in a net to fill the space that was previously taken up by the plastic frame. I wrapped the felt back around it and crammed it back into the cradle. Filter flow is as it was before and hopefully will culture a larger stock of bacteria (in case that was my issue).
2. I've halved the dosing of EasyCarbo and ferts after advice from my LFS.
3. I've switched shrimp food. I was using Hikari "Shrimp Cuisine" but was a little alarmed that the ingredients included copper. The new Sera feed I have now doesn't include copper.

Hopefully this may reduce or stop my death rate.