New Tank

I set this tank up a month ago despite domestic opposition , for the growing numbers of shrimp. It’s going to be an all moss tank. A friend of mine got me the mosses in Hong Kong they have been in the tank a week and a half, so far so good except one of the nicest ones flame moss is doing nothing yet. He is going again in a couple of weeks hopefully he can be persuaded to get me some more, I really like the look of mosses, pity more aren’t available here. The willow moss on the tank side wall I grew in my five gallon I put it there to cover up the ugly eheim inlet.

How long do you guys think the fast growers should stay in, I just removed fast growers that have roots, hygro etc a few days ago as I have some tropica substrate under the sand in case I later want rooted plants, I didn’t want to make a big mess pulling out the plants when the shrimp moved in.

I think the scape is kind of crap, it looks really flat. Maybe when the hornwort comes out it will look better and when the new mosses grow some.
If anyone has any suggestions on the layout that would be helpful. I can move the ‘mossed’ wood about and I might add some ferns. The tank is a juwel lido 125l. I added a compact fluorescent of 24 watts to the juwel lights which give 54 watts for 31us gallons so its low/medium light. I am using a little Co2 that’s as much to get a lower ph for the shrimp as for the plants. I don’t plan on much ferts a little amount of trace.

The amanos came out as they were as interested in eating the moss as the algae.

WOW! I love that willow moss. What conditions does it need to thrive(Lighting,Substrate).Your tank looks really natural which I think is best.Well Done!

Not a fan of mosses, but your tank makes them look great. Nice layout and very soothing to the eye. You must be very proud of it.

Maybe I wil try some moss (although reluctantly) lol

Yeah, I also quite like it.

Thanks for the positive words Marhall, SuperColey and Luc, it doesn’t look like a scape to me just some mossy wood thrown together its okay I guess, I will try and shift things a bit to see if I can make it more acceptable to myself.
Marshall, the willow moss is a super easy plant. I got a portion from Greenline aquatic plants, a few strands a few inches long about four or five months ago it grows fast and easily, it doesn’t seem to stick to wood, but grows straight up. It pearls almost as well as riccia and somehow traps the pearls as they are still there at lights on. Here are the clippings from the other tank, most of it is attached to suction cups and stuck to the glass, on the substrate it has lead weights keeping it down. It has grown over a foot long in my 5 gallon so I think it could grow very tall. I expect it would grow in low or high light or with or without Co2. Just add water basically, there are a few species, cold water ones also.

looks really lush and natural.

Nice looking tank, that

Sam

Thanks for the compliment Sam,

An update: Am more or less finished planting it now, cant fit any more species in. Had to leave a bit of wood without moss to make it easy for the filter feeding shrimp to climb. Put in a few ferns in to give a bit of variety. Would like it to look like the damp mossy river banks in the Lake District. It only has the lights that came with the tank seems to be enough for slow growth, there is little if any algae so far. Sorry about the bin bag background intend to get a proper one.
Its got vampire, wood, lacee, cherry, bumblebee and a few crystal red shrimp (I like inverts as tank inhabitants, they never look confined in the tank), may get a few ottos when the lfs have the zebra ones in.

You have a really healthy, natural tank there. I wonder how a few Crypts would go in this tank.

Dave.

sdam look like a jungle , neato, luv it

Lovely mosses... wish to do one in future...

That's a great looking tank. I love it!

Very nice pal if you get zebra ottos post some pics and try to get some close ups of your Shrimps that would be awesmome

looks really really really good...... now i wish i did one like that