Shrimp and aquascape tank

Rick147 · May 14, 2022

Hii
Me again

I’m really getting into keeping aquariums,
I have purchased a small nano tank to try some aqua scaping mostly but will put some shrimp in the later on.

I copped a lot of crap for not cycling my first tank so I’m open to advice now on this one.

I am planning on doing a plant cycle on this one as I want to learn it.

I’ll include a pic of the tank and my first question is do I leave the 2 sponge filters in and also add ceramic or take out on sponge?

Sponge on left ceramic on right??

Wills · May 14, 2022

Ah cool nice looking tank! On the filter you want to have the sponges first to collect the detritus coming through because you can clean the sponges really easy then you want the bio media in the second chamber and fill it as full as you can.

What are your planting plans? I know we looked at that other tank in your other thread there are some great plants in there to make a start with

Wills

Rick147 · May 14, 2022

This isn’t set up but these are the plants I purchased

Also is the filter media placed correctly?
Pump is on the right

Wills · May 14, 2022

Ah nice! They look like good choices, the hardest ones in there are the hair grass. What substrate are you using?

Make sure you look up a planting guide from somewhere like Green Aqua or George Farmer to see how they split up the smaller plants, if you plant them in big clumps you are more likely to have problems. Their videos are really good for this stuff and better than I can explain it.

One thing you could do before you scape it and stop the plants from drying out is cover your tank in clingfilm this will keep the tank humid and moist and the plants wont dry out and die.

With the media I would have sponges in the first chamber then fill the middle chamber with bio media and then either more sponge of filter floss in the last one. You could also put more bio media in there too.

Wills

Rick147 · May 14, 2022

I was having trouble with planting plants, they come in large clumps grown into spongey stuff and then in little plastic buckets.

I removed all of it and broken them up and tried to set them in the substrate.

I also removed a small driftwood with anubias
From my larger tank, and replaced it with a fairly large one I just brought

Both tanks are cloudy from stirring them but have some photos

Will get better ones when they clear up.

Rick147 · May 15, 2022

Day 1

I am a Newby · May 15, 2022

Rick147 said:
Day 1View attachment 159485

I would suggest to split hair grass if you going for carpeting effect when its all piled up like that in one spot gona be hard to carpet. Also not all of them are geting enough light so they migh go brown and die off. I made same mistake and mine died now i replanted again all spread 1.5 inches apart and they look to be better. All u need is 5 strands of hair with roots if u clip roots and top of grass it will take on better.
Othervise lokeing nice shrimps honna lok nice on dark substrate.

Rick147 · May 15, 2022

I am a Newby said:
I would suggest to split hair grass if you going for carpeting effect when its all piled up like that in one spot gona be hard to carpet. Also not all of them are geting enough light so they migh go brown and die off. I made same mistake and mine died now i replanted again all spread 1.5 inches apart and they look to be better. All u need is 5 strands of hair with roots if u clip roots and top of grass it will take on better.
Othervise lokeing nice shrimps honna lok nice on dark substrate.

I was unsure about how to plant everything, I will split it up and move apart.
Thanks for that

Wills · May 15, 2022

I agree with the post above, planting the grass plants so close will cause you problems in the long run.

This video might go too indepth but some really good stuff in here.

Wills

Rick147 · May 17, 2022

I have removed some Anubias from the large driftwood in my first tank. As it looked overgrown

2 questions:

1. I have just placed the anubias into the substrate for now in the new tank, I assume this is ok until I figure out where I want to put it?

2.how many plants are enough for a tank cycle?

I am a Newby · May 17, 2022

When placin anubias in substrate make sure to keep rhizome over the sand dont barry it if you do its gona die, Only roots go in substrate hard part where leaves come of you leave above it.

Rick147 · May 17, 2022

I am a Newby said:
When placin anubias in substrate make sure to keep rhizome over the sand dont barry it if you do its gona die, Only roots go in substrate hard part where leaves come of you leave above it.

Why is this?
How does the plant know its under gravel or not?
(not being sarcastic etc)

I am a Newby · May 17, 2022

Well consider rhizome to be like trunk of tree you would not want to barry trunk in ground when planting.
Rhizome is heart of plant needs light water movement exc if u barrie it it will go dark and rot very fast. I have anubias that has no leaves just rhizome and it grovs leaves but i have them atached to rocks never barried, if you have rich substrate you can barry just roots so plants get more nutrients that way ussualy roots are long enough to keep plant form not floating if you barry them and leabe rhizoem siting on top of substrate like in pic bellow that was just rhizome with no leaves and after 3 weeks once it setled and rooted a bit few leaves started growing.

Rick147 · May 18, 2022

Just back to another question

How many plants are needed for a tank cycle?

Also another anubias question, will they grow in water without being planted? Or they need substrate?

I just have them sitting in the tank until I figure out how I wanted to plant them

Wills · May 18, 2022

Anubias and plants like Java Fern and Bucephalandra are called epiphites this means they grow on wood and rocks not in soil. If you bury their roots they get starved of oxygen and die and rot. You dont need them in substrate just tie them onto rocks or wood and eventually their roots will attach and hold in place.

To do a silent cycle with plants you need a lot of fast growing stems and you need to see that they are actively growing before you add fish so get hold of some aquarium fertiliser and follow the dosing instruction and put the light on for 8 hours a day. Once your plants have grown noticeably you could add your first few fish.

Wills

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