Rimless C. Miniopinna Betta Tank

[Boundava]

Well as the title says I am setting up a small nano shrimp tank using a rimless UNS tank, some (mostly) ADA soil, a variety of crypts (some tissue cultured C. nurii, another tissue cultured crypt I forget the name (I remembered its C. tonkinensis), and C. tiger spiralis), a small echinodorus iguazu 2009, some stem plants (marsilea, ludwigia ovalis and alternanthera reineckii. Also used some susswasertang tied to small tumbled lava rocks as well as a Malaysian DW with a small beach rock path under it.
Was thinking of a small internal filter like Oase 25 but it was too big so I put in a mini bactosurge sponge with a small tetra air pump. I was leery of planting the tank because of the ADA soil, but my Sister's friend said so long as I do a 50% WC daily for the first week and then every other day until the ammonia starts slowing down.

Went with the ADA soil because I am going to try the Tatibee shrimp either red rib pinto or galaxy. That won't be for a few months though.

Sorry about the air bubbles, this was after the first WC this morning.

 

[UnknownFishies]

i like it!

 

[Boundava]

Thank you, I am hoping the tissue culture picks up. It spent the last 2 weeks getting submerged. Will drop in some Seachem Advance today to give the roots a boost.

 

[Mick85]

Nice little tank for shrimp! I'm using ADA Amazonia in my planted bowl which i set up a couple of weeks ago and it's leeching ammonia like crazy! How's yours going?

 

[Boundava]

Ditto!
I have been doing 50%WC on it for the past 4 days. Friend of my sister said to do them for a week and then do them every other day until cycled. Rate the NH3 is going, not sure when I'll cycle, lol.

Just glad my plants seem to be ok, being mostly crypts I was dreading a full melt. Just seeing a little melt here and there. Hope I didn't just jinx myself.

 

[Mick85]

I've been doing 50-60% WC every 2nd day for a bit over a week now and the ammonia is still high as. Oh well no rush, as long as you don't have the live stock waiting to go in then you can take your time. By the time the tank is cycled there should be plenty of biofilm and algae for the shrimpies to munch on!

 

[Boundava]

Starting to see some nitrites and nitrates, ammonia is still up there. Dosing daily with Advance this past week has the majority of my plants doing well. The tissue culture nurii is meh, but almost everything else is doing great. Forgot I had some lagenandra meeboldii red in another tank so I planted a few of those as well. My Igawzu 2009 sword is doing very well, has two new leaves and great color. The clover has new growth and my 2 red root floaters are now 5! The crypt tonkinensis cultures are hanging in there too, and I added a pink panther crypt to the tank. I think the light is strong enough that it will stay pink (?it doesn't melt), the ludwigia is starting to pink-up too.

Had to improvise a lid/barrier as some of the cats feel this is their personal drinking fountain so I took apart two old 5.5 gallon lids and cleaned the glass and have the glass pieces laying diagonally along the top of the tank to limit space where cats can get to the water. Not going to be permanent as I am looking for some emersed growth from the plants so this is a temporary barrier.

Before

Current

Lagenandra meeboldii red

Nurii melt

C. pink panther

A. Reneinkii

L. Ovalis

Clover

C. tonkinensis

Igawazu 2009 sword

 

[Boundava]

Well its been a while since I updated the thread for this tank.

Due to the high ammonia levels I have a rampaging outbreak of brush algae, which is supposedly good for shrimp but it is overtaking my plants. Also overtaking is the Marsilea (clover like plant). The last straw was the amount of snails also overtaking the tank. So to tackle the algae I pulled all of the susswasertang out of the tank as the algae was impossible to remove from it. Then I pulled the majority of what I could from the substrate around the plants it was creeping on, have been doing that almost every other day for the past month-but it is tenacious.
Next issue was the snails, there were tons and manual removal/killing on glass wasn't doing anything to the population. Fortunately I know someone who got me a puffer on rental, lol I named her Rental Unit. Within 2 weeks the snails were gone and a bonus, the tank was cycled! Thank you RU! So RU went back to the fish store on Friday and she was 3x the size of the other pea puffers from her tank, it was funny to see them swim around her.
At the store I saw a rare find, they had a c. nurii for $20. So I bought it for the tank where I discovered another issue, the layer of ADA was very thin up front and many of the plants that were now getting more established had exposed roots. So today I decided to use some left over medium Red Flint sand to top off the ADA layer. Before I did that I did some pruning of the Marsilea, cut about 80% out of the tank. I found some of the nurii tissue culture still alive (2 small plants out of 7). I also saw the 2 nurii I thought had melted, were coming back. So after pruning and relocating a couple plants/rocks I topped of 3/4 of the tank with the sand and though it is cloudy I included some photos. Bear in mind I am adding shrimp so I won't be cleaning the glass or driftwood/rocks of algae as it should be a food source for them.

So here is the before:

and the after:

I will be adding a drop of ammonia to the tank every other day until the shrimp come. I just ordered 10+1 galaxy shrimp, they should stand out well against the sand now. I was going to go red pintos with the ADA soil, but the galaxy were only a couple $ more and I have wanted them for a while.

 

[Boundava]

Well I have place an order for some galaxy shrimp, its a pre order. Tank is cycled and water parameters are on par. I am adding a drop of ammonia every other day till the shrimp arrive. Didn't have any crypts melt since I did the trimming and topped off with some red flint sand, that was one of my concerns. Also haven't seen any snails, so my rental pea puffer did a great job. She was not at the fish store when I went back this weekend-so her large size got her sold almost immediately.

 

[Madisonkeug]

Well I have place an order for some galaxy shrimp, its a pre order. Tank is cycled and water parameters are on par. I am adding a drop of ammonia every other day till the shrimp arrive. Didn't have any crypts melt since I did the trimming and topped off with some red flint sand, that was one of my concerns. Also haven't seen any snails, so my rental pea puffer did a great job. She was not at the fish store when I went back this weekend-so her large size got her sold almost immediately.

More updates!!!! Must know! Lol!!!

 

[Boundava]

More updates!!!! Must know! Lol!!!

Lol, sorry for the delay. Life has been a bit hectic. Shrimp are doing well. Algae is kinda taking over so I pulled the little driftwood piece out, but it's crept out to plants and the filter. Think I may do a blackout next week. Anywho here are some photos, not the best quality as I am using an older phone while mine is getting repaired.

Got these beauties at Joe's aqua...at an unbelievable price. 10+1 was actually 12! All healthy and active.
Also a shot of my ludwigia, love the color as it grows to the light.

 

[Madisonkeug]

Lol, sorry for the delay. Life has been a bit hectic. Shrimp are doing well. Algae is kinda taking over so I pulled the little driftwood piece out, but it's crept out to plants and the filter. Think I may do a blackout next week. Anywho here are some photos, not the best quality as I am using an older phone while mine is getting repaired.
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Got these beauties at Joe's aqua...at an unbelievable price. 10+1 was actually 12! All healthy and active.
Also a shot of my ludwigia, love the color as it grows to the light.

Looks great!!! Love the red in some of your plants really gives a good pop of colour!!!!

 

[Boundava]

Thanks. Hope to get better picks of the shrimp when my phone is fixed.
BTW I am doing a blackout on the tank, today is day 1. Will try for 5 days and see how the algae/plants/shrimp are doing, obviously I will do a check on them daily to make sure its OK. I got a nice deal on the shrimp, but not that nice that I can just throw $$$ by killing the shrimp with a blackout, lol.

 

[Boundava]

Well I am not sure what happened but I have only been seeing one shrimp. The reineckii was getting a bit long and overgrown so I pulled it out and confirmed that there were none hiding there. No bodies so I have no clue where they went, there was 12 in the tank. Parameters were spot on as to what they needed so I don't know why all but one disappeared.
Not going to add any more shrimp but with the Amazonian soil the pH will be buffered for a bit. So I am looking at a couple options fish wise either a pair of small bettas or a group of Sundadanio axelrodi. The majority of the tank is now crypts, meboldii and one igawazu 2009 sword that has more than quadrupled in size since I planted her in here.

 

[Boundava]

Well I haven't seen the lone shrimp , so I am going to do a bit of a redo on the tank. Just a little one since I mentioned it is majority crypts-and some rare fussy crypts that I don't want to melt by moving. I have the hill/raised area that I am going to lower and plant 2 more crypt spiralis tiger (red). I would live to have moved my tonk crypt-but I am sure it will melt if I do. I may also replant the Igawazu2009 sword there to give it a bit of room to grow as it has really exploded since being placed in the tank.