Small Planted Setup

[gwand]

Well there wasn't supposed to have any updates on this thread for a little while...

But tragedy stroked again

A foot fan near, fell on it's side and broke the tank. I used some gorilla tape to prevent the tank from getting empty too fast and ran to my LFS to get a new one ASAP.

I trowed new substrate in the tank added water moved all the plants and decor.

Now I'm trying to catch the remaining shrimps in what is left of the water in the old tank. with food and a ladle.

It's a complete catastrophe...

View attachment 346243View attachment 346244

OMG. That is terrible. So sorry for you.

 

[MattW]

I hope the shrimp are doing ok . I’ve never had this happen before but It seems you acted very quickly which is the best thing you can go in this scenario. Hoping everything goes ok in the new tank

 

[MaloK]

That was not pleasant at all. Nope...

But I'm still sooooooooo lucky, while the side of the tank cracked in 3 vertical pieces it still held together, and didn't explode... The nightmare of all hobbyist: Picking your stock on the floor across the room...

Even more lucky that the closest LFS had exactly what I need in stock.

Most of the shrimps are back in the tank now and I took the time to give a good clean to the hardware, the only thing I didn't do is rinse any media.

Using a ladle and food worked very well, most of the shrimps where caught in 3 scoops.

 

[MaloK]

Guess where I was this morning when the lights came on !!!

Good surprise, The shrimps are scouting the tank like kids in an attraction park. They look like they're enjoying them selves and are fooling around... What a relief...

It took me 3 hours netting the remaining babies from the crashed tank yesterday...

But, I've got, all of them !!!

I simplified the scape a little and went with a much thinner substrate layer, it's going to leave more vertical space for the plants and be easier to maintain. This is probably the most thorough cleanup I ever made by force

The only draw back is, That I must admit that the Aqueon Tanks looks like they been assembled by toddlers. While the joints are good and wont have problems... The finish and regularity is ridiculous. And some what of a sore in the eyes. I put the best looking side forward, but... It's not that better, loll.

But as long as watertightness is not theoretical, I will live with that.

 

[MaloK]

For posterity.

An aftermath picture.

I took it wide enough so you can zoom on the... Sili... Shrimps...

 

[Sparx]

I’m glad you managed to save it, it looks good!

 

[MaloK]

I had supper at 11pm and went to sleep at 2 am and was forced to step up like a rocket 3 times from foot cramps during the "night"...

Besides that !!! it's all good.

 

[MaloK]

The days following the rebuild where tough.

The general digestive trails of the shrimps where empty and the poor things where wandering the tank like the desert. Even the nerites where on complete food panic mode.

Against good judgement, I overfed the tank, added a lot more botanicals and blown the place with bacter AE... Until everyone poops ! And ammonia rises. I caught it exactly when I expected it . The nitrate level was also rising fast. I dosed the tank with my favorite bacteria booster. And next morning there was 0 ammo, 0 nitrite, 5-10 nitrate. I did a 25% water change and added a good dose of liquid carbon dioxide to try to recover some of the denitrifying bacteria that could be left and also help the plants at the same time.

The substrate replacement, even seeded with the old one really changed the biological processing of the tank. And at the moment has lost nearly all it's nitrate processing capability. I'm faced to the fact that slow plants are not great player in that field.

I replaced my clump of filter wool for a little piece of fine sponge. If it does similar results it will be a little less crap in the garbage and easier to clean.

The shrimps are absolutely unaware of the pending doom upon them. And are tripping around the tank having fun and bothering the adults into hiding... loll... There is a lots of teens in there and a couple more interesting ones came out... There is new black rilis and blue mutts in addition of the brown and green. I now have 9 different models.

Even with all the positive points that I can retrieve from the experience... I wouldn't suggest anyone to smash an aquarium glass, anytime soon

 

[MaloK]

Well another shot... Nearly all the biggest, sweetest, most beautiful shrimps... Died.

What a surprise. This is the third ELE event occurring in less than a year. I'm getting used to it.

Since then they the remaining hundred or so explored the tank like it was completely "new". No pun intended. I overfed them a little and when back to normal all are looking great atm !

Now for at least 4-5 days I have nitrate slowly going down. I never reached more than 10 ppm nitrate and maintained ammonia under 0.25 the whole time... Whatever... The nitrite crew is a lot sturdier and kept things at 0 all the way.

Thing looks like they are settling down... Once again. The shrimp are in hiding and crap is swirling in the water.

I can really see them only if I draw them out of their hides with"smelly food" And I try to keep that at a minimum.

Because... They are resilient little critters. To get an idea of their size: The food pellet hanging is 7 mm.

 

[MaloK]

Well after my first week without being forced to change water every 2 days. And brought back nitrate to 0... With some help.

The shrimps are back to normal... Not really, everything seems slower... But they are looking happy fooling around and playing. I mean the ones that made the transfer are looking great, are active. I try to have the colony with a digestive trail that is not too shameful without blowing my nitrogen quota. But they seems a lot calmer than before.

I fed them a little more localized and they where not looking in panic like before, that's good.

When you see plants leaves spinning around in the water, you know that they're munching. My anubias are really there to hold shrimps and food so I can see them, I Purposely grow algae on the leaves to have babies early in the morning there, and be able to drop a little baby food on them without the bigger ones noticing too fast.

That kind of uses wears a plant a little faster than it should. But it insures a great baby survival rate.

Then the adults are off and hungry too. They are just a little lazy in the morning. The older they are the lazier.

But they eat on another level and need "to their scale" at least something that is like a basket ball size to humans per day in food. Waste included. The problems is it draws every other shrimps in the hood to the BBQ and trows a lot of crap in the bottom. loll.

That's a lot of nitrogen coming from everywhere... In a 5 gallons. I'm starting to be convinced that kind of tank can only support a very low number of real adults that would be able to make it trough.

But still, for all the tears poured since a year...

Super shrimps are popping all around. Blue ones, never seen since 5 months ?? and Rili's Black Red and Blue with purple stripes, the bloody Mary are gaining in with a splice of Rili and Red's. There is also some orange Rili and a lot of deeper than original oranges.

The green and brown Mutts young's turned lighter, but... The browns are copper alike now and the green are turning fluorescent.

None the less, in current water conditions. While the orange are still kings... Reds are in for breakthrough.

But... The current establishing King is orange...

I beginning to be a little better at establishing gender... And... There no queen in the shrimp realm.

Only a Big Muscular Douche Bag King

 

[MaloK]

Things been settling in beautifully.

The water has been preserving it's goodness. GH and KH are spoocha !!! There is no accumulation of any undesired chemical byproducts. Nitrate is undetectable. For some reason my PH is still a little high, but is in range and KH shows great possible resistance to swings, with a very low ppm of anything else... Happiness... I tell you.

After months of surveillance at the tannin's level criteria, they are less than necessary in an healthy cherry shrimp tank. Even more, they are not welcome at all.

It's very difficult to obtain reliable information on the "real" cherry shrimp natural habitat without a lot's of contradiction. I was able to make Gemini loose it's marbles on this. loll. And everything points to a "Wide range" But I know where they live is not.

But The shrimps I have are negatively affected by tannin and what they want is all the biofilm these creates after releasing tannin's.

So I'm soaking and rinsing. And running carbon if it gets any coloration. But they love the biofilm... And the sparkling clear water at the same time.

They are vivacious, quick and alert. they can move up to 50 mph backward in 6 inches of space while still controlling direction. they literally vanish in front of your eyes.

Every time I feed them, the number that are able to catch something before it reaches the bottom is ridiculous. They are extremely aware of their environment for the means they have.

Overall seem excellent, good colors, thick carapace, reduced molting, no rings, getting big.

Somehow water chemistry seems to have changed everything, the next months will testify.

But they are a trill to watch... I starve them a little on purpose. Just to see them acting when plenty fall from the sky.

Their playfulness and energy is indeed overwhelming ! They are all truly beautiful and gracious.