ADA 60P Shrimp Tank (Lucky Number 3)

I never envisioned myself as someone who would have multiple tanks, but that seems to be who I am now a days!

A system that I admired in JHB went up for sale and I figured "why not, lets get another one!"


The tank as setup with its previous owner.

After almost a week of trying to find a way of getting everything here, my brother in law finally managed to convince a courier company he knows the ship the livestock.

Everything was packed late Tuesday night last week as the couriers promised to arrive first thing Wednesday morning for collection...









Wednesday morning we hit our first snag...couriers call and say, they cant collect someone must take it to them! :blink: After countless phone calls they are finally persuaded to collect the items...they dont show! :notrust:

Thursday morning the livestock gets repacked as they had now been sitting since Tuesday night in bags and hadnt even left yet...half the shrimps already dead. Couriers finally arrive Thursday afternoon with the understanding they will be shipping the goods to EL that night...not to be the case!

Friday morning I receive an email from the couriers with a Quote for shipping stating I must accept the quote and send proof of payment before they send my goods! :amazed: Well what else can we do now the stock is already sitting with them so I pay and send proof of payment and hope that they will then still send that day to arrive Saturday...they didnt. :evil:

Monday morning I finally get a call that the goods have arrived in EL and will be with me that morning...2pm yesterday afternoon they finally showed up! By now I'm thinking best case scenario all livestock dead and tank is still in one piece...worst case scenario all livestock dead and tank cracked!

Luckily almost everything came alive and hardware in one piece! Only losses were 99% of the red cherry shrimps...down to a packing error...the bag looks to have popped open during travel and left the shrimps with no water thus all dead..at least there were around 12 of the larger shrimps in with the fish that made it. Only hardware loss was the heater, somehow it got cracked during transport.

So now I sit with my third tank...2 at home and 1 at my office.



More pics to follow...

 

MTS has set in!!! Nice setup by the way, how about a close up?

I just recently reduced tanks, and AGAIN i'm seriously considering setting another one up just for my Betta (she's decimating my shrimp population).

 

I loved the way the tank was setup before, but there was no way once stripped down to nothing that I was able to replicate what was there before...and maybe it wouldnt have been a dishonor to its previous setup if I tried a cheap replica of it.

I have tried to go with a almost African landscape look...with trees hanging over a dried up river bed surrounded by rocks and brush...Sort of got it how I wanted it...although the back Left hand corner could do with some work...


Tank before adding water.


Tank just after filling...still a bit hazy.


Love these Glass Lily Pipes, been wanting them for ages!


The tank before lights on this morning.



Lights on this morning...looking a little clearer, but will be doing a 40% water change today.

The plan is to keep this as a predominantly shrimp tank, but will be keeping the 12 Ember Tetra's, 5 Pygmy Corys and I think 2 Otocinclus.




Livestock just after being introduced to the tank...


Ember Tetras from last night


Pygmy Cory school


2 of the 12 remaining shrimps...


The one Buchaphalandra Cherish flowering.

 

Heck, you've got this down to a fine art! I like that you did your own thing and didn't just try to replicate the last tank.... now its "your" tank!

 

Haha it has indeed.

This little guy came with the tank, but I have moved him over to my other tank to try and increase the shrimp numbers...




I have asked Talita to keep 10 of the orange shrimps they have for me and hoping to convince my LFS here to order in some different colours as well to add to the mix...unfortunately in EL people are reluctant to spend money on livestock and oddities...pricey oddities like shrimps are a gamble to bring in so they are a bit hesitant to take the risk.

 

I see an opportunity knocking at your door in the near future....Shrimp Farmer.
Basic supply and demand. If there's no supply, you can meet the demand AND control the quality of your product!

 

lol thanks...still learning about this fresh water scaping thing. Ya always better to make it your own than try and replicate someone else's vision and hard work.

Well if I can get them breeding and numbers growing there is definitely a market out there as they not available at all here.

 

Looking good Mark. Liking the theme you went for.

Lol MTS gets to everyone sooner or later. I haven't even started with my tank and I'm already wanting to set up the nano for shrimps.

 

lol almost 10 years keeping marines...never had more than 1 tank at a time... 6 months keeping fresh water and I have 3 :O

 

Looking good bud

I found a new interest in bettas This one the colour is amazing

 

Hahaha that's the difference between the two. What you spend on one marine tank, you can spend on multiple freshwater tanks.

 

Ya thats true..although I am generally lazy to do maintenance on one tank now ive taken on the responsibility of maintaining 3...worst is this tank needs to have a 40% water change done on it every day for the next 2 weeks...apparently the ADA soil is very rich in nutrients and will damage the plants when new if water changes arent done. :/

 

Ya I also really enjoy them...some of them have insane colours and shape.

 

FTS after the 40% water change yesterday...water is looking clearer, but still slightly murky...I think I need to filter it through some fine filter floss to really pull the dust particles out of the water column.

 

Ok then... Remind me not to use ada soil, way too lazy to do wc everyday lol

 

Tank looking really good.

 

haha its just for the first couple of weeks to settle things.

Thanks mate...will see how things progress and whether I land up changing anything in the future.

 

are you running any co2 on this tank with 4 T5's?

 

There are only 3 T5's currently in the unit...previous owner said this seemed to give him optimum light. I have got got co2 equipment for the tank, but it's not attached at present as the cylinder is empty and I am trying to find someone to refill it...am dosing Excel in the meantime.

 

Attempted to hook up the CO2 yesterday after finally getting the cylinder refilled...I say attempted as I am trying to run both my home tanks off the same cylinder while at the same time not having the ideal equipment to do the job.


5kg C02 Cylinder sitting next to my Red Sea tank...



For the time being I have attached a T piece after the solenoid with one going up to the tank next to the cylinder and and one pipe heading to the other side of the room to this tank. Added plastic joiner clamps which seem to be working, but not ideally as I am battling to get the precise balance of co2 between the two tanks...figured initially that the closer tank would be the path of least resistance and so most co2 would head that direction, but it doesnt seem to be the case...over did it with the fiddling yesterday so will try again this afternoon after I get back from work and see if I can get this right...otherwise will have to wait until I can find a CO2 splitter and do things properly.


External diffuser attached to this tank...its a pretty cool little gadget.


Only have the one drop checker at the moment so have added it to this tank for the time being as it is the lesser water volume and lower oxygenated system so need to keep a closer eye on this side until my second one arrives.