29 gallon shrimp tank journal

[Lil' Swimz$]

Hey guys! So I'm setting up a 29 gallon shrimp tank. Right now its an all rock tank White CLoud Mountain biotope. Doesn't look good haha.
So far I have 3 pieces of black slate, and about 5 small dark black rocks (they look the same as the slate) I also have two pieces of driftwood about a foot long each.

Equipment:
Filter: Aqua-Tech 20 - 40
Heater: TopFin 100watt
Light: Reptile Basking light hood with http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-...atalogId=10053 (100watt [uses only 27 watts] daylight CFL bulb)
Substrate: Tahitian Moon Sand (black)
CO2: Two DIY Yeast CO2 bottles, one bottle is a 1 gallon jug, other is 1/2 gallon jug, and Excel (amount I'm still calculating)
Ferts: Aqueon Plant Food (amount I'm still calculating) and http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.co...67&pcatid=4867 Flourish Root Tabs

Flora: Undetermined. Some that I will be getting include Java moss, hairgrass, and some sort of val. I'll have to see what LFS has.

Fauna: Cherry shrimp and 6x white cloud mountain minnows.

This tank is already in use. I already have the filter, heater, and light hood set up. Already have the yeast for CO2, Excel, liquid fert, and the white clouds.
Need to get: the light bulb, root tabs, plants, shrimp, and more airline tubing.

[J-P]

sounds like a decent set up

not 100% certain you're going to need the CO2 though.

[Flutter]

I think that'll be a neat tank. They'll love the moss. Our shrimp tank has moss and pennywort. We gave up with it being attractive and now it's about 2/3rds moss. There isn't even a hope of seeing the substrate, it's all moss. I don't think any of your plants are heavy root feeders. You could get away without the root tabs I'll bet.

I love shrimp (and you can feed the extras to Peaches and Bug ).

[Lil' Swimz$]

Haha. I've had cherries before, for a year, and they never bread and slowly, through old age/me feeding them to Peaches, they were gone. This is my second attempt.

I'm loving it right now. I added the driftwood.

We'll see if I need the CO2, I built a DIY co2 drop checker. Just need silicone to mesh it all up.

Pics!

Full tank view:

View from lefts side of tank (big object on top is the driftwood)

A small piece of java moss I added:

A piece of slate:

BTW, these pics do NO justice. There is much more depth in this tank. The slopes are actually quite steep, and everything looks taller.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Left Side:

[J-P]

that looks REALLY good! I mean REALLY good. I had my mom try and hunt down some slate at the rock fest this past weekend but couldn't get anything.

**Looks like Swimz is turning to the dark side** haha

Next you'll be painting the backs of the tanks black too

[Lil' Swimz$]

Thanks, but that will NEVER happen! I don't care for backrounds, I am gonna wind up all the cords, and move them onto the black rim so you can't see them.

The plants will go by the driftwood on the left, and maybe alittle on the right side.

The slate is from a little desk fountain I took it apart and used them. It had more pieces, but I lost them. So the other side you can't see is all rounded off and has slots and holes and stuff.

The black rocks I got at a baseball party, the team was playing baseball and I "faked" sick and sat in a pile of rocks picking out black ones. lol

[Lil' Swimz$]

Here's the fountain: http://www.kineticfountains.com/enviras ... tegory=228

[xrayjeeper83]

wow swim that tank is awesome

[Lil' Swimz$]

I put strands of Java moss from the 5 gallon in random places in the tank. We'll see how it looks.

Also, my snail jar is finally breeding! Three sacs of eggs plus a hole bunch of babies! I put two sacs that were on a piece of java moss in the tank, and now there gone. Watched a white cloud eat em right up.

I put two of the biggest snails in the tank. If they breed, do they put the eggs in hiding, so they don't get eaten? Or will all get eaten?

Thanks xray

[xrayjeeper83]

In my snail tank the eggs are everywhere, Glass, filter, leaves, doesnt seem to matter

[Lil' Swimz$]

Mine got eaten so, we'll see.

Two problems arose: Cloudy water. Hoping it may just be from disturbing the sand, but it could also be tannins. If so I'll need to get some carbon and get it outta there.

Second: from my understanding, baby cherries can get sucked up in the filter and die. Well, I put some filter floss in the intake to protect, and it drastically reduced filter flow. Should I add another filter? I already have a powerhead, like a need any more movement. Which reminds me, I gotta put floss in that too

[xrayjeeper83]

I put filter floss over the intake on my 5 and it got gummed up my filter. Id look to see if they make a sponge filter that can work for your tank size

[J-P]

just out of curiosity .. do you have the CRS yet? You might be interested in breeding some CPO's That is going to be one of my next ones if I can get a good clutch. Fairly rare and you can make a good penny off them.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Nope, I just have the white clouds now, my LFS is too normal to carry those. My LFS sells cherries, tigers, and amano. That's it. :/

Xray, what do you mean, it got sucked up? I trimmed my floss really good so fits in there loosely, but won't get sucked up. That made water a little faster. Alteast my powerhead does not seem to be phazed by the floss.

More eggs in the snail jar! I thought I saw a little courtship the last couple days... Hopefuly I can get them breading in the 29, that'd be perfect!

I think it must've been some of just the dust from sand. Its clearer then before, but if its not normal by tomorrow morning I'm gonna look into some activated carbon.

Getting silicone tomorrow so I can build the CO2 drop checker, and maybe, if they have it, get the tubing and t-valve and start up the CO2.