Ponzll's Fish Tanks Topic!

HI All!

First off, I have 3 threads so far but decided it's probably best for my to have them all in a single thread so that I don't have to clog up the board by bumping 3 threads at a time. If a moderator could merge them into this topic somehow, that would be super cool!

10 Gallon Shrimp Tank Thread Sometimes You Just Need To Put A 10 Gallon Freshwater Shrimp Tank In The Bedroom!

40 Gallon Breeder Thread 40 Gallon Breeder Tank Bedroom Build.

20 Gallon Long Thread Picked Up A 20 Gallon Tank For My First Tank Since 2011.



So these are my 4 tanks:

5.5 Gallon Betta Tank
This tank houses my son's female betta named Peaches. It also has a nerite snail, a pond snail, and a single ghost shrimp. It has a piece of Pothos floating in there that is slowly growing roots even with the 3 little LEDs that came with the tank kit.

10 Gallon Shrimp Tank
This tank is juuuuust getting finished cycling. It has a Nicrew LED light above it. I currently have 15 ghost shimps in there, but have also recently used it as a temporary sick bay for mollies that ended up dying on me. I want to have the ghost shrimp a little while before I decide to switch to Red Cherry Shrimp. I don't want to start with RCS just in case my water is too awful for them. Once I switch, the ghosties will go in another tank.

20 Gallon Long Tank
This tank is heavily planted with DIY CO2 using citric acid and baking soda. It has 2 nerite snails, a ghost shrimp, and 23 happy little Harlequin Rasboras. Above it is 48 watts of T5-HO lighting at 6600k I believe. I have a 100gph marineland penguin and a sponge filter hooked to a size 40 gallon air pump.

40 Gallon Breeder Tank
This tank is heavily planted with a Beamswork LED and Aquaclear 70 filter. I'm looking to get a pressurized CO2 system for this one but am still trying to figure out how I wanna do it exactly.

 

I didn't want to clog up the first post with pictures and things, so I'll start the first post off with some updates to 3 of the tanks. We added some backgrounds to them today!

 

Today I put 14 ghost shrimp in my shrimp tank. Bought 15 but only got 14 I guess lol

Also I have no idea why my java moss turned all brown in this tank. It's doing amazing in my 20 gallon tank

 

I got 20 more ghosties today, bringing my total to 34! At least 2 of the new ones have eggs already.

I tried feeding the previous 14 with some cucumber but they didn't seem interested, so I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime they're picking away at everything in the tank. I dropped a small piece of algae wafer and a sinking shrimp pellet for them to munch on.

 

I recharged the Purigen in my 20 gallon tank, and after doing the Prime soak, I'm convinced I smell bleach still. My wife says she just smells fish, but I can't shake the feeling so I'm gonna just set it aside and get more. I recharged it once, years ago with no issues, but now it's scaring me. lol

I'll hold onto it, and then maybe once I get a few packets laying around, I'll do a strong dose of Prime on all of them at once.

 

I got these dwarf red water lilies off Ebay maybe Friday of last week? Anyway, I put 1 in the 20, 1 in the shrimp tank, and 1 in the 40. The 1 in the 20 has a few stems but no leaves, the one in the 40 has some tiny leaves coming out, then in just a few days, the one in the 10 shrimp tank has just exploded with growth. It's crazy considering nothing else has really grown all that well in there.

 

WOAH!

I knew I had pregnant mollies but look! I just found a baby! I wonder if any other survived. I've never actually seen a baby fish in any of my tanks ever! I wonder how old it is by now, I have no idea but this is so cool!!

I'll never be able to net the thing, but if I could, I'd stick it in with my ghost shrimp until it got a little bigger. If I do manage to do it, is it even safe to net them up like that at this size? Would I drip acclimate, or would I be good to just drop him in since all the water is from the same place, just slightly varying temperatures?




EDIT - There are THREE so far!

 

Check this out, I got sick of dealing with an air stone for diffusing my CO2, so I stuffed a piece of cotton into the end of the hose and then shoved it into the back of the wavemaker and now it shoots tiny CO2 bubbles all through the tank.

2018-08-29 19.37.17 - Create, Discover and Share Awesome GIFs on Gfycat

Sure, the CO2 will wear the blades a bit, but mine were super cheap. I think a 2 pack was 11 bucks?

 

I feel like I'm in a ghost town in this thread lol anyway here are some pics from the shrimp tank.

 

I feel like I'm in a ghost town in this thread lol anyway here are some pics from the shrimp tank.

No your not lol. I'm secretly following your thread. I really enjoy the pictures. Keep 'em coming!

 

Love the thread. Just don’t know how I can help. Thanks for sharing!

 

Here are a few from my 40 gallon!

 

I did a 50% water change yesterday to get rid of a lot of tannen, then I added my recharged Purigen back to the filter. Huge difference overnight.

 

I got a banana plant for the shrimp tank today. Interested to see how the thing grows in here. Plants that grow well in this tank grow better than any of my other tanks. I think the lighting is super intense compared to the others.

I'm in the middle of a 15% water change in the pic. I use a siphon with airline tubing to slowly add water back so thereis little chance of disturbing the shrimp with a quick fluctuation of anything.

I ordered another diy citric acid co2 kit to use for the 40 gallon tank, and around Christmas I want to switch to pressurized on that tank, and then the diy will be moved to the shrimp tank.

Oh and while I was at the LFS today I grabbed 3 horned nerite snails for the 40 gallon but apparently 2 were sucking face because I got home and saw that he gave me 4, and 2 were stuck together. It's amazing how white that rock looks after they sucked on it a bit lol

 

I sucked it up and got 3 new pieces of driftwood at a new fish store we found.

One went in the 20 gallon in the livingroom, and I pulled out the 2 pieces that were in there and put them into the 40 gallon in the bedroom along with the larger piece in the pic. I'll share pics after the water has settled and the lights kick on. The little piece is for the 5 gallon betta tank, but it was a floater so it's currently boiling over a bonfire outside.

 

Here's the 40 gallon tank now!

First here's the previous layout from 8/27 (most recent pic I had)



And here it is now!

 

And here's the rescape of the 20 long!

 

This was a great read! If you want to save fry then I’d reccomend using a clear cup to catch them and then drip acculmate them for the shrimp tank. My mom loves using this method for her platty fry and she’s caught over 100 at this point using that method. Plus I don’t think she’s lost any fry with this method. (Yes, that means we’re raising and giving away fry like no tomorrow).

 

Thank you Giul so do you mean you drip acclimate and they set them loose in the shrimp tank to grow up? I think my ghosties would tear them apart lol. I considered that and decided not to for that reason.

Right now I transferred them to that clear breeding basket you see at the top right of the pic. They're floating until they've grown enough to be set free. I think after this I may see how the next 3 batches go with all the extra cover I've added. I think they may be able to survive to adulthood on their own now, but only time will tell!

 

Thank you Giul so do you mean you drip acclimate and they set them loose in the shrimp tank to grow up? I think my ghosties would tear them apart lol. I considered that and decided not to for that reason.

Right now I transferred them to that clear breeding basket you see at the top right of the pic. They're floating until they've grown enough to be set free. I think after this I may see how the next 3 batches go with all the extra cover I've added. I think they may be able to survive to adulthood on their own now, but only time will tell!

My ghost shrimp never seemed to care about other fish in their tank but hopefully someone who has had more experience with ghost shrimp can let you know if they’re okay with fry. We like to keep the fry in a separate because the kids love to see all the different sized fry we have (plus my mom counts them every day to make sure we haven’t lost any). If someone else gives you the green light to add them then I’d drip acculmate and enjoy

 

Just a little shrimp tank update! I started with 2 pregnant shrimp, and now I have at least 3, so there's definitely some reproduction starting! I'm still not super thrilled with the amount of coverage I have for babies to hide in, so hopefully at least some can survive here and there until I figure something out. I was thinking I could 3d print some sort of little shelter that maybe the adults can't even fit inside of but who knows.

Tomorrow I am going to record them when I feed sinking shrimp pellets because it's hysterical watching them fight over them. I drop 2-3 in and they swarm, then a couple shrimp grab one each and swim off with them, raining bits of food around the entire tank as they do. It's hilarious watching them swim with a pellet, and try to eat while floating.

I'd like to find some sort of DIY food that they'll eat that they can't just run away with, and that won't break apart in the tank. I've tried feeding zucchinI and cucumber but they ignore it.

 

So currently for my shrimp tank, this is about how I do things:

once a week I change out 2 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. That's probably more than 20% since I have substrate and things. I use cold water from my well, but that has been run through a salt-based softener. Certainly not the best water for fish, but it's the best I have. 17kh and 3gh

So I was thinking what I might start doing is mixing 1 gallon of that with 1 gallon of distilled water the night before, then dripping it in slowly like I've been doing. That would slowly convert the tank to 50% of the trash in my water. My worry is that my gH is going to be cut in half as well, and it's already pretty low. Might need to buffer the gH a bit but not real sure how.

 

Ok this is really dumb, but I was thinking I'd toss this media bag over my intake on the 40 gallon tank, then when I do water changes I just use a turkey baster to kick up the sand a bit before pulling out the water, and any leftover should get sucked into the bag right? Then I was thinking I come back in a couple hours and put a ziploc bag or something over the bag, pinch it tight, then pull it out and rinse it in a bucket of the tank water.

There's gotta be a much better thing to put on this right lol

maybe a sponge?

 

Forgot the pic lol sorry

 

I moved the 3 molly fry out of the breeder box and into the 20 gallon with the harlequin rasboras. They chased a bit for a minute but I think they've already forgotten about them. There's a good amount of current in that tank, but I'm hoping they can survive until they get big enough to go back to the 40 gallon.

 

I made a final decision with my wife last night that we want to go all in with the shrimp, so I order some saltyshrimp gh/kh+ and am going to use purified water and water change in 20% weekly until the tank is suitable for cherries, then get some RCS and possibly other neos. If I'm gonna have cool shrimp, I want the water parameters to be perfect and just quit screwing around with my garbage tap water.

 

So I'm doing the first slow water change of around 15-20%, and I'm just using 0-10 tds water to do it. This should bring the TDS down to around 800 I'd guess, but we'll see when it's done. I'll probably do another one of these changes this weekend then when I get my additive I'll do more using that.

I mentioned it in another thread, but I got my TDS meter today, checked, and all my tanks are over 1000. My softened tap water is around 1000, and my unsoftened water is around 750. Not surprising at all.

 

I hope you don’t mind that I find it sort of adorable and hilarious that you and your wife apparently had a Very Serious Shrimp Discussion. Shrimp are, of course, worthy of serious discussion. My husband says my opae’ula (volcano shrimp) are too little to hold his interest; maybe I need to get a vampire shrimp or two.

 

Not at all, it's pretty funny now that you mention it. She likes the shrimp, actually I think the shrimp sorta got her interested in the rest of my fish stuff a bit lol

 

We’re now a few days later and all 3 babies are alive and well in the 20 gallon tank with the rasboras! They’re getting kinda fat though hopefully they don’t eat till they explode lol. They spend a lot of time picking at the driftwood.

 

Salty shrimp + is now coming today instead of mid-week next week, so I went ahead and got my 5 gallon jug filled today. I'll mix up 5 gal at a time and then do a 2.5 gallon change twice a week or so until my overall TDS is down enough for RCS.

So after yesterday's change, my TDS is around 980 if I remember right. I'm going to be boosting the new water to around 4kh and 8gh I'd guess, which will put the TDS around 200 I'd wager. I'll know for sure later today once I actually start dosing the bottle.

Anyway I think there are around 9 gallons in the tank, so a 2.5 gallon change is a 27.5% change. If I'm doing my math right, the first water change should bring my TDS down from 980 to 760. I'm probably not though lol

 

Ok I think I did the math right, but decided to simplify it and just call the 10 gallon tank 10 gallons of water. So I made a spreadsheet that shows if I do 2.5 gallon water changes and 5 gallon water changes, and how fast the TDS will get to acceptable levels for optimal red cherry shrimp reproduction.

 

I'm sorry I guess I'm pretty indecisive lol

I ended up doing a 2.5 gallon water change, but used the pure water with no additive to bring the overall TDS down faster. It's currently at 680 now.

I'll wait 2-3 days and do it again, which I estimate will bring it to 510. I'll be interested to see what it ends up to check my math

Oh and I just willingly added 2 full grown ramshorn snails to my 40 gallon. I know a lot of people consider them pests, but I just think they're super cool and I wouldn't mind having a bunch in the tank if my filtration can keep up.

 

Geez the growth on this bulb I put in the shrimp tank has been unbelievably fast. There are seriously like 2 new leaves every single day lol

Here's a pic from 8/30



And here's one from just now

 

Geez the growth on this bulb I put in the shrimp tank has been unbelievably fast. There are seriously like 2 new leaves every single day lol

Here's a pic from 8/30
View attachment 476416

And here's one from just now
View attachment 476415

That plant loves your tank! What is it? I know I’ve seen it before but I’m blanking

 

Giul it's a dwarf red water lilly. I got 3 bulbs off Ebay and put them in 3 different tanks under 3 different lights.

This one is the Nicrew light, the 40 is the beamswork, and the 20 is the T5-HO.

Now I don't know that the light has anything to do with it, I just think that this particular bulb was healthier than the others but who knows. This light is certainly closest to the bulb because of the tank size.

 

Some sad news, I saw one of the babies at the bottom between 2 rocks and he wasn't moving. I pulled him out and checked under my microscope and it appears his chest burst. I wonder if it's possible that he ate too much and his stomach burst? The babies have been pretty fat lately since switching to the big tank. They constantly peck at the driftwood, and his stomach which appeared to be what burst was full of brown stuff like wood.

 

I’m sorry about the dead youngster. I wouldn’t think they they would eat until the stomach burst - is it possible someone picked at him after he was dead?
That’s impressive growth on the lily. Are you planning to let it flower, if it tries to? I think some people cut off the buds and just have the leaves.

 

Thank you. I see these 3 eating off that new driftwood every single time I look at them. There's like a super thin layer of algae or fuzz on it that I think they're eating. All 3 were nice n plump, I assumed they were overeating but didn't know how to stop them. I've been keeping an eye on them constantly and haven't see the rasboras even looking at the babies. They swim right past them and pay no attention. It's possible though.

As for the lily, I think it might be cool if it flowers. I'm not gonna message with whatever happens I think!

 

I wanna selectively breed snails for color, but instead of buying a bunch of 5 gallon tanks and lining them up, I'm building one from plywood and will use a piece of plexiglass on the front.

I have the wood cut now. Inside dimensions will be 48l x 8w x 12h which should be 20 gallons. I am going to divide it to make either 4 or 5 separate tanks all filtered and heated with a single filter and heater.

Also I should note that I have no idea what I'm doing and will probably end up with 20 gallons of water on my basement floor