# Crystal Beach Guesthouse



## brancaman (15 Apr 2013)

Hello, as promissed today i start  my journal  of a dedicated aquarium for keeping crs.

Crystal Beach Guesthouse
Made in February, 2013
52x26x28 - 35 Lts 
Filter Eheim 2213
Heater - Jaeger 50W
Lighting - 2X15W T8 6500K
CO2 and fertilizer - not


Hardscape:
3 L Ada Aquasoil New Amazonia, silica sand and black gravel.
shale rock , wood, indian almond and oak leaves,
alder cones and half coconuts.

Flora:
Monosolenium tenerum
Microsorum pteropus
Fissidens fontanus
Marsilea hirsuta
Echinodorus tenellus, 
Hydrocotyle tripartita,
Staurogyne repens
Echinodorus vesuvius
Limnobium Laevigatum


Fauna :
Crystal Red Shrimps 
Melanoides tuberculata 






Weekly water change of 5L

Ph 6.2º
Gh 2º
kh 2ª

And now some photos


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## gmartins (17 Apr 2013)

Lovely!!!

Nice to see you around here Brancaman 

GM


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## Steve Smith (17 Apr 2013)

That looks lovely   Any more front photos?


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## brancaman (17 Apr 2013)

SteveUK said:


> That looks lovely  Any more front photos?


Hi Steve, thanks and yes i have 2 more photos one month old that i share now:

Front view:




and from above:


 

As i said before they are one month old, actually the sand is less visible courtesy of my beloved shrimp and snails   , tenellus and tripartida are fighting for more room and vesuvius and marsilea are not growing, probably they will not survive


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## brancaman (23 Apr 2013)

Hi everyone, today i share my latest photos from my shrimps, hope you like it.


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## brancaman (26 Apr 2013)

Hi guys, today i measure the water and got ph 6.2,  1º kh  and worst of all only 2º gh . I allready put a little of equo gh+ but still no changes. Is that because i put less than recomended or  it takes longer to show results? Anyway shrimps are less visible last two days, i wonder why.


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## Nuno M. (26 Apr 2013)

Hi there António

Good to see you around here ...

Cheers, Nuno Matos


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## brancaman (26 Apr 2013)

Olá Nuno, improving my english and learning more from so many talented and experienced people around here.


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## brancaman (30 Apr 2013)

Hi everyone, great newws from here, today i found several crs babies  just hope they survive


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## jbirley (1 May 2013)

Awesome news, great photo as well. I'm sure they will do fine.


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## brancaman (1 May 2013)

Thanks jbirley

More shots of the adults and the best at the end


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## brancaman (5 May 2013)

Hello, everything is going fine around here, i  counted at least 9 babies crs, don't know how many does a normal posture means, anyway some more photos for you


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## Ady34 (5 May 2013)

Looking really good Brancaman 
I'd say 9 shrimplets was a pretty good start, and you have more berried ahrimp so numbers should increase quickly 
Really good photos and nice snails too.
Keep up the good work.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## jon32 (5 May 2013)

Great photo's Brancaman! Loving the shot of the shrimplets on the fissedens


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## brancaman (12 May 2013)

Last night i counted at least 40 shrimplets  and more still to come.


How many do you see on this?











And one last shot panoramic view, needs to be trimmed but with so many shrimplets it's not the time


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## brancaman (30 May 2013)

Hi everyone, been a while without sharing what's happening here but at least what i have to show you are good news, whatch the photos


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## brancaman (11 Jun 2013)

Playing with movies, hope you enjoy


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## brancaman (21 Jun 2013)

Today was courgette's special


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## brancaman (29 Jun 2013)

Hi everyone, forgot to updated this 

So let's see what i got: 24 hours later the courgette/zucchini was like this :









And last shot made few days ago:





Now i strugle with high temperatures as here in Portugal we suffer from 35ºC/95F and above last week and still more to come,  so water remains between 25/26ºC all day long
IPMA - Previsão para 10 dias


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## brancaman (12 Jul 2013)

Who said shrimp tanks are boredom?


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## aliclarke86 (13 Jul 2013)

Boo not available on mobile 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## brancaman (13 Jul 2013)

Works fine on my android mobile! Does anyone else had the same problem?


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## aliclarke86 (13 Jul 2013)

Really? It said this user has made this content unavailable on mobile??

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## sa80mark (13 Jul 2013)

Works fine on my android to

The tank looks great a proper shrimp palace


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## brancaman (13 Jul 2013)

aliclarrk86 - Yes, i did watched the movie but inside this topic, if you click to watch on youtube site it doesn't work because of copyright of the music i added. 
Perhaps you can try this:

Later let me know if it works 


sa80mark - thanks for your feedback and for your kind words, truly appreciate.


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## brancaman (1 Aug 2013)

Another home video, hope not too bad for your eyes


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## Ady34 (1 Aug 2013)

Plants and shrimp all looking very nice


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## nduli (1 Aug 2013)

+1 very active shrimp. Assume that was post a water change?


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## brancaman (1 Aug 2013)

nduli said:


> +1 very active shrimp. Assume that was post a water change?


Not really, i don´t do wc very often, in this hot summer days i refill lost water and that´s all.


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## nduli (2 Aug 2013)

brancaman said:


> Not really, i don´t do wc very often, in this hot summer days i refill lost water and that´s all.


 
wow, very active then, mine are nowhere near as active as that and only get like that when the pump is off and they are on a W/C. do you have high flow in the tank?


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## brancaman (2 Aug 2013)

nduli said:


> wow, very active then, mine are nowhere near as active as that and only get like that when the pump is off and they are on a W/C. do you have high flow in the tank?


 
I have a eheim 2213 and the tank is less than 30L, so i is high flow for sure  as you can see when they are in front of the outflow.


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## brancaman (16 Oct 2013)

Hi everyone, been a while not updating, have a few shots to show you hope you enjoy.


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## brancaman (16 Oct 2013)

guess nobody liked


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## Andy D (16 Oct 2013)

There you go!


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## aliclarke86 (16 Oct 2013)

Booming population you have there mate!! 

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## brancaman (16 Oct 2013)

Started with 6 nine months ago , sold 24 and still can´t see how many still inside


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## aliclarke86 (16 Oct 2013)

Awesome. I'm just about to set up a crs tank. I've been keeping them a while in a community tank but don't get the breeding I'm after and they hide alit with fish.  I'm pretty excited to get it going 

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## Pedro Sousa (2 Nov 2013)

Hi Brancaman,

The shrimp are very beautiful. I'm even thinking of putting some on my aquarium. 
The photos are stunning. 

Cheers,
Pedro  S.


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## steveno (2 Nov 2013)

Hello Brancarman,

Awesome tank you got there, I have just started my own shrimp tank, and if it is half as successful as yours has been i will be a happy man...


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## tim (3 Nov 2013)

Lovely little critters mate, very nice photography too.


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## brancaman (7 Dec 2013)

Hi there, been a while without updating this journal, not because something as gone wrong or bad things happened, just because been littlle busy starting 2 new aquariums , maybe later i show you guys some photos of those 

Meanwhile here are some shots of what this nano shrimps really means to me - it´s my pleasure to show you, hope you enjoy.


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## tim (7 Dec 2013)

Lovely shrimp, lovely pics too


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## Daniel (10 Dec 2013)

Great pics, are you using a macro lens for these?


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## brancaman (11 Dec 2013)

Thanks Tim and Daniel 



Daniel said:


> are you using a macro lens for these?


Just the kit lenses that comes with the body, in this case it's the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS working at Canon EOS 550D.
I shoot raw and  edit in lightroom.


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## Daniel (11 Dec 2013)

Nice. I've got a Sony DT 18-55mm f3.5 - 5.6 Lens so perhaps I'll give it a try with that. Thanks


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## brancaman (10 Feb 2014)

Hi everybody, just a small  image update to this journal, everything going well, hope you like it


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## MARKCOUSINS (10 Feb 2014)

Looks like a thriving shrimp set up!Very healthy


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## pariahrob (11 Feb 2014)

This thread has decided it for me. My new tank will definitely be home to some crystal red shrimp!


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## brancaman (24 Feb 2014)

Another photo update for you, hope you enjoy.


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## brancaman (23 Mar 2014)

I've been playing today with my oldie Pentax-A 50mm 1.4 in my Canon 550D to try some cheap macros. For those unaware, is basically reverse the position of the lens to the body, there are rings that allow attach the lenses to the body, in this case as there was no ring i simply held by hand. For photos this way it should work in manual exposure mode, open / close the lens iris and focus manually by approaching / removing the machine from the subject. Questions: smile:?


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## faizal (23 Mar 2014)

The plants are looking so healthy and so do the shrimps. Wonderful photography.


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