# Giving a new life to a unloved tank



## Roddy123 (12 Aug 2014)

Hi there,

My tank is an old rio 180 which at the time ( 4 years ago ) was a high tech planted tank. I slowly lost interests  in getting this tank perfect so gradually pulled some of the more demanding plants out and ripped out the co2 to leave nature to take over. It was my first experience at aquascaping and it never looked great to my satisfaction. I honestly should have been burned to hell cause I only really fed the fish and did once a months a water change over the last 2 years. It did look horrible, covered in all kinds and I would be embarrassed to check my water parameter. I was about to pull the plug as I have redecorated my house and it looked completely out of place. So one more reason you would say to leave this hobby behind. But instead I popped over to the Green Machine  and acquire a new ADA setup 60 P. It has always been my dream to have a feature that would be tailored hand in hand with Mr Findleys team and I. So all in all I have 2 tanks now, one is turning really great and one that has no purpose of beauty or fascination. 

I would be happy to give a new life to this tank but keeping 2 new high tech tanks would be too much for me but instead I would want to go into shrimps. Easiest route would be to rip out everything in the tank and start all over again or could I keep whatever I got in there and top up proper shrimp soil. It is well settle   just need some TLC. So far I started cleaning the glass, pruning nasty leaves and cleaning filters and more regular WC, it looks already transformed.

I have in this tank only a forest of Chryptos, which would be a shame to get rid of.
Water wise I use tap water which is over 20dgh. I use RO for my other tank so moving to RO completely is not a problem, just question to use some Gh+ . The substrate is a mix jbl stuff, sand and gravel but way to shallow to my liking, roughly about an 1-1,5"  . All the fish will be rehoused so anyone lives in Cornwall help yourself. I have 5 adult torpedos, 3 adult Polka, 1 adult rubber nose, one adult Siamese and 6 adults of something I don't know the name of. 

Looking forward in reading your ideas, cheers !


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## Iain Sutherland (12 Aug 2014)

Fresh start is always a good start  
The crypts will relocate easy enough, may get some melt but they soon bounce back.
With gh 20 neocaradina shrimp is your only option or start the endless RO cycle...zzzz


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## Jaap (12 Aug 2014)

Pictures!


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## Roddy123 (12 Aug 2014)

Pics on it's way in an hour.


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## Roddy123 (12 Aug 2014)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kndlnb1yawqjdu/Photo 12-08-2014 11 39 50.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5v8o2bda8cn9kj/Photo 12-08-2014 11 40 48.jpg?dl=0

Pics as requested.[DOUBLEPOST=1407840882][/DOUBLEPOST]





Iain Sutherland said:


> Fresh start is always a good start
> The crypts will relocate easy enough, may get some melt but they soon bounce back.
> With gh 20 neocaradina shrimp is your only option or start the endless RO cycle...zzzz



I agree with you starting from scratch would be the solution. Clean the tank all way with clean substrate, wash of the stone. At least I have 2 filters ready, so no real cycling needed? RO will be for sure, given the choice of Shrimps available in the uk. It would be nice to have the flexibility and the control of choosing almost what ever I like.


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## mr. luke (12 Aug 2014)

To add to lain's sugestion macrobrachium assamensis would do extremely well in your water 
Something a bit different.
Also caridina simoni simoni would thrive without any alterations to your water and are different to what most people keep.

If you aim for a tds of 200 ish you could keep crs/cbs with neocaridinas if you where after the community feel


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## Roddy123 (12 Aug 2014)

mr. luke said:


> To add to lain's sugestion macrobrachium assamensis would do extremely well in your water
> Something a bit different.
> Also caridina simoni simoni would thrive without any alterations to your water and are different to what most people keep.
> 
> If you aim for a tds of 200 ish you could keep crs/cbs with neocaridinas if you where after the community feel




Well the tank is empty now! But still have a hell of a job to clean completely out. Got rid of the internal filter and my old ext filter is running from a barrel with the old water so I should keep my bacteria alive. I have order 20l of Ebi Gold shrimp sub and extra bit like BT-9 and some salty shrimp Gh+ . So to answer your question I could go still either way but as I am already using RO with my other tank, it is easy for me to get super clean water. My water from the tap is spring water and the quality changes all the time even with the high end filter that we use for keeping the worst out. But I will do some research and have look. Ideally it's going to be a shrimp only tank and wilth a rio 180 to crack on, I would ample room for some good collection.


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