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A fairly shrimple nano

Aqua360

Member
Joined
15 Feb 2016
Messages
2,176
Location
UK
Following a recent visit to Horizon Aquatics, I spotted a really nice shrimp scape set up in their nano room, a dennerle 20l; so I was inspired to get one.

Started up at the beginning of December, I wanted to have height in this tank, as it's something I always struggled to achieve before in nano cubes. I decided to use lava rock for the first time, and I wish I'd done it sooner.

For anyone that hasn't tried it, it's one of the best hardscape materials I have used, for the following reasons:

  • looks fantastic, with textured detail
  • incredibly light, no fear of breaking the tank if you displace it generally speaking.
  • rough texture makes it super easy to stack, it really grips well without glue etc
  • porous properties are superb for bacterial colonisation.
  • ideal for epiphyte plants to grip onto, again oweing to the rough texture.

Aside from my new found love of lava rock, I used tropica soil as the substrate.

Other equipment includes:

  • Flexi Mini Led
  • Dennerle Corner Filter with baby shrimp guard
  • DIY co2 generator (AliExpress) at 1 bubble every 8/9 seconds.
  • aquario Neo (tiny) curved co2 diffuser.

Livestock:

- Cherry shrimp (various grades)

Plants:

  • Monte Carlo
  • staurogyne repens
  • pogostemon helferi
  • blyxa japonica
  • myriophyllum
  • salvinia natans

It's been a trial and error approach so far, with a few emptied times in between, or plants chopped and changed. Definitely in the last week or so, it feels that it's bedding in, but you can see from the current update image that there is still algae prevalent, which I'm tackling.

Beginning
PXL_20211203_155919769.jpg


Rough early stages
PXL_20211228_182251022.jpg


Current state
PXL_20220128_171646631~2.jpg
 
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This looks great, and is crying out for some Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimp. Who Love algae covered rocks.
And there are 3 colours now, Red, Blue and Purple

Would be a good shout if my water was harder, or if I was inclined to add shrimp salt!

I didn't know there were new colours, I take it that's through selective breeding from the original red colouring?
 
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Not much has changed, but definitely moved forward, the algae has receded to where it looks good on the rocks, none on the plants, some residual on the glass sides.

Not hugely fast growth, especially at the carpet, but it's maybe down to the placement of the flexi mini led further back. The shrimp appear happy and healthy, which is the main thing.

One observation I'll make is, I'm very surprised by how well pogostemon helferi has taken to being glued like an epiphyte, worth trying if you haven't yet.
PXL_20220207_185911284.jpg
 
Plugging along, hoping you guys can help me identify (and eradicate) some unsightly algae on one of my rocks, current pic of tank below, with closeup of the rock!

Light period is 7hrs, co2 bubbled in at approx 1 bubble per 7 seconds.

All plants look to be coming along, with exception of my staurogyne which I'll need to pull soon.

Main problem is that weird algae growth though, so would welcome suggestions!

Possibly low flow in that area being the cause?

PXL_20220326_170659177.jpg

PXL_20220326_170513758.jpg
 
strange colour

If your pictures are true to life the color is pretty spot on for staghorn, that sort of warmish grey tone. If it was much browner one could think filamentous diatoms, but your setup is not that new and I think filamentous diatoms are a bit more fine in structure.

Look for the trademark branching of staghorn algae. It will be easier for you to see in real life than for us, but I think I see some.
PXL_20220326_170513758.jpg


It really is impressively lush, could be in a Wella commercial
 
Wipe it down with h202 and or excel. I get something similar occasionally and it’s usually because of a “healthy” layer of organics on the surface.
 
Checking in at around the 6 month mark, took this after a large trim, forgot to get a before pic 🙈

I debated switching over to an external recently for more flow, but the dennerle internal is doing the job well enough, so I'm not gonna start messing with things!

Happy enough with things, but I'm considering gluing Monte Carlo to the remaining visible lava rock, to create a wall of green.

Might ruin the aesthetics right enough?

PXL_20220426_195633163.jpg
 
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