Hi,
a more substantial update.
This tank had been getting a little scrappy of late. The substrate had been moved about by the shrimps actions and the sand bed lost.
After purchasing a few more plants, i decided last night to give the tank an overdue spring clean and mini makeover
This meant i ended up changing around 70% of the water in total
and syphoning a lot of aquasoil from the front and replacing at the rear.....not ideal to do all at once in a shrimp tank 
.....but once i had started, i had to finish.
I had only prepped 25l of water the night before, so needed to make some fresh on the night to top off....i was a little worried about this, but added dechlorinator and ensured the temperature and TDS were spot on to reduce the risks. I also added the mosura BT9 bacterial supplement after the filter clean.....all seems well
After syphoning as much aquasoil from the sand bed as i dared....ive been putting doing this off for ages.....shrimp are inquisitive little creatures and i didnt fancy accidentally sucking them out into a bucket of dirty water, so did the best i could.....they have already began moving it back 🙄
I didnt want to waste the soil, there wasnt a huge amount of it from the outset and it helps keep the water perameters right for the shrimp, so i added it back to the rear of the tank from where it came. As careful as i tried to be this was the result:
mmm.....anyway, it was done, so then i planted up the echinodorus reni id bought last week, you can just see a leaf or two emerging from behind the anubias in the second picture below. Some microsorum petite was trimmed to allow less shading to this area. Hopefully it will grow to somewhere between its 15-40cm potential and fill that void. I then planted the eleocharis sp. mini i bought from nayr88....cheers mate there was loads
......and the shrimp really liked it too, they swarmed and have kindly already uprooted some 
:
this is what i was left with last night after topping up and turning the filters back on:
.....and then a couple from tonight, much clearer but not completely:
I think it is an improvement, and looks a little more like an aquascape again.
Ill be adding some elecharis acicularis from the other tank to add some height at the rear behind the microsorum which is slowly taking over. There was some hydrocotle sp. japan in the right rear, but that has lost most of its leaves. Hopefully the new plants will succeed.
Its odd, some of the lobelia cardinalis cuttings i put in from the studio tank are thriving, whilst others , much like the hydrocotle, dropped all their leaves immediately, but are now coming back 😕
I do have one problem.
Every water change and filter clean im having to spend ages removing shrimp from the filter floss (no easy task), and there are quite a few now residing permanently in the filter chamber. I need to devise a mesh to cover the upper filter inlet grids to prevent them getting in there, you can see the smaller shrimp that have already made it through and the larger shrimp trying unsuccessfully to get to what must be a feast within the floss
(the mini hairgrass is there temporarily, excess which may be needed to fill gaps). The floss is already filthy after its clean yesterday from the aquasoil bomb!:
One thing i have noticed is that since starting to feed with the Genchem foods, the colours are definitely improving 😀
Cheerio,
Ady.
a more substantial update.
This tank had been getting a little scrappy of late. The substrate had been moved about by the shrimps actions and the sand bed lost.
After purchasing a few more plants, i decided last night to give the tank an overdue spring clean and mini makeover
This meant i ended up changing around 70% of the water in total
and syphoning a lot of aquasoil from the front and replacing at the rear.....not ideal to do all at once in a shrimp tank .....but once i had started, i had to finish.I had only prepped 25l of water the night before, so needed to make some fresh on the night to top off....i was a little worried about this, but added dechlorinator and ensured the temperature and TDS were spot on to reduce the risks. I also added the mosura BT9 bacterial supplement after the filter clean.....all seems well
After syphoning as much aquasoil from the sand bed as i dared....ive been putting doing this off for ages.....shrimp are inquisitive little creatures and i didnt fancy accidentally sucking them out into a bucket of dirty water, so did the best i could.....they have already began moving it back 🙄
I didnt want to waste the soil, there wasnt a huge amount of it from the outset and it helps keep the water perameters right for the shrimp, so i added it back to the rear of the tank from where it came. As careful as i tried to be this was the result:
mmm.....anyway, it was done, so then i planted up the echinodorus reni id bought last week, you can just see a leaf or two emerging from behind the anubias in the second picture below. Some microsorum petite was trimmed to allow less shading to this area. Hopefully it will grow to somewhere between its 15-40cm potential and fill that void. I then planted the eleocharis sp. mini i bought from nayr88....cheers mate there was loads
......and the shrimp really liked it too, they swarmed and have kindly already uprooted some : this is what i was left with last night after topping up and turning the filters back on:
.....and then a couple from tonight, much clearer but not completely: I think it is an improvement, and looks a little more like an aquascape again.
Ill be adding some elecharis acicularis from the other tank to add some height at the rear behind the microsorum which is slowly taking over. There was some hydrocotle sp. japan in the right rear, but that has lost most of its leaves. Hopefully the new plants will succeed.
Its odd, some of the lobelia cardinalis cuttings i put in from the studio tank are thriving, whilst others , much like the hydrocotle, dropped all their leaves immediately, but are now coming back 😕
I do have one problem.
Every water change and filter clean im having to spend ages removing shrimp from the filter floss (no easy task), and there are quite a few now residing permanently in the filter chamber. I need to devise a mesh to cover the upper filter inlet grids to prevent them getting in there, you can see the smaller shrimp that have already made it through and the larger shrimp trying unsuccessfully to get to what must be a feast within the floss
(the mini hairgrass is there temporarily, excess which may be needed to fill gaps). The floss is already filthy after its clean yesterday from the aquasoil bomb!: One thing i have noticed is that since starting to feed with the Genchem foods, the colours are definitely improving 😀
Cheerio,
Ady.
If not ill get a replacement sponge and cut it to fit...theres a handy spare parts sticker on the side of the tank so should be easy to get hold of.
Hoping to do something similar in my 35x35x40 cube. My goal is also 'low maintenance'.
