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Baby steps - (Caridina shrimp tanks)

Kalum

Kalum

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2018
Messages
1,090
Location
Scotland
Thought it was a fitting journal title since this is me getting back into setting up a couple of small tanks since moving home and more importantly welcoming our new son into the world (who is now 3 months old).

This will just be a bit of a fun Caridina (possibly taiwan bee) breeding project instead of the usual planted tanks i've had in the past, so it will be more purposeful than aquascaped (but of course, i'll have to dabble a little bit...). But this means no stone, no co2 and low nitrates....

Plan is:
Tanks: ADA 60p & ADA 45p
Lighting: Chihiros (TBD)
Filtration: Hygger sponge filters via Eheim Air 400
Heaters: 50w and 100w heaters I've had lying around
Cabinet: Ikea Kallax
Substrate: ADA Amazonia (Gold writing, not v2 version)
Hardscape: Manzanita only
Water parameters: Aiming for the standard Caridina spec of low 6's pH with a TDS of around 130-140 (GH 5-6, KH 0-1)
Plants: unsure at present, will see where the hardscape takes me but more than likely epiphyte based with maybe a single fast growing stem more for balance rather than looks and a few basic low level plants with leaf litter

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Some great looking wood in there
 
castle said:
Some great looking wood in there
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A few years worth of accumulation which I definitely won't be letting the Mrs know how much I've spent on "just branches and twigs" as she puts it

The problem will be finding small enough pieces for the 2 tanks as I can't bring myself to breaking up the larger ones...
 
Have been waiting on a few things arriving before I can kick this off so it's been slow progress

New unit set up, new foam (from eFoam) added to bottom of tanks, Amazonia pre-soaking to reduce the initial ammonia spike, 1 light ordered and one still to decide on...

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Watching… 👀 I’m hoping to have a go soon at keeping some Taiwan bee in a 45f.
I have a little colony of racoon tigers who have been a first go at Caridina, and they’ve been brilliantly non-fussy on parameters.
 
Always good to have someone in a similar boat along for the journey @aec34 :thumbup:
 
castle said:
Aquarium gardens have loyalty points?!
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Well they used to at least... These points have been sat in my account for well over a year. Get checking your account if you have one!
 
Courtneybst said:
That is a very nice selection of plants, and hella lotta loyalty points, damn. 😂
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As I was putting it together I felt it was a fairly standard list of low tech plants, and then realised its actually a list of most of my favourites (apart from rotala)

Yeh the bad thing about loyalty points is it gives you an idea of how much you've spent.... And I've redeemed A LOT of loyalty points in the past as well :lol:
 
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Manzanita sorted into sizes and dumped in the tanks

Now just to come up with 2 hardscapes...
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Also, not sure about the colour of this new bottle of tropica specialised... :what:
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Will the IKEA cabinet hold? Loving the setup but just wondering if it could carry the weight of two tanks. I also use IKEA products as my tank cabinets but due to maximum load capacity, I can only have nano tanks of dimensions no more than 60x30x30cm. And then there's hardscape to consider. Hope you've considered this in your plan.
 
azawaza said:
Will the IKEA cabinet hold? Loving the setup but just wondering if it could carry the weight of two tanks. I also use IKEA products as my tank cabinets but due to maximum load capacity, I can only have nano tanks of dimensions no more than 60x30x30cm. And then there's hardscape to consider. Hope you've considered this in your plan.
Click to expand...
Yeh should be totally fine, because of the 3 uprights it's actually pretty rigid and supports a fair amount of weight even though its not solid wood, it's also fixed to the wall which is crucial

The load capacity is stated as 13kg per shelf and 25kg on top when used in the upright orientation (not on its side) so a total of 129kg. The 2 tanks plus the minimal storage I have inside the top shelf units should be about bang on the money

I'll keep an eye on it anyway and it's a fair question, but I'm not concerned tbh
 
Finally getting round to filling
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A murky start (also found that the HOB is the perfect place to sit the PH probe)

I'm happy with the hardscape in general but unsure about the top left piece, just not sure if it fits with the rest of the scape or not but I do want a bit of height in that corner... planting may soften it hence the lonely anubias at the minute)
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Tap water PH is around 7.3 so amazonia doing great at lowering to 6.14 (kh is 0-1)
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