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George's "Crystal Palace" - now with HD video

George Farmer

George Farmer

Founder
Joined
21 Jun 2007
Messages
6,741
Hi all,

This is my latest project. Please excuse the poor photo quality taken with my phone.

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Crystal Red Shrimp non-CO2 aquascape by George Farmer, on Flickr

It's going to be dedicated to crystal red shrimp (CRS) and I hope to get them breeding. The tank is in my office at work.

The tank and cabinet aren't in the best condition after years of constant scaping but still perfectly useable.

Here is the spec so far -

Tank - German optiwhite 60x30x36cm and cabinet from Aqua Essentials circa 2007
Lighting - Fluval AquaLife LED (25w, 312 low power LEDs (white, yellow, red, blue))
Filter - Fluval G6 with sponge fitted to inlet to prevent sucking in shrimp
Substrate - Environment Aquarium Soil from Hobby Shrimp
Hardscape - Manzanita wood, Yamaya stone (not in photo)

The temperature is a steady 20C with no heater.

I have the spray bar pointing to agitate the surface to improve oxygen levels. No CO2 injection.

I have a few cuttings from friends to plant; Anubias nana, C. wendtii green, Hydrocotyle tipartia and a couple of experimental plants. Lots of moss covering the wood and stones too, hopefully.

I will be using RO water remineralised with Salty Shrimp GH+ booster to give conductivity of about 200 microsiemens. This gives me KH 0 and about GH 6. The soil should buffer the pH at about 6.

I should be adding the plants and moss stones over the next couple of days, and shrimp next week hopefully.
 
So your running this as well as your other scape. You have a very understanding wife. 🙂

Will the moss growth be much different without the CO2 injection?

I always look forward to your scapes George.
 
Nice wood George, best of luck with your CRS.
Can you post a close-up with the soil? Please don't use the iPhone 😀

Cheers,
Mike
 
A very nice bit of hard scape mate - I will be looking forward to seeing more as this develops :thumbup: and what a lovely addition to an office space.... I wish there was more room in my office to do a 2nd project.
 
Cool,
Shrimp tanks are great 🙂 will mean however that you get no work done now 😉
Have you any par readings for the low power fluval led light?
Wow, a G6, a super posh low tech 😉 however you must not have turned it on yet, everything is still in place and the water not brown lol....guessing your running it at reduced turnover? Will add to your water volume though so helping keep things nice and stable for the shrimp, I'm sure you'll have great success and have them breeding in no time 🙂

Looking forward to this set up George, so used to seeing your high tech scapes so will be a refreshing journal....I'm sure it will be a very nice aquascape too.
Cheerio
Ady
 
cookie3985 said:
So your running this as well as your other scape. You have a very understanding wife. 🙂

Will the moss growth be much different without the CO2 injection?

I always look forward to your scapes George.
Click to expand...
Thanks. 🙂

This tank is in my work office so the missus can't really complain. 🙂

I expect all plant growth to be much slower without CO2. I'm looking forward to seeing this one develop nice and slowly.

Ian Holdich said:
This would look great as a 100% moss scape!

What grade shrimp are you getting George?
Click to expand...
Thanks mate. I'm getting some PRL (pure red line) shrimp from Hobby Shrimp. They should be coming next Friday. 🙂

Ady34 said:
Cool,
Shrimp tanks are great 🙂 will mean however that you get no work done now 😉
Have you any par readings for the low power fluval led light?
Wow, a G6, a super posh low tech 😉 however you must not have turned it on yet, everything is still in place and the water not brown lol....guessing your running it at reduced turnover? Will add to your water volume though so helping keep things nice and stable for the shrimp, I'm sure you'll have great success and have them breeding in no time 🙂

Looking forward to this set up George, so used to seeing your high tech scapes so will be a refreshing journal....I'm sure it will be a very nice aquascape too.
Cheerio
Ady
Click to expand...
Thanks mate. 🙂

I love your shrimp tank. The filter on this is about 50% flow.

No PAR readings for the light. It's quite bright though - to the eye at least. Brighter than a 150w MH suspended 50cm above a 90x45x45 anyway. 🙂

Anyway, it's all planted now and ready for the shrimp that are coming soon. 🙂

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insitu1 by George Farmer, on Flickr

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fts1 by George Farmer, on Flickr
 
George, I noticed on the first photo with the filter that you have not done the G6's pipe clamps up... Also on the last pic too, do you not tighten yours up?
 
Gary Nelson said:
George, I noticed on the first photo with the filter that you have not done the G6's pipe clamps up... Also on the last pic too, do you not tighten yours up?
Click to expand...
Hi Gary, no I haven't tightened the clamps up. No excuse really, just lazy. They're a tight fit so no leaks....

Sorry for the lack of updates. Here's a few iPhone snaps of the shrimp, added last week. There are 6 in total and Hobby Shrimp are sending me more soon. They're really active and I've noticed a few shedded skins which is a good sign. I'm not changing any water for another week to let them continue settling nicely.

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CRS by George Farmer, on Flickr

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CRS by George Farmer, on Flickr

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CRS by George Farmer, on Flickr
 
Hi all,

Apologies for the distinct lack of updates. I tend not to take my camera to the office where this tank is situated.

I had a HUGE algae nightmare. Even though it's no issue for the shrimp; I literally couldn't stand the sight of it. All the plants were covered in blanket weed, even the glass had blanket weed growing on it.

The Fluval LED unit is clearly too much light without any CO2 or additional nutrients.

So I temporarily re-housed the shrimp and stripped out all of the planting, except the moss-covered wood. The tank now has no lighting at all, just a fair bit of ambient light from the office windows. The moss is growing nicely and there's only background levels of algae. 🙂

I have 12 shrimp in here now, all courtesy of Hobby Shrimp. Some are carrying eggs but still no sign of babies just yet...

I took my camera into work last week and managed to get a few half-decent shots of the little critters. I'll try to get a full-tank shot this week.

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CRS7 by George Farmer, on Flickr

8687764825_c69b45a8ed_o.jpg
CRS4 by George Farmer, on Flickr

8687766989_a9c99528ac_o.jpg
CRS3 by George Farmer, on Flickr

8688883990_24ab71b1b4_o.jpg
CRS2 by George Farmer, on Flickr

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CRS1 by George Farmer, on Flickr

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CRS6 by George Farmer, on Flickr

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CRS5 by George Farmer, on Flickr

I have to confess to being quite ignorant about grading and the likes, so if anyone would like to share their knowledge, they're more than welcome... 🙂
 
Lovely photos George.
I'm not hot on shrimp grading either, but they look pretty good to me, solid coloration and some nice colour in the legs too.....I'm sure that counts for something 🙂
Shame about the algae issues, it clearly hasn't effected the shrimp though like you say. What sort of photoperiod were you running?
Usually takes around 4weeks from becoming berried to hatching.
Cheerio,
Ady
 
Thanks guys. 🙂

Ady - apparently these shrimp are offspring from really high grade shrimp so their babies should be good. I really need to do some reading up on such matters. 4 weeks sounds about right from what I've heard. The photoperiod was 7hrs. I'm quite happy with just ambient light. I dare say the shrimp prefer it to high light too.
 
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