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Nicks Low Tech - CRS Journal

N

Nick16

Member
Joined
13 Aug 2008
Messages
1,759
Location
Surrey, UK
hi all,

Firstly a massive thank you to all of those that have given me advice and continue to do so, I really appreciate it.

ive decided to set up a dedicated CRS tank, which will cost me a small fortune as im starting from scratch.

im new to keeping CRS but have been floating around on a few forums gathering info, would love to hear all your comments so hopefully we can have an active journal. Due to the nature of these shrimp, its going to be a 'slow burner' as I want to get the tank established and plant up first before the little critters arrive.

on with the basics....

Tank: 21x21x21 inch cube. 150 litres.

Filter: Tetratec Ex1200

Heating: Hydor ETH 300w

Lighting: 3.5w 48 LED clip on

Substrate: 15 litres EBI GOLD

Hardscape: Oak from the garden

Ferts: Tropica and easycarbo, small dosage daily or every other day

Plants: Crypts, background plant yet too be decided!

Fauna: Crystal red shrimp (likely SSS grade) unless George has any PRL's ;)

Other: RO water re-mineralised with GH+, alder cones, catappa leaves, banana leaves and maybe oak leaves too. TDS meter.


Everything above I have purchased except from the oak which was scavenged. im currently running 2 ex1200's on my 4x2x2 mbuna set up so I will swap my new filter with one of those so I have a matured filter from the off. i will be planting up and dosing higher amounts for a week or two to get the plants established before the shrimp arrive.

have tested my tap water for TDS and its about 220.

have done a bit of resealing work on the tank so im praying it holds out, only time will tell. its 50% full at the moment with no problems and soaking my oak.

a quick snap of what the postie has brought so far
20131111_151016-1.jpg
 
Im a big fan of cube tanks. I'm not sure that light is going to be penetrating the water much but I wait for someone else to put me right. You going to tell me it's some super duper thingy me Bobby now and I'll look like a wally.

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nah its nothing special, just a cheap clip on with touch buttons (theres the fancy bit)
I have a spare clip on arcadia to use, but can always get another LED. im sure two will be enough.

cheers guys :)
 
ran my RO unit for the first time today for an hour just to clear out any residue from the membranes

tap water - 220ppm
RO water (after 1 min) - 6ppm
RO water (after 60 mins) - 1ppm

a pretty decent result!

is it better to do my water changes with just remineralised RO, or should i cut it 50/50 with tap water (leaving me about 100ppm) and then remineralise slightly to aim for about 150ppm.

cheers
 
thanks to Lawrence and Tony for collecting the fish/inverts.
have swapped some fish with tony (cheers!) for some ferns (JF and narrow) which are now in the temporary tank to keep them going, along with my anubias.

20131115_104113.jpg
 
quick update:

tank is filled and some plants are in. however my NEW tetratec is usless as its just sucking air in on the intake where the intake tube meets the connector that goes over the rim of the tank. O rings are present but obviously not working properly!

hopefully a better update soon!
 
phoned tetra this morning and spoke to someone who didn't know what an inlet was.... so I sent them an email with a picture of what I wanted, but this of course means that they take days to reply...! frustratingly my tetratec air pump has just broke on my mbuna tank, however it has taken abuse over many years! things always happen at the same time!

just ordered some more light, (I can only use clip on lights due to the bracing) so I will have a 48 led and a 63 led which might just be enough light, but I don't hold out much hope.

STILL waiting for plants, have sent a strong email to the company as 7 days since getting the 'dispatched' email for 1st class post is taking the Michael...

shrimp ordering is still a long way off, cant decide between medium grade PRL's and SSS mosuras as I like more white on the shrimp, but high grade PRL's cost a lot!

tank water tested

TDS - 126 ppm
GH - 5
KH - 2

KH is a little higher than I was expecting, I did mix RO with tap (80/20 mix) so I will just use pure RO from now on I think. It is also a new tank/substrate etc. other params are spot on. Running at room temp atm (18c) as I cant use the ETH as my ex1200 isn't working.

cheers
 
Why not buy some sss mosura and a couple of prls and when they breed you should get at least some really nice mosura.

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because i will be losing some of the white from the SSS which is what makes them look so great.
if you going to breed both of them, you might as well just buy mid grade PRLs to start of with. something like george has, because the result of the breeding as you suggest will produce an outcome much the same.
 
You will get offspring with a mixture of markings and colour quality. You keep the ones you like.
 
i thought about that mate too, but ive got a real anubias/java fern thicket going on, which makes it nearly impossible to catch those rogue shrimp.

tetratec is still broken as the impellor has decided to shred itself now. not happy!
 
Sorry to hear about your equipment woes, I hope things improve for you soon. Look forward to seeing this progress.
All the best from Bill. :D
 
equipment is now up and running, temperate a stable 21c, TDS about 130 ( will lower this before shrimp arive with bigger w/cs than im currently doing)
crypts have finished the melt and new growth is comming through. hairgrass is struggling as i thought it might in such a deep low tech tank, so i might replace with c.parva

have sat moss on some sponge while it grows, so i can then transfer onto some rock pieces half buried in the substrate.

cheers
 
Most people I know keep their tds higher than that. Mine was at 120-130 and my shrimp slowly died off. Now it is 160 and I have lots of shrimp :)

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