MelbourneGlobal Posted July 14, 2013 Report Share Posted July 14, 2013 (edited) Finally set up my 2 little Shrimp tanks next to my little community tank! :cheer:/> They are not that amazing but thought I would share anyway. And love my Betta so any excuse to show him off :-) As you can see I'm still waiting on a 3rd LED light. I don't like to look at joins on tanks so they are all with curved edges. Feeding time! My Betta is the king of the jungle in there. Made him angry with a mirror. So all his little tanks mate are in hiding. As soon as he flares the Black Neon Tetras run for cover! The snails are super active and they've got this huge third tentacle that comes out. Not sure what it is. Boy parts? The new cherry tank - First day! Has lucky Bamboo in it which I hope will be ok. I'm using panty hose over the power filters to save any potential baby shrimps. (read it online somewhere). I was going to try Air pumps but only think I will do that if i have dedicated fish room or somehow go deaf in the future. My plants are growing like crazy, not sure if its the LED's or the window light. I started with small amounts of each plant and used some of the extra moss and fernlettes to fill out the main tank and plant the 2 shrimp tanks, but every week I still have to get rid of frogbit and cut the water reeds. It seems to be great for the nitrates because the community tank has been going for 3 months and it still tests at zero. I changed the water anyway just because it doesn't seem right not to. Does anyone know if I actually have to change water? If the planted tank just keeps reading zero nitrates can I just never change water??? Edited July 14, 2013 by MelbourneGlobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlamyHeavens Posted July 14, 2013 Report Share Posted July 14, 2013 Nice Tanks! The shrimp tanks are like the cool Fluval Ebi Shrimp Tanks which I really want! (And you should Definitely check out if you want another shrimp tank XD ) As for your question (Not much First Hand experience but) from the things I read on the internet it might be good to change the water bi weekly or so as the plants absorb the micro nutrients in the water (Iron, Calcium, Co2 etc)which can easily be replenished through water changes however you can replace that with liquid fertiliser which restores the nutrients plants intake for their growth, in theory if you don't the plants might show signs of certain nutrient deficencies, like holes, brown spots yellowing of old leaves and new leaves showing green veins and pale growth etc. Its like when I planted some Hygrophilia into my newly set up tank and oxygen bubbles were everywhere! But after the first day you couldn't see any oxygen bubbles being formed on the leaves as the plants used up all the Co2 in the water. My local LFS says that if you feed correctly you (like she did) then you won't have to change the water ever (apparently* I found this extremely hard to swallow @.@ ) Personally you wouldn't ned to change the water in planted tanks if you have Co2 running and nutrient supplements & fertilisers for the plants Just my 2 cents :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stew822 Posted July 14, 2013 Report Share Posted July 14, 2013 They're cool tanks I love the snails. I think that tube thing poking out of it is a breathing hole thing? I had an apple snail once, I called him Officer Todd as he would patrol around my 3ft tank like a boss. Sadly he's no longer with us, at the time I didn't realise they couldn't cope in extremely soft, acidic water. I did a bit of reading on zero nitrates and there are mixed opinions but I found no facts. An article suggested that nitrates are merely an easy-to-read indicator of when the TDS (total dissolved solids, I think) have built up enough to warrant a water change, and another said if there's no nitrates, there's no problems. Personally (my tanks all have terrestrial plants growing out of them and thus no nitrates) I change about half the water every month, as I reckon that logically fish would produce wastes other than ammonia and that eventually these would build up to toxic levels if not controlled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelbourneGlobal Posted July 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2013 (edited) My CRS tank (had a few weeks now). They swim around stuff, but seem less active than the Cherries. They are way prettier than cherries though. Think it might be a good idea to buy a couple of those black carbon tube house things for them and the cherries. CalicoRain: yeah I had seen the Fluval Ebi Shrimp one, they are very similar and very nice too. Stewart B: Yeah the worst thing is with snails if they die your not sure that they have died because they could be just hiding their shell but they are then effecting the water quality. Snails sometimes have the funniest behaviors. Mine go up the glass or lilly stems then eat for a while on the frogbit or lillies and then parachute down to the sand and start all over again. My flatmate endlessly watches it. Iron, Calcium and extra wastes etc.. I was suspecting the same thing and that eventually trace elements or something would diminish without water changes or fertilizers or fish could be making something bad that I wasn't checking for so a water change seems just prudent. So if everything stays cool I'll just do a change after a couple months anyway. I've read basically planted tanks works a little like garden aquaponics. Add nitrogen through feeding fish, plants take up nitrogen, I trim and remove plants which takes nitrogen out of system. I like to have my tanks running as simply as possible, I have lights on timers so I just feed. Also I'm getting an automatic feeder so I'll just manually feed live and frozen food etc... The community tank I also have never cleaned and it still looking good with just the Bristtlenose, glass shrimp and snails doing there thing. I was worried that the BN was not getting enough food so I gave him some supplementary feeding and he has noticeably grown in the last month. Co2: I have never added Co2 to my system I've just had a rippling current from the powerhead and it must be dissolving enough Co2 because the plants grow pretty fast. I've done this with Water reeds lillies, frogbit, java fern, anubias and about a dozen other submerged plants I used to grow in a livebearer tank. The only plant I have ever had shrink and die was dwarf baby tears. So I generally think added Co2 is completely unnecessary unless your trying to get exceptional growth or have a plant which needs really high Co2 levels. The little community tank has been going for 3 months and what I love about the tanks is that it is sooo low maintenance after set up. I come home watch the TV, during the adds I'll end up watching them and put a bit of food in. And that's it. (once a week I remove some plants). By the way if anyone wants Frogbit, java fernlettes your welcome to have some ;-) Edited July 15, 2013 by MelbourneGlobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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