# 3 gallons suggestions



## Aaronious (Oct 20, 2020)

option 5. always go bigger. 

if you wanted to set it up as a little shelf tank or something try some plants that might grow past the rim of the tank. then just do shrimp and snails.

1. no filter/water movement can lead to issues with a high light added to the system. If you do a weaker light, things should be okay.
2. this is my favorite option. You can do no filter with shrimp as the plants should pick up any small amounts of waste and process them.
3. QT is always, and I mean ALWAYS a good idea.
4. Daphnia cultures I have seen in larger tanks. I don't know enough about all that though. Personally I have been liking microworms. pretty easy to keep up. Plus if you have vinegar eels, I would pass on this unless you are going to try some serious breeding, with new fry all the time.
5. You already have it. Find a use! I like #2 as mentioned, or #6 that I am kinda making up for you.

6. Betta. I have a pair of Burdigala Betta in a 2.5 with a HOB breeder box, so little over 3 gallons at that point. These species would be an online order only, they only get to 1.2 inches in size though. Very very shy. So I did a blackwater system with some mosses and things. almost no flow, shrimp and snails as well. looking good and about 3 months in at this point. So it is possible to do it and not feel like a terrible human for cramping a betta in a smaller space.


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## Katmanreef (Jul 6, 2017)

NikoLeFrench said:


> Hello everybody,
> 
> I saw a 3 gallons (10 L) tank really cheap on a shelf last week and indeed I couldn't resist. I handed over 5 euros without thinking much of it...
> I already own a 15 gallons (~ 60 L) tank heavily planted with few shrimps, snails and 10 rasbora hengeli.
> ...


I'd say go for it and try a walstad style planted tank! I think a 10 L might be too small for a quarantine tank. I think minimum size for a quarantine tank would have to be a 40 L for stability. 

Also a daphnia culture can be achievable in 10 L, but with the ebb and flow of the population, and the potential for a crash, you would want to have multiple cultures going in case of a total population crash. I used to culture daphnia outside in 5 gallon buckets to allow for natural food to develop (sunlight/green water) and harvested them daily throughout spring/summer/early fall. I changed their water out with old tank water whenever I did a water change for my indoor tanks. 

I have a 1 gallon (4 L~) filterless planted tank on my desk right now. It has top soil capped with white sand, an airline bubbling away for water flow, and a cheap 3.5 watt clip on lamp for light. It has a pair of cherry shrimp and numerous babies in it right now. The plants are bucephalandra, dwarf hair grass, rotala 'h'ra', Christmas Moss, Java fern and ludwigia 'super red' growing both submersed and emersed. It's been running for 8 months now, I don't fertilize the water at all, just relying on the soil for nutrients. I do 50% water changes with reminerlized distilled water every month or so (when I remember lol). It's super low maintenance as long as you keep the light on the low side. Here's some pictures of it!


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## LidijaPN (12 mo ago)

Aaronious said:


> option 5. always go bigger.
> 
> if you wanted to set it up as a little shelf tank or something try some plants that might grow past the rim of the tank. then just do shrimp and snails.
> 
> ...


Wow can I see your bettas? I’m very into the idea of a wild betta setup...

My Jararium is just one gallon but I find it weirdly engaging, it only has snails in it so far but it breeds all sorts of micro life and the plants grow completely differently than in the main tank.... It’s so easy to care for too.









Having plants in a small tank and letting some emerse, maybe some moss climbing up wood, sticking some shrimp and snails in there... to me personally sounds really engaging. It’s plenty of space for shrimp and could also let you do some cool plant growth experimentation. I don’t know how shrimp do with dirt but I think I’ve seen them in Walstad jars? They can definitely work with active substrates.


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## Aaronious (Oct 20, 2020)

LidijaPN said:


> Wow can I see your bettas? I’m very into the idea of a wild betta setup...


There was a wild fern in the upper left corner where you see the betta, but it did not like so much water. So I am on the hunt for another plant to live there. Until then the tank is a little bare unfortunately. They are still quite shy, again, I have had them a bit more than 2 months, I think closer to 3 months at this point. I am actually surprised I was able to get my finger up to the glass without her taking off. And then the one with the flash she also didn't move. They are definitely acclimating to this new life. I would like to set them up something larger one day. But that won't be very soon. Until then the hunt is on for more roots for them to live in. They loved it. When spooked they take off and get under some of the oak leaves I have at the bottom of the tank. Pretty cool just to see them poking out their heads from time to time. Some days I try to see them both at the same time to be sure they are alive, it can take multiple tries all day to accomplish.

PS, going more for content with these photos then trying to make them showy. Also, this little tank, the way it's set up evaporates and uses a lot of water. The HOB transfers water through small strips of an old shirt laid across the back that pulls water along the side of the HOB and then under the moss. If something happens to this then it will overflow at the actual outlet which I built up a little.


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## NikoLeFrench (8 mo ago)

So I think I know what I am going to do. I really appreciate the advices, thanks !
Here's the plan (ultimately I want to create a nano shrimp tank):

Use the 10 L tank to experiment with a bunch of different plants and also to try the walstad method.
Maybe buy another one to experiment with even more plants. Or maybe experiment as well with water bottles and/or different soils.
Once I have about 8-10 to ten species selected. Order a nano tank to specific dimensions (about 30-40 L). I found a company which does custom tank in Bucharest, it's quite cheap and it seems pretty good. (I may parallelise this step while I wait for my 10 L experiments). I think I want a kind of cube with enough height to have a cover but to have like 10 cm margin for plants to grow outside of water.
Add a sponge filter but with a real pump like a modded Aquael Pat mini. This way I will have something quiet. No heater needed for shrimps. 
Regarding the lighting I want to stick to the siesta regimen. But want a lamp that is adjustable easily, because with floating plants and extra height the fine tuning for balance may be tedious.
Not sure about the hardscape, I would like to avoid wood as apparently it consumes nitrogen in the water column (if I remember correctly what I read in walstad's book). Maybe one stone.
Maybe consider a dry start method, or a middle ground since I am lazy I may add only few cm of water to allow plants to grow outside of water.
After a week or two if water parameters are correct (just want to avoid an ammonia or nitrite spike), I may start to introduce some snails (physa acuta, MTS, I have plenty in stock)
Then wait a month or two to introduce shrimps.


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## LidijaPN (12 mo ago)

Sounds like the perfect plan!


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## Aaronious (Oct 20, 2020)

NikoLeFrench said:


> So I think I know what I am going to do. I really appreciate the advices, thanks !
> Here's the plan (ultimately I want to create a nano shrimp tank):
> 
> Use the 10 L tank to experiment with a bunch of different plants and also to try the walstad method.
> ...


In smaller tanks I have begun to void rocks as decor. They take up a lot of room. maybe some smaller ones for aesthetics but nothing for a central piece. But I like to have room for All The Plants. large wood and things take that up. The one that I just posted i did all the plants outside the tank, that was fun.

I like that your decision was to get more tanks. Easily the best choice you made.


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