# My 3 gallon JBJ picotope planted tank



## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

*Update 10/9/2011*

Here are a few photos of what the tank currently looks like. I now have 19 cherry red shrimps, and they are all looking happy and healthy. 



However, I have this algae problem that is currently taking over my tank, it is the deeper green algae and its covers everything like a film. Can someone help me? I keep the lights on 10 hours a day, and shut off CO2 at night. What else can I do?


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

*Update 10/16/2011*

some new pics. I rearranged the tank, got rid of the blue-green algae, got rid of the hornwort and moved it to another tank, but now i have a burst of hair algae. 
good news: I now have 2 berried females. and Im starting a chrismass moss wall.


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

to get rid of my hair algae, I have put the tank into total darkness and I am only opening it to top off water. today is the third day and it seems as though it is starting to work.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I may be wrong, but I thought you should increase CO2 a little bit when you have algae? (Because you wrote that you turn off the co2 at night)


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

after the 3 days darkness period. The hair algae turned gray and looks as though it died off. So I plan on just removing it my hand. During the three days, my anacharis grew 2.5 inches, and my other other plants grew as well significantly. All my shrimps seem to be doing well and the eggs in the saddled females look like they are growing. I just cant wait until my berried females give birth. :fish: 

I will try something new: keep my CO2 on 24 hrs per day.


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## Zac (Dec 16, 2010)

Goodluck with the HA problem. It's a PIA but eventually controllable.


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

I removed much of the HA. Unfortunately it required me to remove 7 leaves of the sword. I swapped one of the swords with some anarachras with my other tank and added some DHG just as an experiment to see how it grows in sand. I know that my micro-swords grow like wildfire in here. And I upped the CO2 from large Gatorade to 1 liter water/2 cup sugar. and half teaspoon yeast in a 2 liter bottle. (barely fits on my tiny shelf)

I have another berried female, and one of the females gave birth to a ton of tiny babies. They are so awesome. 

I think I'm going to stick to this layout for a while as long as nothing bad happens. 


(second picture is berried female)
(moss wall is finally starting to grow in, notice the very fine wisps poking through the mesh)


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Wow the blackout worked good, I dose a little Excel for 2 weeks then take a break for 2 weeks on a high tech tank, it just helps keep everything clean and it helps growth a little. I've gone a high as 1 ml per 3 gallons but other state they do 1 lm per gallon to rid tanks of BBA, hair, etc., then after the 2 week rest I dose the label amount but skip the recommended first day high dosing amount, it works pretty good.

I have 43 RCS in the tank but no juviniles, they love to hang in floating plants too.

The moss wall will look nice you needed some type of background, keep up the good work.


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

im just a little apprehensive about dosing such high amount of excel as I have heard that it is detrimental to my moss.


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

*Update 12/12/2011*

I finally have time to update this thing.
150EH: I have taken your advice, and I dosed 2 ml of excel/gallon for a week and I got amazing results. All the hair algae turned red, then it all died. It was amazing. 

As you can see I also changed a lot of plants around in the tank. The amazon swords were moved to another tank, (they are now flourishing). and I added some new plants: peacock ferns, dwarf hair grass, argentine swords, gold ribbon and kyoto. I wrote down the latin names to these as well. I also have some duckweek floating around, that the snails seem to ride on the undersides of like a magic carpet. 

Along the way, some of my shrimp have died, but now I have at least 20 babies since november, and a 2 currently berried. I'm going to have to start reducing my population, if anyone is interested, let me know. 

also, there are a substantial amount of cyclops and vinegar eels in the tank, will the cherry shrimp eat these at all?


I love getting advice, and hearing criticism, please tell me what you think!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Looks great man! What light are you using? Is it the stock light from JBJ? I have one of these as well for my betta and he loves it. Easy to maintain tank and nice all around.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

The RCS won't eat the cyclops or the vinegar eels. If you really want them gone you'll have to introduce a small fish, have it clear out the population, and then remove the fish again. You can also leave those small critters in the tank as they really don't post much harm unless there's like TONS of it.

How's the daphnia culture going in the HOB there? Your moss wall also came out great!


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

I decided against the daphnia culture because it really isn't feasible with this species of ornamental shrimp. Maybe better with a carnivorous shrimp that will actually hunt and eat the daphnia.

I have a 6500k 19 watt cfl


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## Aldon (Jun 16, 2011)

Hey the tank looks killer!! Im also starting a shrimp tank in the same tank!!! What fixture do u have that bulb in? And what kind of filter are u using? Also lol srry for all the questions but are u dosing with any fertz?
Thanks for the help your moss wall looks sooo sick!!!! Good work!


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

I have the bulb in a gooseneck clamp lamp that I have clamped on to the shelf above my desk. I find that the problem with the stock JBJ light is that if the water level is too high, the water will start to be pulled out by the annulus created between the glass and the plastic clamp due to capillary action. 

For filtration, I'm using a AC 70 modified to reduce flow, I also have the heater in there. You can see how to modify the AC 70 on many nano reef forums.

I haven't seen the need to dose ferts yet, however I do dose flourish excel even though I have a diy CO2. The flourish will keep algae at bay. 

When the algae was getting bad, I was dosing 2 mL/gallon for a week, then I stopped for a week, then all the algae died like magic, now I does 1 mL/gallon once every two days. 

I feed the shrimp 2 Hikari crab suisine pellets once per day. 

I top off every day with fresh water that was filtered with a Brita because evaporation is about 1/2" every day. 

When I go away on weekends, I put saran wrap on the whole thing. It does wonders. 

Good Luck, I love this little tank. Hope this info helps.


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## Aldon (Jun 16, 2011)

monkeyroll10 said:


> I have the bulb in a gooseneck clamp lamp that I have clamped on to the shelf above my desk. I find that the problem with the stock JBJ light is that if the water level is too high, the water will start to be pulled out by the annulus created between the glass and the plastic clamp due to capillary action.
> 
> For filtration, I'm using a AC 70 modified to reduce flow, I also have the heater in there. You can see how to modify the AC 70 on many nano reef forums.
> 
> ...


Thanks ya this info does help :] do u think u could post a picture of the light?


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

here is a photo of the whole setup (INCLUDING THE LIGHT)


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## dwilli57 (Oct 10, 2011)

*Pregnant RCS*

Hey monkey, I have just noticed that one of my rcs females is pregnant, at least I think. I also have a jbj Pico but it's stock everything. Should I worry about the baby shrimp being sucked into the stock filter? If so do you have any advice to remedy that somewhat cheaply. (this is a new project I started with my friends unused pico so I dont wanna mod it a bunch). Any info would be great. Thanks! Dave


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## monkeyroll10 (Sep 28, 2011)

I would definitely recommend getting a fine-sponge pre-filter of some sort to prevent any of the little guys from getting sucked in. I bought a 3 pack of them on amazon for a few bucks and modified them to work for me. I have heard that other people have used panty-hose as a solution. Good Luck.


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