# Twin 2.5s -- The Crypt Forest & Shrimp Savannah***September update pg 2***



## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Howdy All!

I am making this journal to keep track of the progress and evolution of my tanks over time. Hopefully some of y'll find it useful, please comment and join the discussion/conversation.

To begin with, I have dabbled in keeping fish and planted tanks for well over a decade now. I am very busy with school, and due to lack of time (and funds) I sold off my reef aquariums. With how frequently I will be moving in the future and a busy schedule, I wanted to set up several easy to move low maintenance systems. Previous to these builds I had no real experience with planted nano tanks.

I started with a standard Petsmart 2.5 gallon that I had bought to use as a top off reservoir for my reef tank. Over time, I picked up a nice light, filtration, and eventually picked up the second 2.5 gallon for free when a local aquarium club member was having a garage sale. 

The first 2.5 gallon was "setup" - aka thrown together as a holding tank for some malawa shrimp which I was given for free. I must have started with over 20 adults in this tank:

Title: The Crypt Forest
Tank: 2.5 Gallon standard
Filtration: Azoo mignon HOB
Lighting: Finnex Furgeray Planted + (Old Model) rotated with CFL bulb in worklight fixture every week
Substrate: Sphagnum peat capped with "cichlid sand" (very similar to PFS, just a more natural color)
Plants: Bronze crypt, "Java" moss (I suspect other mosses are mixed in), Crypt spiralis, Crypt Flamingo, and Duckweed
Shrimp: Somewhere between 35-60 Malawa shrimp

Here are a few pics of the evolution of this tank to where it is today:

April 2016










January 2017










March 2017



















April 2017



















May 2017


















June 2017










More to come soon....


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## Omar EAZi (Aug 5, 2015)

looks awesome!


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Omar EAZi said:


> looks awesome!


Thanks! Still need to write up the summary for the second tank :grin2:


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

The second tank!

Title: Shrimp Savannah
Tank: 2.5 Gallon standard
Filtration: Azoo mignon HOB
Lighting: Finnex Furgeray Planted + (Old Model) rotated with CFL bulb in worklight fixture every week
Substrate: 1" Organic soil and heavy bottom layer of 2 varieties of osmocote fertilizer capped with 1/2" of BDBS
Plants: Bronze crypt, dwarf hair grass, some dying hygro pinnatifida, and duckweed
Shrimp: Somewhere between 20-30 Red cherry shrimp

The tank was set up in January, but the soil/fertilizer leached into the water column and burned any plant I tried to place in there for the first 3 months. I however experienced minimal algae during this time period and performed 100% water changes every week to help leach out the excess ammonia in the soil and make the tank more mature. I was able to introduce duckweed in March, and after 4 weeks of good growth, I picked up some tissue culture DHG from petsmart and moved half of my cherry shrimp over in April. I moved the remainder of my cherry shrimp over 2 weeks later after observing no deaths.

April 2017:










May 2017:


















June 2017:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Love the crypts of the first tank, and the 'grass' above (duckweed roots) and below of the second tank.


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

AquaAurora said:


> Love the crypts of the first tank, and the 'grass' above (duckweed roots) and below of the second tank.


Thank you! I am also very impressed with how both tanks are maturing. The duckweed plays an important role in both tanks by sucking up excess nutrients and allowing me to have a very stable environment for a lot of shrimp in a small tank


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

For those who are curious, this is my maintenance routine:
Dose 1 mL of Excel - daily if dealing with any nuisance algae (tanks have been stable for a month or so now, but had some green hair algae a while back)
Feed shrimp - 4-5 x a week
Swap work light and finnex fixtures - once every week
Harvest duckweed to leave 75% of water surface uncovered - once every week!!
Rinse out filter floss - every other week
Do a 25% water change with aged tap water - every 3 weeks


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

June 2017:



I moved my tanks back home in anticipation of the end of the semester.. The process I used was I drained almost 85% of the water leaving just over an inch in the tanks. Then I moved them down to my car and drove back home. Got home and filled the tanks back up using 95% original water, plugged in the filters, and within an hour everything was running as normal despite the 5 hrs in transit. No deaths noted so far, so hopefully everything transitions well.

I also upgraded my 10 watt mini cfl to a 23 w cfl bulb in the work light fixture. This bulb is 4 x the size of the original and is almost twice as bright (565 to 990 lumens, same spectrum @ 6500 K) Hopefully with this upgrade, I can stop rotating my light fixtures. Will be interesting to see if there will be any algae as the result of the increased lighting.


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## Pluke (Jun 17, 2017)

I love your tanks, I just started the first tank I've done since I was a kid. Your tanks are pretty inspiring. What's the name of the plant that's really overgrown in the first tank posted? Bronze Crypt? I need to get that, the hairgrass and duckweed for my tank. Looks really good.


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Pluke said:


> I love your tanks, I just started the first tank I've done since I was a kid. Your tanks are pretty inspiring. What's the name of the plant that's really overgrown in the first tank posted? Bronze Crypt? I need to get that, the hairgrass and duckweed for my tank. Looks really good.


Thank you, that means a lot!! I hope that as these tanks grow and mature, they will continue to be a source for ideas and learning from my mistakes haha.

I picked up the plant of a fellow hobbyist so I am not a 100% certain on the ID. I believe that is a bronze color variety of Crypt. wendtii. I'd be happy to send some for the cost of shipping if you can't find the strain anywhere! 

What size tank are you thinking? Any specific plans for stocking?


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## Pluke (Jun 17, 2017)

Roshan8768 said:


> Thank you, that means a lot!! I hope that as these tanks grow and mature, they will continue to be a source for ideas and learning from my mistakes haha.
> 
> I picked up the plant of a fellow hobbyist so I am not a 100% certain on the ID. I believe that is a bronze color variety of Crypt. wendtii. I'd be happy to send some for the cost of shipping if you can't find the strain anywhere!
> 
> What size tank are you thinking? Any specific plans for stocking?


I'm doing a 10 gallon shrimp tank with a few extras. It's still cycling. I sent you a pm. Thanks.


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Pluke said:


> I'm doing a 10 gallon shrimp tank with a few extras. It's still cycling. I sent you a pm. Thanks.


Awesome, replied!


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## moonwasaloon (May 24, 2011)

Youre not dosing any co2 right?


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

moonwasaloon said:


> Youre not dosing any co2 right?


Correct, only some occasional Excel use to manage any algae outbreaks


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

So the tanks will under go a significant test of their stability in the coming weeks. I will be gone on vacation for around 15 days during which time the shrimp will have to do without food. I wont be able to top off either but I don't anticipate that being an issue with how little occurs with the lids on. I have been feeding the shrimp daily in anticipation of the trip and will likely do a small water change and throw in a Shirakura block that usually last 3 days when I head out. Should be a good indicator for those following on 1) How stable small tanks can be and 2) Why shrimp are better options for these tanks


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Post Vacation:










After Topping Up:










Starving Shrimps:


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## TheMakani (May 31, 2017)

very cool!
i really like how its two of the same tank but two entirely different scenes


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

TheMakani said:


> very cool!
> i really like how its two of the same tank but two entirely different scenes


Yup, I really am enjoying that aspect of these 2 tanks. Also helps that I got them for free lol.

Thanks to photobucket being useless all my pics appear to be not showing up... will try to go back and switch everything over to imgur


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

So an update... I have been very busy and have slacked off on maintenance. Hopefully the tanks will bounce back with some TLC. I shipped out some plants to make room, so the scape is a little rough for now. I added 6 Ruby Tetras today to the crypt tank, so will be interesting to see how they settle in!


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## Roshan8768 (Mar 18, 2009)

Been super busy again for the last few months and the tanks have been getting neglected. I disturbed my sand cap on the dirted dwarf hairgrass tank when pulling a bunch to send to another member on here which coupled with me removing too much of my duckweed at once lead to an algae bloom. I have been combating it for a month now but it's pretty nasty at the moment. Hoping that with some manual removal and excel dosing it will be manageable soon. 

The Crypt Forest










It's a real jungle and the crypts are just too big for the size of the tank at this point. Might need to pull all the mother plants and let it grow out from small plantlets again, we will see,...

The Algae farm










The dwarf lotus is actually working in this tiny tank which is pretty cool, I think I have engineered a "micro" variant

September FTS


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