# UNS 30C Log



## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Hi guys,

Brand new to the forum (and hobby)!

*Equipment*
Tank: UNS 30C
Light: Finnex Fugeray Planted+ clip-on
Filter: Finnex PX-360
CO2: GLA Primo w/ 5# cyl

*Hardscape*
Substrate: UNS Controsoil 
Rock: Ohko/Dragon stone

*Flora*
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Alternanthera reineckii 'mini'

*Fauna*
neo shrimp, blue maybe?
chili rasbora or CPD


*Day 1*
Armed with nothing but a pair of chopsticks, I started off the dry start method for my HC.



















During the first week, I was misting far too often and mold was beginning to appear. Battled mold for a few days with a solution of diluted H2O2. Finally, realized I had too much water in the substrate, so, I had the _bright_ idea of tipping the tank forward slightly and removing excess water. It was working fine until my rocks and substrate spilled forward! All my meticulous planting went to waste (I was quite proud of it for my first time)

However, it sparked my creativity to add some subtle hills to the substrate and I think it'll look better than a mostly flat surface.

*Week1*
The first photo below was taken about a week ago and I've since shifted the rocks to give more room for the AR mini and I've purchased more which I will use to create bush in that area.

HC is showing signs of growth and misting only when humidity drops to mid 80s. No more mold!










Today will be beginning of week 2!

Plan to update over the weekend...


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## Mike00726 (May 23, 2011)

Looks good. What kind of tank is that?


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Thanks Mike!

It's a 30C Ultum Nature Systems tank

1 cubed foot and a little over 7 gallons.


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

*Trials and Tribulations*

Haven't had the time or energy to take photos of my progress. Worked an 80 hr week and I'm still feeling the aftermath, haha.


Mold had started severely attacking my HC. So, I kind of panicked and read a few posts about deciding to flood.


Day 30










Planted an extra tissue culture of AR mini. It's melting slowly as it's acclimating. Hopefully, I can bring it back!

Setting CO2 to 2-3 bubbles per second. Think that should be enough to fight off the algae? Don't want to be wasteful and spend more CO2 than I actually need. 

I've had one little stem of HC pearling, so, that gave me a little hope things are going in the right direction. Please excuse the blurriness!










I had thought I had diatoms stuck to all my HC as pictured above, but I think it's all of the BB from the Tetra SafeStart+ I dumped in. Can someone enlighten me? It's not quite brown or anything but, this is my very first tank. So, I'm uncertain!


I had severely overdosed my tank with ammonia, I had a raw shrimp in there for a few days but I kept measuring my ammonia levels incorrectly... :icon_eek:

In my sleep deprived state, I would fill two vials and add each bottle of ammonia tester separately. Having seen no increases at all, I eventually bought ammonia from ACE Hardware and skyrocketed my ammonia levels!

After getting some decent rest, I finally realized what I did wrong and ammonia was 8.0+ppm. Did a 50% WC and still 8.0+ppm...

Day after I did a 90% WC and got my ammonia to about 4.0 ppm.

And today here we are... phew.

Will update eventually on cycling and plant progress!


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Day 37!










Lately, fought with the lily pipes, diffuser, and my 'scape to get the best flow. There's seemingly low flow right beneath the inlet but the HC beneath is growing fine. I'm gonna ride it out for now but will see if I should get a longer inlet?

Ammonia seems to stay at 4ppm. Hope to see it budge soon...


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## swarley (Apr 12, 2018)

One note I have is to have your diffuser opposite of your outflow pipe. I can't see it so just saying in case. Observe the bubbles and see if they flow well around the tank etc (which it seems you might already be doing).

You want the bubbles not to flow up to the surface right away from the diffuser.


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

swarley said:


> One note I have is to have your diffuser opposite of your outflow pipe. I can't see it so just saying in case. Observe the bubbles and see if they flow well around the tank etc (which it seems you might already be doing).
> 
> You want the bubbles not to flow up to the surface right away from the diffuser.


You can see the violet outflow on the top left of my latest photo. I was battling with the location of lily pipes and diffuser for quite some time! This location seems to create the best flow due to my 'scape. Most of the bubbles will spin continuously at the front of the tank due to location of the AR mini and rocks. Seems like I've created a nice vortex for the CO2 to dissolve in. I'll try and get a video displaying it.

My HC in the back with less flow (and no bubbles actually reaching them) haven't showed signs of malnutrition and has been growing well!


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Big update! Photos/videos over the course of two weeks.

Diffuser flow dynamic as promised

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QyJgkizIZlIMbMIT2

Pearling video after a water change.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1xx3xNu8VL7sWcF52

'Natural' pearling about a week later!









Top down to show growth. HC isn't particularly spreading across the floor but I think I'll need a trim to train it. AR 'mini' is thriving! Really happy with the state of the plants 









And shriiiimp! Picked up from my LFS, Aquarium Zen in Seattle, WA.


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Growth is been tremendous the past 5 days! It's hard to compare it against the previous top-down photo (due to the glare) but you can see many new runners from the HC


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

Welp, it's been awhile since I've updated this log... but that's because I ended up losing all but 1 shrimp 

Think it was my inexperience that did them in. Things were mostly fine up until last month when I did too big of a water change + this ridiculous heat wave. I'm not entirely sure what caused the collapse of this small colony but I don't think an afternoon at 79 F would have done in all the of the shrimp. Was really upsetting to see after coming home from work.

Water was aged RO\DI and I changed about 50% after scrubbing and scraping algae from the glass and hardscape. Wasn't the first time I did a big water change like this either. but this is the only thing I could think of.

Another mistake I made was using an active substrate, but I think plenty of people have kept neos in acidic + low KH parameters.


I've since rescaped the tank. Things are mostly fine and dandy at my 90LS though. Although haven't posted proper update in awhile as well!


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## ShepherdOfShrimp (May 13, 2018)

SifuSeafood said:


> Welp, it's been awhile since I've updated this log... but that's because I ended up losing all but 1 shrimp
> 
> Think it was my inexperience that did them in. Things were mostly fine up until last month when I did too big of a water change + this ridiculous heat wave. I'm not entirely sure what caused the collapse of this small colony but I don't think an afternoon at 79 F would have done in all the of the shrimp. Was really upsetting to see after coming home from work.
> 
> ...



How did you acclimate the shrimp? Neos are hardy but only relatively. Though I use Lake Michigan water (Northern Chicago suburbs), I find my shrimp have been doing well and the Fluval Stratum live substrate is dropping my pH to around 6.8ish.


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## SifuSeafood (May 4, 2018)

ShepherdOfShrimp said:


> How did you acclimate the shrimp? Neos are hardy but only relatively. Though I use Lake Michigan water (Northern Chicago suburbs), I find my shrimp have been doing well and the Fluval Stratum live substrate is dropping my pH to around 6.8ish.


When I first bought them I drip acclimated for about an hour. They were fine for the first 90 days or so? I had an early loss, but it seemed like an adult shrimp and must've just been too stressed.

The other 9 stayed fine until I did the last water change that did the rest of them in... I don't recall any kind of molting issues. No signs of the bands or anything.

The last remainder juvenile seems fine so far in the 90LS tank.

Seeing as I have all the things ready for caridina shrimp, think I'll be testing my hands at these... Will be spending less time changing things and more time with my hands out of the tank, lol.


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