# Panoramic Mountain Scape - CRS Habitat



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I started off this tank, with an attempt at a nice iwagumi style.. discovered why there really are not that many REALLY perfect iwagumi tanks. They take a lot of self discipline, patience and restraint.

I had a massive algae problem with it in the past few months, and have finally been able to get the upper hand on it, with the help of some really great advice from people here!

Anyway, the plants situation in there right now is not very good. Everything is just starting to recover, and I replanted everything a few weeks ago. All of my HC, UG and Belem hairgrass died quickly from being smothered by the algae.

Once it stabilizes I plan to cover the substrate with a full HC carpet, and perhaps some B.Hairgrass so that just the rocks are sticking out, like a scottish hillside.

Ahem.. except, last time I checked there were no magical floating islands floating over scotland. So.. ahh.. I don't care. I like floating magical islands, and it's MY Scotland. Hahahaha

I plan to update this thread with new pics once a week from now on. Hopefully it goes well now.

*Specs*

Tank: 12 Gallon Rimless (36"x8"x9")

Substrate: ADA AquaSoil

Lighting: Marineland Doublebright 36" (X2)

Ferts: YamatoGreen-N

C02: Pressurized paintball Co2, Flourite Excel

Filtration: Eheim 2213, dim* long spray bar. (*do it myself.  )


*Flora:*

Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Fissiden Fontanus

Süßwassertang

Rotala Indica

Marsilea Quadrifolia

Hydrocotyle Verticillata

Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides

Japanese "Belem" micro grass

Mini Pellia

Cuphea Anagalloidea



*Fauna:*

CRS and CBS

Ottos

Thanks for looking!


*Pics!*



**Original post**






















Unfortunately, I skipped a few steps (didn't take photos).. so here's what the tank looks like now.. I can't wait for it to fill in!! 











This is when I had two ZooMed 501 filters (one at each end)




















Here's where I work 












Moonlights!!












I found my wife's diamond earrings on the floor. Let's see if she notices.. hehe.












And, here are some of my CRS.. 

This is "Ebi-Wan-Kanobi".. get it? Get it?  As I'm sure you know, "Ebi" is Japanese for "Shrimp".. 






















And this is "Was-Ebi":





















I'd like you to meet "Ebi-Nee":











And last but not least, here's "Ebi-Murphy".. Ebi Murphy is a bit shy, but I did manage to get this picture:












That's about all I have for now. Thanks for looking!

Please check back (or subscribe to this thread).. I WILL be updating.






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*04-13-2011*
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I just scored today, this Eheim 2213 filter. It looks like new, and works flawlessly! (Thanks Justyn!)

So, I was running two ZooMed 501s, which I have now replaced with the Eheim. Much nicer!











It came complete with tap valves, which are not standard. I LOVE IT.














I decided to try adding the second LED Double Bright light I have. The problem was that both of them are don't quite fit on the top of the tank together, because the tank's too narrow. Also, instead of pointing straight down, I would prefer both strips to point at opposite parts of the tank, crossing each other's light rays.

So, I built wooden fixtures, rounded to fit them on top of the tank, and now they don't point directly down.

Perfect!! 

Here are a few pics. I'll post some more once I put it on top of the tank... hope it's not too much light!



Started with some old bed slats.. 












Cutting and sanding:












Apply some of this to protect/darken the wood:












Before they were drilled and cut:












And, it's done! This was a learning experience.. I may end up buying a couple of thick pieces of acrylic and redo it.












I had to cut slots in the wood for the switches/ power cord. If I do it again with Acrylic, I'll make holes for that stuff. I think it will look neater.












I designed it to open: 












Both sides! 












All the way  













12 Gallon Iwagumi CRS tank ••• 2.9 Gallon Mini-S Nano Tree Stump


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

What are the tap valves for? The tank looks great! I really like the look of these extra long tanks, like the 12g long bowfront from Mr. Aqua. Sorry if I missed it, but who makes this tank? Good job!


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Do you think the Marineland LEDs can sustain these plants long term?


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

thats a cool looking tank! i love the low length of it! 

Amy


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

This tank is awesome too. IMO, forget the co2 if the shrimp are your priority. It just adds another thing that is making them unhappy so if it's not necessary leave it be. Nice find on the 2213, you will be very happy with it. I couldn't do an Iwigumi tank, I love lush thick plantings and Iwigumis are to minimalist for my taste. 

Kiran-the double taps/quick disconnects are on the Eheim Classics and are what you use when its time to do filter maintenance. You close them them then unscrew them co cut the water off from the intake/outflow and also from the filter. You can also use the valve on the outflow to control the flow by turning it down to your desired level of movement.


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## taniner (Aug 10, 2010)

Very nice!


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> What are the tap valves for?


They let you close off the hoses so you can carry the filter away for cleaning without taking the intake and outflow off the tank. Very handy. 

I got nice CBS off Aquabid (Blueface) and eBay (freeman1020). Both sellers delivered exactly what was promised and the shrimp have really nice, solid, white on their shells.


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

Pretty sure this is the Mr. Aqua 12 long, I want one of these tanks 

Did the wife notice the earrings yet?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

swoof said:


> Pretty sure this is the Mr. Aqua 12 long, I want one of these tanks
> 
> Did the wife notice the earrings yet?


Yep, Mr Aqua 12 long.

HAha. Yes, she did. They sparkle so brightly! I should have put them in the back. They're still there though..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks for the comments!



swoof said:


> Pretty sure this is the Mr. Aqua 12 long, I want one of these tanks



Yep, Mr Aqua 12 long.




swoof said:


> Did the wife notice the earrings yet?


HAha. Yes, she did. They sparkle so brightly! I should have put them in the back. They're still there though..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

TLE041 said:


> Do you think the Marineland LEDs can sustain these plants long term?


Yes, because the tank is so low, the light doesn't have to penetrate far. I actually had to lower the photo period a little because I was starting to have an algae problem. As the tank settles more though, I should be able to run it longer.

I have hiding spots for the shrimp, in case the light is too bright for them.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> This tank is awesome too. IMO, forget the co2 if the shrimp are your priority. It just adds another thing that is making them unhappy so if it's not necessary leave it be. Nice find on the 2213, you will be very happy with it. I couldn't do an Iwigumi tank, I love lush thick plantings and Iwigumis are to minimalist for my taste.


I'll probably end up just letting everything grow in there! lol. Hard to resist. I guess that's why a really nice, true Iwagumi is hard to find.. Yes, I think I'll take your advice and ditch the idea of C02 for this one.


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

Nice diy, never thought about doing that with the marineland led's. I did notice they arched but kudos to you for that idea.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Nice work. It looks as though you have the lighting sickness that everyone catches when doing a planted tank. Im not too familiar with LED lights but I hope its not too much.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

Very Nice!!! i love the look!


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## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

Nice setup. I really like the lights. I got the same light from someone and was planning on replacing some of the leds with more powerful ones. I wish Marineland would have used more powerful leds than just the wimpy 1 watts.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

!shadow! said:


> Nice diy, never thought about doing that with the marineland led's. I did notice they arched but kudos to you for that idea.


Thanks! The light seems a lot more dispersed now, and less "spotlight". Amazing what a few degrees and an inch or so can do. 





bsmith said:


> Nice work. It looks as though you have the lighting sickness that everyone catches when doing a planted tank. Im not too familiar with LED lights but I hope its not too much.


I'm not sure if it's going to be too bright. Most people's complaints with these lights are that they are too weak, but my tank is so shallow, that I think they are fairly high light.. I'll be experimenting with the height of this fixture, photo-period and stuff.. will keep you posted.





yikesjason said:


> Nice setup. I really like the lights. I got the same light from someone and was planning on replacing some of the leds with more powerful ones. I wish Marineland would have used more powerful leds than just the wimpy 1 watts.


Yeah, I do agree with you here. Like I said above, my tank is so shallow that these lights are very bright (maybe too bright), but for any regular tank, they'd be pretty useless for anything other than crypts and anubias. They do make a "Reef Capable" version, however which has more LEDs per foot, and each LED is more powerful. I haven't seen this one in person, but I'd say that would be plenty of light for just about any planted tank. (Would cost a pretty penny though!)





SkyGrl said:


> Very Nice!!! i love the look!


Thank you very much. More pictures coming soon.


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## whizzle (May 12, 2010)

I love this tank! Just a word of caution tho the marineland fixtures like to overheat and start flickering. We had one on a display tank at work and we eventually ditched it for a different led fixture. So just keep an eye on it. You have a gorgeous tank tho. Keep us updated.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

whizzle said:


> I love this tank! Just a word of caution tho the marineland fixtures like to overheat and start flickering. We had one on a display tank at work and we eventually ditched it for a different led fixture. So just keep an eye on it. You have a gorgeous tank tho. Keep us updated.


Aw, thanks.. that's really nice of you to say. I'll be updating this thread with new photos as much as possible.

I didn't know about the overheating/flickering issue!.. Usually their support is pretty good, so I'll keep an eye out for it, and if it happens I'll have them replaced.
Ironically, the reason I bought these, instead of T5 or something, was because of the low heat. CRS like to have colder water, so I figured LEDs would be the best option.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Fyi, every time I put new pictures or updates in, I'll edit the first post and add them there instead of adding them further down the thread, so that way you dont have to scroll through pages and pages to see all the photos. Will there be a problem with this? Does anyone else do it this way? Sorry, I'm new to this forum stuff.

Comments etc will still work, here.


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## manikmunky (Mar 24, 2011)

ADA said:


> Fyi, every time I put new pictures or updates in, I'll edit the first post and add them there instead of adding them further down the thread, so that way you dont have to scroll through pages and pages to see all the photos. Will there be a problem with this? Does anyone else do it this way? Sorry, I'm new to this forum stuff.
> 
> Comments etc will still work, here.


There's likely a limit to the size a single post can be, or how many pictures it can contain. Shame because it's easier to track the photos that way, as you said


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## whizzle (May 12, 2010)

ADA said:


> Aw, thanks.. that's really nice of you to say. I'll be updating this thread with new photos as much as possible.
> 
> I didn't know about the overheating/flickering issue!.. Usually their support is pretty good, so I'll keep an eye out for it, and if it happens I'll have them replaced.
> Ironically, the reason I bought these, instead of T5 or something, was because of the low heat. CRS like to have colder water, so I figured LEDs would be the best option.


It gets pretty warm in the shop sometimes so that was probably a factor. But like I said just keep an eye on it. Can't wait for more piks!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

manikmunky said:


> There's likely a limit to the size a single post can be, or how many pictures it can contain. Shame because it's easier to track the photos that way, as you said


Ohhh.. yes that makes sense..  
Well, I guess I'll keep doing it until the limit is reached. I think that at least for the Journal threads, they should make it possible to insert picture posts at the start.. 
Thanks for the heads up.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I have updates!!  ... Pics soon (maybe tonight, but it's getting late, so maybe tomorrow instead.

I got 3 more beautiful SS+ CRS

I got some Downoi

I finished my wooden light fixture with 2 X Marineland LEDs.. 

... and I got some more Otos, in an efford to take care of the brown algae issue I seem to be having.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Okay, so back to the regular posting. I'll just put the pictures at the last page as it goes.


.. had to add little feet to raise fixture so the filter tubes would fit. Also it looks better (the light is less "spotlighty") with the few extra inces.











Both lights open with hinges.












Blue.











Cover on











I'll take some good pictures of the actual tank today.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

Excellent! I love the domed look so much.. kinda makes the tank a Cathedral!! 

Amy


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## zenche (Feb 9, 2011)

seriously, nice woodwork and nice tank. love the shrimp names too. favorite is probably 'ebi murphy' - i just think back to his RAW performance where he's pretending to be a woman, going "ED-DY, ED-DY" - but instead it's now "E-BI".


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

SkyGrl said:


> Excellent! I love the domed look so much.. kinda makes the tank a Cathedral!!
> 
> Amy


Thanks Amy.. yes I'm a fan of the domed look too. It actually helps with the lighting, because instead of pointing directly down, the rays cross each other.



zenche said:


> seriously, nice woodwork and nice tank. love the shrimp names too. favorite is probably 'ebi murphy' - i just think back to his RAW performance where he's pretending to be a woman, going "ED-DY, ED-DY" - but instead it's now "E-BI".


Hahahha!!! I can picture it. 
Thanks for the comments. This hobby is so fun.


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## karatekid14 (Jan 16, 2011)

Wow, really nice I love the size. Could we get a FTS with the new lights?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

karatekid14 said:


> Wow, really nice I love the size. Could we get a FTS with the new lights?


Sure, but what is FTS? (front "?" shot?)


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

ADA said:


> Sure, but what is FTS? (front "?" shot?)


Front Tank Shot. roud:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Ohh haha!.. yeah, of course. I'll upload one in an hour or so.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Okay, here are new pictures.. 

FTS first! 











I put the camera on night mode, no flash, and the moonlights on the tank on. Thought the pic looked pretty cool..











Ebi-Wan-Kanobe =)












Ebi-Wan-Kanobe, Was-Ebi, and uh.. name suggestions?


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## MaStErFiShKeEps (Dec 6, 2010)

What do you feed your shrimp?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

MaStErFiShKeEps said:


> What do you feed your shrimp?


So far, just Hikari Shrimp Cuisine.. http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=20453


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## manikmunky (Mar 24, 2011)

Really nice tank! I considered one this size/shape for my office desk, unfortunately a bit on the big side to have at work. Will consider one at home later this year though, love it!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

manikmunky said:


> Really nice tank! I considered one this size/shape for my office desk, unfortunately a bit on the big side to have at work. Will consider one at home later this year though, love it!


If you want to see a sweet office tank check out the mini-m and 60-p in my sig! Where there's a will there's a way! Or is it if you build it they will come? Maybe both!!!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> If you want to see a sweet office tank check out the mini-m and 60-p in my sig! Where there's a will there's a way! Or is it if you build it they will come? Maybe both!!!


LOL!

+ 1.. roud:


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

So, my wife took some awesome pics of my tanks when she got home from work today! (She's a much better photographer than I)

I'm lucky she's so supportive of my hobby!





















Sorry, the tank is a bit of a mess.. brown algae, and I really need to organize and decide which plants can stay and which have to go. I want to simplify it.. any suggestions?












I love the Downoi..












This is one of my newest CRS. Very solid colors on the three new ones I got. I love the little white dots on his crown.












The Belem Dwarf Grass is uprooted a bit here.. It's recently planted, and hasn't established yet.












Mirror mirror on the wall... "Snow White" admiring herself.












You can see some of that horrid brown algae here.  It wreaked havoc with my UG patch (not pictured) and I almost lost all of it.. Need to get rid of it.. 












Snow White and Was-Ebi are out on a date.












I think Was-Ebi ditched Snow White.. or she got side tracked by a mirror..











Thanks for looking!


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## Zerocon (Apr 14, 2011)

_"Ebi-Wan-Kanobe, Was-Ebi, and uh.. name suggestions?"_

Ebi-Nezure Scrooge?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Zerocon said:


> _"Ebi-Wan-Kanobe, Was-Ebi, and uh.. name suggestions?"_
> 
> Ebi-Nezure Scrooge?


Hahah! Good one, I'll take that.


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## jcgd (Feb 18, 2004)

Ebi-nore Rigby


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Those are some nice SS+ CRS you got yourself....

That light fixture is awesome, I think I may have to steal that from you. lol


P.S Your wife has some KILLER shoes.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Do you have almond leaves in the tank? It looks like the water is slightly tannin stained, maybe from the wood. 

The night mode shot looks like there is a rave going on in there. Pretty cool. 

Are you/your wife using a certain lens for the Macro shots or is that just the stock setup with whatever camera you own?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

msnikkistar said:


> Those are some nice SS+ CRS you got yourself....
> 
> That light fixture is awesome, I think I may have to steal that from you. lol
> 
> ...


Thanks Nikki, they're not bad quality huh?

The fixture idea started because two of those lights didn't have room to fit side by side on top of the tank, so I had to figure out a way to tilt both to fit. Serendipitously, they seem to put out a better wash of light, going slightly tilted and the rays crossing.

I'm actually half way through making new ones, with nicer hard wood, and less hacked together. These took lots of trial and error to build! If you (or anyone else) wants to make some, I can send the exact measurements, or scan them at actual size to use as a guide, because it's pretty tricky to get just right. 

PS. My wife LOVED that you said that.. haha. She's a shoe girl. They're her favorite thing to collect. She gets shoes, I get shrimp. Deal. 



bsmith said:


> Do you have almond leaves in the tank? It looks like the water is slightly tannin stained, maybe from the wood.
> 
> The night mode shot looks like there is a rave going on in there. Pretty cool.
> 
> Are you/your wife using a certain lens for the Macro shots or is that just the stock setup with whatever camera you own?


Thanks  No almond leaves. I don't really know why the water is going yellow. Could it be the Aqua Soil? It can't be the wood, because I had that in a (much smaller) tank for a long time, and never got yellow water. That wood has been under water for about ten years! haha.

Stock lens.. Canon XTi.. (their base model I think)

My wife does part time photography (when she's not at her big girl job), so she knows her way around a camera. She always seems to take better pictures than me, with the exact same camera. Boo.


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

how many watts?


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

Err.. i read 1 watt led bulbs... but what does that really translate to?

I have 2 -39 watt cfl (geissemans) and I was thinking of putting it on this type of tank.

Can you tell us more about this tank?
- what do you think of dynamics (happy with how you achieve depth, and scape?)
- enough room for shrimp -- fish?
- how much  ?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Ebi-Nee is a SHE!!!!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

albirdy said:


> Err.. i read 1 watt led bulbs... but what does that really translate to?
> 
> I have 2 -39 watt cfl (geissemans) and I was thinking of putting it on this type of tank.
> 
> ...


Actually, I don't know much at all about these lights, as far as specs go. It's kind of confusing, because LED lights seem very different to regular. I'm really just playing it by ear. The tank is really shallow, and so far the plants are happy, but it's only 6 weeks. Time will tell.

I made a new fixture mount, which is much neater than the last on, and more sturdy. I got steel rods and put them all the way through the length of the two lights, which makes the actual light fixtures into hinges.

Also, there was a bit of trial and error making the first one. I had them opening both outwards, which was horrible to do any work in the tank because you had to reach over the light and drip water on it. This time they both open from the front. Much better.

I'm going to be making some nice acrylic lily pipes, will fill the tank and take some better pictures then.





















I'd love to know what this plant is.. found it floating in my lfs tank, they have nothing else like it.. said a customer gave it to them, and it was sickly, so they let me take it home. It's tiny..


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## Gotcha38 (Apr 13, 2010)

Love the tank. The new light brackets are very nice too.


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

Thanks for the info. Can I ask how much the tank was or where you got it from?

Also, I'm probably mistaken, but that looks kind of like ludwigia repens. We'll see what the experts say. Perhaps keep us posted when the plant grows fuller?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Gotcha38 said:


> Love the tank. The new light brackets are very nice too.


Thanks!




albirdy said:


> Thanks for the info. Can I ask how much the tank was or where you got it from?
> 
> Also, I'm probably mistaken, but that looks kind of like ludwigia repens. We'll see what the experts say. Perhaps keep us posted when the plant grows fuller?


Omg.. that's what it is!!! It's exactly what the bigger plant looked like (the one that this piece came off! I googled Ludwigia Repens.. thanks a lot! 

The tank was about $70, just found it at my LFS.. They are hard to come by, I wanted one for a while.. it's made by Mr. Aqua.


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

great shot of the shrimp, btw


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

Great--with co2 i've had ludwigia EXPLODE! ..unfortunately, so did my shrimp


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

albirdy said:


> Great--with co2 i've had ludwigia EXPLODE! ..unfortunately, so did my shrimp


Yeah, I'm way too scared to put Co2 in this tank, because of my shrimp. Will it do okay without Co2?

Is Ludwigia a large plant? This piece of it at least is tiny.. I don't really want any large plants in here.

How do you make plants (any red species) grow to their brightest red coloring potential? Is it to do mostly with having enough light? I heard that iron is important..


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## Coltonorr (Mar 12, 2008)

ADA,
I was wondering how much light the thank gets through the window?
I wonder also if your algae problems stem from that "extra" light.


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

Okay, I think I need to correct myself (I have been out of the aquarium-keeping game for a few months now, and my memory apparently sucks).

I think it is EXCEL that is not so great with shrimp.
I believe co2 is okay. However, not at too high of a level. [i was reminded when I saw Nikki's shrimp tank, and she mentioned she just put on a 2.5 bottle to her shrimp tank].

also, high light helps with reddening plants. definitely. however, in order to prevent algae from growing, like green hair. you will need to complement the high light with correlating amounts of co2. 

higher light = need for co2, to prevent algae.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Coltonorr said:


> ADA,
> I was wondering how much light the thank gets through the window?
> I wonder also if your algae problems stem from that "extra" light.


It depends on which way I close the blinds (sloping upwards lets the afternoon sun through the cracks).

I keep it closed the way where it blocks almost all light though. I did let the sun come in a couple of days, just to experiment a few weeks ago.

Honestly, I think the algae is either new tank syndrome brown algae (usually would clear up within a couple of months?) or is caused by those chinese stones on the right side. Almost everyone I know who has used those same stones gets a huge bloom of this brown algae.

The good news is, in the past 2 days, it's died down and almost gone! I vacuumed it every day for about 4 or 5 days straight, (ripping up most of my UG with it).. sucks. And it would grow back by the next day.. but yesterday and today it didn't come back at all, so what's left in there is just the stuff I missed last time I vacuumed. I also remember reading somewhere that this algae actually gets worse with less light, rather than the opposite. This seems to be true, because it was at it's worst when I had only one of my LED fixtures running. After I put the other on, it got better.

Having said all that, I could be totally wrong. I'm still a total n00b!


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

Marine Depot carries this tank.


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

tanks. i think rick from aquaticdesignz had it last i checked several months ago.. probably have to give him another call once i'm back in california. thanks, swoof.


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

ADA i love the tank and the light setup. I hope to get one of these and do an Iwagumi setup too.

Albirdy i haven't been to any of the Bay area fish stores in years, went to High School in San Jose. I know a lot of the aquarium places down here carry the Mr. Aqua stuff.


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## reybie (Jun 7, 2007)

I like the tank and the lighting job! Even more the shrimp names.. Ebi-Murphy... lol, "Gooood morning Queens! *&^#@ you! Yes! yes! #@^# you too!"


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

albirdy said:


> Okay, I think I need to correct myself (I have been out of the aquarium-keeping game for a few months now, and my memory apparently sucks).
> 
> I think it is EXCEL that is not so great with shrimp.
> I believe co2 is okay. However, not at too high of a level. [i was reminded when I saw Nikki's shrimp tank, and she mentioned she just put on a 2.5 bottle to her shrimp tank].
> ...


Thanks, you're right about the Co2. I heard that about high light too.. apparently, it's the plant trying to protect itself from the light, by creating the red coloration.. or something like that?

I do notice some of that green hair algae in my 2.9 gallon (with about 10wpg, and co2). I usually just shorten the photoperiod.. I reckon I'll try turning the co2 up instead and see if that helps.




swoof said:


> ADA i love the tank and the light setup. I hope to get one of these and do an Iwagumi setup too.
> 
> Albirdy i haven't been to any of the Bay area fish stores in years, went to High School in San Jose. I know a lot of the aquarium places down here carry the Mr. Aqua stuff.


Thanks! If you decide to do the LED lights, I'd be happy to help you with it. 




reybie said:


> I like the tank and the lighting job! Even more the shrimp names.. Ebi-Murphy... lol, "Gooood morning Queens! *&^#@ you! Yes! yes! #@^# you too!"


LOL! I love Eddie Murphy.. Did I mention I noticed that two of my CRS are berried as well! That's 2 berried CRS and a berried CBS!! So exciting. I've never seen berried CRS or CBS before (only regular shrimp, and my snowballs. 

I'll try to take some pics tomorrow.


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## Bree (Dec 17, 2010)

Wow...Just wow.

That is all.


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## alexem (Apr 12, 2011)

Amazing tank setup!!! Look wonderful!!!!!


Natural Aquascaping - Planted Aquarium Blog

Http://naturalaquascaping.blogspot.com


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks! Algae troubles right now..


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

algae troubles? man! what type?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

albirdy said:


> algae troubles? man! what type?


That's what I'm trying to figure out. .. It's this horrible brown cotton wool type stuff, that's just blanketing everything. At first I thought it was diatoms, and new tank syndrome, but I don't think that's what it is.. I posted a thread about it here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/135565-getting-rid-brown-algae-more-light-2.html#post1373097

Any idea?


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

i've had this a lot. especially with my slower growing plants like anubias. it looks like you have slower-growers too, like marsilea minutia. 

normally i'd recommend black mollies -- they will eat that off if they are not fed (but they will probably also eat the shrimplets!)

or adjust my co2 (maybe try this?)

but definitely add flow to these plants. it won't fix it right away. but it's in these dead spots that algae like this are prone to accumulate.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

albirdy said:


> i've had this a lot. especially with my slower growing plants like anubias. it looks like you have slower-growers too, like marsilea minutia.
> 
> normally i'd recommend black mollies -- they will eat that off if they are not fed (but they will probably also eat the shrimplets!)
> 
> ...


Thanks for the advice.. It's hard to get flow on these super long tanks, but I think you're right about that. Has anyone tried experimenting with multiple outflows (using a T adapter)? Maybe I could have one at the left side, one in the middle (pointing to the right), and the intake at the right side.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm looking forward to seeing this tank mature. It looks amazing so far!

I'm not sure if anyone answered your Ludwigia question on page 4, but my Ludwigia leaves are about an inch long, so it looks like yours is a small clipping. And yes, dosing additional iron helps bring out red colors in plants.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> I'm looking forward to seeing this tank mature. It looks amazing so far!
> 
> I'm not sure if anyone answered your Ludwigia question on page 4, but my Ludwigia leaves are about an inch long, so it looks like yours is a small clipping. And yes, dosing additional iron helps bring out red colors in plants.


Awesome! Thanks for that.. I think it will grow too big for this tank, but I'll leave it be until it does. Beautiful plant.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Hi everyone! I have a few updates! I've been battling brown algae for a couple of weeks, and found that I had too much light and not enough water flow. I turned off one of the strips for now which helped a lot, but I plan on running both again once I get Co2 hooked up.
I bought a paintball Co2 setup from JagedFury here at the forums.. can't wait!! 

So, I made a diy acrylic custom (long!) spray bar, to give flow to the whole tank. I also am running an extra filter at one end (Zoomed 501)

Here it is.. Sorry about the bad pics.. took on my phone.











And here's the DIY lily pipe I made for it: 












I'll take some more good pics soon. About time for an update anyways!

Thanks


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

ADA said:


> Hi everyone! I have a few updates! I've been battling brown algae for a couple of weeks, and found that I had too much light and not enough water flow. I turned off one of the strips for now which helped a lot, but I plan on running both again once I get Co2 hooked up.
> I bought a paintball Co2 setup from JagedFury here at the forums.. can't wait!!
> 
> So, I made a diy acrylic custom (long!) spray bar, to give flow to the whole tank. I also am running an extra filter at one end (Zoomed 501)
> ...


I assume the lily pipes are acrylic? Where did you get the tubing? I've been thinking of doing this for a while. I wonder if I could do it with glass...


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

more pics of the wife? lol--j/k

tank looks great---i have one like it and yurs blows mine away.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shane3fan said:


> more pics of the wife? lol--j/k
> 
> tank looks great---i have one like it and yurs blows mine away.



I'm gonna look at yours.. is it posted? I bet it's awesome too.

Okay, here's another pic of my wife. Sorry, she's being "clever" with a magazine.. lol.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> I assume the lily pipes are acrylic? Where did you get the tubing? I've been thinking of doing this for a while. I wonder if I could do it with glass...


Yeah it's acrylic. I got the tubing from here: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=44086

It could be done with glass, but I have no idea how.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

haha alright.. it's off topic, but you asked for this...

A girl and her dog












Self Portrait..


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## teah (Jul 25, 2010)

Is she a model? if not, she should. She has beautiful eyes and skin to be a model...


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

Awesome tank, and awesome shrimp too  (and awesome Chihuahua )


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

teah said:


> Is she a model? if not, she should. She has beautiful eyes and skin to be a model...


No, she's not a model. She likes to be behind the camera, shooting my aquascapes.. (see how I made it go back on topic, and made the pictures pertain to the topic?) heheheh 




chase127 said:


> Awesome tank, and awesome shrimp too  (and awesome Chihuahua )


haha thx.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I found baby CRS!!! There were at least 2 or 3 that are almost all white, aside from a little shoulder patch of color (2 black, one red).. really hard to spot though. They are SOOO small! must be less than 2mm.. maybe about 1mm. I'll try to take pics if I can find any tomorrow.


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

sweet, hope they get big and you find many more


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I did!

I found about 4 or 5, they are sooo tiny though and really hard to spot. There must be at least double that many in there..

Took some pics this morning, but they're so small that I couldn't get a good shot. Will have to have my wife take some with her fancy camera skills when she comes home frm work.. here are a few pics anyway 


Tiny baby CRS












This will give you some perspective on how small they are.. circled in red down there under the drop checker.. can you see him?












And here's a little black one. Hard to spot (under the rock)












Another black one (CBS?)












Ebi-Wan-Kanobi












Ebi-Wan












Zebra Nerite clean up crew! Her lips look like human lips.. creepy? haha


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

wow that is tiny! just a meer speck!!!! 
a very cute snail. i really love snails. they are so cute to watch strolling around the tank. my old snail speedy II loved my old moss balls... :hihi: he would push them and try to crawl across it.. it seemed to always roll away..  

Amy


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

SkyGrl said:


> wow that is tiny! just a meer speck!!!!
> a very cute snail. i really love snails. they are so cute to watch strolling around the tank. my old snail speedy II loved my old moss balls... :hihi: he would push them and try to crawl across it.. it seemed to always roll away..
> 
> Amy


Hahah that's funny.. Have you ever had Nerites?? They are so nice.. by far the prettiest (and most useful) snail imho. I love the Coronas, and the Zebras (pictured)..


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## teah (Jul 25, 2010)

ADA said:


> Hahah that's funny.. Have you ever had Nerites?? They are so nice.. by far the prettiest (and most useful) snail imho. I love the Coronas, and the Zebras (pictured)..


I have 2 zebras in my big tank. They lay A LOT of eggs but never hatched. For me, I think horned nerite is the best!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

teah said:


> I have 2 zebras in my big tank. They lay A LOT of eggs but never hatched. For me, I think horned nerite is the best!


Coronas have horns.. (I think) I've seen black horned nerites too.. I agree with you. The horned ones are awesome.

Nerites won't breed in fresh water, which is one of the things that makes them very useful in planted tanks.. they won't over run the tank.


----------



## teah (Jul 25, 2010)

ADA said:


> Coronas have horns.. (I think) I've seen black horned nerites too.. I agree with you. The horned ones are awesome.
> 
> Nerites won't breed in fresh water, which is one of the things that makes them very useful in planted tanks.. they won't over run the tank.


I like the yellow horned nerites ones. Very nice. They breed them and sell them here where I live. But expensive! Their eggs are yucky. Stick to the driftwood, to the stones, to the glasses... everywhere and very hard to remove


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

i have one and it is forever eating and laying eggs.. so cute tho. i got him as a rescue, he has some shell problems but i havent seen them grow or anything. it could be my liquid rock water to thats helping him. he is the biggest thing in my cherry shrimp/ Scarlet Badis tank.  

Amy


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

SkyGrl said:


> i have one and it is forever eating and laying eggs.. so cute tho. i got him as a rescue, he has some shell problems but i havent seen them grow or anything. it could be my liquid rock water to thats helping him. he is the biggest thing in my cherry shrimp/ Scarlet Badis tank.
> 
> Amy


Nice!

One problem that nerites face in our planted tanks, is they actually prefer harder water, (plants/shrimp do better in softer water).. They use calcium in the water to keep their shells healthy.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I changed the name of this thread/tank, because it's not really Iwagumi style anymore... "12 Gallon Panoramic Mountain & Plains"


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Okay.. update time. In order to have more flexibility with maintenance, and be able to adjust the height, I suspended my wooden fixture from the ceiling using brass chains. Aesthetically, I like it a lot more too, because it now has more of the rimless feel that I love. I never really liked it sitting right on top. 

To adjust the height, I just need to remove or add links. I can fine tune the height at tiny increments now.

This is my favorite diy accomplishment thus far.. The other HUGE plus to this, is how much easier it is to do tank maintenance.. I added a couple of hooks to the chain, so I can very quickly and easily raise the light while I trim plants etc. Before was a really big pain, because I'd lose a bunch of light on account of having to turn one light off to "open" it, and I also only had half the space to work with, because the other light was blocking half the tank. Another thing that I wasn't thrilled about, was I would always accidentally bump the light fixture and knock it half off.. one day I'd have bumped it into the water I reckon.. not good.

Chains are connected to the wooden ends using screw in hoops.





















Long chain to the ceiling.












These tiny hooks allow me to raise the light during tank maintenance... 












... by attaching to a lower part of the chain.












One side raised.












View from below.












Here's another pic of my diy acrylic 30" spray bar.. it does a great job of gently eliminating dead spots in this tank. Without it, it was really hard to get all of the water circulating without making a whirlpool.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Lookin' great. Let's hope this takes care of your algae issue.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> Lookin' great. Let's hope this takes care of your algae issue.



Thanks.. I HOPE so.. it's so depressing, to see that ugly brown blanket killing my Downois, Belem Grass and even trapping my baby CRS.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Here's a thread for my baby CRS in this tank. They have their own thread.. 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp-other-invertebrates/137583-crs-cbs-babies.html


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

You know you need to start making those fixtures and selling them.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

Looking good! Very cool spraybar! :thumbsup:


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks!

Haha.. How many ppl have 2 marineland led strips though?.. wait, I guess I could adapt and make them for 2 of any kind of strip..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Now that I have it suspended on chains, those ugly cuts in the top of the wood are unnecessary. The lights don't need to hinge now. I may be making a third set!


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Another good thing about suspending them above the tank is that your spotlighting issue should improve or go away altogether. Look at your earlier pictures and you'll see the spotlighting.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> Another good thing about suspending them above the tank is that your spotlighting issue should improve or go away altogether. Look at your earlier pictures and you'll see the spotlighting.


Exactly! This was another reason I wanted to move them up a few inches. Better now?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

My personal aquarium photographer. She rawks.


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## rasbora (Sep 1, 2006)

The shape of this aquarium is really cool for a shrimp tank. I like it a lot.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Heya Thanks a lot! I'm so frustrated and upset with the tank right now, because the algae is getting worse and worse. Don't know really what to to at this stage.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

What kind of algae?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> What kind of algae?


http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/135565-getting-rid-brown-algae-more-light.html


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

A few new pics... the algae got SO bad, I had to basically start from scratch. kept the hardscape for the most part, but pulled out all the plants and replanted.



I have not taken a FTS yet, but here is the rock scape on the right..












I love my little CBS "Ebi-Nee"












Another pic of Ebi-Nee


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

So, as you know I've been having some pretty bad algae issues and as a result I lost a lot of plants and at least one batch of baby CRS 

Anyway, I seem to have finally gotten on top of the algae problem, but the plants are only just starting out now, so it's not that pretty yet. Hopefully everything will start growing in now.

I made a magic floating island too


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

So here's what's happening now with this tank (I posted this at the beginning as well, for people just seeing this thread for the first time)
I started off this tank, with an attempt at a nice iwagumi style.. discovered why there really are not that many REALLY perfect iwagumi tanks. They take a lot of self discipline, patience and restraint.

I had a massive algae problem with it in the past few months, and have finally been able to get the upper hand on it, with the help of some really great advice from people here!

Anyway, the plants situation in there right now is not very good. Everything is just starting to recover, and I replanted everything a few weeks ago. All of my HC, UG and Belem hairgrass died quickly from being smothered by the algae.

Once it stabilizes I plan to cover the substrate with a full HC carpet, and perhaps some B.Hairgrass so that just the rocks are sticking out, like a scottish hillside.

Ahem.. except, last time I checked there were no magical floating islands floating over scotland. So.. ahh.. I don't care. I like floating magical islands, and it's MY Scotland. Hahahaha

I plan to update this thread with new pics once a week from now on. Hopefully it goes well now!

The floating islands will look a lot better once the flame moss/pellia have grown in, and the cotton thread rots away. Right now it looks a bit rough. 


Anyone have suggestions for the background? I was thinking about putting the black back on there, or getting a white background that kind of goes pink/orange like a sunset. 

Thanks!


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

It reminds me of Pandora's (Avatar movie) floating rocks.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> It reminds me of Pandora's (the movie) floating rocks.


From Avatar? I love that.. maybe I should emulate those mountains more..


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Woahhhh.......Those islands are awesome! Total Avatar tank. If there was a horde of blue shrimps they can go to battle. This tank looks huge BTW....


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Woahhhh.......Those islands are awesome! Total Avatar tank. If there was a horde of blue shrimps they can go to battle.


Haha.. alright.. I think I'm going to make more islands.. and maybe shape them like Avatar ones. You got me started.. I should have warned you not to do that! haha


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

New title... '12g Pandora's islands' or something similar :icon_mrgr

How did you make those and get them to stay suspended?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I called it "12 Gallon Panoramic Floating Islands"

Chopsticks drilled into the back of the wood, suction cups on the chopsticks.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I still say use 'Pandora' instead of Panoramic.

I can see how you did now. How many suction cups does it take to hold up the large island?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> I still say use 'Pandora' instead of Panoramic.
> 
> I can see how you did now. How many suction cups does it take to hold up the large island?


Yeah, I'll change to Pandora I reckon..  4 suction cups.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I was looking for baby CRS, and saw these on the glass.. LOTS of them. I was trying to figure out how micro tadpoles got into my aquarium, then realized my Otos have been looking really fat lately. Baby Otos!!!   There must be at least 30 or 40 there.



<3


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Nice! Now you have some Pandora natives to defend from outside algae invaders LOL.


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

^I WANT ONEEEEEEEEE!!!! 


*nvm - mr. aqua 12 long.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> Nice! Now you have some Pandora natives to defend from outside algae invaders LOL.


lol! I really need some blue tigers for in there. Anyone wanna hook me up? :biggrin:


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Just noticed a ton of lil baby CRS.. all of the ones I saw are SS+ (some are all white, with just a little color on the head).. so, SSS maybe?


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

oooooo how exciting! i say pics or it didnt happen  


Amy


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

SkyGrl said:


> oooooo how exciting! i say pics or it didnt happen
> 
> 
> Amy


Hahaha.. pics soon, I promise.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

So, I spent 20 mins looking for them, could only find 2 CBS. There must be more though.. they just hide.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Hey, congrats on the babies!!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks! Hope they make it this time.. :')


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I just posted these pics on my "CRS BABIES" thread.. so my apologies if you've seen them already..


My adult CRS:






























Some of my new babies here.. 
























































One of the adults



















And, hanging out with an Oto 












This is the Koa wood custom stand I built for this unusual shaped tank. (I plan to hang a black drape on the front, behind the top frame.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

Those are some nice looking shrimps!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

ddtran46 said:


> Those are some nice looking shrimps!


Thanks!


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

Looks like a shrimp heaven, great job!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

The shrimp and stand look very nice. Good work!


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

Great project!

There is only thing missing... one more shrimp... Ebi-s Presley!


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

hey, that is awsome!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks everyone! Lol! Ebis Presley. Love it.. Last time I named them all, they disappeared. This time I'll wait until they're at least half adult size before I get too attached. They are still almost microscopical!


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

It's Sunday... Pics


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> It's Sunday... Pics


Haha.. okay, stand by. Takin some this afternoon.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Pics! (not the best pics, will take some more with the right lens next Sun as well)

I removed the floating island, trying to straighten out this tank and make it more natural. Lots of nice baby CRS in there now, (most of them inside the little acrylic nursery I made)


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Nice! That's some really, really solid coloration on those shrimp. You're really lucky to have access to those grades of shrimp. Also, did that CBS turn out to be a BKK?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> Nice! That's some really, really solid coloration on those shrimp. You're really lucky to have access to those grades of shrimp. Also, did that CBS turn out to be a BKK?


Thanks!

Unfortunately that batch died, along with the BKK, but she did get bigger before she disappeared, and yes it looks like she was a BKK indeed. I have about 30 babies now, all of them past the delicate stage so I'm pretty sure they'll all make it!

I haven't noticed any more BKKs, they're so rare! But the good news is, I know that my adults have already thrown one, so they will likely throw out more of them.. jut gotta be patient. In the meantime, I AM so lucky to have these nice grade shrimp.. I'll be enjoying my SS/SS+ and even a few SSS!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

This one is awesome.. (on the right side in this pic) SSS at least.. ? She's mostly white with just a little bit of color on the crown. I have a few like this one in my batch of babies.. 

The other thing I'm really excited about is that I seem to have a lot of new CBS.. I only have one adult CBS, so I was hoping for some in the baby batches. I think there's like one out of 10 that's CBS


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I like your mini island in the breeder. Cool Stuff.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> I like your mini island in the breeder. Cool Stuff.


Hahah thanks.. it was left over from the island setup. There the big one no my pond.. maybe I'll get some mosses and pellia to populate the pond.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Here's a Vid I took today of my shrimplets today.. So many high grades!!! CBS and CRS! I think it must be 90% high grades.. 

I have not done any culling. That's all of the shrimps I could catch, indiscriminately. (are youtube videos okay to post here?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRPElIs9Mo

And here are some new pics of the tank after a lot of cleaning up and trimming. I also re-tuned the rockscapes at both ends:

I finally got a good picture of the flame koa wood I used on the stand.. no photoshop color enhancing! Just used the camera flash.. the wood really looks this good! I wish I used a darker filler for the screw holes though. 











Another picture of the Koa frame











Four leaf clover











Wider shot











This shows my Shakuhachi wall mount, as well as my old violin 











Complete tank shot











Starlight, starbright!











FTS (almost)



























































Thanks for looking!


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Pretty cool setup my friend. Good lookin scape as well. You should do some crypt parva in there. They do well in low tech setups such as yours. They stay low to the ground like this: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/alphaQup/IMG_4615copy.jpg


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

speedie408 said:


> Pretty cool setup my friend. Good lookin scape as well. You should do some crypt parva in there. They do well in low tech setups such as yours. They stay low to the ground like this: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/alphaQup/IMG_4615copy.jpg


Nice.. I actually do have a few of those in there.. just a few. SUPER slow growing 

I'm thinking of making it pretty much crypt and anubias only (and of course the CRS/CBS)


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Nice shots. Your tank looks HUGE, but it's not. Those babies are looking like they are ready for the wilderness.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Nice shots. Your tank looks HUGE, but it's not. Those babies are looking like they are ready for the wilderness.


Thanks :hihi:

Yeah they are huh! I reckon I may release them tomorrow.

You know.. I think the reason my other babies disappeared was because I had 4 hungry otos in there. I know they are not known to eat shrimps, but from what I've seen they are aggressive eaters, and I don't think they would hesitate to eat newborn shrimplets once they get the taste.

I put them out in my pond.. so the shrimplets are safe.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I think Otos are vegetarians. They might ram in to them or land on them, but your babies looks big enough to move away.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> I think Otos are vegetarians. They might ram in to them or land on them, but your babies looks big enough to move away.


Yeah, I was talking about newborn shrimplets. Mine are big enough now.. but I did notice another whole new batch today, tiny almost invisible babies.

I know they are algae eaters, but they are omnivorous. I've seen them all over a dead fish before.


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## Kosey929 (Mar 27, 2011)

This tank is looking really good! I'm going to set mine up this week and decided to go with shrimp and otos as well. I hope it turns out half as good as this.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Kosey929 said:


> This tank is looking really good! I'm going to set mine up this week and decided to go with shrimp and otos as well. I hope it turns out half as good as this.


Thanks! That's nice of you to say. I had a lot of algae issues, so it's not close to the way I wanted it to be, at least not yet. I had originally planned on having a carpet plant covering 90% of the substrate, but the algae prevented that.

Luckily I'm pleased with my hardscape, so even with minimal plants I like how my tank looks.

Make sure you post a tank journal with pics! I'd love to see what you do with yours!


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Kosey929 said:


> This tank is looking really good! I'm going to set mine up this week and decided to go with shrimp and otos as well. I hope it turns out half as good as this.


+1, gonna set up my tank as soon as I find a stand! Lol


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

jkan0228 said:


> +1, gonna set up my tank as soon as I find a stand! Lol


Make one!!


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

How are the babies doing since you freed them? What are you doing with your other LED...I see that you're down to one...


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

ADA said:


> Make one!!


Haha I don't have the skill. Make me one! Lol


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> How are the babies doing since you freed them? What are you doing with your other LED...I see that you're down to one...


Babies are doing so well! They seem to be everywhere.. so exciting. 

I have the other light in my closet, just trying to get the algae under control, and then maybe add the second light again.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I counted 30 just now, 90% are SS and above. If there are 30 in plain view, there must be a bunch more hiding  Will take pics sometime in the next few days.


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

oh! I got another one... ebi-normal.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Noice!!!...if you can count 30 there's at least 50. Breed them up!!!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> I counted 30 just now, 90% are SS and above. If there are 30 in plain view, there must be a bunch more hiding  Will take pics sometime in the next few days.


Now what you can start doing is culling (taking them and putting them into another tank, selling them in the sns or selling/trading/giving them to a LFS) the ones of lesser quality/lower grades so you can over time do as I did. I went from S+ all the way to SSS over the course of two years or so with this method.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> Now what you can start doing is culling (taking them and putting them into another tank, selling them in the sns or selling/trading/giving them to a LFS) the ones of lesser quality/lower grades so you can over time do as I did. I went from S+ all the way to SSS over the course of two years or so with this method.


That's awesome.. you have some amazing shrimp. Wow. I didn't realize you can up-breed them like that. I can't believe how well they are all doing. It seems like they're groaning so fast, but I keep seeing smaller and smaller ones too. They are breeding fast!


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Noice!!!...if you can count 30 there's at least 50. Breed them up!!!


Yup. I figured that!   :bounce:


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

firefiend said:


> oh! I got another one... ebi-normal.


Hahahah!

I have another... Ebi-an (Evian water)


----------



## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> That's awesome.. you have some amazing shrimp. Wow. I didn't realize you can up-breed them like that. I can't believe how well they are all doing. It seems like they're groaning so fast, but I keep seeing smaller and smaller ones too. They are breeding fast!


Do you have any idea what you changed from when they weren't breeding to the shrimp factory you have now?

Its pretty easy to do the culls. You might need to wait roughly a month after they are hatched in order to see the markings clearly enough but sometimes its not necessary to wait that long at all. You just want to make sure that you remove any that aren't up to snuff before they get to breeding age (about 3-4 months from what I gather/have seen) because if they do it will only add to the number of lower grade/shrimp that do not possess the higher grade markings in the tank


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> Do you have any idea what you changed from when they weren't breeding to the shrimp factory you have now?
> 
> No, I have no idea what I did differently.. I don't recall having changed anything actually.
> 
> Its pretty easy to do the culls. You might need to wait roughly a month after they are hatched in order to see the markings clearly enough but sometimes its not necessary to wait that long at all. You just want to make sure that you remove any that aren't up to snuff before they get to breeding age (about 3-4 months from what I gather/have seen) because if they do it will only add to the number of lower grade/shrimp that do not possess the higher grade markings in the tank


Thanks! I'll be doing that for sure. I'm going to actually start another tank specifically for S grades, because even though they are lower grades, I have always loved shrimp with full bands. I will be extremely picky with those, and have only very nice bright solid colored banded shrimps in there.

As for the high grades, I'll do just like you said, and try to get the best grades possible.. 

I'll probably sell off the rest, and/or put some into my tiny pond outside, to see if I can get a colony going out there.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Here are some pics I took tonight. They are all looking very happy. There are some that are even higher grade than I had noticed before. Also, if you look closely there are REALLY tiny shrimp in there too. There are at least 4 or 5 different batches now, and 2 of the parents are berried again!















































FTS: I cleaned up the scape even more. It's starting to look like I want it to.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

What are those little white things? They look like rice!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

jkan0228 said:


> What are those little white things? They look like rice!


Uggh.. Nerite eggs. They are a huge pain. Very hard to scrape off too. Having Nerites is not worth the trouble. They eat algae, and they are pretty but these eggs ruin everything. I'll be putting them in my pond soon I reckon.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

I have a bunch if nerites in my mini-m and they never lay eggs. Not sure why but I'm fine with it.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> Thanks! I'll be doing that for sure. I'm going to actually start another tank specifically for S grades, because even though they are lower grades, I have always loved shrimp with full bands. I will be extremely picky with those, and have only very nice bright solid colored banded shrimps in there.
> 
> As for the high grades, I'll do just like you said, and try to get the best grades possible..
> 
> I'll probably sell off the rest, and/or put some into my tiny pond outside, to see if I can get a colony going out there.


I didn't see this post. You can setup a basic 10g or something with a spong filter for the others. They don't need much


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

ADA said:


> Uggh.. Nerite eggs. They are a huge pain. Very hard to scrape off too. Having Nerites is not worth the trouble. They eat algae, and they are pretty but these eggs ruin everything. I'll be putting them in my pond soon I reckon.


How many do you have? I have 10 and only have a fraction of the eggs I see in your tank.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> I didn't see this post. You can setup a basic 10g or something with a spong filter for the others. They don't need much


Yup! But I can't resist.. I'll end up making it pretty. Haha.. maybe an anubias/crypt/CRS tank!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> How many do you have? I have 10 and only have a fraction of the eggs I see in your tank.


I have only 4 of them.. they lay these eggs constantly.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

ADA said:


> I have only 4 of them.. they lay these eggs constantly.


LOL that's because everything in your tank wants to have sex all the time. :icon_mrgr


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

I thought Nerites only reproduced in brackish water, is this not true?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

firefiend said:


> I thought Nerites only reproduced in brackish water, is this not true?


They still breed and lay eggs. The larvae need to be hatched in brackish water in order to survive though.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Ada, those eggs will dissolve over time a month or two. However, if you observe your snails carefully you can identify the female ones that are laying the eggs. Remove the females and no more eggs. Usually the big fat ones are the mamas.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Ada, those eggs will dissolve over time a month or two. However, if you observe your snails carefully you can identify the female ones that are laying the eggs. Remove the females and no more eggs. Usually the big fat ones are the mamas.


Good advice. Thank you, I'll try that.


----------



## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Beautiful shots of the shrimp. Love the length of the tank it really allows you to create a great looking scene. 

The nerites do the same in salt tanks too, just nice food for the rest of the tank inhabitants although it definitely can be unsightly.


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

Nice shrimp! let me know when you're ready to sell some


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsk said:


> Nice shrimp! let me know when you're ready to sell some


BSK, I'll be saving a few for you for free


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

2in10 said:


> Beautiful shots of the shrimp. Love the length of the tank it really allows you to create a great looking scene.
> 
> The nerites do the same in salt tanks too, just nice food for the rest of the tank inhabitants although it definitely can be unsightly.


Thanks!


----------



## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Yeah, I have two nerites that lay eggs almost non stop. They do not dissolve that easily or quickly for that matter. I have a funky design one decided to create smack dead center of one of my tanks and months later the stupid thing is still there mocking me. I don't dare stick anything in there to remove it since the acrylic on that tank scratches like nobodys business.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

demonr6 said:


> Yeah, I have two nerites that lay eggs almost non stop. They do not dissolve that easily or quickly for that matter. I have a funky design one decided to create smack dead center of one of my tanks and months later the stupid thing is still there mocking me. I don't dare stick anything in there to remove it since the acrylic on that tank scratches like nobodys business.


That sucks.. what about using your finger nail? That shouldn't scratch it..


----------



## BradH (May 15, 2008)

Just read through this whole thread. Nice tank and shrimp!


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

Yeah, I'd totally get those female nerites out. The white speckles are distracting but still I really like the plants and especially the hardscape!


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

ADA said:


> BSK, I'll be saving a few for you for free


sweet! I cant wait to get them. So how are the 6 little guys doing? Have they colored up better now?

I think I may purchase some CBS SSS from Nikki did you want to get some and split the shipping?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsk said:


> I think I may purchase some CBS SSS from Nikki did you want to get some and split the shipping?


I may want to get some from Nikki.. she has awesome shrimp, do you know how much they will cost? If I can afford it, I'll do it for sure. Thanks!


----------



## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

The CBS are $25 SSS grade. $20 for crs she said she would hand pick them for the best color.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsk said:


> The CBS are $25 SSS grade. $20 for crs she said she would hand pick them for the best color.


Is there a minimum? I could only afford 1 or 2.. lol!


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

haha no minimum I'm only going to get 4 so 1 or 2 is ok. lmk soon I plan on ordering in the next few days. She's charging $35 for express shipping so it would be $17.50 each or we could chance priority mail $6.25 each. What u think?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Do you have a link to the actual shrimp she's selling? I'd like to see them if possible. Some of mine are pretty high grade. I'd like to see how much better they are than mine before I buy.
Express would be safer.. anyone else want to get one or 2? It would be good if we could split shipping between more ppl


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

here you go

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp-lab/145626-shrimp-sale-extended-new-prices.html


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I'd love some BKK, or BP.. anyone know where I can get, at an affordable price?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Hi everyone!

I haven't had a lot of time lately, but just wanted to check in to post this one picture of one of my fav lil shrimplets.. he really stands out, because of how bright and solid the white is!











I'll take some more pics of everything this weekend and post.

Thanks for looking!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

wow! he almost looks like that pic nikki posted of the ebiken line or whatever it was, very nice ^^


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

ADA, that's a nice flower you've got there! Breed him/her!


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

So pretty!!!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks! I can say that he is from an very high quality line, and is a 1st generation baby. I got very lucky with the parents if this guy..


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

New to this forum but I chanced upon your 12 gallon long picture in some other thread. I was so attracted I read through all 14 pages of this @[email protected] GREAT TANK!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

diwu13 said:


> New to this forum but I chanced upon your 12 gallon long picture in some other thread. I was so attracted I read through all 14 pages of this @[email protected] GREAT TANK!


Thanks!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

I. Love. This. Tank.

Have to fight the urge to check this thread every couple days because it makes me want to order one of these super-long tanks.


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## partobe (Jul 29, 2011)

love it!!!


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## londonloco (Aug 25, 2005)

great tank it's been awhile, updated fts? please...... oh, and btw, your wife has great shoes! My girls would be so jealous......


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## aquaquang (Jun 17, 2008)

Your tank looks great!
But I was expected a typical 'Iwagumi' rock work with that Gla size you have dude.

How many CRS babies that you have so far can survive?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> I. Love. This. Tank.
> 
> Have to fight the urge to check this thread every couple days because it makes me want to order one of these super-long tanks.


Hey, thanks!.. DO IT!!! haha.. 







partobe said:


> love it!!!


Thank you :wink:








londonloco said:


> great tank it's been awhile, updated fts? please...... oh, and btw, your wife has great shoes! My girls would be so jealous......


She certainly loves her shoes.. and she has enough to wear a different pair every day for a couple of months.. lol.. ALL stilettos. Not one pair of flats. haha

I'll try to get a FTS today.







aquaquang said:


> Your tank looks great!
> But I was expected a typical 'Iwagumi' rock work with that Gla size you have dude.
> 
> How many CRS babies that you have so far can survive?


Thanks!

What's "Gla"? I'm a novice with rock work.. no idea what I'm doing. 

I have LOADS of babies.. I haven't noticed any dead ones at all.. my population is exploding. I have at least 50 SS+ - SSS that are visible at any given time (you know what they say.. if you can see ten, there are 20 more, hiding)

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

I'll share sometime, when I feel like it's getting overcrowded.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Sucks that your in Hawaii.


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## kcirtappatrick (Mar 16, 2009)

amazing looking shrimp.


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## BradH (May 15, 2008)

jkan0228 said:


> Sucks that your in Hawaii.


I would think being in Hawaii actually would be better than any other state. :icon_lol:

I so wish I lived in Hawaii.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I dunno about that. I once rented a car on Oahu while I was in the Navy. I started off driving up the middle through the pineapple fields and turned right once I got to the North Shore. Then I kept turning right until I was back in Honolulu where I started 45 minutes earlier. I think I could live on the Big Island Hawaii as it's large enough to take more than a day to drive around and it has the Kilauea Volcano.


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## BradH (May 15, 2008)

audioaficionado said:


> I dunno about that. I once rented a car on Oahu while I was in the Navy. I started off driving up the middle through the pineapple fields and turned right once I got to the North Shore. Then I kept turning right until I was back in Honolulu where I started 45 minutes earlier. I think I could live on the Big Island Hawaii as it's large enough to take more than a day to drive around and it has the Kilauea Volcano.


lol That's pretty funny! I really meant in terms of the weather.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Update time! (thanks for the comments to everyone)

*fyi, the ugly PVC tubing is temporary.. I plan to replace the outflows and intakes with acrylic.

Things are really starting to get good in this tank. The algae is gone, everything is balancing out, the shrimp are very happy and breeding like bunnies. Plants are growing great.

My wife took some more shots for me (always can tell when she takes the pics, because she's much better at it than I.. 


FTS






























Lonely remaining Rabbit Snail  The other one climbed out.





















Now, the fun part.. shrimp pics 






































I held up a bright warm colored light, while my wife took some shots.. I love the way it looks like sun shining in.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Lol



audioaficionado said:


> i dunno about that. I once rented a car on oahu while i was in the navy. I started off driving up the middle through the pineapple fields and turned right once i got to the north shore. Then i kept turning right until i was back in honolulu where i started 45 minutes earlier. I think i could live on the big island hawaii as it's large enough to take more than a day to drive around and it has the kilauea volcano.


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## Kazuya (Apr 4, 2011)

ADA said:


>



I have a similar small rock like the pic above.
The 2nd pic in the quote is my favorite. Can I also get a plant id on those plants.

Sexy shrimp. 
Are those rainmakers above your shelf?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Kazuya said:


> I have a similar small rock like the pic above.
> The 2nd pic in the quote is my favorite. Can I also get a plant id on those plants.


Yeah I love that rock.. it's really small, but has presence. That's why I put it in the foreground 

Lete's see.. plants. 

In that tank I have:

Ammannia sp. 'Bonsai' (Rotala Indica)

A few other types of Rotala sp.

Flame moss

Mini Pellia

Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Fissiden Fontanus

Süßwassertang

Marsilea Quadrifolia

Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides

Japanese "Belem" micro grass

Cuphea Anagalloidea

.. I think that's about it.. oh and Amazon Frogbit, and another type of unidentified floater.

Did you want to know about any of my plants in particular?

Here's my other tank.. most of the same plants are in here, but they look different, because this is a high tech tank. 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/t.../134096-2-9-gallon-fantasy-tree-stump-10.html





Kazuya said:


> Sexy shrimp.
> Are those rainmakers above your shelf?


No, those are some ancient shakuhachi flutes from Japan. These moisture sensitive instruments are actually what got me into this hobby to start with. I needed a way to keep the humidity up, somehow, because they are made from bamboo which cracks if the air gets too dry.
I got a small betta tank, so the evaporation would humidify the air above, which worked very well.. from there, I got a bigger tank, and eventually I got into planted tanks/shrimp.. the 12 gallon long is doing a very good job keeping my shakuhachi collection safe now


----------



## Kazuya (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks. 
I was actually talking about the floater plants.

Those are really nice flutes.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Some more pics from today...


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Nice new pics. Does your Tylo eat your plants?


----------



## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

I'd beware of the Tylo eating your plants. I just got 5 and noticed they love to dine on my downois. 

I like this specific SSS+ right here!


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

speedie408 said:


> I'd beware of the Tylo eating your plants. I just got 5 and noticed they love to dine on my downois.


Yep they're not plant safe. Pretty, but my Downois is much more important.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Nice new pics. Does your Tylo eat your plants?


Thanks! Nope.. not yet anyways.





speedie408 said:


> I'd beware of the Tylo eating your plants. I just got 5 and noticed they love to dine on my downois.


Yeah, I have heard that they like to snack on expensive plants, but I have yet to find a single snail tooth mark in any of my plants, and I do have lots of tiny tasty looking plants.. So far so good.




speedie408 said:


> I like this specific SSS+ right here!


Thanks man! So this is SSS+? I'm still not so good at grading.. Most of my shrimp have really nice bright solid white, and solid colors. Some of the ones that are mostly white even have white legs.



audioaficionado said:


> Yep they're not plant safe. Pretty, but my Downois is much more important.


My Downois grow like weeds, and like I said, after a few months, still no bite marks in any plants.. also, he's really small (dwarf species, not like the larger more common ones). 
I'm pretty sure he's fully grown, and he's only about half an inch. Super cute.. I would probably sacrifice a few little downoi leaves for my little Tylo! 

:bounce:


----------



## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

speedie408 said:


> I'd beware of the Tylo eating your plants. I just got 5 and noticed they love to dine on my downois.
> 
> I like this specific SSS+ right here!


yup thats a beautiful shrimp! I like the white legs


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## Kazuya (Apr 4, 2011)

Shrimp on floating plant is my favorite shot.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsk said:


> yup thats a beautiful shrimp! I like the white legs


BSK, that's what yours should look like. We'll have to figure out what's going on with the water params or something.


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## mcqueenesq (Aug 29, 2011)

I love this thread! Your tank and shrimp look great. Have you had any troubles with the low height?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

mcqueenesq said:


> I love this thread! Your tank and shrimp look great. Have you had any troubles with the low height?


Thank you! 

How do you mean.. you mean the light being low? I actually did have a lot of algae issues for a while.. these lights are really bright. I now have it about 17" from the substrate, and only have a photoperiod of 8 hrs. Things have balanced out really well. No algae, but still nice plant growth, no Co2 or ferts. Shrimp are happy


----------



## mcqueenesq (Aug 29, 2011)

That's good information to know about how to keep the algae down. You're obviously getting enough light from those LEDs. I guess I was wondering whether the low height made it easier for the inhabitants to get out.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

mcqueenesq said:


> That's good information to know about how to keep the algae down. You're obviously getting enough light from those LEDs. I guess I was wondering whether the low height made it easier for the inhabitants to get out.


Oh I see.. no I don't think it would make a difference. The water level will make a difference, ie. if you fill it to the rim, on any height tank, shrimp/fish can easily jump out. I don't think tank height affects it though. Keep the water to their liking and they will usually stay inside


----------



## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Wow! You have some great tanks! Did you buy this tank locally? Sorry, off the subject but is that a Kamaka 8 string ukulele in your picture?


----------



## Caleb19 (Sep 27, 2010)

Great tank! Also off subject and in tune with Kai's question (pun intended), but are those various Shakuhachi Flutes I see above your tank?


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Kai808 said:


> Wow! You have some great tanks! Did you buy this tank locally? Sorry, off the subject but is that a Kamaka 8 string ukulele in your picture?


Hi! Thanks.. yeah I bought my 3 gallon Do!Aqua tank from Aquascapes in Aiea, the 12 Gallon in this thread I got from Pets Plus on Ward, and the new 8.5 Gallon I swapped for 3 of my SSS Shrimps 

... and YES! that is an 8 string vintage Kamaka ukulele.




Caleb19 said:


> Great tank! Also off subject and in tune with Kai's question (pun intended), but are those various Shakuhachi Flutes I see above your tank?


Thank you, hahah good pun. Yeah those are Shakuhachi.. The one at the bottom is an incredible instrument. It was made in Japan about 100 years ago, but has been meticulously restored by a master flute maker, who handcrafted the solid silver joint. It's sound is absolutely beautiful, deep haunting. I've never heard any flute like it.. one of a kind. I bought it for $1500 which is a very good price, considering the tone, age and quality.

The second one from the top is from Japan's "Edo" period (around 400 years old).. It's in playable condition and has a very unique tone that comes with it's age and could never be replicated in a new flute.

Those flutes are actually the thing that got me into the planted tank hobby. I started with just a couple of bowls of water under the flute mounts, because they need some humidity.. the water evaporates and keeps the bamboo from splitting. Then I figured I may as well get some fish, upgraded tanks a few times...


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Pics! 

Sorry for the poor quality.. taken with my phone this time. I'll get some good pics with the good camera next time.


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## TickleMyElmo (Aug 13, 2009)

Looks great, oh and +1 for being in the super cool LED club lol...


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

TickleMyElmo said:


> Looks great, oh and +1 for being in the super cool LED club lol...


Hahah, thanks.. LEDs RULE!


----------



## TickleMyElmo (Aug 13, 2009)

ADA said:


> Hahah, thanks.. LEDs RULE!


Yup! Got them for my riparium and they'll be the next purchase for my 40B lol...once you start, you're hooked lol...


----------



## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Wow. You must have sunk in north of $300 for those shrimp.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

My fav shrimp on this forum. roud:

Tank is looking great man! 

Love the Hydrocotyle accents. Nice touch!


----------



## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

Awesome tank. What kind of light is it?


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> Wow. You must have sunk in north of $300 for those shrimp.


Shhh My wife might see this thread... hahah j/k. 





speedie408 said:


> My fav shrimp on this forum. roud:
> 
> Tank is looking great man!
> 
> Love the Hydrocotyle accents. Nice touch!


Thanks! Yeah, Hydrocotyle is one of my fav plants.. Any compliment from you is a big deal... you're a master :big grin:

The babies are (slowly) growing.. I see at least a few SSS in this batch too.. :bounce:




green_valley said:


> Awesome tank. What kind of light is it?


Thanks. Marineland Double Bright Led light.





TickleMyElmo said:


> Yup! Got them for my riparium and they'll be the next purchase for my 40B lol...once you start, you're hooked lol...


roud:


----------



## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

ADA said:


> Shhh My wife might see this thread... hahah j/k.


lol. Love how you added the j/k just in case she does. J/k!


----------



## Gnomecatcher (Sep 8, 2011)

I love the double bright LED. I have it on my 10g. They give a really fantastic effect. 

NICE shrimp!!!


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> lol. Love how you added the j/k just in case she does. J/k!


hahah. She doesn't skurrr me.. she's a tiny little hapa. 





Gnomecatcher said:


> I love the double bright LED. I have it on my 10g. They give a really fantastic effect.
> 
> NICE shrimp!!!


Thanks! Yeah, I love the shimmer effect that they produce.. and if anyone is wondering if they're powerful enough for plants, they are MORE than adequate. I had to lift mine quite high, just to avoid algae farm.


----------



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

SERIOUSLY?!

Every time you bring this thread up, it causes me to spend money.

This is not a good thing with Black Friday happening in just five hours.

Oh my goodness. Please don't let me buy another one of these tanks.

Also, this is hands-down my most favorite tank ever.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> SERIOUSLY?!
> 
> Every time you bring this thread up, it causes me to spend money.
> 
> ...


hahaahh! DO IT!!! A wise man once said "One can never have too many planted tanks" (I'm pretty sure that's a legit quote.. I may be the wise man though)..

Thank you for the compliment. It's a big deal to have someone's "favorite tank hands down"   :bounce:


----------



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

So, today... while the TPT was down... what'd I do? I ordered one of these tanks and I'm about to bang my head against the wall. Like I need ANOTHER tank. But dangit - these are great.

How's the 2213 working out on this tank? I've got a spare that I hope to use. Ordered a 36" piece of rigid tubing to craft a spray bar, so I'm hoping that works out.

Only torn about lighting. Should I snatch up a Coralife T5 fixture and go high light? Or low light? So many decisions.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> So, today... while the TPT was down... what'd I do? I ordered one of these tanks and I'm about to bang my head against the wall. Like I need ANOTHER tank. But dangit - these are great.
> 
> How's the 2213 working out on this tank? I've got a spare that I hope to use. Ordered a 36" piece of rigid tubing to craft a spray bar, so I'm hoping that works out.
> 
> Only torn about lighting. Should I snatch up a Coralife T5 fixture and go high light? Or low light? So many decisions.


Lol! Good for you. Make a thread for it!!!

Honestly, I dont like the 2213 at all. That's why I used PVC and tried to increase the flow by splitting the output, one at each end, for a whirlpool effect. It's just not strong enough for this length tank, imho. 

I just bought a fluval 306 for my mini - L which turns out to be amazing. I think I will switch them because it's at least double the flow of the 2213. 

The marineland double bright led that I have is plenty of light for either high light or low light (just raise it higher and you have low tech!)
I really love that light. I bought two of them, thinking I need them both for high tech, but even with co2, ferts and excel, it was waaaaay too much light.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Darn - guess I'll need to order a Sunsun filter or consider using two of my Eheims on it. Can't bring myself to spend big on a filter for my impulse buy. At least not yet.

That's great to hear about the Marineland double bright. Everything I've read suggested they were merely low light rigs. Guess I wasn't thinking about how shallow this tank is - so that makes more sense now. 

Thanks for keeping this thread going and sharing all of your experiences!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Yeah, being such a shallow tank really makes a huge difference for lighting needs. 

Two eheims would be awesome. Eheims are really good filters, but they do have pretty low flow rates in my experience with them. Even the 2215 was weak, compared to my fluval. The fluval is amazing, I really love it. If u can afford it in the future, I would highly recommend their *06 series. The issue with this tank is that it has such a large footprint, so it's hard to get the water moving and eliminate dead spots. Two eheims would do the trick. 

It's certainly a neurotic little tank, but once you figure out how to get it running happily, it's 100% worth the trouble. Wait a second... That sentence could almost be used for my wife. Hhahaha


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## 4f1hmi (Apr 22, 2009)

Really nice set up you got there. Congratulations! Just a heads up on your lights. I have the small version of that light from marineland. A little water splashing from my filter killed three of the LED's on the fixture after about 2 months. You may want to protect your expensive lights from water intrusion just in case.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

4f1hmi said:


> Really nice set up you got there. Congratulations! Just a heads up on your lights. I have the small version of that light from marineland. A little water splashing from my filter killed three of the LED's on the fixture after about 2 months. You may want to protect your expensive lights from water intrusion just in case.


Thanks!
Ohhh I had no idea that they were so sensitive.. mine are pretty safe because I have the light so far above the top of the tank, but it's good to know.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

ADA: Any thoughts on this fixture?

I'm leaning toward the Marineland and saw one tonight at the LFS. But saving a few bucks would be nice.

Also picked up an Eheim 2232 for woah cheap to use on it.

Hoping the tank looks as nice as yours some day!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Hmm.. even with that many LED lights in it (129 LEDs) it's going to be nowhere near as good as the Marineland Doublebright. It LOOKS great, but I'd say you get what you pay for. The light in the link you posted is 600 lumens, and the same length light by Marineland is 1200 lumens.

I don't know much about the Eheim 2232 but you can't really go wrong with an Eheim, I think. 

I'm sure your tank will be amazing! Just think about what you want it to look like (even get a pencil and paper, and sketch layouts until you find one you're happy with) and then commit to it and make it look like that.

And post pics!!  ppl here will give you advice when you get stuck and need suggestions!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Good call on the light intensity!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Did you ever consider running a small powerhead in this tank to increase circulation/flow? Or do you think the slim design of the tank would make that difficult?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Good call on the light intensity!


I'm wary because I got sucked in and bought a Led "grow light" off ebay with over 100 leds, and it's basically useless :confused1:


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## smracer31 (Sep 8, 2011)

Nice tank ada! I have one of these tanks on the way and have a quick question on the lighting. I see your using the 36-48" marineland model but your having to raise it up to prevent algae. Do you think the light you have + c02 (which i plan on having) would keep most algae at bay? Based on marinelands specs, they say at 12" this light puts out 54 par, I assume its about 9" or less from the substrate resting on top of the tank, so its around 68 par which would make it a medium-high light for this tank(i think, im still learning this stuff) 

My setup will be on a large coffee table and view-able from 3 sides, so im looking to keep a low profile type light on top
Thanks


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Hey  you wouldn't want this light to be directly on the top of the tank even with Co2. If it's raised a few inches, then yes, you could find the balance and keep it algae free. I'd say its high light though, not med/high. Even with those par estimations.. If you actually measure the par I'd bet it would be much higher.


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## smracer31 (Sep 8, 2011)

thanks for the fast response ada, hmm, i might have to get creative then with the mounting!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

ADA: Could you post photos or additional details about how you attached material/chain to your light fixture for mounting?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

smracer31 said:


> thanks for the fast response ada, hmm, i might have to get creative then with the mounting!


Yesssss.. did you see my mounting methods early in this thread?



somewhatshocked said:


> ADA: Could you post photos or additional details about how you attached material/chain to your light fixture for mounting?


Actually, all I did was pull out the wire mounting brackets that came with the light, and put screws in the holes it left behind, and attached the chain to the screws.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

That's music to my ears! (eyes?)



ADA said:


> Actually, all I did was pull out the wire mounting brackets that came with the light, and put screws in the holes it left behind, and attached the chain to the screws.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Finally snapped a few pics with my iPhone.. not the best quality, sorry about that. Just waiting for my darling to set her camera up and shoot some good ones.

FTS:











Here's one of the my new babies:











I have no idea where I got these Cryps from, but I really love them a lot, and they seem pretty unusual to me, because of the perfect circular shape, and the tiger striped leaves, and tiny white dots. Pics don't do justice. Anyone know what type it is?










Here's a closeup of the leaves (see the little white dots?)











Another baby











I like this plant too, because of the pattern on the leaves.. anyone know what it is?











Some more shrimp











White legs











Another pic of that crypt I love so much











Thanks for looking.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

very cool! that crypt is awesome. :hihi: your tank is looking great! those babies are looking sexy!

Amy


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

SkyGrl said:


> very cool! that crypt is awesome. :hihi: your tank is looking great! those babies are looking sexy!
> 
> Amy


Thanks Amy!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Love. This. Tank. 

Guess it's time for me to go buy a Double Bright and get started.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Love. This. Tank.
> 
> Guess it's time for me to go buy a Double Bright and get started.


DO IT! haha.


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## tr1umph.r2 (Nov 30, 2011)

Here's some pics on how I managed to secure my marineland double bright 36"-48" on my mr.aqua 12 long, using eye bolts, rubber grommets, stainless steel fishing line with attachments.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Ooh, good call! I like that idea.


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## tr1umph.r2 (Nov 30, 2011)

Thanks, all hardware cost only around $13.00, including eye bolts. You can buy pre made line with attachments at different lengths to adjust hight as needed.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

tr1umph.r2 said:


> Here's some pics on how I managed to secure my marineland double bright 36"-48" on my mr.aqua 12 long, using eye bolts, rubber grommets, stainless steel fishing line with attachments.
> View attachment 38909
> View attachment 38910


Love it!!!!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

The tank looks smashing bro!

That crypt you love could be a c.bullosa or even perhaps a true c.affinis. What ever it is I would love for you to ship me a runner if at all possible. And also of that one with the wild patterning too!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I would happily do that for you! I have not seen any runners at all, and have had them a long time but I'd pull a mother plant out for you if you want it, because I know how much you love crypts. How about the one at the front of the tank, in the pics I posted? I have three of them, total. The big one, then the one at the front, and another smaller one that I recently trimmed right back and only has a couple of leaves now. 
So, I know nothing about them (my love affair with them is just starting!) Is C.bullosa good? What about C.Affinis? Are they they somewhat rare? I've never seen any that quite look like these. They have this gorgeous reddish hugh to them too, that you can't see in the pics.

PM me your address (I think you gave me your address before, but I had to empty my inbox) and I'll get her in the mail.

edit. Oh, I just noticed I missed that last sentence of yours.. what wild pattern? I'm not sure which one you mean.. 




bsmith said:


> The tank looks smashing bro!
> 
> That crypt you love could be a c.bullosa or even perhaps a true c.affinis. What ever it is I would love for you to ship me a runner if at all possible. And also of that one with the wild patterning too!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> I would happily do that for you! I have not seen any runners at all, and have had them a long time but I'd pull a mother plant out for you if you want it, because I know how much you love crypts. How about the one at the front of the tank, in the pics I posted? I have three of them, total. The big one, then the one at the front, and another smaller one that I recently trimmed right back and only has a couple of leaves now.
> So, I know nothing about them (my love affair with them is just starting!) Is C.bullosa good? What about C.Affinis? Are they they somewhat rare? I've never seen any that quite look like these. They have this gorgeous reddish hugh to them too, that you can't see in the pics.
> 
> PM me your address (I think you gave me your address before, but I had to empty my inbox) and I'll get her in the mail.


That is quite awesome of you!

Here is a thread over at AC about bullosa. Im not sure how rare it is but it is one of the most striking Crypts IMO and its name its self lends to the crazy bullation (dimpling) of the leaves. 

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/cryptocorynes/80866-how-you-growing-c-bullosa.html

C.Affinis is a whole different story. I believe Aquatic Magic is selling what they call Affinis but IMO its nothing like some of the pics and descriptions I have seen/read of what the plant once was a few decades ago. 

Here is some reading on C.Affinis. Pretty interesting IMO. 

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/cryptocorynes/74914-c-affinis.html


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

The other one was the 6th pic in post #264 but after looking at the post again (the first time I saw it I was on my iPhone so the pic was small) it does not appear to be a crypt. Do you know what kind of plant it is or perhaps describe it a bit?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> That is quite awesome of you!
> 
> Here is a thread over at AC about bullosa. Im not sure how rare it is but it is one of the most striking Crypts IMO and its name its self lends to the crazy bullation (dimpling) of the leaves.
> 
> ...


Hmm.. after looking at that thread, it doesn't look like Bullosa to me. The leaves do dimple, but bullosa looks like it has a very definitive, unique and somewhat uniform dimpling. 

However, to my untrained eye, my plants look a LOT like the Affinis on that thread. There are several very striking things about mine though that I have not seen on any other crypt.

One, is the way it grows in a perfect circular shape.

Two, is the little tiny white dots on the leaves that make it look more like a slow growing, thicker "more expensive" leaf. Kind of looks like some Bucephalandra sp. I have seen.. Hard to explain.


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## S&KGray (Nov 12, 2008)

ADA said:


> I like this plant too, because of the pattern on the leaves.. anyone know what it is?





bsmith said:


> The other one was the 6th pic in post #264 but after looking at the post again (the first time I saw it I was on my iPhone so the pic was small) it does not appear to be a crypt. Do you know what kind of plant it is or perhaps describe it a bit?


Might be a type of dwarf sword?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> Hmm.. after looking at that thread, it doesn't look like Bullosa to me. The leaves do dimple, but bullosa looks like it has a very definitive, unique and somewhat uniform dimpling.
> 
> However, to my untrained eye, my plants look a LOT like the Affinis on that thread. There are several very striking things about mine though that I have not seen on any other crypt.
> 
> ...


You would know best my friend. All I know is that if it is indeed true affinis I'll have to fly to HI and give you a big ole smooch to show my gratitude!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> You would know best my friend. All I know is that if it is indeed true affinis I'll have to fly to HI and give you a big ole smooch to show my gratitude!


lol!

So, how would you tell?

Here's another thing that I just thought of. This is a very low tech tank. Only 8 hrs of light a day (I recently turned it down to 8hrs from about 10hrs, because Im getting some frustrating algae in there again 

But anyway, I have these really lovely Rotala species, in this tank and also in my high tech tank. They BARELY grow in this tank, and look like a totally different species, within a week or so if I transplant to the high tech tank. I'm wondering if it would show it's "true colors" if I moved one to the high tech tank... ?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

ADA said:


> lol!
> 
> So, how would you tell?
> 
> ...


Unfortunately with crypts the only sure way to ID a plant is to grow it emmersed and try to get an inflorescence (flower). They don't (at least very rarely) flower submerged. I really don't know if putting it in a high tech tank would help. Some crypts simply do better in the more lax environment of a low tech tank. I'll be putting whatever you send in my low tech mini-m where all of my crypts have been doing really well.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

S&KGray said:


> Might be a type of dwarf sword?


I found it!!

It's an Echinodorus Ozelot. I did some obsessive google searching, and finally found the plant. I'm absolutely certain this is it.

Echinodorus Ozelot


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> Unfortunately with crypts the only sure way to ID a plant is to grow it emmersed and try to get an inflorescence (flower). They don't (at least very rarely) flower submerged. I really don't know if putting it in a high tech tank would help. Some crypts simply do better in the more lax environment of a low tech tank. I'll be putting whatever you send in my low tech mini-m where all of my crypts have been doing really well.


Awesome. I'll be really interested to see what it does in your tank.


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## tizzite (Mar 28, 2010)

Lovin the scape and the spray bar. Man everyone's into shrimp! It makes me want to do a shrimp tank.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

How long is this tank? Could be a prime candidate to replace my Minii-m on my desk if I decide to go through with a change.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

tizzite said:


> Lovin the scape and the spray bar. Man everyone's into shrimp! It makes me want to do a shrimp tank.


DO IT!!!!!!!! 

hahaha...

Thanks for the comments. I really love this tank too. its very well matured now, so there are beautiful clumps of all kinds of plants/moss etc established all over which I love. I do really like keeping shrimp, they're fascinating and very nice to watch. However, the aesthetics of the tank are just as important, to me, unlike some people, who just make the tank optimal for shrimps and consequently the tanks aren't that nice to look at. No offense of course, to those who do that. They probably get lots more babies than I do, and there's nothing wrong with doing it that way. Just a matter of personal preference.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> How long is this tank? Could be a prime candidate to replace my Minii-m on my desk if I decide to go through with a change.


This is it here... 

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewi..._campaign=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_content=AZ1123

Gorgeous dimension, albeit a bit unusual. I made a custom stand for mine, with solid Hawaiian Koa wood. :bounce:


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Yes and he price is really good too. Thanks for the link.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> Yes and he price is really good too. Thanks for the link.


Yer welcome. 

One thing to keep in mind is the length needs a slightly more powerful filter than a regular 12 gallon tank, I think because it's hard to avoid dead spots without being a bit over powered. I was running the Eheim 2213 on it, and could not get enough flow. I switched to the (NEW!!) Fluval 306, and it's more than enough. I have the flow lever only on about half (reduced flow) and it's perfect. The great thing about that, is that you can increase flow every now and then, or when you want to send ripples to the surface etc.

As for lighting, I LOVE the Marineland Doublebright fixture, and it's plenty powerful enough for high tech, (I have to have it raised about 18 inches, to avoid an algae farm)
Design-wise, it could not be more perfect, with it's low/thin profile.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

I have a 2215 that is not in use in the basement that I could throw on it. Currently on the M I have a 2213. I could always put a 2215 impeller in it to booed the flow a bit. For lighting I would like to keep it lie tech like the M so a dual coralife t5no would work great but the photo period would probably have to be pretty short to keep algae at bay. I'm sure two 9L bags of AS would be more than enough for good sub depth too. 

Ohh all the space for more crypts!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsmith said:


> I have a 2215 that is not in use in the basement that I could throw on it. Currently on the M I have a 2213. I could always put a 2215 impeller in it to booed the flow a bit. For lighting I would like to keep it lie tech like the M so a dual coralife t5no would work great but the photo period would probably have to be pretty short to keep algae at bay. I'm sure two 9L bags of AS would be more than enough for good sub depth too.
> 
> Ohh all the space for more crypts!


Nice! Yeah, it's a pretty decent footprint, so as long as you choose low goring plants, you have a lot of space.

I used one large bag of AS, which was more than enough (can't remember the size, but it was the largest one I have seen from AS, and it cost around $80 I think)

You could just try your 2213 as it is.. It may work for you. I have no idea how my 2213 was, as far as whether it was running at it's best. I got it used, and the flow seemed to be pretty low from when I first set it up. I've never had an Eheim before that so I can't compare it to a new one to see if it was running properly. But if that's no good, the 2215 should be perfect.

The other cool thing about these tanks is that the water is spread out over footprint that is quite large, relative to the volume, so it's a dream tank for shrimp, who don't really care about vertical swimming. They love roaming all over the substrate bed.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

It's been a while since I posted pics.. here are some that I took today.

I have had a devastating loss of shimps these past few months, and I'm confounded, have no idea what's killing them. I've lost about 80% of my colony. The remaining shrimp still seem healthy and happy, but I'm worried I'll lose them all. One of my nice females who was fully berried just dropped dead in front of me today while I was doing a small water change. 
Here she is:










On a happier note, the tank is looking good.. here are some pics.

FTS









Left side mountain


















Right side shrimp playground









Middle ground









One of my happy CRS


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Dang....sorry to read about your tank crash....


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks bro.. I don't know what happened. It seems to have stabilized somewhat now though.. I saw a bunch of new babies just now.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

could have been a snowball effect....dead shrimps made your water nasty...


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## [email protected] (Apr 27, 2011)

I love this tank, you have done a really great job on it. You gave a ton of depth and personality to such a little tank, it looks really great. Sorry to hear about the shrimp deaths, hope that has been remedied.

As for the plant that you call an Ozelot sword, not so sure about that. It looks just like my Queen Marble sword I have. You might check that out, as it would be easier for you to compare the two from your own comp. It is a very awesome plant, and so is that "Crypt" or whatever you have. That is just a beautiful plant. Are you going to be going to be giving any more away anytime soon:hihi: Good job on the tank, and your shrimp are really awesome shrimp.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> could have been a snowball effect....dead shrimps made your water nasty...


hmm, maybe.. I'm pretty fanatical about keeping it clean though. I remove any dead shrimp as soon as possible. Possibly though, if some died in hiding spots I didn't get to, that's a possibility I didn't think of.




[email protected] said:


> I love this tank, you have done a really great job on it. You gave a ton of depth and personality to such a little tank, it looks really great. Sorry to hear about the shrimp deaths, hope that has been remedied.
> 
> As for the plant that you call an Ozelot sword, not so sure about that. It looks just like my Queen Marble sword I have. You might check that out, as it would be easier for you to compare the two from your own comp. It is a very awesome plant, and so is that "Crypt" or whatever you have. That is just a beautiful plant. Are you going to be going to be giving any more away anytime soon:hihi: Good job on the tank, and your shrimp are really awesome shrimp.


Thanks very much 

I'll check out the Queen Marble..
The crypt is really nice huh? And unusual. It grows in such a nice flat circular way.. I have not seen any others that do that. And the pattern on the leaves is really nice. Sure, I can give you one. I only have 3 left right now, so I'd like to keep those, but as soon as more grow I'll send you one.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

That's no good about your shrimp die-off.

But that algae is amazing! (Where is the sewing queen?! she'd love it) Love it.

Still a great tank and an excellent example of what one can do with a long, low aquarium.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

dang! sorry to hear about your shrimp loss. its always not good when you have dead shrimp. LOL sewing would love all the BBA! but then who doesn't! glad to hear you have some more babies. all the plants are looking healthy :hihi:

Amy


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## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

Check out the Invertebrates section of the forum, some posts might help you with the CRS die off problem.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp-other-invertebrates/


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## Wy Renegade (Nov 29, 2011)

Very nice small tank set-up! Clearly shows that big isn't necessarily always better. Love the detail in the mountain scape on the left - very well done considering the size of tank you are working with.


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

beautiful tank! this gets me really tempted to get a 12 gallon long


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Super random question, did you take your wife's diamond earring out fo the tank? 

A member a while back had continuous unexplained problems and eventually tore his tank down to find a silver coaster in the substrate that he left by mistake. Silver meses up aquariums big time and takes time to dissolve and make an impact. 

Although this is a long shot and I figure it didn't stay in the tank. I'm sorry to see it crashed, I just skimmed through it a bit.

-Andrew


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

dasob85 said:


> beautiful tank! this gets me really tempted to get a 12 gallon long


Thanks  I love this tank.. 





A Hill said:


> Super random question, did you take your wife's diamond earring out fo the tank?
> 
> A member a while back had continuous unexplained problems and eventually tore his tank down to find a silver coaster in the substrate that he left by mistake. Silver meses up aquariums big time and takes time to dissolve and make an impact.
> 
> ...


Good point.. yes, I did get the earrings out a long time ago.

Tank is actually doing pretty good now. The algae situation is getting way better, since I planted some fast growing plants.. My CRS population is also on the mend, there are a LOT of babies in there now. I'll post new pics soon.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Wy Renegade said:


> Very nice small tank set-up! Clearly shows that big isn't necessarily always better. Love the detail in the mountain scape on the left - very well done considering the size of tank you are working with.


Thanks for that! I'm glad you noticed the mountain part, I spent hours and hours getting it just right.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> That's no good about your shrimp die-off.
> 
> But that algae is amazing! (Where is the sewing queen?! she'd love it) Love it.
> 
> Still a great tank and an excellent example of what one can do with a long, low aquarium.


Thank you. The algae situation is much improved now.. 




SkyGrl said:


> dang! sorry to hear about your shrimp loss. its always not good when you have dead shrimp. LOL sewing would love all the BBA! but then who doesn't! glad to hear you have some more babies. all the plants are looking healthy :hihi:
> 
> Amy


Cheers Amy.. I see more and more babies in there every day. Things are looking good.





Crispino Ramos said:


> Check out the Invertebrates section of the forum, some posts might help you with the CRS die off problem.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp-other-invertebrates/


Yeah, thanks for that.. I have done a bunch of research. I think part of the problem is an infestation of hydros that I noticed all over the place. They have been zapping my babies!!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

My CRS colony is coming back! LOTS of new babies.. I'll take some pics soon..


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## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

Dude this was one of my favorite tank journals, what happened? If you're serious about shrimp keeping, get rid of that co2... that's what I figure went wrong.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

fusiongt said:


> Dude this was one of my favorite tank journals, what happened? If you're serious about shrimp keeping, get rid of that co2... that's what I figure went wrong.


Thanks. I've never had Co2 in this tank. Not really sure what killed some of my CRS. I suspect it was ammonia spikes from a big tank clean I did.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

ADA said:


> Thanks. I've never had Co2 in this tank. Not really sure what killed some of my CRS. I suspect it was ammonia spikes from a big tank clean I did.


That would definitely kill off sensitive shrimp. 

I agree that CO2 has no place in a shrimp breeding tank as well. That's why I only keep moss in my shrimp tanks lol.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

speedie408 said:


> That would definitely kill off sensitive shrimp.
> 
> I agree that CO2 has no place in a shrimp breeding tank as well. That's why I only keep moss in my shrimp tanks lol.


Yeah, exactly.. Plants other than moss will grow for me, like crypts, anubias and a few others, but VERY slowly.
It's weird, it seems like the main shrimps that survived were higher grades. I lost a lot of my SS, but only a few SSS/SSS+. So now I have a lot of high grade babies. :smile:


----------



## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

ADA said:


> Yeah, exactly.. Plants other than moss will grow for me, like crypts, anubias and a few others, but VERY slowly.
> It's weird, it seems like the main shrimps that survived were higher grades. I lost a lot of my SS, but only a few SSS/SSS+. So now I have a lot of high grade babies. :smile:


haha you better knock on wood bro.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

speedie408 said:


> haha you better knock on wood bro.


LOL.. on it.. !


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## Wy Renegade (Nov 29, 2011)

ADA said:


> Thanks for that! I'm glad you noticed the mountain part, I spent hours and hours getting it just right.


Yeah well, around here mountains are what its all about and you did a superb job.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Wy Renegade said:


> Yeah well, around here mountains are what its all about and you did a superb job.


Thanks again! It makes me want to put more mountains in there.. in fact.. I'm going to do it. I just decided, half way through writing this post. In a few days, there will be new mountains in there..


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

Looking forward to it


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## Wy Renegade (Nov 29, 2011)

As am I!


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

I love the way you hardscaped the left side of the tank. Did you stack numerous rocks? What kind of rocks are they? Thanks!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

chiefroastbeef said:


> I love the way you hardscaped the left side of the tank. Did you stack numerous rocks? What kind of rocks are they? Thanks!


Thanks  Yeah there's one big rock and then some mid sized, and lots of smaller ones, all making up the shape.

I'm not sure what kind they are, I actually found them in the woods. They look like the blueish stones they crush up for gravel..


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Can't wait to see what sort of mountains you add to this already terrific tank.

Finally bit the bullet and am setting my own up (here's the journal). Am constantly looking at your photographs for inspiration.


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

lol, I also got a 12gal long because of ADA... (mainly because you used the marineland double bright lights )


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Can't wait to see what sort of mountains you add to this already terrific tank.
> Finally bit the bullet and am setting my own up (here's the journal). Am constantly looking at your photographs for inspiration.


Aw thanks, that's very flattering! I took some quick pictures and will post tonight. 





dasob85 said:


> lol, I also got a 12gal long because of ADA... (mainly because you used the marineland double bright lights )


Do you have a journal started? I'd love to see what you do with it! Welcome to the Mr. Aqua 12 club! haha


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Here we go.. I didn't spend a lot of time with the placement of these "mountains" yet.. I kind of like where they are, but might make some minor adjustments. It will look a lot better once they are aged in there too.






















Here's one of my CRS











And here's a pic of one of the babies, I have a lot of this size in there now.










Thanks for looking!


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

That new rock is going to look splendid as it ages.


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

It looks really nice! And I love your shrimp, they are very pretty as well.

about the journal, I've only got the tank atm (arrived yesterday, so excited!) I'm pleased to say its not too big since it always looks really big in the pictures. I hated to do maintenance on big tanks which is why I haven't had a tank in a while. I do plan on trying to do the DSM with some HC, and driftwood and (hopefully easy) red cherry shrimp with co2. I'll take pictures and if it all turns out well I may put it into a journal  I have no experience with plants as my old tank was a big 55(+?) gallon with discus, clown loaches, only driftwood. all my plants died but i'd like to think it was because of the high temperatures. keeping my fingers crossed  I did manage to keep java moss alive in a 2.5 gallon with a single guppy so my fallback plan is tons of moss tied to tons of driftwood and shrimp lol


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> That new rock is going to look splendid as it ages.


Thanks. I figured it was a good way to hide the intake too.




dasob85 said:


> It looks really nice! And I love your shrimp, they are very pretty as well.
> 
> about the journal, I've only got the tank atm (arrived yesterday, so excited!) I'm pleased to say its not too big since it always looks really big in the pictures. I hated to do maintenance on big tanks which is why I haven't had a tank in a while. I do plan on trying to do the DSM with some HC, and driftwood and (hopefully easy) red cherry shrimp with co2. I'll take pictures and if it all turns out well I may put it into a journal  I have no experience with plants as my old tank was a big 55(+?) gallon with discus, clown loaches, only driftwood. all my plants died but i'd like to think it was because of the high temperatures. keeping my fingers crossed  I did manage to keep java moss alive in a 2.5 gallon with a single guppy so my fallback plan is tons of moss tied to tons of driftwood and shrimp lol


Can't wait to see yours set up!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I somehow managed to get rid of most of the BGA as well as most of other types of algae.. I did a few things, less light, put in more plants, water changes.. anyways.. I'm very happy with this tank now. 

Pics!












































































































































































































































Thanks for looking!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Purty. I think its gonna look awesome once it's filled in.


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## raven_wilde (Jul 12, 2006)

ADA said:


>


What is this wonderful little plant?


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

raven_wilde said:


> What is this wonderful little plant?


The one in the center looks like Hygrophila pinnatifida.


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

i saw your pic in the 12gal club thread, how do you fill up your tank water so high and not get any spillover? doesn't the filter make any ripples?

btw, more pictures please


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

audioaficionado said:


> The one in the center looks like Hygrophila pinnatifida.


Yup! That's a baby Hygrophila Pinnatifida.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

dasob85 said:


> i saw your pic in the 12gal club thread, how do you fill up your tank water so high and not get any spillover? doesn't the filter make any ripples?
> 
> btw, more pictures please


I turn the flow down/off and top off with water before taking the pictures..


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## raven_wilde (Jul 12, 2006)

ADA said:


> Yup! That's a baby Hygrophila Pinnatifida.


Its pretty sweet


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

ah, sneaky! but looks great


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## manualfocus (Jun 15, 2011)

Your water level scares me. Do your CRS never jump out? It happened to me more times than I want to remember. I had to lower the water level over an inch.

Great looking tank nonetheless!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

manualfocus said:


> Your water level scares me. Do your CRS never jump out? It happened to me more times than I want to remember. I had to lower the water level over an inch.
> 
> Great looking tank nonetheless!


Thanks 

No, I never have them jump out.. I think if the water conditions are good, and the tank's not over crowded that should not be a problem. They don't seem like the most adventurous creatures.. If everything's nice at home, I don't think they'd want to leave.


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## Kosey929 (Mar 27, 2011)

Your tank is looking great! I love how big these tanks look when they are well scaped. The size poses challenges, but you've hit the nail on the head.

To the comments on his water level, I have the same tank and top it off to at least the same level almost daily as the evaporation rate is crazy! Of course, dry northern WI winter air and 3 thirsty cats don't help. Ironically, I have to keep the water level high to prevent splashing from my spraybar that occurs when it drops too low. That said, I did lose several suicidal shrimp and have given up on those...but they were neocaridinia (sp?) and perhaps they're more prone to jumping than The species ADA is keeping.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Hey there, thanks! I appreciate your comments about making the tank look big. My goal is always to make my tanks look much larger than they actually are, using scape/design to do so. It's nice when that is noticed 

Mine evaporates a lot as well. I just top it off every other day, but like I said, I never had an issue with shrimps jumping out. Although I believe that it has a lot to do with water quality and a happy home, you could have a point about the breeds of shrimp too. My CRS are pretty docile.. maybe other species are more prone to "exploring" outside the tank..





Kosey929 said:


> Your tank is looking great! I love how big these tanks look when they are well scaped. The size poses challenges, but you've hit the nail on the head.
> 
> To the comments on his water level, I have the same tank and top it off to at least the same level almost daily as the evaporation rate is crazy! Of course, dry northern WI winter air and 3 thirsty cats don't help. Ironically, I have to keep the water level high to prevent splashing from my spraybar that occurs when it drops too low. That said, I did lose several suicidal shrimp and have given up on those...but they were neocaridinia (sp?) and perhaps they're more prone to jumping than The species ADA is keeping.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Just wondering, the lily pipe that came with the Canister Filter, is it good for the tank? It seems like they are too long. I want to get this tank and a Canister 2113 filter


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sunyang730 said:


> Just wondering, the lily pipe that came with the Canister Filter, is it good for the tank? It seems like they are too long. I want to get this tank and a Canister 2113 filter


The 2213 doesn't come with lily pipes (in fact I'm not sure if any filter comes with lily pipes)

As for this tank, I tried using lily pipes on it, but found I needed something that promotes more flow.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

ADA said:


> The 2213 doesn't come with lily pipes (in fact I'm not sure if any filter comes with lily pipes)
> 
> As for this tank, I tried using lily pipes on it, but found I needed something that promotes more flow.


HUM! Then what is the green tube that came with it? Is that just a regular intake and out? 

I want to get this tank and I want to get Canister filter  LOL


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sunyang730 said:


> HUM! Then what is the green tube that came with it? Is that just a regular intake and out?
> 
> I want to get this tank and I want to get Canister filter  LOL


Yeah that's just the regular flow pipes etc. 

Definitely get a canister. Although the Eheim are very good, I like the Fluval ones better. (106, 206, 306, 406)


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

ADA said:


> Yeah that's just the regular flow pipes etc.
> 
> Definitely get a canister. Although the Eheim are very good, I like the Fluval ones better. (106, 206, 306, 406)



I see, I will take a look at how they like. Which Fluval are you using right now? BTW how does a spray bar work? did you connect it to the out flow? I never used one before and the spary bar won't work for a HOB right?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sunyang730 said:


> I see, I will take a look at how they like. Which Fluval are you using right now? BTW how does a spray bar work? did you connect it to the out flow? I never used one before and the spary bar won't work for a HOB right?


I'm using the 306, and it's slightly too powerful on full (it has a lever to adjust the flow, so this is not a problem.. I'd rather have a little too much so I can turn it down than not have enough.) You'd probably be fine with a 206 if you wanted.

Yep, you attach the spray bar to the outflow. It won't work on a HOB


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Just wondering, how did you put holes in to your acrylic tube? do you have 2 filter in this tank?


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

sunyang730: A Dremel or cheap power drill is your friend for making holes in plastic.

Even a cheap knock-off Dremel-like rotary tool from Harbor Freight (about $8) can get the job done with plastic.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

HUM... I will try that.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Fixed and moved


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

Photo is currently unavailable. So I don't know what I am looking at


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Updates!!! ...sorry, not the best quality.. just taken with my iPhone.









































































Thanks for looking!


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

what happen to your spray bar? It's not been use anymore ?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sunyang730 said:


> what happen to your spray bar? It's not been use anymore ?


Nope.. I replaced the filter with a Fluval 306, which is much more powerful. Now I have the water flow in at one end and out at the other.


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## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

ADA said:


> Nope.. I replaced the filter with a Fluval 306, which is much more powerful. Now I have the water flow in at one end and out at the other.


Did the Fluval 306 came with the in and out pipe too? or are does DIY?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sunyang730 said:


> Did the Fluval 306 came with the in and out pipe too? or are does DIY?


It's included


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## sockfish (Jul 11, 2007)

Looking very nice. I'm sorry if I missed it, but what do you have on the back of the tank--is it some kind of background or just a trick of the light?

sox


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sockfish said:


> Looking very nice. I'm sorry if I missed it, but what do you have on the back of the tank--is it some kind of background or just a trick of the light?
> 
> sox


Thanks!  It's actually some stick on laminate that I got from Office Depot. I don't actually like the texture. I was hoping for just a clouded clear type.


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## manualfocus (Jun 15, 2011)

Looking good! I like the natural look you've got going, and the rocks on the side. I made a lame attempt at adding some slope to my tank. Vision was a 10 but execution is probably a 3.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

manualfocus said:


> Looking good! I like the natural look you've got going, and the rocks on the side. I made a lame attempt at adding some slope to my tank. Vision was a 10 but execution is probably a 3.


Your's isn't lame!!! That's amazing! Gosh.. I love your tank.

Here are a few pics I snapped tonight while playing with my iPhone fisheye lens


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

What are the plants in the second and third picture called?


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

nice tank!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

dasob85 said:


> What are the plants in the second and third picture called?


Hmm, there are lots of different plants in those two pictures. Can you be more specific.



sayurasem said:


> nice tank!


Thanks!


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

Oh yea, my bad. I meant the stem in the second pic towards the top of the pic, and in the third pic, the most prevalent short green stems.

I would love to know the names of those 2 so I can try to find them for my tank.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

dasob85 said:


> Oh yea, my bad. I meant the stem in the second pic towards the top of the pic, and in the third pic, the most prevalent short green stems.
> 
> I would love to know the names of those 2 so I can try to find them for my tank.


Sorry for the late response. I wish I could help you with the answer, but those are actually the only two plants in my tank that I have no idea what they are called 

The one in the second pic is just from a bunch of stems I bought from my lfs, to keep algae at bay, and the tiny stem plants were actually quite expensive (and rare I think.. I haven't seen them in any other tanks), but I never wrote the name down. It looks like a tiny Rotala of some kind, but pretty tiny, not a whole lot bigger than HC. I do know that the person I bought it from said it was a Japanese species.


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

Darn, thanks though. I dont know what half of my stems are either lol


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Just took a few pics with my iPhone 















































Thanks for looking!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Just took a few pics with my iPhone 















































Thanks for looking!


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## dasob85 (Feb 4, 2012)

nice. cute little shrimpies


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## vincenz (Jan 29, 2012)

Wow, did you have to attach a macro lens to get those shots? I didn't even know the iPhone could take shots like that.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

dasob85 said:


> nice. cute little shrimpies


Aren't they?? :icon_smil



vincenz said:


> Wow, did you have to attach a macro lens to get those shots? I didn't even know the iPhone could take shots like that.


Yeah, I have an Olloclip. It just clips on the iPhone and gives some nice magnification.


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## vincenz (Jan 29, 2012)

ADA said:


> Yeah, I have an Olloclip. It just clips on the iPhone and gives some nice magnification.


Sweet, I'll have to check those out. :icon_surp


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

vincenz said:


> Sweet, I'll have to check those out. :icon_surp


Totally worth the money. I think they're around $60 but comes with a wide angle, a fisheye and the incredible macro.


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## gkatz007 (May 22, 2012)

man this has got to be one of my favorite threads. i just signed up recently to tpt but have been checkin in on your thread love the tank the pictures and the effort put into the hobby. tanks lookin awesome. how the led's goin for you? i am planning on setting up a new tank soon and all my lights are t5's or power compacts curious to know how well u can grow under the double brights.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

gkatz007 said:


> man this has got to be one of my favorite threads. i just signed up recently to tpt but have been checkin in on your thread love the tank the pictures and the effort put into the hobby. tanks lookin awesome. how the led's goin for you? i am planning on setting up a new tank soon and all my lights are t5's or power compacts curious to know how well u can grow under the double brights.


Thanks! You're very kind. I appreciate the comments. 

Glad you're getting into the hobby! There's so much to be gained from this. It brings me peace of mind, and I'd almost say it's therapeutic. 

As for the LEDs, I'm really not sure how they are compared to regular lights, because I've never used them on anything but this tank which is low tech. I do have another tank with a T5 light, and the LEDs seem to grow plants just like the T5. 

I've never really had a chance to properly compare them with T5 lights, because my T5 is running high tech, and the LED has always been low tech.

Maybe someone else here can shed more light (pun intended) on the subject.


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## BHark (May 11, 2012)

Great looking setup! I am in the process of setting up my 12 g long. It seems the ml double bright is not designed to be used directly over water (no glass lid/canopy). Are you concerned about this? My apologies if you have already addressed this issue.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Interesting thing about this shape tank is that it is very similar to the same proportions as a 180 Gal tank.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

BHark said:


> Great looking setup! I am in the process of setting up my 12 g long. It seems the ml double bright is not designed to be used directly over water (no glass lid/canopy). Are you concerned about this? My apologies if you have already addressed this issue.


Hi, thanks!  I actually had not hear of this. I'm not worried though, because the light is about 18 inches above the water.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

plantbrain said:


> Interesting thing about this shape tank is that it is very similar to the same proportions as a 180 Gal tank.


Is that right? Wow, the 180 must be amazing. One day...


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Yes, this is me commenting on all of your threads urging updates for us tank nerds.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

lol! I'm on it.



somewhatshocked said:


> Yes, this is me commenting on all of your threads urging updates for us tank nerds.


----------



## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Looking forward to the new scape! (I saw your post in the 12G Club.) Are you planning to enter the Aquascapes show? 

Thanks,

Kai


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I had not planned on it, but I may do.. when is the show? Thanks!


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

ADA said:


> I had not planned on it, but I may do.. when is the show? Thanks!


It's on October 13th and 14th. You can sign up in the store on the clip board by the register. I hope you do sign up!


----------



## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

plantbrain said:


> Interesting thing about this shape tank is that it is very similar to the same proportions as a 180 Gal tank.


There is an aspect ratio that I find more pleasing than others and this tank has it. I also like 20L, 40B, 75, 180, etc.


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## csmith (Apr 22, 2010)

What's the deal with the SrA stripes? Just curious.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Kai808 said:


> It's on October 13th and 14th. You can sign up in the store on the clip board by the register. I hope you do sign up!


Awesome.. I'll check it out for sure. I may enter my 2.9 gal. 




audioaficionado said:


> There is an aspect ratio that I find more pleasing than others and this tank has it. I also like 20L, 40B, 75, 180, etc.






csmith said:


> What's the deal with the SrA stripes? Just curious.


Oh, those are my wife's stripes I found in a box somewhere. She was USAF (and continues her service as a civilian now).


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I decided to start over after I had issues with Limpets and Scuds (both nasty little pests almost impossible to be rid of).

This is by far my favorite scape I've ever done. It took about 10 times longer than any other one too! lol. I'm pretty happy so far, but of course it won't really look anything like this once everything grows in. That's the tricky part. Predicting what everything will settle in to, and pre planning accordingly. I also have CO2/high running this time too, so the plants will play a bigger role this time. 

I'm still not sure about what I'm using for ground cover. I'm hoping to get my hands on some UG or Japanese Belem Grass, or if anyone has any suggestions or anything to sell, trade or RAOK, that would be great! 

I have a tiny little Erio in there it's about the diameter of a dime and should not get larger than a nickel. Pretty nice.

So, here's the current FTS: (bear in mind these were all taken on my iPhone, it's still dusty and not great.. cloudy water etc so no need to bother setting up a good camera for pics yet. I'll take some with the 7D once everything starts to grow in.












And some starter pics from a few days ago.





























And these pics are the final hardscape. 









































































That's it for now. I'll keep y'all updated for sure though.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

What kinda stone is that? I've been looking for nice rocks that are CRS suitable that wont alter water params...no luck :\


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Bananariot said:


> What kinda stone is that? I've been looking for nice rocks that are CRS suitable that wont alter water params...no luck :\


I don't know a lot about stone, but I did get lucky with this as it doesn't seem to affect the TDS or anything else at all. It looks to me just to be regular blue gravel stone, the kind they crunch up to make roads out of. 
I found some nice textured rocks and smashed them into smaller pieces.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.


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## the_intricacy (Jul 30, 2012)

*lighting?*

it looks like youre only using one marine double bright now... was 2 too much? it's a shame, since I really like your DIY double suspension system!


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## tanks4allthefish (Jun 20, 2012)

This is an interesting and very informative thread. I love the tank dimension and will most probably be getting one when I do my fully planted tank.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

the_intricacy said:


> it looks like youre only using one marine double bright now... was 2 too much? it's a shame, since I really like your DIY double suspension system!


Thanks. Yeah, I liked it a lot as well, but running 2 of them was too much light for low tech. I'm going to see how it goes with one light for a while (now that I've added CO2) and I may add the other back on if it looks like it needs more.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

tanks4allthefish said:


> This is an interesting and very informative thread. I love the tank dimension and will most probably be getting one when I do my fully planted tank.


Thanks! If you do get one, join the 12G LONG Club thread


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Nice! What kind of branch is that?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks  It's Manzanita.


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

I love the new scape. Where did you find the rocks I want to grab some lol


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## bsk (Aug 18, 2010)

hey btw my hybrids finally grew up and had some Taiwan babies. All of my adult WR/BKK died so looks like I just have to wait another year to get my Taiwan's breeding :icon_frow


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bsk said:


> I love the new scape. Where did you find the rocks I want to grab some lol


I'll hook you up, pm me


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## bigstick120 (May 23, 2005)

It looks like you went back to just 1 light fixture. Why the switch?


----------



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

He addressed that at a couple points in the thread - even had photos.

Was because the lighting was too intense and causing algae issues. He found that using one fixture and raising it above the tank provided adequate lighting. Since then, Marineland has released PAR data that back up that finding.



bigstick120 said:


> It looks like you went back to just 1 light fixture. Why the switch?


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

bigstick120 said:


> It looks like you went back to just 1 light fixture. Why the switch?





somewhatshocked said:


> He addressed that at a couple points in the thread - even had photos.
> 
> Was because the lighting was too intense and causing algae issues. He found that using one fixture and raising it above the tank provided adequate lighting. Since then, Marineland has released PAR data that back up that finding.


What he said  ^

I actually put the 2nd one back on, because I have added pressurized CO2 but I'm still experimenting, and may just need one still.


----------



## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

the_intricacy said:


> it looks like youre only using one marine double bright now... was 2 too much? it's a shame, since I really like your DIY double suspension system!


Actually went back to two lights now, and it works GREAT as high tech. (I run C02 now in there.

I'll take some pics, in the next day or so


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## Nanoful (Dec 28, 2012)

Soooo..been watching your tank for sometime! wat is the update now? pic plzz:bounce:btw where can i get some HC for cheap and reliable
happy new year to the club


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Nanoful said:


> Soooo..been watching your tank for sometime! wat is the update now? pic plzz:bounce:btw where can i get some HC for cheap and reliable
> happy new year to the club


So funny that you said that, because I just took a bunch of pics, and am about to upload them!
I had a nice kid just give me some HC a few days ago, but I think you can get it from Kahala Petland *if you're in Hawaii*


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Here are some pics I just shot last night..I did a massive trim about a week ago, so it's looking a little bear again. But I'm really getting it to where I want it to be.. Cultivating Bucephalandras of a few different sp. is really fun. 
One of my Buce's has sent out a flower! I've never see that underwater before. 























































































































Thanks for looking!


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

Great pics as always, the setup is growing in well.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

swoof said:


> Great pics as always, the setup is growing in well.


Thanks! I trimmed at least half of the plants out before these pictures, so I'll take another set when everything grows back..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Some more pics:


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Great to see an update. 

That Betta looks quite happy with all that swimming space.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Great to see an update.
> 
> That Betta looks quite happy with all that swimming space.


Thanks! The Betta is absolutely ecstatic! .. I rescued him about a year ago from someone who had him kept in a horrible TINY container, with no sand, no plants, no space to swim.. lucky little guy to get this home.


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

awesome mini pelia rock!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks! A piece of wood, some SS wire and a hairnet


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## m_ruido (Jun 11, 2013)

[/QUOTE]


Hi! 
Beautiful tank. I think i love all the plants you've got there. 
Great taste! :thumbsup:

Can you tell me the name plant in the photo? Is it a *Eriocaulon cinereum*?


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## pwolfe (Mar 2, 2011)

love the repurposed drop checker!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

m_ruido said:


>


 
Hi! 
Beautiful tank. I think i love all the plants you've got there. 
Great taste! :thumbsup:

Can you tell me the name plant in the photo? Is it a *Eriocaulon cinereum*?[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much  

I believe it's either Eriocaulon Cinereum or Eriocaulon Japan... I love this one because it grows perfectly round.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

pwolfe said:


> love the repurposed drop checker!


LOL Thank you!! haha


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## lullafishi (Dec 13, 2012)

Beautiful! I'm digging the variety of textures in the different plant species. It makes every area interesting to look at! I love the contrast of the red betta against all the green, too.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

lullafishi said:


> Beautiful! I'm digging the variety of textures in the different plant species. It makes every area interesting to look at! I love the contrast of the red betta against all the green, too.


Thanks! I appreciate the comment


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## Dugsul808 (Jul 30, 2012)

I'm digging all the plants you got in this tank! It's still looking flawless!


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## limz_777 (Jun 29, 2005)

how did you secured the pvc pipe stand ? any closeup pic?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Dugsul808 said:


> I'm digging all the plants you got in this tank! It's still looking flawless!


Thanks buddy.. all gone now (read below)

If you want any of those plants let me know. They're all up for grabs. All I'm really keeping are some Erios, and some Japanese Belem, maybe 1 or two other small species if I can work them into my new Iwagumi setup.







limz_777 said:


> how did you secured the pvc pipe stand ? any closeup pic?


I just cut the PVC to the same width as the glass, but be careful doing that, it can create a syphon and the water will spill down to the bottom of the pvc's level.

I only did that as a temporary thing as I have plans to use two pieces of thick clear PVC to do the same job, but look much nicer.

I have decided maybe to use wood only, as it's hard to find thick PVC.




In any case, this tank is now bare and empty. I have pulled EVERYTHING out, including the hardscape, and plan to start completely from scratch. 

I let it get overgrown, and neglected it for a while so I decided rather than to nurse it back to health that it was time for a change.

This time I plan to do a complete carpet of Belem Dwarf Hair grass, a few erios, and some mosses/pellia, and only have a few rocks sticking out of it as the hardscape.

The challenge for me will be trying to stick with that plan, as I tend to make things too cluttered. I want this tank to be extremely simple, and as close to a real Iwagumi setup as possible.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Alright... brace yourself.. ugly alert:


So sad :'(
















What's left of the plants:












I plan to make this tanks awesome tho.. will update the thread as I go.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Can't wait for the next scape dude!


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

ADA said:


> Alright... brace yourself.. ugly alert:
> 
> 
> So sad :'(
> ...


It's good to hear that you're rescaping! It kind of funny that my tank's water level is the same as yours.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks!

Can't wait to get into it.

Dry start this time.

Wish me luck!


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## Dugsul808 (Jul 30, 2012)

That will be my last time looking at the set up you had bro!
But I bet this will be amazing also!
Good luck with next build!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Dugsul808 said:


> That will be my last time looking at the set up you had bro!
> But I bet this will be amazing also!
> Good luck with next build!


Hahah thanks man.. It's going to be good this time..


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Update.. planted and covered. Now I wait.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Nice tank! 

Nice nail polish too lol


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

sayurasem said:


> Nice tank!
> 
> Nice nail polish too lol


Thanks! 

LOL... wife's OPI

Yeah this is my first attempt at a dry start so wish me luck!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

How long will this take??


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Looks pretty great but what plants have you added?

S. repens? Erios of some sort? Dwarf Hair Grass?


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## newbieplanter (Jan 13, 2013)

Nice work with the acrylic, u have a post on how it was done?






ADA said:


> Hi everyone! I have a few updates! I've been battling brown algae for a couple of weeks, and found that I had too much light and not enough water flow. I turned off one of the strips for now which helped a lot, but I plan on running both again once I get Co2 hooked up.
> I bought a paintball Co2 setup from JagedFury here at the forums.. can't wait!!
> 
> So, I made a diy acrylic custom (long!) spray bar, to give flow to the whole tank. I also am running an extra filter at one end (Zoomed 501)
> ...


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## tizzite (Mar 28, 2010)

Good luck with the dry start. I can't seem to get it right. I think the key is to air it out frequently.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Looks pretty great but what plants have you added?
> 
> S. repens? Erios of some sort? Dwarf Hair Grass?


Japan Micro Hairgrass. It grows less than an inch height, and a full lush lawn. 

Some Erios, some repens, and several other plants. Still have not flooded





newbieplanter said:


> Nice work with the acrylic, u have a post on how it was done?


I never did post a diy on that but if you search you should find plenty.





tizzite said:


> Good luck with the dry start. I can't seem to get it right. I think the key is to air it out frequently.


Thanks!

Good tip.. I never did a dry start before.. airing out seems a good idea

Thanks very much. New pics soon.


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## samwoo2go (Apr 27, 2013)

ADA said:


> Some more pics:


What plant is this (the clover on on top)?


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## Dugsul808 (Jul 30, 2012)

samwoo2go said:


> What plant is this (the clover on on top)?


Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

samwoo2go said:


> What plant is this (the clover on on top)?


You mean this:?









It's Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides

One of my favorite plants.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Dugsul808 said:


> Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides


Yep, that ^


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## samwoo2go (Apr 27, 2013)

Awesome, love it! How's it different from hydrocotyle tripartita in terms of growth habits?


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

samwoo2go said:


> Awesome, love it! How's it different from hydrocotyle tripartita in terms of growth habits?


Almost identical growth characteristics. Hydrocotyle sp. Tripartita (aka Hydrocotyle sp. Australia) has more pronounced "cuts" in the leaves.. meaning, the leaves are less rounded.


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## kirk (Apr 4, 2011)

How did that new scape turn out?

Is the spraybar and the zoomed 501 at the other end enough flow?

Would two 2213 be enough flow?

Kirk


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

kirk said:


> How did that new scape turn out?
> 
> Is the spraybar and the zoomed 501 at the other end enough flow?
> 
> ...


Hi Kirk, the scape worked out nicely, but it got a really bad algae/fungal problem and just let it go so it's all overgrown now. I'll take some pics once I've trimmed it all back. 

I have a Fluval 306 canister which is plenty of flow on it's own.


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## kirk (Apr 4, 2011)

Overgrown is cool too. 

Enjoy


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## JSmitty (Dec 11, 2014)

hey just wondering does the Co2 injection hurt the shrimp?
Was thinking about doing the same thing but people warned me about Co2 and shrimp, and that they do not mix.

Thanks

Jason


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