# Eclipse 3 -- my first tank in nearly 20 years



## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Been lurking here and reading for a few months or so, admiring all the beautiful aquaria and mining nuggets of knowledge along the way. I figured it was time to contribute something myself, so here goes nothing.

First, allow me to share a little background: I was an avid aquarist up until the early 90's, but dropped out for various reasons. However, I kept up my interest as an armchair enthusiast, joining the AGA, discovering Takashi Amano's books, and reading what I could to keep up with the state of the hobby. In March I ended up with a little time on my hands and decided to set up a small planted tank, just to get my feet wet again, so to speak. It's been a deeply rewarding experience. Reading forums like this one has shown me how much things have changed since I last kept a tank (back then, Horst and Kipper's _The Optimum Aquarium_ was the cutting edge of planted tank info and the internet didn't really exist). It's so much easier to get a wide gamut of information and opinions now, and it's great to see so many different tanks and approaches to fishkeeping! I've reclaimed something historically very dear to me, and my rekindled enthusiasm for these tiny nano jewels has me already contemplating my next tank.

Anyway, you're probably more interested in the tank itself, so here's a couple of photos and some info about my setup.


















*
Tank:* Marineland Eclipse System 3 acrylic tank, 3 gal.
*Filter:* Built-in Eclipse Bio-Wheel filter (slightly modded, see below)
*Lighting:* Stock 6W T5, 6500K, 10 hours per day
*CO2*: Excel, dosed daily
*Substrate:* Thin layer of peat, 1.5 in. of Flourite and some sand on the right side
*Ferts:* Seachem Flourish, Trace, Iron, N, P, K dosed semi-daily per Seachem's recommendations, Seachem plant tabs x3
*Water change:* 50% weekly, treated with AmQuel+ and Seachem Equilibrium
*Temp:* Varies. I don't use a heater, but the ballast in the light heats up the water to 78 or so by the evening, cools off to 72-ish at night.
*Flora:* Anubias nana, Anubias coffeefolia, Cryptocoryine wendtii (bronze), Cryptocoryne lutea, Echinodorus tenellus var. micro, Vesicularia dubyana, plus a bit of Microsorum pteropus and Lemna minor brought in as hitchhikers, and one tiny Anubias petit given to me by a friend)
*Fauna:* Tracked Nerite snail x2, Crystal Red Shrimp x3, one fast-growing hitchhiker pond snail

I modded the stock filter slightly by replacing the intake grill with a Fluval Edge sponge, then ditching the thin carbon insert and replacing it with a series of fitted foam blocks with a ton more surface area. I don't use any chemicals in the filter, although I've considered adding a small bag of Purigen when I eventually increase the bio-load.

Since cycling the tank I've had reasonably good chemistry, with ammonia and nitrites at zero, minimal nitrates, pH hovering near 7, GH and KH at about 2-2.5. The low light isn't a problem for the plants I've selected with the exception of the micro-sword (it's clearly ailing and I'm planning on replacing it with marsilea). The crypts and anubias are all putting on new leaves and roots and seem happy, growing slowly but steadily. I lost a few crypt leaves in the first couple of weeks, but that has stopped. The java moss has taken off, both on the wood and on the rocks I wrapped. I had an outbreak of brown algae, but the very active nerites have taken care of that, and in fact are so diligent that they have put some minor scrapes and holes in the bronze crypts, so I've been feeding them blanched vegetables and spiro pellets a couple times a week.

I have tried keeping two different otocinclus but neither has survived more than a week (I don't think either was very healthy to begin with). I may try again later, but the main reason I wanted one is to keep the brown algae at bay and the nerites have sorted that out nicely. The CRS's have done very well (after I lost one initially--there were four but I suspect I jumped the gun on cycling). The other three seem to have settled in and have all molted at least once, one of them at least twice. And joy of joys, I have a berried female that should deliver by the first week in May (fingers crossed).

I'm thinking about upping the photoperiod a couple of hours to see if I can't get a little more growth out of the crypts, and I'd like to add some free-swimming fish to make the tank more lively. I was pondering CPD's, but I worry about how they might get along with the shrimp. Suggestions for suitable piscine tankmates would be welcome. 

All in all it's a happy little aquarium that gives me a great deal of pleasure. Hoping to do more (I have a 5 gal vintage Metaframe I'd like to do next), and I'll post updated pictures when and if I get CRS babies.


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## resonator (Jan 27, 2007)

Thumbs up from me. You've packed a lot into such a compact space and it still looks nice and orderly. Very nice write-up as well. Also I appreciate your avatar, having grown up on public TV myself.


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## rengb6 (Nov 11, 2009)

Thats one beautiful tank! You did a great job. Just a suggestion though, and I know it may sound cruel, but kill the hitchhiker pond snail! Those thing are nothing but trouble! Chances are u have eggs or more snails in the tank so you'd do well to start killing them on sight before they reproduce (which they do EXTREMELY quickly) and cover your entire tank. This happened in one my my 10 gallons and it just looked ugly! As for fish suggestions, people on here usually say to give CPD's more room or they'll hide a lot. I'd suggest 2 or 3 Scarlet Badis if you don't mind feeding them frozen bloodworm every day. Also they may eat some of your shrimp fry but they wont touch the adults and most likely some of the fry will escape. They are also great at controlling planaria and aquarium worms. And the best thing is they are between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch! But if you don't like the hassle of the Scarlet Badis you could also try boraras-brigittae. I'm thinking of getting some myself and many members on the forum have them in smaller tanks. Good luck with stocking!


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## quezoxx (Mar 11, 2004)

Wonderful tank. Its only going to get better with time.

I really like pygmy corys, they are really small and they like to school. Also they dont stay on the bottom all the time, they are all over the place!! A real treat!


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice tank! I like those huge crypts.

As quezoxx said, Pygmy Cories are well suited for smaller tanks. Male Endler's Livebearers claim to not eat any of their babies, so they would also be somewhat safe in a shrimp tank. Otocinclus also do not eat baby shrimp and eat algae off of the walls.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks! I know the crypts are oversized, but I kind of like them, too. When I was a kid a friend of mine had a 29 planted with only crypts. They were so dense that they divided the tank into two zones -- over the crypts and under them. I loved peering into the shadows under the crypts to see what fish were lurking there. I think this is my subconscious attempt to recreate that feeling. I must be having some sort of mid-life crisis. 

I haven't been able to keep oto's alive in the tank yet. Funny, because I used to keep them, but they seem so much more fragile now. I use drip acclimation and the water chemistry seems fine, but I think the real problem is that I selected poor stock at the store because I was so anxious to get a non-snail algae eater in there.

The pygmy corys seem like a great suggestion. I'll see if I can source them locally.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Oh my. I had to move Mr./Ms. Pond Snail out today after I found six egg clutches. I took out all I could find, but of course I missed at least some of them, right? Looks like I'll be up to my ears in pond snails pretty soon. *sigh*

Of course, my wife has named him/her, and now wants to set up a little bowl to house his/her progeny. Guess who gets to do that? *double sigh*


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## Clemsons2k (May 31, 2009)

King Friday said:


> Oh my. I had to move Mr./Ms. Pond Snail out today after I found six egg clutches. I took out all I could find, but of course I missed at least some of them, right? Looks like I'll be up to my ears in pond snails pretty soon. *sigh*
> 
> Of course, my wife has named him/her, and now wants to set up a little bowl to house his/her progeny. Guess who gets to do that? *double sigh*


 
:hihi: Gotta love it. Its nice that she takes a slight interest in your hobby though. 

Very nice looking tank btw. Quite the comeback after 20 or so years roud:


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Clemsons2k said:


> :hihi: Gotta love it. Its nice that she takes a slight interest in your hobby though.
> 
> Very nice looking tank btw. Quite the comeback after 20 or so years roud:


Heheh. She loves the tank and spends a lot of time checking up on the shrimp. I used to keep a number of tanks, including a 10 gal in our bedroom where I kept a breeding pair of Kribs. She obsessed over those little guys and their babies, but she's not really interested in trying her hand at setting up and maintaining one herself. I count that as a minor win. 

Thanks for the compliments on the tank, everyone. It's fun to share with people who "get" it. :icon_bigg


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Good news!

Some time on Saturday/Sunday my female CRS delivered her first babies. I noticed two babies this AM, though I saw that she was sans eggs yesterday AM (I assumed she had dropped the eggs, since it was only about 23 days since I first noticed her her carrying).

And it gets better! I found a fresh molt this AM, then looked for her ... berried again! Woohoo! 

Looks like this little eco-system is working so far. :biggrin:

Hopefully I'll find more than the two I've spotted so far. I mixed up a little cocktail of artificial rotiferous plankton and powdered spirulina and squirted some into the moss near the babies ... sound like a good idea? Also added a bit of dried oak leaf to the tank yesterday, just for another food source.


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## Morainy (Feb 8, 2010)

Hey, that is wonderful news about your CRS babies! I have never had shrimp, but maybe I'll try them now. I have planted Eclipses - three 6 gs, and a 5. I didn't know that shrimp could do well in a small Eclipse.

I think that your plants and driftwood look very pretty, just as nice as a much larger tank. Now I feel inspired to try an Eclipse 3. 

In my small Eclipses, I have had good luck with lots of plants, micro rasboras like chilis and merah and otocinclus. I have a pygmy corydora (pygmaeus) in my 36 gallon bowfront, that I might move over into a small tank.

Thank you for posting all your information about your setup.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Morainy, I was worried about the system given some of the less enthusiastic reviews I had read here, but I plunged ahead anyway since I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I had this setup just sitting in my basement. I think my success so far has been based on selecting low-light plants, not overdosing ferts, and keeping up with significant water changes. I think as long as you keep your goals modest and don't rush things, and improve the filter a bit, the E3 is a decent little tank.

Update: counted nine baby CRS so far. All look like they're foraging happily on my crypt leaves and in the moss. Up close I can see a fine film of brown algae missed by the snails, so it looks like they have plenty to eat for now.

However, my Nerites have continued to make a meal of my bronze crypts. Am I not feeding them enough other stuff? Anybody got any ideas about this? Love the snails, but if they're gonna chow all my nice crypts I'm gonna have to find them a new home!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I love the tank! It's beautiful!

I'd suggest some Assassin snails to deal with your pond snails, but I learned [the hard way] they aren't discriminate about Nerites, either.

You might try some Romaine lettuce for the Nerites, mine like it. Or grow some algae logs... Otos and your shrimp should like both of those, too. Peeled cucumber is another good possibility.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks! I'm not having a pond snail epidemic (yet), but even so I'd probably avoid the assassin snails. Jury seems to be out on whether they also prey on shrimp.

I know my nerites like green beans, so probably I should drop those in more often (in the morning I find the snails rolled over on their backs, wrestling a bean to death ... they won't give it up until it's just a skin). Tried Romaine, but they didn't eat it at all. Ditto for cucumber. I guess I have picky snails!


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## inghamb87 (Mar 10, 2010)

That is one gorgeous tank! As mentioned above, you've managed to pack a lot into that small of a space and it is done beautifully. Glad to hear you are back at it after 20 years. How does it feel?


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

inghamb87 said:


> That is one gorgeous tank! As mentioned above, you've managed to pack a lot into that small of a space and it is done beautifully. Glad to hear you are back at it after 20 years. How does it feel?


I love it! There are ups and downs, but mostly it's been a lot of fun. I get such a kick out of watching this little contained eco-system evolve over time. Breeding the shrimp has been the best part. Such a sense of accomplishment after so long away! roud:


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Ok, time for an update! Things are going along well for the new CRS babies. They're elusive little guys so it's hard to take an accurate census, but I've counted at least nine babies at the two week mark. They're growing quickly, going from about 1-2 mm at birth up to about 8-9 mm in two weeks. They're much easier to spot now, especially in the AM just before and after the tank light goes on. I've been keeping up with feeding them the rotifer/spirulina mix, a few drops every other day, just to make sure there's plenty to eat.

Mamma has a nice batch of eggs which should drop again in about a week and a half judging from her last brood. Predictably, I get molts from the other two adults every week just after the water change, and I even found two baby molts a few days ago. I think one of the other adults is a female, just coming into breeding size. Cross your fingers.

Here's a baby shrimp photo:










In this one you can see both a baby and the mother:










Here's all three adults having a pow-wow under the crypts:










And here's a couple shots of the tracked nerites (and a huge reflection of my camera :icon_roll):



















In the second one you can see some of the damage the nerites do to the crypts (vertical leaf left of the snail). I've been trying to feed them vegetables and spirulina tablets, but they're pretty picky. All they seem to like is French-cut green beans. Wish they'd leave the crypts alone!

Anubias continues to grow and crypts are coming along slowly, but steadily, putting on new leaves just a bit faster than they lose them. Java moss is going great guns. I have a little green algae up near the light, where the moss grows up out of the water, but nothing too severe and it doesn't seem to be spreading. There's a few tiny tufts of BBA on the micro-swords (and I do mean tiny ... I need a 10x loupe to see it), but the swords are dying off slowly and I'm not surprised they can't out compete the algae. Need to find some more aggressive ground cover. Still looking for marsilea hirsuta locally. Found some crypt. parva, but I'm hesitant to add it until I'm sure the CRS babies are established. Anybody tried growing parva in very low light like this?


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## mgdmirage (Mar 30, 2009)

beautiful little tank and awesome pictures!


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

Nice little tank



I also have an eclipse, 6 gallon, for almost a year, with a whopping 8 watts of light. Enjoyed reading about your start-up, really beautiful little scene..I am still trying to decide where I have room for my second.

I managed to get it down to one pond snail. I kept the one in a small bowl with a handful of algaed moss, while I killed off the rest. The big fella is now 2.5 inches and possibly senile (he keeps getting caught in weird corners). 

My four nerites and pond snail all love slices of dark green zucchini skin, blanched to softness for a few seconds in the microwave. I cut a nice long slice, and they all climb on board. 

I hung some peacock moss along the edge of the built in filter of the Eclipse, it grew down the side in a nice carpet to the surface, and now I let it grow a little across the surface (not too much cause of not wanting to blocking the light).

Looking forward to updates.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

fishydaze said:


> My four nerites and pond snail all love slices of dark green zucchini skin, blanched to softness for a few seconds in the microwave. I cut a nice long slice, and they all climb on board.


I'll try that. I tried cucumber and romaine lettuce ... no luck. They'll eat the algae tablets, but it takes them a long time to find them and I don't like having that kind of food sitting in the tank for too long. 



fishydaze said:


> I hung some peacock moss along the edge of the built in filter of the Eclipse, it grew down the side in a nice carpet to the surface, and now I let it grow a little across the surface (not too much cause of not wanting to blocking the light).
> 
> Looking forward to updates.


That's a neat idea! I bet the moss really thrives in the current. Don't think I could do that in this tank. I have to pull the filter out weekly to clean the sponge on the intake (it gets clogged quickly), so I'd have a hard time keeping the moss in one place.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

mgdmirage said:


> beautiful little tank and awesome pictures!


Thanks! It's fun spending time hunting around the tank for good shots. Helps me see all the secret stuff the shrimp and snails are doing, too


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Great tank you have there. It's deceptive how large these tanks can look sometimes. I'd believe it if you said that it was 15 gallons in size.

It's awesome how well you can grow those plants with the stock lights. I had to mod the heck out of my Edge to keep anything besides Java moss alive.

Is this going to be a shrimp/snail only tank or are you planning a few fishes as well?


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

TLE041 said:


> Great tank you have there. It's deceptive how large these tanks can look sometimes. I'd believe it if you said that it was 15 gallons in size.
> 
> It's awesome how well you can grow those plants with the stock lights. I had to mod the heck out of my Edge to keep anything besides Java moss alive.
> 
> Is this going to be a shrimp/snail only tank or are you planning a few fishes as well?


I looked at an Edge, but the placement of the lights seems too challenging for me. I don't see how you could grow anything out on the sides unless you significantly altered the aesthetics of the design. And I have a hard enough time maneuvering in my little 3 gal. -- I'd go crazy trying to maintain the tank through that little opening at the top of the Edge!

As for stocking, I'd originally planned to add some shrimp-friendly fish eventually, but that desire is waning as I get more familiar with the shrimp. I'm not sure I could find a species other than oto's that would coexist with the shrimp. Dwarf corys have been suggested, but now that i see how infinitesimally small the shrimp are when they're born, I'm convinced they'd become cory food. Until my colony becomes a lot bigger I don't think it could withstand that kind of predation.


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## ClPat (Apr 30, 2009)

Great tank and shrimp.
And I can't believe you spent 20 years without a tank and lived to tell the tale!


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

that is the nicest 3 gallon tank i have ever seen... awesome work!


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## zoragen (Nov 3, 2009)

Beautiful tank!!!

I have a planted 6 gal eclipse at home. Not as nice looking as your 3 gal!

I also have a 3gal eclipse at work w/ a betta. It's not planted & I've been debating on planting it.

You have inspired me:icon_bigg


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Believe it or not, I was *this close* to making this into a betta tank. A local shop had a huge shipment of Betta Coccina, and I was all set to go to do the tank as a single species showcase. It was my wife who suggested the shrimp. I had wanted to do shrimp for a while, but I wanted some fish, too. Bettas and shrimp don't make good bedfellows, so the shrimp won out, with the idea I would perhaps add some CPD's later. Then the shrimp had babies and that was that. I can't imagine adding any fish to this tank right now, unless perhaps I lose the nerites and replace them with a pair of oto's.

The E3 is a nice little system as long as you don't try to grow plants the light can't accommodate, and as long as you mod the filter to provide more bio-substrate.

The only real complaint I have is that the ballast gets pretty hot, and because it's so close to the water it heats the tank up a lot, perhaps as much as six degrees over ambient. That's not so great for the CRS's when my house is up around 74 in the spring. If anybody has a good way to keep the tank cooler, I'm all ears.


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## King Friday (Mar 29, 2010)

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this. I've been posting more about this tank over at MIAPG, but it might be nice to get this thread back up to speed as well.

It's been a good summer and the tank has done well, though it's gone through what seems to me to be a lot of changes. My CRS population is up around 75 shrimp now, and still climbing, though not as explosively as a couple of months ago.

Here's a video of them swarming an algae tablet, along with my nerite snails. Now that the population is so large I find that they're always hungry, so they'll eat almost anything I drop in there. Cucumber skins and green beans are a favorite. I think my failure with those foods before was that there was so much other stuff in the tank to eat.

I've added a single Crystal Black to the population. My wife has dubbed him "Waldo" and I hope to get him some like-colored companions soon. Here's a photo:










I went through a severe round of crypt rot that really denuded the tank, but since I've been able to keep the tank cooler with a simple fan, the crypts have recovered nicely and are starting to look pretty wild. They're way too big for the tank, but I like the look even if it's not much of a 'scape.

Anubias nana and coffefolia have done well, though the coffefolia grows v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Nanas have put on enough new babies that I've been able to cut off some and attach elsewhere in the tank. I also have a tiny nub of nana petite that is doing well, though it grows about as slowly as the coffefolia.

Java moss went everywhere except where I wanted it to and as a result has been mostly removed, replaced by Fissidens fontanus. The fissidens is still taking hold, so it'll be a while before I see how successful it is, but it looks promising. In the photos below, Fissidens can be seen upper right on wood, and lower left on a rock. Upper left on wood is still java moss.

Micro swords have died out, as I predicted, but I have some Marsilea minuta and M. hirsuta coming in later this month to replace it. I know they probably won't carpet under such low light, but they're worth a shot. Tropica claims hirsuta will grow well under very low light, so I'm hopeful.

I added a couple of very small Java ferns in about August. They seem to be doing well, attaching to the driftwood and putting on new leaves. Not like they're hard to grow, but it's still satisfying to watch them prosper.

My modded filter seems to be handling the bio-load very well. I've added a small bag Purigen into the filter box and that has really helped polish the water. Keeping up on Seachem's dosing schedule and doing weekly 30% water changes keeps things humming along.

Here's a couple of update photos of the tank:



















My only ongoing problem is a growing planaria populaton. I hate those slimy little buggers and have been looking for a good way to rid the tank of them. I was considering fenbendazole dosing as outlined here, but was worried about how to handle my nerites during dosing, especially given what I had read on this forum about long-term effects on snails. Today I hit upon a better solution while reading a 1953 edition of Innes' _Exotic Aquarium Fishes_. I dropped in a small piece of thawed fish meat (about 1/2" x 1/4") and turned off the lights. At first the shrimp wanted to eat it, but soon it was swarmed with planaria, driving the shrimp off. I waited until the whole piece was covered, then just siphoned it and the planaria out of the tank, taking a little substrate with it for good measure. Lather, rinse, repeat and after three such attempts over a couple of hours I'm happy to report my planaria population is down by 400-500 denizens. Hooray! I'll keep doing this all week and see how many I can get out. Already things look much better! I guess the old ways are often the best ways, huh?


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