# 10 Gallon Iwagumi Red Cherry Shrimp Tank- Mountain Meadow (Tank Journal)



## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I bought this 10 gallon tank at Wal-Mart and the light bulbs are two 14 watt fluorescent spiral bulbs by some brand called Sylvania. I bought some giant hairgrass and dwarf hairgrass on eBay.The goal of my aquascape is to look like an alpine meadow. Doesn't look anything close to it yet, but it will soon  . I returned all of my other plants and driftwood to Petco and got like forty-something bucks back. I changed the substrate to CaribSea Eco-Complete and put in these granite rocks I had laying around. My shrimp got brighter. Even the males are a bit pink. The new substrate clouded the crap out of my water, but it cleared up a bit when I took these pictures.








The centerpiece


What the tank looks like now. The only plants in there right now are micro sword and Rotala rotundifolia.


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## Cmeister (Jul 5, 2009)

do you mind uploading a photo of the shrimp on such a light substrate?


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I will upload more pictures of the shrimp later.


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## suebe333 (Feb 17, 2009)

Nice start, I finally have baby RCS


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## Cmeister (Jul 5, 2009)

looks good  (and a lot bigger than a 10 gal..)


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I might go to this one store where they sell rocks and get some slate or something similiar. I don't think the granite has enough personality.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I moved the stones around a bit. I'm going to go to get different stones when I have time to go to a stone yard. I might order some HC. By the way, you know what the background is made from? Printing paper. :hihi: You can kind of see the lines from the paper.


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## python (Mar 21, 2007)

Looks good!


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Rock layout looks a bit strange.


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## ldk59 (Jan 30, 2009)

Needs More Plants...lots more :icon_wink

Yeah, I know... Ima smart A$$


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I'm still waiting for my plants from eBay to arrive. The seller is supposed to ship them today. But I found a bunch of spikerush, or dwarf hairgrass, growing along a pond. That's one thing I like about Florida. You can find like any aquarium plant here in a pond. I got like three or four pounds of dwarf hairgrass from the pond. But I had to cut off all of the dead leaves. I planted it in my fish tank. I didn't plant all of it yet; I still have like 2 1/2 or 3 pounds left. And I even found some Hydrocotyle verticillata growing emersed in my backyard! I put in a filter I had laying around and got new light bulbs; two 15 watt daylight 6500 Kelvin bulbs. Here are some pics of the tank so far:


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## JSmith (Jun 12, 2009)

Vladdy said:


> But I found a bunch of spikerush, or dwarf hairgrass, growing along a pond. That's one thing I like about Florida. You can find like any aquarium plant here in a pond. I got like three or four pounds of dwarf hairgrass from the pond.


Ya thats awesome, I need to get out to the small lakes and rivers and see what I can find up here on the panhandle. Nice shrimp tank, I always wanted one, never could find the shrimp in my LFS...where did you get yours? LFS or shiped?


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

JSmith said:


> Nice shrimp tank, I always wanted one, never could find the shrimp in my LFS...where did you get yours? LFS or shiped?


I got my shrimps shipped


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## Lnd (Dec 28, 2008)

Lol you guys are lucky to have alot of plants >< I got to drive couple hours to even find a natural lake. Nice tank! good light and co2 and you'll have a carpet in no time


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## feiyang (Jan 25, 2008)

still need some background larger plant..


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

feiyang said:


> still need some background larger plant..


Yeah, I'm still waiting for my giant hairgrass (Eleocharis montevidensis) to arrive.


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## python (Mar 21, 2007)

<3 living in FL
I have found water lettuce, salvinia, duckweed, bacopa, ludwiga, anacharis, and several others I wasn't able to ID. Not just in the natural lakes either... lots of man made "lakes" in the housing developments around here have plenty of surprises.


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## Lnd (Dec 28, 2008)

The "Lake" at my friend house got nothing =( Just some cactus....


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

Yay! The plants finally arrived. The plants don't look as healthy in the picture as they do in person. The CO2 diffuser I ordered is due to arrive in about 9 days. I compared the hairgrass I got from the pond and the one that I got from eBay, and it is indeed the same plant. I put the plants in and I ripped out a page from a really big sketchpad and used that as the wallpaper. Here's is the aquascape I came up with:


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## SvenBoogie (Jul 3, 2009)

If you have time, would you mind posting some photos of specifically the lights you are using/how you have them set up?


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## Sarkazmo (Jun 22, 2009)

Your tank has come along very nicely! I do have a recommendation though, but I don't know if it'll fit into your design scheme. RCS LOVE Java Moss. You could attach some Java Moss to the granite with thread or make a 'tree' with a bit of driftwood or manzanita. Keep up the great work and post more pics! 

Sark


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## trev (Mar 2, 2008)

looks good, i run the same lighting on my 10g. They work great!


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I bought some Marimo and made a carpet out of it. Some of my shrimp got berried and now I see baby shrimp. My dwarf hairgrass didn't do to well, so I had to take most of it out. The marimo ball was about the size of a golf ball, and as you can see from the picture, I was able to get a lot of little marimo balls from the main one. I also got a new piece of driftwood, which you can see in the picture resting against a coconut shell.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Congrats on the baby shrimp!


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> Congrats on the baby shrimp!


Thanks. But now I have a bunch of ostracoda in my tank too. Here's a picture of a bunch of them on my marimo near a baby shrimp:


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

My tank hasn't really changed much


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Has the marimo grown any?


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

CL said:


> Has the marimo grown any?


It grew a lot but it turned an uglier, darker green.


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## jlo (Oct 8, 2009)

You have some very nice cherries


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

jlo said:


> You have some very nice cherries


Thanks. Yeah, my cherry shrimp are very red.


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## Cmeister (Jul 5, 2009)

Any updates?


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

Cmeister said:


> Any updates?


I'll update it soon.


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