# Nellis' 5.5 Planted Cherry Nano (56k Warning)



## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

So I decided to start a cherry shrimp habitat, partially out of the desire to plant a new tank. So far I only have a dozen or so cherries in there; I hesitate to put in some fish because the point of the tank is more to breed shrimp. Is there such thing as a fish that won't eat juvenile shrimp? anyway, i'm going to try to go minimalist with the planting, no more than say, four species. preferably three. here are some initial set-up pics:


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

I added some ambulia and rearranged the riccia stones. i think i'll be going with the "triangular layout". i have some utricularia graminifolia coming this week, which i'll probably plant directly into the exposed substrate on the right side. so far it reminds me of the edge of a boreal forest at night. the riccia is looking pretty bad, but hopefully it will fill in pretty soon.










i have 20 watts with all glass aquarium screw in cf's under an ahs reflector. i'm dosing excel, flourish potassuim, KHNO3, KPO4, and trace amonts of CSM+B (wary about the copper content). i'm kind of just doing the whole dosing thing blindly right now.... pretty sure it's not goint to need too heavy a dose since since the plants are still establishing themselves and its stil a pretty light plant load. any suggestions on dosing would be a big help.










I think this is a 'physa' snail but i'm not sure? if so should i get rid of them or will they not prove harmful. right now there's still only 5 or 6 so if i need to get em out i want to do it quick.










any suggestions about layout, dosing or other miscellaney would be appreciated.


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## aquamoon (Jul 26, 2004)

I love the layout. Your on the way to a very nice aquascape.


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## Lil boy blue (Jan 26, 2006)

I really like the tank scape.....your shrimp are goin to appreciate it....


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

Don't worry about the snail - it won't hurt anything. Your shrimp will be fine! 

Good luck!


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

thanks all...
concerning the snails... i heard that physa reproduce like crazy, and i want it to be a shrimp tank, not a snail tank. also i heard mixed reports about them eating plants.
the utricularia came in and was just the right amount. i planted it and though it looks kind of scraggly, so does the rest of the tank. it will probably look a lot better in about a month. i'll post a new pic or two tonight.


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

If you put in a zuchinni sliced long-ways right before the lights go out and then take it out in the morning you can pick a whole bunch of your snails off the zuchinni. That's a quick and easy way to thin them out. 

I have LOTS in my shrimp tank, never had a problem with them eating live healthy plants, though occasionally they'll chew on dead leaves.


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## mecgeorgeneo (Aug 12, 2005)

is your riccia tied to stones? i find that it thrives better if you spread it thinner, then it will fill in. yay shrimp are cute!


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

mecgeorgeneo said:


> is your riccia tied to stones? i find that it thrives better if you spread it thinner, then it will fill in. yay shrimp are cute!


yeh, to geodes. should i maybe have gone even thinner... i get the feeling it may be choking. that would suck if half of it rotted.


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## LonBeMe (Jun 16, 2006)

Nate - Looks cool - but you know I can't answer any of your questions!
Lonny


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

i've added some utricularia gramnifolia, done a little trimming etc... this tank has kind of taken second priority while i work on some side projects. pretty soon though it will be pressurized co2 and have a diy mini canister filter with handmade acrylic lillies. new photos:


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Tank looks great,when u took a full tank shot of it,i really couldn't believe that it was a nano tank,appeared like a 50gal to me.Great work on the aquascape,do keep us updated,would love to see the riccia thicken and pearl.


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

nellis said:


> pretty soon though it will be pressurized co2


You're putting pressurized CO2 on a 5.5 gallon? Or just splitting a line w/ a manifold?


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

i'm spliting the line with an ultra mini manifold... its already hooked up to my 15 gal. i ordered a mini diffuser but i'm thinking i'm not going to have enough water movement to make it effective.


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## hb3133 (Jun 26, 2006)

How are the Red Cherry shrimp doing? Any new baby shrimp?


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

not that i've noticed yet, they're molting alot and some are very red though, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed.


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

AHA... i spotted two quite pregnant females today


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## mecgeorgeneo (Aug 12, 2005)

ahh im so jealous, i want a shrimp only tank but "the boss" has the rule, only 2 tanks in the house (one sw, one fw). tanks looking good!


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

At least better than me,i am only allowed one tank but it so happens that there are discus and an angel fish inside.


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

the boss thinks she can tell me what to do around here... i just snuck the tank and all the equipment home when she wasn't around, then set it up. there was really nothing she could do when she got home:icon_twis


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## General Tso (Mar 1, 2006)

Nellis, 
If you ever have any cherry shrimp they you want to get rid of send me a PM. I live right in North Tonawanda and would love to have some. I just can't make myself ante up the 4.99 The Fish Place charges for them. Your Tank looks great!


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

how do you tell if the female is pregnant? is it that white tiny spots inside their swelling belly = eggs? if it is, then some of mine's pregnant too


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

ikuzo said:


> how do you tell if the female is pregnant? is it that white tiny spots inside their swelling belly = eggs? if it is, then some of mine's pregnant too


she'll have little egg shaped yellowish things tucked into her swimmerets. if you look real close she looks like she's constantly struggling to keep them their, bouncing them around in her shell.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

can't really tell if the eggs' inside or outside. I have about 10 shrimps inside my community aquarium, but these 3-4 days I never saw them again, I suspect they're inside my driftwood's hole which facing the back of my tank. But I also worried if they're dead or eaten by bigger fish. I have 3 medium rainbowfish.


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

ikuzo said:


> can't really tell if the eggs' inside or outside. I have about 10 shrimps inside my community aquarium, but these 3-4 days I never saw them again, I suspect they're inside my driftwood's hole which facing the back of my tank. But I also worried if they're dead or eaten by bigger fish. I have 3 medium rainbowfish.



Yeah, the rainbows probably ate them. Having shrimp (except large ones like C. Japonica, Macrobrachium, Atya, etc.) in a community aquarium is a VERY BAD idea.


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

General Tso said:


> Nellis,
> If you ever have any cherry shrimp they you want to get rid of send me a PM. I live right in North Tonawanda and would love to have some. I just can't make myself ante up the 4.99 The Fish Place charges for them. Your Tank looks great!


when i get enough to start selling, ill give you the same price i give TFP: $2.50


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

so i ordered some new plants and decided to rescape. i'm now using a piece of driftwood that i broke and retied to make a better form. the riccia that's floating at the top will be mixed with some pellia and subwassertang (still in the mail) , tied to some stainless steel mesh (purchased here) and placed over the remaining eco complete. the rocks that form a little path will be replaced with some slate, which i'll chip and stack horizontally to give a gorge-like/exposed strata look.




























i also finally hooked up the DIY Mini Canister i've been working on, mini acrylic lillies and all, and hooked the tank up to the CO2 cylinder. I'm using the tiny CO2 diffuser sold by aquaticmagic on aquabid (who, by the way, is a great seller)roud: 










no baby shrimp yet, but it's satisfying enough to just sit back and stare at this:


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## chickenball z (Aug 30, 2005)

love the tank....
you gonna put other species of shrimps in there?


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

chickenball z said:


> love the tank....
> you gonna put other species of shrimps in there?


no, once i've decided that i've grown enough shrimp so that i don't have to worry about population dynamics anymore, i'm going to put in 1 or 2 Badis badis.


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

in one of my ADD fits i decided i didn't like the new layout, so i rescaped it with some nice blue slate. here's a sneek preview until i get some decent shots.










oh... and i noticed some shrimp juvs finally. i was about to give up on them. hopefully more pics soon.


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

Here are the promised photos. It was a quick snap-session; please excuse the quality.





































Inspiration for the scape comes from the gorges of western New York... Ithica, Letchworth, Stony Brook, but foremost Watkin's Glen. There was some serious dieback because I let the ambulia grow too tall and it blocked a lot of the light. The riccia and Utricularia _gramnifolia_ are just starting to bounce back.

Juv Shots:





































There's some pellia in front of both clumps of amubulia. I think I'm going to get rid of the latter becaues the internodes are growing way too long; I can't seem to train them down. Eventualy I'd like to double the lighting, but I'm preparing to move to Cambridge, which is quite an expensive place from what I'm told, and I don't have a job lined up yet.

Any suggestions for plants to replace the Ambulia? I like the way they look like miniture trees, and would like to keep that effect, but this is lost in the legginess anyway.


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## bigstick120 (May 23, 2005)

I really like the new layout! The rocks look great and will look even better when everything fills in. As far as a different plant if you like the little tree look check out Tonina sp. 'Belem' or Tonina fluviatilis, these are becoming some of my favorite plants, although that list is getting long!


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Man,those are some really lucky cherries.Great looking tank and well done on the gorges inspiration.


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## dweebikus (Jul 11, 2006)

Mind if I ask what kind of screen that is on the grass with a name I don't know? 

edit: nm, found the answer to my question on page 2


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

Bigstick: Thanks for the suggestions. I will check those plants out. Am i right in recalling that tonina are soft water plants? Those rocks must be carbonate based because they drove up my Kh and pH.

youho: Thanks! lucky cherries... I don't know. The tank often goes neglected. Sometimes I forget to feed them :icon_eek: 

Dweebs: That mesh comes highly recomended.


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## aquamoon (Jul 26, 2004)

nellis, your new layout is breath taking. By far the best 5.5 gallon aquarium that I have seen. Keep up the outstanding work.:thumbsup:


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Well,they are lucky to me as they can have a home that is so beautiful all to themselves.As for the feeding part,i think they won't mind that much..I think,haha.


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## SPL-311 (Aug 7, 2006)

very cool - I love your use of slate. very inventive!


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

Thank-you all for your positive feedback. To be honest, I was recently getting very frustrated with all the dieback, leggy plants, exposed stainless steel, lack of reproducing shrimp, etc... and almost tore it down and sold the shrimp.

It's starting to make a comeback, though, and all I can do is hope things fill in nicely. All of your encouragement helps a lot, at least with my patience.

One thing that's been bugging me though is the Utricularia gramnifolia. It's definately growing, but looks pale. The colors you see in the photos are pretty accurate. Oliver Knott's U.g. always looks so green and fresh, (http://www.pbase.com/plantella/hc60) and he's not using much more lighting than I am. I wonder if maybe it's a fert issue?


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## yoink (Apr 21, 2005)

I love the new layout, very unique. Congrats on the shrimplets.


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## Oqsy (Jul 3, 2004)

fantastic work! as for replacing the ambulia, try hottonia palustris.. very interesting shape, and stays relatively short, which will serve your purposes well. it grows well under 2.5wpg in my 55 gallon with CO2 and EI dosing, inert substrate. I'm not at all familiar with Utricularia. beautiful plant! i'll have to do some research. keep it up and keep posting pics of the progress!

Oqsy


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

new scape is awsome! slate looks great! if i where you i would look into a little bit of weeping moss to weep over the edges of the slate and soften it up a bit.... but not let it take over so there is pleanty of slate left open 

- fish newb -


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

update:

General Tso gave me some xmas moss. I'm growing it out temporarily until I begin my next project this fall... will be my most tenacious work to date. If I can pull it off it will be jaw dropping, but it still only exists on paper.

The riccia is coming back to life, but the U.g. is still looking kind of brownish. Anyone have any suggestions?


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## bpm2000 (Feb 16, 2005)

LOVE the rockwork.


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## GreenerSideofLIfe (Dec 24, 2005)

I'd love to see more pics of this tank!!

I was thinking along the same lines myself for my 2.5 gal. Due to the limited area I thought rock stacking might help build depth but you did it SO well. AMAZING!!


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

Well I've relocated to Cambridge, Mass. (an 8 hour trip from Buffalo). All the shrimp are live and well, reproducing like crazy, but the tank itself isn't looking so hot. My DIY canister sprung an untracable leak so there's no filtration. Now there's a copepod infestation (I believe they're copepods, but not sure) and the snails are reproducing like crazy. I lost interest (got lazy and stopped taking care of the tank for a while and there's algae all over the glass, and most of my plants are not looking so hot.

So I'm thinking about just sellng off the cherries and folding. I'd hate to see it end for all the support you've all been giving, but I'd rather they get properly taken care of than neglected. I've got today off though, so maybe I can spend some time recessitating the tank. Who knows...


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

The tank looks great



Question:
Does utricularia gramnifolia eat your baby shrimp or eggs? I know they eat fry because it is a carnivorous plant species. Just wondering


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## the_noobinator (Jun 10, 2006)

it looks great. i hope you don't mind that i'm doing something similar with a tank that i've started to terrace. don't worry it won't be blatant


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

fresh_newby said:


> The tank looks great
> 
> 
> 
> ...


thanks! the nettle cells are so small on the u.c. that even the tiniest of cherries seem to be fine. I've never seen a dead cherry except when i accidently O.D. with excel. my population is definately slowly increasing.



> it looks great. i hope you don't mind that i'm doing something similar with a tank that i've started to terrace. don't worry it won't be blatant


of course! i'm not that vain!


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## mattyboombatty (Jul 24, 2006)

Hey nate, that rockwork is stunning:eek5:. I'd hate to see you tear that down. I'd just replace the plants with something easy and let it go for a while if you aren't that into it. You'll find your way back eventually. I'm sure that some cherries will survive even if you don't take care of it.


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## rkfiske (Sep 7, 2006)

moved to cambridge huh? do you know any local pet stores that are good around here other than Skipton's? I go to school out here in boston and have been looking for a good store. I don't have a car out here, so I can't head out too far =/


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## nellis (Oct 27, 2005)

rkfiske said:


> moved to cambridge huh? do you know any local pet stores that are good around here other than Skipton's? I go to school out here in boston and have been looking for a good store. I don't have a car out here, so I can't head out too far =/


so far i haven'tfound any fantastic stores... there's one on southhampton st in south boston that has a decent selection, but it'spretty expensive. I went to a great smallish store in western mass (by amherst) but I can't remember what it's called.


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## qazplm25 (Mar 3, 2006)

look in massachusetts section you guys in massachusetts theres 2 good fish stores we r talking about


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