"Planted" supershrimp tank

[minishrimps]

Awesome! You've been waiting a long time... How are the plants in your tank surviving? I would love to learn more about how you set up a planted tank. Can you provide more details about substrate and species used and if they survived the transition from fresh to brackish water?

[Stalker]

Of course. My substrate is lava rock with some corals, I think it doesnt matter. The algae (only one plant) are:

-Caloglossa beccari, sold as "red moss" for freshwater, I think it can be transfered from fresh to salt water rapidly because its a red algae witch are very good at avoiding celle explosion by osmisis, and because they grow in mangrove where salinity change rapidly (as in anchihaline pool btw)

-Aegagropilla linnaei aka "marimo ball" from fresh water, no matter what Mustafa say, it is alive, growing, very green and produce a lot of O2, but the tissue is breaking apart, may be in very small balls. But you need to adapt it to high level of salt over several days or week. You can also buy Mustafa's mossballs, it's similar and I even think it the same thing.

-Compsopogon (aka black beard alga) from fresh water, it appeared itself, on another plant and now small bushes are growing everywhere

-Ulva, aka sea lettuce from reef tank, I just put it in the tank last week it grow... You can even find some species in freshwater (Enteromorpha subgenera), I dont think it will survive very long because it need a lot of nutrients.

-Chaetomorpha, you can find it on Mustafa's shop, but many species are able to pass from marine to brackish water and even fresh water!

-Caulerpa: almost all species of caulerpa will grow in brackish water.

-Pandanus: it's an emerged plant growing in fresh and sea water! For years my piece of plant was growing roots in my freshwater tanks, now it's growing roots in brackish tank.

-Lomariopsis lineata: this is the most surprising, it's a fern gametophyte growing as a moss in freshwater. All other mosses and ferns died but this one is still green... And growing slowly, new thalli being smaller and fuzzier than old ones. I dont know if it will die one day because it's very weak, I hope no.

Also from other aquarists:

-"Dichtya", it's a small red algae growing in reefs tanks. The name look latin/greek but its only used in french aquarist world, absolutly unknow by science, so it's probably misidentified. Another french Opae Ula breeder is growing it in his tank

-A lot of other marine algae, I lost the list, just go to a reefshop, ask for small pieces of algae (for free) and put them in the water, some will die, other will survive and grow

-Rhizophora, the plant making the mangroves, coconut shoud work too but no-one tried

I will update and maybe, make a larger tread about algae growing in brackish water

[Rockhopper]

I will update and maybe, make a larger tread about algae growing in brackish water

Great information here! I've struggled to find credible sources for brackish water plants. Part of the trouble I've run into is the loose definition of 'brackish'. I've seen ranges of 1.003-1.019, making it difficult to find proper species to fit our SG (1.010). This problem is further complicated by most of our extremely low tech set ups (no filters, minimal lights, no water changes, no nutrient additions, etc.). I'd love to read more

I like your method of trial and error! I'd be afraid to try it in my set up since my bowl is less than 1gal but I'm more than happy to hear about your results

[minishrimps]

Thanks for this info... I will be looking into some of these further... Some more pics of your tank would be great too!

[minishrimps]

-Compsopogon (aka black beard alga) from fresh water, it appeared itself, on another plant and now small bushes are growing everywhere

I think I somehow have gotten this in my tank and it seems to be feeding off the Chaetomorpha and slowly killing it. It might not be this though... do you know what that stringy looking algae is in the first of the two new pictures you uploaded was? It's very hair like and grows in little clumps?

[Stalker]

It just grow on it and your Chaeto isnt strong enough to repulse it, it doesnt grow on healthy plants/algae but I dont know what you can do to make your chaeto tronger.

[minishrimps]

I edited my previous post after you answered, i think i have somehow gotten a hair algae in my tank, it seems to be taking over the chaeto and there is a fuzzy layer on most of my substrate and corals. not quite sure if i can get a pic but it looks similar to what is in your pics there... very filamentous and spreading. I think the snails are eating it but maybe i need to lessen the light a bit to discourage its growth...

sorry... not thread jacking... just curious if you know what that plant is since you seem very informed about the different algaes...

[Stalker]

I have dark green fuzzy clumps on my rocks, those are cyanobacteria and its only growing on mineral or dead material (like the oldest pieces or marimo balls), Hair alage (this is the one you see in my pictures) is growing everywhere, I dont know why and yet it can outgrow other algae/plants I think. I remove it once a week as much as I can with a toothbrush.

[Stalker]

First morning with opae ula. The bad new is that I cant see any of the +15 shrimps. The is that I dont see any corps either so I hope they are hiding in the substrate and under the rocks

[varolluis]

Hi Stalker can you please give me a contact for the suplier that sold you the super shrimps (facebook contact, a site or somehting)? I really want to buy some for a biotope and i try hard to find someone who may be able to send em in Romania.
Tx in advance.

[Stalker]

He would not ship to romania I think but I will ask

[Mustafa]

First morning with opae ula. The bad new is that I cant see any of the +15 shrimps. The is that I dont see any corps either so I hope they are hiding in the substrate and under the rocks

They're probably just hiding.

[Stalker]

Yes after several month of hiding they are flying everywhere

[Mustafa]

Yes after several month of hiding they are flying everywhere

Good! Looks like they finally ran out of immediately reachable food and are looking around the entire tank.

[Stalker]

No they where just dancing before mating. Now they hide again, but I still can see one or two.