Iwagumi Low Profile Opaeula Tank Setup

[mcdaney]

Hello there! I'm new to this amazing hobby.
Well not exactly new to this. My girlfriend bought a non-enclosed ecosphere (more like a plastic bottle) as a gift late last year. There were 3 shrimps. I was hooked!
I read everywhere about them! I went through and read almost all the threads here! Great community! Posts date back 2005.. wow! I wonder what I was doing back then.

They're such remarkable creatures and are fun to watch! I can literally waste hours just looking at them. I think my gf regrets her purchase hahaha!
Fast forward now, I have a total of 40 shrimps. Bought from a local breeder here. I was so happy there are people here interested on these shrimps. I don't think I could order from Mustafa due shipping/import issues (I'm from a country in Asia hehe)

Anyway I went from the bottle to a 17x17cm [1st tank] crystal glass nano tank. Love this tank because it was made of clear glass which I think is very addictive. Colors just popped up more!

I then "upgraded" to a 60x25x20cm low profile tank (was given by gf's brother) [2nd tank]. This tank was a normal float glass tank. Honestly, after having crystal glass before this tank, I wasn't satisfied with it haha! Oops! Once you go crystal, you're hooked.

And so I then decided custom make a 60x20x17cm crystal glass tank [3rd tank]. Smaller than the previous one cos I wanted it to not take too much space.

Here's a photo of my current tank!

My Opae Ula setup tank

mytank.jpg (113.47 KiB) Viewed 4754 times

Like everybody else, I've been wanting them to breed. I used an overhang filter on my 2nd tank, but decided to drop it.
My current tank is filterless, scaped it with black gravel and lava rocks. I feed them a tiny pellet once a week. Salinity is at 1.015.
But I think the main reason of them not breeding is me moving them from tank to tank too much haha!

So now that I've finalised my tank, hopefully they'll breed soon!

Will update here if I have questions or news to share! If you guys are into Instagram, just look for username @opaeula where I'll post photos there occasionally

[Nexus6]

Thats a beautiful tank! Great job!

[mcdaney]

Thats a beautiful tank! Great job!

Thank you! Not sure if I should have posted this in the "Galleries" section though

[Mech]

That tank is gorgeous, did you have it custom made? If not could you let me know the model and the light used? I'm very jealous

[mcdaney]

That tank is gorgeous, did you have it custom made? If not could you let me know the model and the light used? I'm very jealous

Thank you for your kind compliments! Yes the tank is custom made. Not easy to find low profile tanks that don't take up space The light I'm using is Aqualighter 1 LED 60cm.

[KenCotigirl]

Glad to have you here. Very nice low profile tank. Is it just me, only part of the tank is in my picture.

[mcdaney]

Glad to have you here. Very nice low profile tank. Is it just me, only part of the tank is in my picture.

You viewing it via your phone? The photo is cropped when it's viewed on phone but you can drag the photo around.
The photo is viewable on both phone and web for me

[hardware_failure]

I am a huge fan of the look of your tank – the shape, size, style and how you have put it together. It is very Iwagumi-like. I actually plan to do one of my boxes very similar to this eventually. When I asked about filtration I received feedback to skip it, and Im glad that I did.

Q: Does your tank have any sort of hood or is it totally open at the top?

[hardware_failure]

Glad to have you here. Very nice low profile tank. Is it just me, only part of the tank is in my picture.

I run into this all the time with this forum while using my phone or tablet (which is not my preference)

This forum has some somewhat stubborn margins set on it when viewing at a lower res. (but its actually pretty common) When using a mobile browser, Images that are uploaded and attached are forced to a scroll bar window at about 410ish?px and external images that are pulled using the





You can duplicate this on a full sized monitor/browser by dragging the width of the browser window to be more and more narrow until you notice said conditions.

[mcdaney]

Hi hardware_failure! I read through your project and I think it's cool!
Thanks for the photo upload/viewing issue post too!

With regards to your question:
It's a good question! Tank covers not only minimize evaporation, it also keeps dust out. For a filterless setup I think it's important to have a good cover. For me, to keep fur out hahaha! Cos I have cats! Back then I spent so much time trying to pick out strands of fur floating around in my tank, frustrating indeed. I requested the tank maker to have a glass cover. But it didn't fully cover everything, dust and fur will still manage to make it through the gaps. So to solve that, on top of the glass cover, I cut out and place a clear mat from IKEA.

Here is how my tank cover looks like:

Tank cover

image.jpg (354.33 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

Tank cover lifted

image.jpg (351.59 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

The most ideal cover for me (and maybe give you some inspiration), you can take a look at my 1st tank. I used to keep about 10 shrimps here. It's a 17x17cm, 5 liter tank. The brand is Aqualighter.
http://www.aqualighter.com/daquarium.html?language=gb

17x17cm tank

image.jpg (542.67 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

As the cover lays on top, dust won't fall though the gaps. Easy to clean too!

first tank cover close up

image.jpg (513.77 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

The LED light I'm using is from the same brand.

Aqualighter Pico

image.jpg (409.4 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

Shifted the cover to give a better look

Shifted cover

image.jpg (393.27 KiB) Viewed 4695 times

The cover too wasn't fully covering the tank. There's a 2cm gap to fit a overhang filter or to place a light. But I have a filter running so the gap is required. My resident Marimo Mossball will be happy to have water flow

Hope I manage to give you some inspiration and there are no typos around haha! Writing everything here using my phone, phew! All the best for your project! Will definitely look forward on the updates!

[hardware_failure]

Thanks for all the great info mcdaney!

I have never seen the aqualighter products before, they look top notch. Also that glass cover you had made looks really slick.

I had to download the pictures as they arnt resized and scrolling on them makes them very hard to view.

I agree with your views on tank covers 100%. I am in the same boat - I also actually do own a cat, and worse, two very small children. I have to admit, I am not always the tidiest of people my self. I think there is alot "snaz" factor of the latest trends of open tanks, particularly with nano fresh water etc. but its very impractical - particularly for a small opae ula nano setup. They may be a hearty species but in any nano setup consistency is key as the slightest change can have dramatic effects. One of my personal dislikes of many open tank setups is being able to easily see (aka blinded by) both the the lights them selves and the reflection of the lights on the surface of the water - that drives me nuts.

Fortunately for me however, the "boxes" I am using come with a lid that is exceptionally tight. I wouldnt call it air or water tight, but its just a hair below. You can see it pretty good in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecnhXU-xW4c
(I feel a little embarrassed - I held my phone in portrait mode, one of my own petpeeves)

[Mech]

if you press on the image with your mouse it shows the photos in full without the need for scrolling

[hardware_failure]

if you press on the image with your mouse it shows the photos in full without the need for scrolling

Ha, I have to admit, I didnt know that!

Unfortunately with a lower res browser window they are still cropped horizontally, but I personally make a dash for a PC pretty much any time I can when I want to browse the interwebs. (cant stand browsing on my phone)

[mcdaney]

No problem!

I have never seen the aqualighter products before, they look top notch. Also that glass cover you had made looks really slick.

They are.. Good quality! I think their mini air pumps are great.

I had to download the pictures as they arnt resized and scrolling on them makes them very hard to view.

Haha sorry about that! Still trying to master the right size to upload via my phone. Thanks Mech for the help!

I agree with your views on tank covers 100%. I am in the same boat - I also actually do own a cat, and worse, two very small children. I have to admit, I am not always the tidiest of people my self. I think there is alot "snaz" factor of the latest trends of open tanks, particularly with nano fresh water etc. but its very impractical - particularly for a small opae ula nano setup. They may be a hearty species but in any nano setup consistency is key as the slightest change can have dramatic effects.

Yup! Open tanks are great only when there are filters running haha! But with open tanks, water evaporates quicker.

One of my personal dislikes of many open tank setups is being able to easily see (aka blinded by) both the the lights them selves and the reflection of the lights on the surface of the water - that drives me nuts.

Yeah I know what you mean! My tank is around my thigh level, so the light reflections against the glass cover is rather annoying. Maybe you can try my way? Adding a semi transparent mat on top. It reduces the reflections greatly.

Fortunately for me however, the "boxes" I am using come with a lid that is exceptionally tight. I wouldnt call it air or water tight, but its just a hair below. You can see it pretty good in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecnhXU-xW4c
(I feel a little embarrassed - I held my phone in portrait mode, one of my own petpeeves)

Hahaha no worries! I too have recorded videos in portrait :S
The "box" looks potentially great! How do you solve the air intake/exchange though? Drill a hole?

I suddenly thought of something.
You know those breather bags some LFS use to pack and transport fishes/shrimps? Those bags let oxygen in and CO2 out http://www.kordon.com/kordon/products/a ... suppliers!. So if there are holes on the cover, cut out pieces of this breather plastic can be used the cover the hole in a way. Air exchange, but keep the water in. One problem is to make it aesthetically pleasing haha.

[hardware_failure]

The "box" looks potentially great! How do you solve the air intake/exchange though? Drill a hole?

I suddenly thought of something.
You know those breather bags some LFS use to pack and transport fishes/shrimps? Those bags let oxygen in and CO2 out http://www.kordon.com/kordon/products/a ... suppliers!. So if there are holes on the cover, cut out pieces of this breather plastic can be used the cover the hole in a way. Air exchange, but keep the water in. One problem is to make it aesthetically pleasing haha.

I had (still have) the same concern about air (O2 vs CO2 mainly) exchange. IIRC people said dont worry about it. So far I am just keeping my fingers crossed it wont be an issue. The lid is certainly not air tight, it looks like I might need to top off soon. One thing to note, is that these guys do survive (if a bit dying a slow death) in ecospheres which have zero gas exchange. If I have just a tiny bit that might be all they need. I guess I will see.

I totally agree with the aesthetics part... its all enclosed now and if I had to drill holes etc it would certainly loose some "slickness".

Thanks for all the feedback. Wait.. I thought this was your thread?