My 2 liter Opae Ula project(s)!

[luyisamor]

can I know what glue did you use?

[hardware_failure]

can I know what glue did you use?

Gorilla Glue, which I highly recommend for this specific application. You can buy it at any hardware, department (target walmart etc) or even many grocery stores.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glue

Gorilla Glue is waterproof when completely dry. It is STRONG, stronger than superglue. (though its strength is not necessary for this application) An important factor is it needs a tiny bit of water either directly on the glue or at least one surface to activate. A spray bottle can work great. You can even spit on it, though I dont recommend this... at least not while anyone is looking One of its properties that is very desirable for this application is the fact that it expands ALOT. This allows it to bond the extremely porous and uneven lava rock very well. It actually expands so much that I ran into some issues with it expanding past the bond contact points and becoming very unsightly on the structure. I tried to counter this by adding even more glue (this time in much smaller amounts) and then placing black lava rock gravel on top of it. This actually inadvertently created an even better looking glued structure, adding some more "transition" between each glued rock. Still though, there are spots where the glue has over expanded and is a bit unsightly. Hopefully biofilm, detritus and dirt will help conceal this eventually.

Superglue also is actually a not-so-commonly-known gem for freshwater planted tanks - it is (IMHO) much better for attaching moss / rhizome plants to driftwood etc than fishing line. Fishing line is a PITA to work with and can be unsightly. Superglue is also waterproof and doesnt release anything bad into the water and drys super fast. If done correctly one can attach stuff to driftwood almost completely seamlessly with superglue. It does not expand like Gorilla Glue does.

[Mustafa]

Any updates? It's been a while..

[hardware_failure]

Sorry for the lapse in update.

While I do believe strongly in cycling tanks, Im one of those people that are typically biting their nails impatiently waiting to stock a new setup. For some reason I have managed to be slow and casual with this one.

Anyway, the box looks ready for macro algae and snails. I may not need the snails, still debating. While the shrimp should be fine on the bio film and alage (according to what is well documented here) the snails will probably need to be supplemented, most of the freshwater snails I have kept can chow through algae like cows.

Updated Pics:

The java moss is mostly dead with lots of gunk on it, but there are new shoots coming out (either its adapting or is in desperation, probably the later):

There is tiny bits of algae on multiple spots of rocks, cant see any on the glass though. Here is the biggest patch:

And a (semi) better close up... That strange looking brown thing is not a weird fungal growth, Im pretty sure its a dead guppy grass leaf. A few weeks ago I had squeezed a prefilter foam out from a freshwater tank to give it a small bio seed to start cycling, and it came from that.


What do you guys think - snails or no snails? Also, what would be a good number of shrimp to initially stock? (remember its only about 2 liters of water) Once I come to a decision I will order. Thanks!

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the update! I wouldn't worry too much about supplementing the snails that I'm offering anyway. Nerites probably will starve to death, but the brackish water snails I sell haven't gotten any supplementation whatsoever in over 10 years. They only eat what grows in the tank and possibly scraps from the once every 2 weeks feeding of the shrimp. It seems like you're actually developing some cyanobacteria on your substrate and snails may be helpful with that, unless you want to just wait for your shrimp population to increase and take care of it over time. So, in short, snails can be useful (especially in the beginning) to establish and maintain the tank, but you can give it a shot without snails, too. You may just have to clean a little bit more maybe over time until your shrimp population catches up.

As for the number of shrimp. I have a 1.8 liter jar on my kitchen table with 10-11 shrimp in it. They are regularly visible and thriving. I would recommend starting probably with that, although I think that volume of water could hold up to probably 20 shrimp. Not sure what the maximum population would be in such a small volume of water before they stop breeding, but I'll find out in the future. In the past I had a 2.5 gallon tank and although I stocked it with only 20+ shrimp I ended up having hundreds in it after a few years. I think organically growing the population is probably better (and more rewarding) than sticking tons of shrimp in a tank immediately as the tank may not immediately adjust to the biological load.

Also make sure to not feed the tank at all in the beginning until the algae start disappearing and your shrimp are constantly actively picking at the substrate for food. I feed my jar now occasionally, but much less often than my breeding tanks. The jar gets fed maybe once every month to two months. And the shrimp still show moderate interest in the food which means that there is enough to eat in the tank. The thousands of shrimp in my breeding tanks on the other hand pile up on the food (every two weeks) like there is no tomorrow.

[hardware_failure]

Thanks for the insight Mustafa. I am very interested in the snails (particularly the T. granifera) so I will get some. I plan to setup more boxes so (need to get on that) so Im sure 10x will certainly not be overkill once those are up as well.

One final decision, at this point is it def best to stock the chaeto + snails first or should I just order the shrimp at the same time?

Thanks again.

[Mustafa]

I think the way your tank looks (there's already algae growth) it's safe to say that you can order everything at the same time. As long as you don't feed I don't see any problems. I'd take out that java moss, though, it's in its last death throes and will just continue organically polluting the tank as it slowly decays.

[hardware_failure]

Okay thanks.

Order placed!

Thanks again Mustafa.

[hardware_failure]

I received everything today in the mail. Normally its really hot this time of year in California but I got lucky - its been unusually cool!

Mustafa's packaging was excellent:


The bags were packed nicely in newspaper but I took it out before pic.


Everyone appears to be alive and well:



Acclimating snails (didnt wait that long):


Acclimating the shrimp (giving this more time):



The rope is a nice touch to accommodate the shrimp. I plan to slit the bag in about an hour and let them swim out. I know sometimes people drip acclimate - Im too lazy to do that and Ive read the supershrimp are typically not as sensitive as others.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the update and pictures! And yes, it's totally fine to just release them into the tank. No drip acclimation needed. And, in case anyone is wondering, the shrimp turn red after a while. They just lose their colors during shipment.

[hardware_failure]

I slit open the bag about 30 min before I left work. I would have done it earlier if possible but unfortunate the mail gets to us very late. In that time I think 6 shrimp made it out on their own. I decided to leave the bag as is the box overnight (vs just dumping them).

I have some minor system upgrades I have to do tomorrow on site (off business hours) so I will check on everything then. I will also post some pics.

I can confirm that they change back to red after acclimating. Right before I left work I could see at least 2 of the shrimp had turned almost fully red after having swimming/swimed/swam (lol funny word) out of the bag.

[hardware_failure]

I did not take pics etc on the weekend, was a bit busy.

Anyway here is a big update -

The snails, chaeto and shrimp are in the box and do not appear to be in any sort of "great stress or suffering". I say it like this because one might commonly say "doing fine" or "doing great" but honestly that would be very hard to access without weeks or even months of observation. (especially with the presumed hardiness of the specimens)

The shrimp are more active than I expected, but after 3 days only some of them have regained a significant amount of red coloring. It might just be because they are younger specimens?

Here are videos which I think show this stage much better than pics (at least with my phone vs using a real camera):
Static frontal view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYKvFx-eYVY
Static right side zoomed view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBu1_o1Gc-c
Panned viewing of the whole box (this somewhat shows the "caves" of the glued up lava rock formation etc): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NV5xjRjsE

I also took some pics too. One thing to note is on alot of the darker lava rock there appears to be light brown dirt etc. There is little or no dirt on these rocks, its mostly just spots of light coloring. If anything, aside from the recently introduced specimens (and their water and poop that came out on the trip) there is (presumably) very little if any organic matter in the box.

Front view:


Chaeto:


Some "attempted" shrimp pics (little boogers dont want to stay still):







At this point my biggest question to my self is - what (if anything) to supplement in the near or distant future.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the pics! The coloration of the shrimp may come and go for a while. Different shrimp show different intensities of red at any given time, but they should all turn more red over time. As for supplementing...what are you thinking of? Decoration? Chemical supplements?

[hardware_failure]

As far as supplementing I was referring to adding food / bio material, particularly for the snails to either eat directly or to grow (hopefully) algae.

A minor update: The shrimps activity has greatly subdued, in fact they hardly move at all now. I have to search for them. In general I believe I do see more red color however.

[KenCotigirl]

I have found that when adding shrimp to a new tank there is a lot of activity. After a day or two they settle down. Whether they are feasting or hiding is not known. It took my shrimp about a month to reveal themselves and procede with their normal behavior. I would not worry about feeding the snails. They seem to take care of themselves.

Ken