7/5/20-started to cycle a new 1 gal tank. One gallon of distilled water with 1/4 cup of salt. The hydrometer reading is 1.012 (same as the 5 gal tank). Added a few pieces of floating algae, a piece of aragonite substrate green with algae, and one tiny Marimo ball from the large tank. The Marimo has been in the tank since April 2019 and is very green. Added one inch of aragonite as substrate and several small pieces of lava rock for hiding. Soaked the lava rock overnight and cleaned substrate multiple times. The tank is near a south facing window and will only get ambient light. Will cycle for a week or two, the original tank cycled for two weeks but this tank will have the benefit of some water and algae from the first tank, so maybe only cycle a week.
(Using an iPad-not sure why the pictures are showing upside down-look OK when I click on them)
My first tank is 5 gallons and has been running since Dec 2017. Started with 33 shrimp and it now has approximately 117. I do keep count of the number of floaters and assume they all survive.
Just a fair warning that using marimo balls in supershrimp tanks is at best pretty controversial here. A lot of users have reported eventual issues with them (green does not necessarily equal healthy), and Mustafa has always been adamant that they cannot handle supershrimp tank salinities indefinitely.
Varanus thanks for the reply. I was going to leave that comment out about the Marimo ball but it has been in the older tank for a year and a half now and so far so good. It is actually a little tiny ball that I separated from a bigger ball. It is only about the size of this emoji - . I figured even if it did deteriorate it would help cycle the new tank and there really Isn’t enough of it to hurt anything. I actually do have one of the moss balls from this site and it has already released a little pup after only about 6 months. It moves around the tank with the amount of light it receives and it has become a living part of the tank.
I have a question about the pictures I attached. Do they show right side up when you view them?
July 12-added two female shrimp to the tank today. Only been one week cycling but the water is crystal clear and I added some algae from the large tank. I’ll wait a couple days and see how they make out and then add at least 8 more. There is no light on the tank but it is near a large window and gets a lot of natural light. Is there an issue with excess algae developing when a tank is near a window?
Aug10 update.
There are now 10 shrimp in the tank, added 8 more. The walls and lava rocks are pretty much covered in algae and the shrimp are loving it! Having the tank a couple feet from a large South facing window really got the algae growing. If everything stays the same with the algae I don’t think I will ever have to feed them. The only issue I have with this tank is since it is round it magnifies too much and makes viewing the shrimp a little difficult.
JoeG: Thanks for the update. I enjoyed reading your prior posts. I am interested in the fact that you only cycled your small tank for a week before adding shrimp - how much of your original tank was put into the new one? I am upgrading my small tank to a 5 gallon but was planning on waiting for 4 weeks to cycle. I bought every thing new for the 5 gallon but added 3 - 4 cups of my original tank water to the new one along with some macro algae to help with the cycling. The water is clear and no visible algae and it has been cycling for about two weeks. Any advice you have would be appreciated. Thanks.
Add the shrimp in. Feed freeze dried spirulina for 1-2x week for 6-8 weeks or so and you're set. Tank will be fine. You have a food source that has been given to your shrimp for the waste that will provide for to the algae & biofilm.
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I have two of those same tanks in a west window. One day I noticed a faint burning smell and was puzzled as to where it was coming from. I later discovered a small amount of smoke rising from the desk top that the containers were sitting on. The shape of the containers had concentrated the sunlight into a tight pattern to cause enough heat to burn the wood. Not good. I put a small glass plate in front of the containers where the burn marks were. Problem solved.
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Attygirl, sorry for the late reply, I haven’t been on the site for a few weeks. In regard to your question I didn’t add any water from the original tank. I just added a couple of pebbles that had algae on them. The bowl gets lots of indirect light and the sides of the bowl filled with algae pretty quick. As of today the 10 shrimp are doing great.
Sliphorn, how close to the window are your tanks? Mine sits back a couple feet from the glass. In the summer the sun is overhead so it doesn’t hit the bowl at all. We’ll have to see how it works out for the winter (the sun is lower in the sky and might hit the bowl). There is a tree outside that window though and I’ll have to see if it blocks the sun.
JoeG wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:01 pm
Sliphorn, how close to the window are your tanks? Mine sits back a couple feet from the glass. In the summer the sun is overhead so it doesn’t hit the bowl at all. We’ll have to see how it works out for the winter (the sun is lower in the sky and might hit the bowl). There is a tree outside that window though and I’ll have to see if it blocks the sun.
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About a foot and a half or so and no trees to block any incoming rays.
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. I figured even if it did deteriorate it would help cycle the new tank and there really Isn’t enough of it to hurt anything. I actually do have one of the moss balls from this site and it has already released a little pup after only about 6 months. It moves around the tank with the amount of light it receives and it has become a living part of the tank. 
