Setting up my Hawaiian-theme Nano Tank

[Bluemonk]

After enjoying @tooth 's success story, I'd like to share my new pandemic-winter hobby in setting up this Hawaiian-theme nano tank for the Hawaiian red shrimp. I'm just at the beginning of preparing the tank so I'll start from sharing my very first thoughts and qualms, my purchasing of weird gadgets, all the details! Here's a picture of the tank to start.

[Bluemonk]

Where to begin? Why don't we talk about the basic equipment I had to find. As of now I do not plan on putting the shrimps in the tank until at least December. A month of prep work should help set me up for non-failure. I'm not aiming to be a success like @tooth just not an epic fail as a low life goal.

Tank -- A few years back, I had kept a goldfish won at a carnival once in this nano tank (picture attached) so I had decided to reuse it to start this new project. This is an Imaginarium 3-gallon cube tank found at Petco. It's still for sale and has been a great value for me. It is a really pretty tank as you can see the edges are round instead of ugly edges of glass panes siliconed together. This tank came with a light, a filter with all the media but I did not use most of it as it was too complicated for a Hawaiian Red Shrimp tank.

Light -- The original light that came with the package deal was pretty like a full-sun day at the beach but it did not dim which I needed since I did not want it to be too bright for the Hawaiian Red Shrimp as they live in caves. That light also did not have a timer so if I was away for the weekend the inconsistency in all-on or all-off lighting may affect the green "plants" (algae, moss, etcetra). I don't think the shrimps would care though since their natural habitat is in dark caves. The new light I got was under 15 bucks bought on Amazon with this timer (as pictured) which was very helpful. Within a 24 hour period, you can do a 6 hour on, 10 hour on, or a 12 hour on mode AND I am able to dim the light to just 10% of the full white light which should help to make the shrimp not hide constantly and not feel too alarmed basking in full sunlight for predators to find.

Filter -- I know from reading @tooth 's series that no filter is recommended for this type of shrimp, however since I was dealing with brackish water for the first time I needed something to ensure the mixing of the salt was even so here you see is a nano tank filter by Aqueon model name is simply "3" (3 for 3-gallon I think). I took out the carbon cartridge as I don't need to filter for carbon since there is no animal life right now in the tank and I don't plan on using the carbon cartridge unless the shrimp tank stinks then that's when I'll consider using it as this tank is a relaxation one for my bedside and odors would not be a great experience for me. Anyway I just put a piece of fish floss into the filter which looks like white wool that I cut into the size of the original cartridge, it really helps to slow the flow and helps with my goal to make this a relaxation tank without much noise while I sleep at night. I also think the shrimp may be able to live with this few drops of water flowing, but I'll see later once I observe their behavior in the tank. I mentioned I did not use the original media that came with the tank package, because it was used in the past and I did not want to reuse any media that might contaminate my new project; so I bought a Fluval AquaClear which on Petco was like 2 dollars and I simply cut it into two (saving one part for later in case some toxic bacteria invades the tank and I have to do an emergency evacuation of old media right away).

[Bluemonk]

Then I thought about what I need to do to prep the tank.

"Pure" Water -- First I researched what water I'll need to stock up on. I looked at a youtube personality's post about her time raising these shrimps and she said anything you can find cheapest that says distilled water is just fine. Thus I was at Costco and suddenly remembered about my new project and threw two very heavy packs of their distilled water in 8 oz bottles (see picture). I know the whole philosophy on Pet Shrimp is to stress less but my personality dictates for exactness so I have tested this water with my API water test kit to make sure there is nothing weird in it as it says "with minerals added for taste". Nitrate shows up 0 (parts per million) so I'm sure it's pure enough.

Soaking the Tank, Soaking the ornaments, Soaking EVERYTHING -- I went a little OCD and soaked everything due to all the reading I was doing about how Hawaiian Red Shrimp is very sensitive to chemicals and tap water additives like chlorine, nitrates etcetera. So as you can see in the picture I have soaked my Hawaiian Shirt Santa ceramic ornaments for a few days. They are actually salt and pepper shakers but since they're so well made and glazed I read that as long as you can eat off of glazed ceramics there won't be chemicals leeching from it when sitting in aquarium water. But I digress... in the tank provided in my initial post you will see that there are red lava rocks and white calcium carbonate coral and yes they've been also soaked in separate containers that I've first rinsed with "pure" water.

Salt -- I purchased the salt from this Pet Shrimp website because I was also purchasing the "plants" and wanted to make sure whatever it was grown in I was going to be using a similar salt. It came wet which I was puzzled by, maybe it's easier to pack and ensure it doesn't spill in shipping everywhere? Anyway I packed down the salt into my pyrex glass ware after I've rinsed it with the "pure" water and saw for a 3 gallon order it is about 6 oz. This is good for me to be exact as I have a lot of ornaments going into the tank and will not be using all 6 oz of the salt.

Mixing the Brackish Water -- On the topic of salt, I have no experience with salt water of any kind so while the philosophy of stress-less is something I really should live by for my sanity I went out and got a refractometer. This ATC brand one (pictured) was 20 bucks and have many favorable ratings on Amazon. While a lot reviews are fake these days pushed by company owners to have their workers put in reviews, I can attest this product is truly a gem and deserves all those positive reviews. When I first got it, it looked so "scientific" I was quite intimated but once I tested it with the "pure" water and saw the meter read 0 thus it came Pre-Calibrated I was surprised that I can actually use such an official-looking instrument. Anyhow, I read many advice on the web to never mix the brackish water directly in the tank but I thought where I am going to get such a huge bowl to mix so I reasoned since I have no shrimp why not just do it right in the tank. First I put in the black sand (substrate) which I got from this Pet Shrimp website and it also came wet so I'm hoping it has some good culture of bacteria to help jumpstart my cycling; THEN only after the sand is laid down did I start putting in the pure water and putting in the salt. I kept a record of how many gallons was in the tank as I poured, stopped at 1.5 gallon and added the relative amount of salt. Then I put in all those ornaments lava rocks, and corals with the sand in place already. This allowed me to see how much more water I needed. I measured salinity with the Refractometer and it was under the 1.010 that I wanted to achieve so I put more water and GRADUALLY more salt (until i got to 1.010) and in the end only filled in 2.125 gallons of this 3+ gallon tank.

[Bluemonk]

Now I see why the advice to mix the salt with water outside of the tank. Since I did it inside the tank there are small molecules of salt particles over the red lava rocks, even though I've had the gentle filter running overnight which I imagined churning the water and thus melting every speck of salt. Oh well. I figured it's evenly mixed enough and the salinity measured with the refractometer is still 1.010 so I went ahead and put in the two plants I bought from this Pet Shrimp website. See pics. I fear the stringy algae is dying as it's very dark green. Maybe it's just a matter of time before it gets used to the new tank's salinity. The green ball plant is about 3cm wide which is perfect for my nano tank but may be less dramatic for bigger 10 gallon tanks. It will be nice if the green balls replicate. The green string plant I would not want to take over the tank as it's not pretty to look at so I hope it won't grow too vivaciously.

Oh I forgot to mention I'm doing the Seachem Stability regiment for starting a tank. Some of this weird advice on the web about putting rotten fish to start the ammonia cycle, while tempting as it speeds things up, sounds like it can introduce bacteria that you have not expected so I think I'll take it slow and steady. No need to rush the shrimps in. Maybe this will be a Christmas event to look forward to when the shrimps are unleashed. Hope those of you celebrating Thanksgiving have your turkeys ready to go. I am doing a first turkey this year out of pandemic boredom.

[Bluemonk]

Porcelain Home came. I thought it was modern take on Hawaiian home.

I forgot to credit that huge black rock sitting on top of the white calcium carbonate rock was bought on the Pet Shrimp website. The rock came wet so I think it was sitting in one of the shrimp tanks and hopefully brought some organic stuff with it to help cycle my tank.

[Bluemonk]

My Ph is 7.6,
Ammonia is 0.2 ppm
Nitrites is 0.25 ppm
Nitrate is 0.0 ppm

And I see no visible algae except for the plant life bought on this website so according to what I’ve read below the tank is not ready

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6525&p=44967&hilit=Ammonia#p44967

Can anyone tell me otherwise if it’s okay to put the shrimps in?

[Dch48]

I would wait a bit longer until the nitrites go away

[Bluemonk]

Hi DCH48,

Thanks I just needed a voice of reason to override my impulsivity. I should also wait for Ammonia to go down to zero too right? I put a few drops of Seachem Prime.

I’m really tempted to put seachem purigen in to suck up the ammonia and nitrites but I think it’ll mess with the organics in the tank needed to get me to algae and bio film so best to just wait another four weeks. I started cycling on Nov 23rd so just two weeks into this.

The black sand, the black rock, the moss ball and macro algae is from Mustafa and they came wet so I’m hoping there’s something in the liquid that jumpstarts things. I won’t do snails though. They are not aesthetically pleasing for my Christmas in Hawaiian theme tank.

Hope the wonder of the holiday season and the quietness of winter serves to rest you and recharge you.

-BM

[Bluemonk]

I think the five drops of Prime (smelled like sewer water yuck) worked!!! My ammonia and nitrite is zero now!

I think my PH needed to go up to about 8 as I read Hawaiian red shrimp do best in the 8-range. So I’ve put in more calcium carbonate “rocks” to see if that’ll do the trick.

I’ll consider to add shrimp next week if PH goes up a bit. Also read in this forum others have tried baking soda. I may just try half a teaspoon as this guy had great results in his Hawaiian red shrimp tank viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5826&hilit=Baking+soda&start=45

[Bluemonk]

After testing the theory the baking soda will bring up the PH in an API test tube by putting in the baking soda into a PH test I did in fact see the pH increase and the color changing from yellow to a light purple.

So after putting in about half a teaspoon into my 2.5 Gallon I tested. Still wasn’t changing and since I had tested the theory in the test tube I knew that it definitely works just that I must have under-dosed it. So then another two small teaspoons later I tested to 8.0

[Dch48]

Prime does not remove ammonia. it just detoxifies it and only temporarily. Ammonia readings can actually go up after using it. Test kits show both toxic and non-toxic ammonia. That's why a zero nitrite reading is a better indicator of a cycle having completed.

[Bluemonk]

Good to know that detail.

I’ve tested multiple ways through strip then confirmed also via further the test tube testing that nitrite is continuously testing to be 0 ppm so I think my tank is ready.

Will update soon. I’ve been pondering like Brain of Pinky and the Brain how to test out just one shrimp’s acclimation to the new tank. I am conceptually going to use a small container and drip acclimate via cheap hack solution I stole from a shrimp forum on Reddit where the guy pokes a hole in the bottom of a clean water bottle then fills the bottle from the new tank water. Leaving the bottle perched on top of the container. Water will slowly empty out of bottle. I’ll see how this one shrimp looks after a day in the container and if all goes well I will place the sacrificial fellow in the new tank and see if s/he ever remerges. With so many hiding places it’s best I place this poor guinea pig in a container that is 5inchX5inchX1inch first so I can observe over a 24 hour period of time before placing him in the tank.

Once this one guy re-emerges in the tank and I can confirm s/he is alive after a few hours then I will place another shrimp in the isolation container through the same drip-acclimation process. It is my hobby to over-think this stuff. In pandemic times when so little is in of our control please ignore that I am going into all this detail even though the whole philosophy of Pet Shrimp is leave it and forget it. I think it’s a Type A personality thing.

[Bluemonk]

Oh my I guess Baking Soda should not be used to bring up PH in these brackish tanks because it brought my salinity to 1.015 up from 1.010 so I have to add In distilled water and measure it out tonight.

Perhaps that is why a lot of aquarium hobbyists differentiate using Potassium Bicarbonate instead of baking soda which also brings up PH but doesn’t affect Salinity. It’s ten times the price of baking soda though. I probably should buy a small container of this to treat my fresh water tank and for any PH issues in this brackish tank too. I think I might also try out Salty Shrimp with distilled water for my freshwater tank as I have 40ppm nitrates in my tap water. I live in the northeast region of the US. Geez with this type of drinking water I may as well as save money on nitrate-free cold cuts. It’s in my water anyway!!!

[Bluemonk]

Water has been adjusted back to 1.010 it was a lot of water to add just to get the water diluted back to that. I have now a tank that is closer to the rim with just under 3 gallons of water. Darn baking soda dosing left this stain though which I hope running the filter for a week before the shrimp goes in will dissolve it.

[Bluemonk]

Baking soda definitely not a beginners tool. It got me to the PH of 8 which is where I wanted to be but now my KH is just off the charts BLUE? It’s not even green like the chart.