Setting up my Hawaiian-theme Nano Tank

[Bluemonk]

Got a new glass temperature monitor that’s about 2-3 bucks on Amazon. 70F I think it says. It’s a bit harder to read but hey no need to change battery on these and so cheap!

Quick gripe on test strips. So far the 5-in-1 stripes are pretty on point when I do further test tube testing to validate the first strip set of results but this Ammonia strip is totally off. Scared me half to death when I saw a dark green which is 6 ppm. I thought oh no the baking soda killed all the good bacteria. What have I done. But then tested the test tube one and ammonia is fine at 0ppm.

Good to have the test tube kit. Saved me a night of needless worrying.

[Bluemonk]

Dripping from my “homemade drip system” - very bleeding edge of high tech I cut three holes into the bottom of this bottle and as you twist the bottle cap to allow the air flow it will drip more or less according to the amount of air you allow through. Found this penny-pincher idea on Reddit under shrimptank.

I’ve only put one shrimp in there as my test subject. Let’s see how it does.

So far I like this Lee’s aquarium hang-on-top of tank container. Found it on Aquarium Coop. It’s worth the price because IF you drop it, it is not cheap acrylic that will crack. The plastic material is similar to my anti-shock phone case protector.

[Bluemonk]

5pm Eastern Daylight Timezone update. The little trooper is alive after 2+ hours of acclimation. I did this because there was a difference in both the PH and salinity. The ammonia in my tank is slightly detected at 0.1ppm so let me see if this little guy can survive tonight then I’m going to try two more shrimps through the acclimation process.

Also I saved half of the water that the shrimp came in. Just in case I have to move everyone back to base if there’s a death in the next week.

[Bluemonk]

8pm EDT update

I put tester shrimp into the tank for three hours now and he found the very tiny holes which leads to the back compartments for media. So I saw the shrimp go straight in. I was hoping they won’t fit but they do. Had to spend three hours plugging those holes with toothpicks. I had nothing else that worked in these tiny holes. Had to rearrange half of the tank.

I started acclimating two more shrimps. Now to see if they survive through the night. The rest of the six shrimps are being held in the original water they came in for now.

[Bluemonk]

I put a speck of spirulina powder into the tester’s tank because there is no visible micro-organism algae yet.

Seeing this powder is for human consumption, I tried a tablespoon. Very unpleasant smell. Not great taste either. It would go tolerable well with peanut butter powder. I placed black sesame powder in mine so to hide that yucky smell. I guess healthy food has a price. If you just try half a teaspoon with a tall glass of protein drink that should be tolerable. It tastes like swamp.

[Bluemonk]

6:15am EDT update —

The original tester I can not find in the tank thus the two guys, The Pioneers, in the Lee’s observatory I can see are fine. Very happy I prepared and got this containment container. Seeing that these two has survived for 12+ hours now I released them to the tank to go find The Tester. He shall be honored with this title for risking his life to test out the water for those who came after him. I’ve started drip acclimating the rest of the six shrimp. I’ve also saved up some of the tank water just in case of any ammonia spikes in the future and I need to do a water change.

You’ll see the little holes that I circled where the tester shrimp originally swam in. I first tried plugging with fish filter floss but as you can see it wasn’t exactly elegant so I took the fluval sponge and squeezed it into the spot which blocked the shrimp from swimming through but still let’s the filter drip a very small flow through. I may set the timer on the filter to be on once a day for an hour. It barely moves the water surface so it’ll simulate a rainy day in a Hawaiian cave when rain water flows in a little.

I can’t say enough how much this cheap little nano-tank size filter from Aqueon has helped speed up cycling and for the useful sprout that fills up a water bottle perfectly so I can fill up bottles for the drip acclimation process. I am glad I spent the extra ten bucks. And Petco shipped it to me in two days since I try not only to buy from Amazon for pets stuff.

Just remember to NOT use the carbon filter cartridge that it comes in since it’s going to slow cycling as there is not enough bio waste yet to keep filtering it out and also beneficial bacteria will need the very little bio waste there is to thrive and help the tank cycle. Any cheap filter floss you can get will do. Then I just rinse the filter with distilled water to do a quick cleaning. Stuff like extra powder from the sodium carbonate does catch nicely in the floss. My tank also has separate compartments for the filter so the shrimp will not get sucked in but it will suck up shrimp so don’t use it outside of an empty tank unless you want to do what some other people mentioned about using clean (soaked with distilled water) pantyhose to wrap the bottom which to me is too ugly of a solution.

Now I have to pick a time to rearrange everything again as my “toothpick raft” idea seems quite ugly and I’ve dug up the other half of the fluval sponge which will plug that long tiny hole all the way at the bottom of the aquarium. It’ll disturb the three shrimps already in the tank but better than having all 9 in and then moving things around then.

[Bluemonk]

One shrimp must have found its way into the filter via a hole. I think it’s not going to make it. Swimming weird. I replugged with tighter sponge reinforcement so I hope no one else gets hurt.

I released rest from containment into the tank. So far so good.

I’ve put injured shrimp into the Lee’s container to see if s/he can survive through being found on the fluval sponge somewhat dried out. It’s amazing it started swimming again after I put it in the container.

[Bluemonk]

Injured shrimp seems to be fine today so I’ve released her/him and now observing the tank without the container is nice. I see the shrimps have gotten red after settling down. I didn’t get to focus the shot before The Surfer jumped out of the shot but you can see he likes the view from the top of the surfboard.

I was able to get a focus on The Resort Goer though. This was a twenty dollar porcelain tea light candle burner I found on amazon. A few chips on it via shipping though but since I couldn’t find anything else that was ceramic I went with it. I try not to get anything ornamental that Is resin. Resin and sealed is still better than plastics though.

[Bluemonk]

They’re all just hiding. Can’t even find one. My filter is off. I’ve turned the light to just 10% so to make sure the moss ball and the algae (looking like it is about to die with some white strands) gets some light.

Yesterday when they first went into the tank they zipped around quite joyfully.

Oh well. Let’s just hope the water parameters are not what is making them hide.

Found a nice video on National Science Foundation about these shrimps https://youtu.be/RKw8cQMQbhM

Another researcher org’s video https://youtu.be/IAhMOO2Ggh0

Anyone else would like to share if their shrimp would hide the first few days? Are they molting? I have 8 only and I saw they became red again so the water must be okay.

Is it correct to assume they must not be hungry if they’re hiding? I don’t need to feed them again since I gave them a speck of spirulina just yesterday so I wasn’t going to feed until next month.

[Bluemonk]

I’m afraid to report I have a confirmed casualty. Not sure if this was The Injured One that was quarantined for me to observe him in the Lee’s container. S/he was unusually still but was moving so I thought it was going to make it. RIP little fella. I’m sorry if I’ve failed you somehow.

Let me perform Ammonia and Nitrite tests just in case it was not the injured shrimp who died from injuries but bad water parameters.

[Bluemonk]

Probable cause is the water. Ph somehow went to 8.4 from 8.2. And ammonia is at 0.25. Nitrite and nitrate is at 0. Maybe the cycle never completed and that’s why I never was able to see any measurable nitrate? I did measure nitrite at one point so that part of the cycle is most probably there.

Anyway dosed 1mL of Prime and now the ammonia is measurably down. Hoping it’ll zero in a couple of hours.

Sad day. I hate to see a death that I had thought I prepared the environment adequately to support thriving lives.

Well at least The Surfer and The Resort Goer is still seen alive.

[Bluemonk]

Did a bit of reading and the UK opae Ula forum has suggestions to put in the carbon filter now that I have to see if there is poison in the tank or just the ammonia.

[Bluemonk]

Ammonia still at about 0.2 so further dosing Prime. Not only that but moved in purigen too. Seems there is some activity now in the tank. This Rock Climber out on a rock I got on this site. They seem to like hiding underneath it too.

[Bluemonk]

Alright end of the day report is the Ammonia is now about 0.10 I think I can go rest knowing the rest of the shrimps will make it through the night. The purigen I moved from the fresh water tank but it’s only been there since yesterday so a fairly new one. I have an old dirty brown purigen I’ll have to put in diluted bleach and use in the freshwater tank after it’s been through a few rinses of Prime soaks to detox the chlorine.

One more step I took was take an older currently employed filter from my freshwater tank and rinsed off the debris and stuck it in the new shrimp tank. Will leave it there for a week hoping more of the nitrifying bacteria grows in numbers quickly to stop this ammonia spike problem.

[Bluemonk]

Disaster strikes (luckily no further deaths noted) with the filter added from freshwater tank. The nitrate measured 160ppm and I had to do an emergency water change with whatever backup water I had saved. Now Nitrate is manageable between 40-50ppm but should still do some water changes in a week or so.

Still able to observe activity in tank after water change commenced. They really like the surf board. I see The Sun Bather out too on the black sand beach. A shot of The Departed. Surprisingly they die and still remain bright red!

I had to use up all of the leftover Pet Shrimp salt. I have an order of Salty Shrimp coming is that equivalent to instant ocean? Apparently not. Looked on Petco and debated between Instant ocean basic salt or Instant ocean reef salt and figured after reading some of the discussions here to just get the 3lb basic as the reef came in 15lb and I have a nano tank so might as well as buy the smaller portion. Besides I did not see anyone on this forum say you get much better results with reef salt. Petco delivering the salt on same day which is a nice feature. I just had to pick up some dog food too to hit the $35 delivery threshold.