Three gallon set up - and an Ecosphere jailbreak

[Shrimp_Tank]

Hello. Last Christmas my daughter and her SO gave me an Ecosphere with three shrimp. The first sphere completely wiped out within 3 weeks. A second was sent right away. I read up on these and while I initially appreciated the concept, I felt terrible that creatures were sealed inside a small glass egg.

They did well over a few months, but it bothered me. A few weeks ago I broke down and bought a 3-gallon tank and light. I spoke with the gift givers, who are also avid saltwater fish keepers and told them I was ready to “jailbreak” the few shrimp and set up a tank.

They had RO water, the base rock and instant ocean and my daughter’s SO built a lovely formation for the tank. He cycled it for over a week in a bucket with a sponge filter. After it completed the ammonia phase, he called me over and set me up with a salinity checker and extra water testing materials. I bought “live sand” but we washed it over and over including with tap water. Looking back, I should have just secured the aragonite sand.

I set things up and ran it for a few days. I was encouraged to go ahead and put them in their new home.

Tank at set up

Popping the seal on the Echosphere was dangerous, prying the plug caused tiny glass shards to ping everywhere. Eye protection is a must. Also, when I broke the seal, it was obvious these poor creatures were under intense pressure as gasses hissed out. Those poor shrimp had a very bad night. It was ugly to see them have to swirl out of the globe.

Ecosphere seal broken

The nitrite went high for a few days. I did frequent water changes and dosed with Prime. Ammonia stayed at 0. I placed an order with PetShrimp for a microalgae and 10 shrimp to add to my three. The nitrite went lower by the time the extra shrimp arrived. I kept up with water changes and Prime. I noticed the SeaChem (same maker as Prime) showed NitrItes at 2-5PPM, but the API NitrIte kit showed no NitrItes. I thought that was interesting and can't explain the difference.

AFter I added the entra shrimp, snails and micro aglae, the Nitrite plummeted quickly. I also added extra chaeto from my family. This morning I had 0 Nitrates...so I took out some of the microalgae. The bioload will not support too many plants (not enough waste).

The shrimp and snails look great. Everyone arrived okay. The shrimp have decided to hide in the rock. They are a great dark red when I see them. Mostly I see red tails and the occasional shrimp in an opening in the rock.

shrimp hiding

Also, almost overnight algae on the rock bloomed.

Nitrites and now near zero.

I think everything is okay. Ammonia alert still reads 0
Thanks for reading.

[Shrimp_Tank]

Still all hiding except for one of the older shrimp.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the long write up! How's your tank doing?