Tank for Hawaii Reds (Diary)

[Mothi]

I will post a diary of how my tank comes along for kicks.

-= Set-up thus far =-
tank size: 2.5g from Petsmart
substrate: Black "Tahitian Moon" sand
decoration:
- Lava Rocks from BBQ Galore. The bag says it is 100% natural lava rocks so we will see if it will be aquarium safe. I used a hammer on some of the smaller pieces to make pebbles and debris.
- Lava Rock from Petco. I chose a nice lava rock with a hole in it to be the main point of interest when it comes to decoration (and it stands out since it is so red compared to the other lava rocks).
water: Catalina Saltwater at salinity 1.024 using a refractometer I have.
filter: Currently some small filter that came with another tank I have. It will be removed when the shrimps come. No filter will be used when the shrimps arrive other than occasionally using maybe an air pump on very low...
lighting: Currently have overkill lighting on the tank in hopes to promote some algae growth... When the tank is closer to being complete I will be using a black hood with 1 13watt bulb in it.
Other: I plan to add a black background to the tank. Possibly live plants but need to plan what salinity I will keep the tank at long term.

Picture will be available maybe this weekend if I can get a new battery for my camera. Any comments are welcome...

[LiquidBee]

All of your set up sounds fine, except that your Salinity might be too high, at 1.024 it is full strenght Salt Water, while these shrimps mainly live in Brackish Water (Half Salt, Half Fresh Water), which is around 1.010-1.014.

The shrimps will survive in the full strenght salt water, but I'm not sure for how long or if it'll reproduce.

The Anchialine Ponds that they originated from does not really contain any plants so therefore plants are not really needed. But you can add them as you like.

Just a few suggestions.

Looking forward to the next entry in your Diary.

[Mothi]

Yeah, I was doing more research on plants and the freshwater ones that can handle a little brackish means not higher than 1.005 or somewhere around there. Which means, no to those. My target is about going to be about 1.012 to 1.014. This also excludes saltwater plants as well I suppose. Either way, I am trying to grow algae...haha

I plan to put a molly in the tank after I put the salinity down to 1.012 to 1.014 to make sure it is fine for my shrimps (considering I am not 100% sure the lava rocks I used are aquarium safe even though the bag said 100% lava rock. Better safe than sorry... and sorry to the molly for the experiment). I will probably get a few mollies this week or next week and place them into a tank (filter from an established tank and this will be their home for as long as they want it) that I will raise their salinity up to the desired range. I am hoping by then my small tank will finish cycling. I do plan to keep the mollies, so they will not be discarded or given away after they serve their purpose.

Still no batteries yet so no pictures. Need to crush a few more small chunks of lava rocks to make rubble.

The filter is messing up my sand... moving it aside.... Going to turn that off one day so it stops messing with my landscape. I am going to attach a airline with pump instead that I will run occasionally and to keep salt creep down, there will be a lid covering the tank... I hate salt creep.

[chlorophyll]

Aw, the filter's flow can't be adjusted to the point where its flow doesn't move the sand?

The anchialine pools have a great range of salinities. It shouldn't be a problem for the shrimp if they're acclimated down to a salinity of 3 parts per thousand.

I would say anything in the 5-20 ppt range is great (roughly, that's 1.002 to 1.0135 in specific gravity). If you don't like dealing with the problems of salinity, maybe a salinity closer to the lower end would be preferable to you. Some report that reproduction is at a higher rate at the lower salinities too.

[theshrimp_123]

Mothi wrote

Yeah, I was doing more research on plants and the freshwater ones that can handle a little brackish means not higher than 1.005 or somewhere around there. Which means, no to those. My target is about going to be about 1.012 to 1.014. This also excludes saltwater plants as well I suppose. Either way, I am trying to grow algae...haha

Try mangroves or sea lettuce. They can handle a wide range of water conditions. Also try java ferns or java moss.

[Ray1214]

I am not sure if most folks are from the freshwater world, but Even though I keep my fw shrimp in planted tanks, I looked to saltwater for the plants. Most reef keepers, including myself will give you handfuls of macro algaes. Which look very much like plants, and some types seem to thrive in the brackish conditions of my Halicondra Rubra Tanks. (I have a few so that I can experiment with the salinity a bit). Some are true plants like turtle grass from my lagoon tank, but most are chaemothorpia, calurpas, and gracilera.
I grow mangroves in my lagoon tank, so I used a few pods I had left over and outside of a 50 percent die off, (I didn't acclimate them, just planted them from a full strenght saltwater refugium). They seem to do well in a brackish tank, with way more phenomal growth than what I see in my saltwater tanks.
Anyways back to the point. I have found that the hawaiin red shrimp seem to eat the dying, decaying plant matter from my fuges and kinda leave the ones that are thriving alone. I tried red gracileria thinking that a beta carotine rich food would bring out the red even more in the shrimp but it really didn't seem to work.
As a supplement, I use the Shrimp Gro that I received from Ocean Rider, and bought a tin of Sprirulina powder that the shrimp seemed to really enjoy. One other note, I crushed some freeze dried krill and put very little of the powder into the water. They seem to eat it but if left with a choice between the spirulia powder or the spirulina tablets I drop in for a weekend getaway, they prefer to eat vegiterian.

Ray

[Mothi]

How low of a salinity can some of the saltwater plants take? Turtle grass the the likes are out of the question because of the deeper sand bed they need that can't be provided in a 2.5g tank. I do like gracilaria (although I have none left now since the crash of my nano reef). I do have some cheato. Some of the feather looking macro might be nice as well if they can handle 1.010-1.014 salinity. I might as well set up a seperate tank for some test runs.

[Ray1214]

I have been using Chaeto with great success. I am using turtle grass because I am using it a dwarf seahorse tank. It seems to work but becareful of the rizones. I am using a 4.5 inch sandbed. Razor Calurpa which is probably from the same family as the feather stuff seems to grow as well, a bit slow but it seems to grow. Maybe not thrive as well as in my refugium for my reef tank though.

I am guessing the gracilera needs a bit more salt. It seems to survive but not grow at all, but any red plants (Including red Kelp, and red grape calurpa) doesn't seem to do well but that may be mostly my lighting considering the tanks that have that thriving in has Metal Halides (My lagoon system uses 4 X 400 watts but placed about 1 foot from the surface of the water)

Surprising enough is that the hermits and snails that hitched along with the live rock and macro algaes seem to also survive in brackish water.

Ray

[Mothi]

Thanks. I will look into some of those macroalgaes and see how they do in other test tanks.

I finally got my battery for my camera today so here is 2 pics:





I have been feeding the tank spirulina flakes to get it cycled and it seems to be doing good right now. I haven't added the black background yet... The light is on 24/7 right now. The salinity is about 1.12-1.14. The water level is a bit lower than I normally have it so I gotta add some moer today. I used the lava rocks to simulate tiny caves that I hope the shrimps will like. The filter was turned down and when I raise the water it messes with the substrate less, but as I mentioned before it will be removed when the shrimps are added. You can see the overkill lighting I have in the tank in hopes of promoting algae... not sure if it is working..lol

[Mothi]

Well looks like algae is growing...lol Saw a splotch of green and a few splotches of red algae on the glass. I know nothing about algae, but I hope it is the good kinds for my shrimp to eat when I eventually get them.

[LiquidBee]

Good looking tank Mothi

look likes you're ready..


Ray, I also was suprised when a few snails that hitched a ride with the java moss survived, in-fact they're still doing quite well after a month. I just hope that they don't reproduce outta control or I'll be forced to get rid of 'em.

[Mothi]

Well my shrimp tank has alot of algae now...lol





I have been scraping the algae off the front and partial on the side glass... but as you can see, there is alot of it now...lol I hope this would be okay for some shrimps. Since the seller I was going to buy 50 of them from seems not to be selling them for a bit, I may go with another seller and just get 12-24 only... If I decide on just 12, I will be moving items from the 2.5g tank into a 1g tank.

[chlorophyll]

What a difference a week makes

My lighting must not be the right kind of fluorescent. I don't get bright green aglae like you all.

[Mothi]

My lighting is some PC bulbs.. not sure what kind exactly but was sold from Dr. Foster and Smith on some sale. Double plant bulbs I think... I had both bulbs on but after the overflow of algae, I only turn one on now.

Well it looks like I won a bid for 12 shrimps, so I will be moving materials from the 2.5g down to a 1g glass tank. Probably will clean up a few of the rocks but there should still be enough algae to make the shrimps happy.

Will post a picture when I get things moved over to show the new look. I suspect by the end of this week I will have a nice tank ready for staring at.

[Mothi]

Items from the 2.5g tank were moved into the 1g tank for upcoming shrimps.



I am hoping to have a stand and hood made for the tank...

Currently:
Tank ~ 1g glass by OceanFree (from Petco) with black background
Substrate ~ Black "Tahitian Moon" sand
Decoration ~ Lava Rocks
Saltwater ~ Catalina Saltwater
Filter ~ small HOB (will be removed when shrimps arrive)
Lighting ~ unknown. Will be 1 13 watt PC

Salinity ~ 1.012
Temperature ~ not sure. whatever room is...lol plus heat currently lighting creates. Will get a thermometer.

I scraped alot of the algae off the old rocks cause they was so much on it. Now it looks alot more manageable.