New (sort of) Tank

[JasonG3333]

I started this tank a bit ago (June 2015), but never posted it on the forum until now. So, not a "new" tank necessarily, but simply new to the forum. Why did this particular tank's big reveal take so long to roll out? Merely a case of extreme procrastination. I began positing on Petshrimp in 2013 soon after establishing my first of 3 consecutively established tanks (moved all animals from one to the other, decommissioning previous tank), and the first 2 tanks were indeed posted in various contexts: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5199 , viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5360

And so...without any further delay (I can't believe this is finally happening!)...introducing (wow! this is so exciting for me and my cats!)...MY 3RD TANK...

- Mr. Aqua 3 gallon rimless bow-front aquarium
- Finnex LED aquarium light
- CaribSea Aragonite substrate
- coral
- black lace rock
- red lava rock
- Turbo shells
- artificial plants
- jade figurine of Buddha

Here it is after implementing Petshrimp's macroalgae. Coincidentally, the landscaping provided a perfect little elevated nook for it...

Took some plexiglass and made a cover for the tank that folds over the light. Lets air in while keeping dust out...

As can be seen, I elected to set up the tank "backwards" with the bow in the back. Any sort of curve in aquarium glass is going to visually distort whatever is being looked at in the water. The more severe the curve, the greater the distortion, obviously. The bowed side of most bow-front tanks are curved minimally enough to make any distortion nearly unnoticeable. But, as cool as having the bow in the front looks, after some experience with bowed and non-bowed tanks, I prefer the absolute clarity of whatever I'm focused on when enjoying the contents of an aquarium through a simple flat plane of glass. Reversing a bow-front tank also incidentally results in additional depth in the back which is also visually appealing, especially since items in the tank are magnified to an extent determined by the amount of water through which an item is being observed.

The tank has changed a little in various ways since setting it up, but it pretty much still looks the same, other than there now being a ton more shrimp and snails in there than what the tank started with. The main thing happening now that wasn't before is the voracious growth of a particular plant that I had introduced to my prior tank (see that 2nd link included above). I had NOT intentionally introduced it to this tank, but it seems its "seeds" were in the water that was carried over from one tank to the other by the net I was using while transferring all of the animals. Will soon take and post some current photos. Thanks everyone for your interest and input! Love, Jae Senji...

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the update Jason! Great looking tank! Looking forward to more!

[sabbylina]

It's so pretty looking! I can't wait to see what it looks like full of shrimp

[JasonG3333]

Here are some updated photos of this tank...

Jae Senji hawaiian red shrimp opae ula 31

Jae Senji hawaiian red shrimp opae ula 30

To see more photos, and to learn more about the plant that can be seen flourishing in there, please visit this discussion:
https://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/v ... 0&start=45

The heater is something I have been experimenting with (I am aware that heaters are generally not required for these guys). I utilize no AC or heat in my house (can get away with that in San Diego), and it can get to be in the lower 50s in there. I wanted to see if there were noticeable differences / effects when NOT allowing the temperature to drop out of the 70s (keep it set at 74) regarding the snails (noticed they disappear into the substrate when it gets cold), the algae growth, and the rate of shrimp reproduction. May eventually remove it once I've observed things long enough.

Same thing with that desk lamp sitting next to the tank. I read somewhere (recall that there were photos included as well displaying the effect) that algae tends to respond to warmer color temperatures, and so, I wanted to experiment with that as well. The Finnex aquarium light has a color temp of 7000k which would be considered "cool", more of a mid-day brightness. The LED bulb in the lamp has a "warm" temp of 2700k, resembling sunrise or sunset. I also wanted to see if including the 2700k light together with the 7000k light would have any effect on that plant flourishing in there. Also thought that adding a sunset-resembling warm color temp to the mid-day-resembling cool color temp may have a positive effect on the shrimp (no way of knowing if that's the case - just a thought).

Thanks everyone...!

[Mustafa]

Let us know how your experiments go. Also, you may want to update your email address here if you haven't already since your "new post" notifications for the topics you started keep bouncing back to me as "undeliverable" emails.