29G Shrimp Tank

Looking very good! LOL! I know about getting sidelined with other stuff... Been fighting off allergies and/or a cold since Sunday. Felt so bad yesterday I almost called in sick.

I used some 2lb fluorocarbon fishing line to tie my plants, but the moss is growing very fast and has already attached itself to the wood. I never considered superglue because I always assumed it was toxic to fish. If it's fish safe, that opens up all sorts of possibilities!
Hope you feel better soon! I use fishing line on things that won't attach and thread that will break down on things that will. It has to be the gel type super glue though. Reefers have been using it for a long time.
 
Soooo, time to get the proper filter on this tank! The filter I was going to use is only an eheim 2013 (at 79 gph it's only 2.7x turnover rate) which has the only usable impeller shaft in it (it's broken but it works) and was running on the holding tank. Put an aquaclear 70 turned down onto the 20 long and stuffed the good media into that. After a bunch of trial and error finally got a 2213 onto the 29g! And it kinda strong! :rolleyes: I might just modify the spray bar to have some tiny holes pointing down and/or enlarge the other holes and/or add more holes.

BTW I destroyed my wood arrangement doing all that! lol Maybe once things settle down I'll do a video of the flow.

Tomorrow I get SOME of my new plants, another package shipped today and another hasn't even been shipped out yet. :( Really only want to pull the wood one last time but I'm getting antsy.

Only 1 leaf on the crypts has melted so far. Trying to stay optimistic without being naive. :D Saw some BBA on java fern and snipped it!
 
Only 1 leaf on the crypts has melted so far. Trying to stay optimistic without being naive.

Don't fret if it does melt. I planted five in a 10g a few years ago, and they *all* melted. I thought I had an aquatic "black thumb." Then new leaves started appearing, and I had a "Crypt Forest." (And the betta loved exploring it!)
 
Crypt. wendtii are all pretty sturdy, loss of a leaf or 2 sounds normal for them IME. I had some crypts that melted almost every WC or if looked too longo_O. They may have been c. mohlmanii similar to c. pontederifolia, I had both, very alike except for the chronic melting:mad:

You know it's not just winter where you are, lol. Give the shippers a chance, you can always float the early arrivals.

Yeah, I didn't want to rain on your moss parade...but you do want some filter return or water movement on most. I want to see your DIY spray bar improvements including drill bit size used!
 
Don't fret if it does melt. I planted five in a 10g a few years ago, and they *all* melted. I thought I had an aquatic "black thumb." Then new leaves started appearing, and I had a "Crypt Forest." (And the betta loved exploring it!)
Fingers crossed it doesn't all melt! If it does I know it will grow back.

Crypt. wendtii are all pretty sturdy, loss of a leaf or 2 sounds normal for them IME. I had some crypts that melted almost every WC or if looked too longo_O. They may have been c. mohlmanii similar to c. pontederifolia, I had both, very alike except for the chronic melting:mad:
That sounds rough! I had pontederifolia and before I neglected the tank they were good so maybe it was the other one.
You know it's not just winter where you are, lol. Give the shippers a chance, you can always float the early arrivals.

Yeah, I didn't want to rain on your moss parade...but you do want some filter return or water movement on most. I want to see your DIY spray bar improvements including drill bit size used!
Unfortunately the shippers missed the warm spell we had but I order mostly hardy plants so hopefully we'll be good!

Yeah, I prefer high flow in my planted tanks but the shrimp don't like it, trying to find a happy medium. The way it is setup now though I think all the debris will be blow INTO the moss and that's not good.
 
Yeah, I thought it was the c. mohlemanii that was so melty but they were very similar, IDK, might have been my soft water too.

My shrimp seem to like the flow, all the goodies rushing by...as long as they have moss etc to hang onto. Hard not to vac them up...they know all the good stuff is going up the tube, especially tiny shrimplets, they cannot resist either the goodies or the suction, check you bucket! Very eye straining to rescue them...your sakura (?) will be easier to spot.
 
I had shrimp with moss before and it is a headache honestly. Trying to trim the moss without chopping them in half and vacuuming up the moss bits without taking shrimplets with it, ugh. But they love moss so much that I decided to torture myself again! lol

Speaking of shrimplets, as of last night one of the low grade RCS is berried! All of the other low grade females are saddled but they are all fairly small still so they might not successfully release anyways. The sakura are bigger but no saddles, definitely at least 1 of them is female though.
 
My Saturday plants arrived a day early and my Thursday plants are still crossing the country......... Luckily the lost package is just moss so hopefully it'll hold up ok. But it's the moss I really want to get here already! lol Got just a little bit of flame moss now though, yay.

At lights on last night I saw some very sad looking crypts. Don't know if it was the increase in flow as the ones getting hit the hardest are almost completed melted where the others are still looking fine.

Got a complete head count on my snails and shrimp last night so that makes me happy!
 
My biggest ghost shrimp are constantly berried, but I haven't seen shrimplets at all. My shrimp are very difficult to work around, and I found that using a tactical LED flashlight to check my dump bucket works the best. (My dog and one cat are absolutely positive the flashlight is a laser pointer, so that makes things extra interesting.)

I've got that Whisper 40i, so it creates a pretty decent current where the output spill is. My shrimp actively play in the current too, and they also know that's where the food is at feeding time. The current might explain why my Christmas moss went bonkers, and last tank cleaning I ended up vacuuming the debris out of it.

I think I was a little too successful with my attempt to provide good hiding places for my aquatic charges. I cannot get an accurate count on my shrimp, and half the time I can't locate my bristlenoses. They are super active, so I eventually find them.
 
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  • My moss has been in the mail for 8 days now and it's last scan was in CA :( Let's hope it's some tough moss! Which moss usually is.
  • My crypts looks like they have gone through an apocalypse! lol
  • The guppy grass is dying off as it always does for me.
  • Added frogbit, water lettuce, cabomba, wisteria and a tiny anubias nana (all just kinda thrown in wherever for now). Plus I had giant duckweed in there from the start, don't know that I mentioned that one.
  • The flourish ferts make surface film like instantly, I hate it. I know it's the flourish because when I siphon it off it smells like the ferts. Gonna switch to dry ferts, maybe I'll try pps pro or pmdd?
  • At least 2 RCS are berried and a couple of the sakura are saddled. Plus a RCS has the longest saddle I've ever seen so I think they are on their way down.
  • All the snails seem to be doing well. I watched one of the magenta brigs for a long time last night just cruising around, jumping off cliffs and going over nerites like a monster truck! lol
  • Still not pleased with the water flow but haven't figured out what to do about it.

Doing a water change tonight so pictures tomorrow.
 
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