Feedback for 2g Opae Ula extended scape setup
Trying something new. I’ve never don’t brackish and only lightly dipped my toes in freshwater; but I do have a ton of experience with reef keeping.
I’m planning on keeping 20 or 30 Opae Ula Halocaridina (Hawaiian Red Shrimp). Because of their unique traits, they can easily thrive in smaller tanks, and I won’t be using a heater or a mechanical filter, nor be adding any food to the tank.
I added a pinch of spirulina powder and put the lights on an aggressive pattern to cycle the tank; along with adding some saltwater seed bacteria that could survive in the brackish 1.012 salinity.
Being that they live in very small bodies of water, it gave me an excuse to make a super small tank that had a larger footprint expanding beyond the confines of the glass. I used the same black sand and volcanic rocks on both the outer tray and the tank, and leveled the sand as well as dotted a few rocks near the borders to try to hide the transition as much as possible.
The idea came to me while trying to design a back for my office. It had to be clean and modern, but also 0 maintenance tank so if I disappears for a month things would be fine. Can’t have people overfeed the livestock if you don’t feed the livestock in the first place! The only true maintenance is topping off the water to account for evaporation. The photos are from weeks ago and the tank is fully cycled.
I can’t say I ever seriously aqua scaped to this degree, and I would love to hear suggestions on any changes or feedback, as I feel like there’s a lot that I can improve before adding the livestock.