u/facere-omnes

Thought I’d share my first tank on here and also ask a couple questions at the same time! I’m using the the Aquael 10 litre / 2.6 US gallon shrimp set which has worked flawlessly for me. I had to get a smart plug to set the light up on a timer for when I was away for a week but those are the only changes I’ve made to the setup.

For plants I’ve got two anubias nana petite plants at the base of the driftwood attached to the same stone, but it basically looks like a single plant. Then up the rest of the driftwood and on some smaller stones around the cave I’ve got some Christmas moss. This is getting a bit too bushy now but there’s baby shrimp in the tank now so I’m gonna leave them mature a bit more before trimming the moss at all. Towards the back right corner of the tank I’ve got a Java fern attached to a smaller piece of driftwood I cut to size with a saw (this was an absolute mission to cut through), this has grown in really nicely with a bunch of new leaves and also some plantlets on the older leaves. Then against the back wall I’ve got 2 cryptocoryne wendtii greens. Originally I had 3 but the third was too close to the filter and wasn’t getting enough light and was dying, so I took it out. The crypts have been quite slow growing but theyre starting to fill out a bit more now. Once they get bigger I may remove moss around the cave so they become a bit more visible. After about a month I also added 4 stems of bacopa caroliana near the base of the driftwood after about a month (everything else was planted right at the start) to try and hide the heater a bit more. Also for floaters I’ve got salvinia which grow so fast. All plants were from deterrents.co.uk, all came in good condition and reasonably priced. The only downside of a tank of this size is I use so little of the individual plants I buy, but there’s no getting around that.

In terms of hardscape the main driftwood piece is two pieces of Tropica driftwood glued together. I added the moss around where they join and to cover glue spots. I had this exact plan for the driftwood in my head and got really lucky with these pieces as I ordered them online. The third piece was from a local fish shop that I cut to size for the Java fern. For stones I got them from a nearby river, I tested them with vinegar to weed out the ones which weren’t suitable. At the back right corner there’s a 3D printed cave buried into the substrate (Fluval biostratum) which gives a nice window into the tank. There’s a flat stone in the cave with a little clump of moss in there. I thought the shrimp would use this more, especially the babies, but they seem to love the driftwood moss and salvinia roots more than anything. I also 3D printed some custom quarter ring things to contain the salvinia which work pretty well.

Now for a couple questions:
- My Java fern has 3 plantlets, what do I do with them? There’s no room in the tank to put them anywhere else and I don’t have any other tanks. I’ve heard that if a leaf has a plantlet that basically means it’s kinda dying? So if I were to remove the plantlets would those leaves then die?

- The anubias nana petites have grown so slowly, almost suspiciously slowly. Everything else seems to be doing well, but these seem dormant, and have one or two yellow leaves. I’m wondering did I make a mistake planting two separate plants so closely together?

Hello hello, I thought I’d share my experience so far with my first shrimp tank. I say first because I think I’m gonna get a second tank for some blue dreams, and then also eventually a third cull tank would obviously be the natural progression…

I’m using the Aquael 10 litre (2.6 US gallon) shrimp set which has worked quite nicely. I saw some positive reviews online but also some critiques regarding the fixed heater (25 degrees) and the lack of timer functionality on the light. The lack of timer on the light actually was a bit of an issue for me and I had to buy a smart plug for when I travelled while the tank was still cycling. The filter seems to work well, I heard some people share concerns with the filter foam as it’s not the most dense and could risk baby shrimp being sucked in. Not really sure if this is an issue or not but to my surprise I already have baby shrimp which seem to be doing really well. One of the females I got from my fish shop must’ve been berried as I first spotted them around a week after getting the shrimp.

Unfortunately I did have some losses. I started with 9 cherry reds and I’m now down to 6 (but have spotted up to 12 babies). As far as I’m aware I’ve done my best to try acclimate them to a good environment. My ammonia and nitrite levels have always been 0ppm, while nitrate varies between 0-5ppm, pH is usually around 7-7.2 and GH is 7 and KH is 2. I test the water with the API test kits and add temperature matched water with water conditioner and salty shrimp to boost GH/KH as my tap water is quite soft. I drip acclimated the shrimp after matching water temps for about 1-1.5 hours (which I’ve since learned might’ve been on the lower end of acceptable, so that may explain things). I’ve also read that some shrimp just don’t do well in new environments and there’s pretty much always losses with adding new groups, I’m just hoping no more die!

Originally I got into this hobby wanting a betta fish, but the 10 litre tank was just too small after looking into things more. Unfortunately 10 litres is pretty much the only sized tank I could get as this sits on a shelf lamp thing in my office which is pretty much the only spot I could place a tank in my house. The lamp shelf has 3 shelves so I may try add some more tanks to it which would look really cool, but I’m not confident in how strong it is to support that, so unless I can some how reinforce the shelves, I might be stuck with just the 1 tank until I move to a bigger place.

At first the shrimp felt like a bit of a consolation prize, I couldn’t get the fish so I guess I’ll just get the shrimp instead, but actually I think shrimp were the far better choice. Instead of 1 animal I now have 6, maybe 18 if you count the babies, so that’s pretty cool. It also adds to the whole ecosystem feel of the tank.

For plants and hardscape and stuff I’m using fluval biostratum for the substrate, I also have a 3D printed cave buried into the substrate which has a cool window into it from the side. It’s not the shrimp’s favourite place but they do go in it from time to time and have seen a couple moults in there as well. For hardscape I’m using 3 pieces of drift wood, 2 are from Tropica which are glued together to make the diagonal piece throughout the tank. I had this exact vision for the wood in my head and mockups and stuff (many a conversation was had with ChatGPT throughout all this), and I feel like I hit the jackpot with how these fit together. Then there’s another piece which I got from a local pet shop and cut smaller to attach my java fern to.

A bit more on the plants, I added some Christmas moss on the driftwood to cover the join and glue spots. I would like to trim this as it’s getting quite bushy but I’m holding off until the baby shrimp are bigger and easier to spot. There’s also some small clumps around some pebbles near the cave. I’ve also got an anubias nana petite which might be the slowest growing thing in the tank, along with some cryptocoryne wendtii green in the back. For floaters I’ve got salvinia which the shrimp absolutely love. I 3D printed some custom quarter circle things to attach to the rim of the tank and hold these in place. The latest and probably final addition plant wise is some bacopa caroliana which is about 3 weeks old, everything else has been in there since the start.

The rocks / pebbles are all from a nearby river. I tested them with vinegar to make sure they were safe. I wanted mostly natural looking stones but came across some cool looking ones like the moon rock and the glassy looking one, so decided to make a feature rock pile out of them. This is where I feed them a pellet each day and watch them fight over it lol.

Maintenance wise I pretty much just do a minor water change once or twice a week. I usually just skim the surface to remove the film that builds up over a few days and top the water back up. I use a small shaving foam cap to break the force of the water I pour in and then pour the last remaining bits in by hand with it (which I’ve then got to be careful I don’t pull any shrimp out with it as they like to graze it lol). I also have to remove some salvinia as that grows like an absolute weed.

I think that pretty much covers everything so far. If there’s anything I’m doing wrong or something I could improve do let me know!

Cheers