Number 2 Daughters Shrimp And Platy Aquarium.

[Wolfenrook]

As I know I'll get asked if I don't say from the start

Equipment

ClearSeal Panoptic 560 60 litre aquarium
200 watt clearseal heater that came with
700lph internal filter with drilled spraybar that came with
Bottom layer of play sand and activated carbon
Top layer of Unipac extra fine black gravel
Some small patches of purple gravel (she likes purple)
No CO2 addition
Very irregular fert regime.

Livestock
Cherry shrimp
Neocaridina Palmata (marbled dwarf shrimp)
Platies
3 Apple snails (1 'pink' which is actually more purple, 1 red striped and 1 random one)
Mahogany trumpet snails, like MTS but a nicer colour.

Plants
Mexican Oakleaf
Java Moss
Weeping Moss
Ludwigia Natans
Hygrophila Difformis
Vallisneria Spiralis
Crypt. Wendtii
Eleocharis Parvulus
Echinodorus Tenellus
One small stem of alternanthera reineckii 'lilacina' to see how it does

Ade

 

[blodhi74]

looks great.

 

[three-fingers]

Very nice.....what are the Neocaridina palmata like to keep then?

I love the 'jungle' style of tank, the only thing that I'm not too keen on is that the background appears to be a blue one .

Interesting substrate, as I only heard of using activated carbon for plants a few days ago, evidently it works well, as the crypts seem to be thriving.

Equipment you missed out - what lighting are you using? .

 

[Wolfenrook]

Oops, your quite right I did forget the lighting. lol. It's a 24 watt power compact T5 overtank luminaire that came with the Panoptic 560 (not bad for under £50 for the kit eh? lol).

The background is indeed a blue one, although a fairly darkish shade. We wanted a change from black, as we have a black background on Project Shrimp. It's actually attached to the wall behind the tank using hook and loop tape though, so if we get tired of the blue we can easily reverse it and have black. lol I kind of like the blue on this tank though, as does our daughter.

I've used activated carbon in a substrate before, and it does work VERY well. I have it in my 180 litre planted as well (mixed with silica 2-3mm gravel, laterite, aquarium peat and root balls) and crypts really do do well with it! I even have crypt. cordata and crypt. grifithii growing in there, which are considered difficult as they are very prone to crypt melt.

As to the Neocaridina palmata, they are VERY easy to keep, and to breed. If anything even more so than cherry shrimp! They are VERY prolific little shrimp, and every now and then you apparently get lucky and get blue coloured ones. They're much nicer coloured since I added the black gravel, the play sand was just too light a colour for them. If you like wild coloured shrimp varieties I recommend them.

Ade

 

[paul_219]

Looks wonderful Superb.