# A Simple CRS/CBS Tank



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Stats:
- 16 gallons
- Odyssea 18" 2-bulb T5HO
- Amazonia + Fluval Shrimp Stratum substrate
- Fissidens fontanus, vals, dwarf sags, h. micranthemoides, crypt, tiger lotus
- CRS, CBS, 1 SAE, 1 Otto, 4 Nerite snails


I've had several unsuccessful attempts previously, so I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was this time around.

Previously I was using sand and tap water, and did not have much success. I even tried buying RO water, but it still didn't work out. I've had adult CRS survive for a year, but no babies ever made it, and eventually the adults all died out.

This time I decided to use a shrimp substrate. I used a mix of Amazonia and Fluval, and cycled the tank with straight tap water. After that, however, I bought RO water and only used that for top up.

The tank has been set up since September, and I've only done one 20% water change since then.


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## Tahuboy (Sep 20, 2013)

Very nice, glad to hear the tank is working out for you. I'm really liking the stones, can i what type they are?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Tahuboy said:


> Very nice, glad to hear the tank is working out for you. I'm really liking the stones, can i what type they are?


They're lava rocks.

My idea is that their porosity would create more surface area for biological filtration.


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## koiangel (May 21, 2014)

Wow, thumbs up, looks very nice,
looks better than mine, same setup 8gallontank, no rocks, no plants, Whole bunch of Moss balls, mulberry leaves, catappa and a teak leaf.
I have about, 6 CRS, 10 yellow shrimp, a few red cherry shrimp or similar kind, 1 blue rili shrimp, .
I had 6 Large Algae amano shrimp in there but i had to take em out since they were killing few on my CRS and yellow. Noticed a few yellow dying these days,Saw a baby CRS the other day, so pretty happy about it.But i dont like the fact that trumpet snails have infiltrated my tank again.And i dont know how to get rid of them.
i have added assasin snails but they have done nothing to keep the trumpet snail's population explosion down. i can literrally see them multiplying in numbers everytime i come home from work. 
Again, your tank looks very nice and hope you are enjoying it.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

koiangel said:


> Wow, thumbs up, looks very nice,
> looks better than mine, same setup 8gallontank, no rocks, no plants, Whole bunch of Moss balls, mulberry leaves, catappa and a teak leaf.
> I have about, 6 CRS, 10 yellow shrimp, a few red cherry shrimp or similar kind, 1 blue rili shrimp, .
> I had 6 Large Algae amano shrimp in there but i had to take em out since they were killing few on my CRS and yellow. Noticed a few yellow dying these days,Saw a baby CRS the other day, so pretty happy about it.But i dont like the fact that trumpet snails have infiltrated my tank again.And i dont know how to get rid of them.
> ...


If you're having problems with malaysian trumpet snails, then there's probably too much food or detritus in the tank.


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## razoredge (Dec 31, 2011)

Agreed! Next to impossible to get rid of the MTS as they hide in the substrate. The only way is to remove all substrate and start over again.



solarz said:


> If you're having problems with malaysian trumpet snails, then there's probably too much food or detritus in the tank.


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## alstare2000 (Feb 16, 2013)

Easiest and best solution would be assassin snails. Depending how big is the MTS population they will sooner or later kill them all. I had about thousand of snails in my 46gal when I had things out of control got 5 assassins they didn't seem to do any dent first few weeks but then every water change there was more and more empty shells.
The thing is that large assassins won't go after small or tiny snails but once they have little ones they are the ones that will weed out the smaller size snails you trying to get rid of, and they dig through the substrate when they hunt as well.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

The tank is coming along very nicely, I'm seeing baby shrimps everywhere. The only downside is hair algae still growing and requires regular manual removal. I've already cut lighting down to around 6-7 hours, hopefully it will help.

Unfortunately the tiger lotus doesn't seem to be growing at all.

Here are some updated pictures.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Munching on spinach...


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Time for some updated photos!

Lost quite a bit of fissidens from overdosing H2O2 and Excel in an attempt to remove hair algae. Luckily, I did that in a bucket so didn't affect the tank.

Still haven't done any water changes, just topping up with store-bought RO. Got myself a TDS pen, and the water is around 120.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Great looking tank


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