# GuppyLove's 10 gal shrimp heaven!



## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Heres some pics to start off My new 10 gallon tank.... Just recently moved all the plants from my 5 gal so stuff is just getting settled, and im still moving things around.... Mainly I am going for lots of types of mosses .... 
The tank with new black sand: 








My christmas moss cave which ive had for about 6 months now and is really starting to get some thick moss branches:








My new rock with taiwan moss attached with fishing line, though I plan on taking out the fishing line and tying with hairnet which i find so much easier: 








My new riccia I picked up from jamesren today, tied it with hairnet to a small stone, i have more but need a few more rocks first:


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Still left to add to My 10 gal when i get a few rocks to tie it to: pellia, flame moss, and a bit more riccia. I added some flame moss to my 15 gal guppy tank(which is slowly switching to a shrimp tank too) 
In a week or two I am adding some weeping moss and also some more christmas moss when my order ships from Malaysia


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

excellent! my flame moss really took off using hairnet-type stuff to hold it down. I was really surprised. It grew in evenly which I like.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks! 
Thats what im hoping it will grow more evenly... My taiwan moss is tied with fishing line and its kinda straggly and was hard to tie into the shape of the rock.. So im hoping the hairnet will do the trick


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Added a flame moss stone, shrimpies are all picking at it, must be something yummy on it  








Added a pellia stone, more yummy for the shrimp...


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Added some Peacock Moss today to My shrimp tank!

Moved out My riccia and pellia from this tank and put it in My 15 gallon, for some reason the riccia lost all its color and turned white lol 
I dont put fert in this tank- maybe thats why... And its just barely over 1 watt per gallon.... And the pellia was doing ok in this tank, but growing much better in my 15 gal where theres more light... 
Peacock Moss netted down to a pretty rock:


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

Hey there, just to comment on Riccia: they require quite high of a lighting and also enjoy CO2 supplement. I place mine right beside the window (inside the tank) and dose excel. 
Pellia, on the other hand, is extremely hardy and will grow under almost no light.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Ahh good to know, I moved it into my 15 gal(where i have some riccia already and its nice n green) but im not sure it will recover- they are pure white lol 
I assumed it was low light cause James' posting said low light plants


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

I see you have the black sand now eh


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Yes I really like how it looks but I really dont like that my siphon just sucks it right out with the water lol
Next change will be to black gravel


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Riccias light requirement is way overrated in my opinion. It will often grow much larger and branchier, rather than thin and dense, if it receives everything else aside from high light. I have some attached to driftwood in a 10 Gallon, where only 2W of LED light is above it, though it does grow reaching up towards the light- what plant doesn't. I find riccia to be fairly invasive as if it were duckweed. A small frond will entangle itself in another plant and eventually grow large enough to compete for space/light.

You've got a nice collection of plant going. I notice you have only been trying to stones, have you thought about using some small thin driftwood?


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks for all the info and nice comments  
Ive been tying to stones because I know driftwood can change the ph in the tank...i do lovvve the look of driftwood though, im just wary of making water param changes as things seem to be doing well at the moment  lol 
Does ur riccia look really green under low light? Maybe I need to add fert (i dont use fert in My shrimp tank)


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Even putting you hands in the tank can change the PH.

My Riccia is as green as can be. If your riccia is still new, just let it be a while before trying to troubleshoot.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

changed out My black sand that I had issues with and went with some plain black gravel .... shrimps seem to be a bit more active today and eating again, although one died overnight.and one other doesnt look too good... but the rest seem to be more active with the replaced gravel..


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

indeed its a moss tank. better to get the riccia coz 100% sure it will give you a lot of headaches when it grows .


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## Angelic (Sep 13, 2010)

Awee! The tank is so cute =o Makes me want a shrimp tank =P


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

Angelic said:


> Awee! The tank is so cute =o Makes me want a shrimp tank =P


get a shrimp tank and I will help you


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Thank u ! 
Shrimps are SO much fun to keep! When i started in this hobby i had not even heard of shrimps before, so i only kept fish. Once i had seen shrimps and had some myself i just fell in love with them! I am truely addicted to shrimps lol 

Got My new light today! Its a coralife Aqualight t5 24" dual fixture...one 14 watt t5 6700k bulb and one 14 watt t5 colormax bulb in it
Looks really bright and lights up the whole tank nicely... What i really like is that the light is very thin and hardly takes up any space on the top of the tank... Nice color light too... Gonna see how the plants like it as is... Or i can always change out the colormax bulb for another 6700k if need be... 
Yay  
With my recent problem i had with the black sand my mosses also suddenly started turning brown so now that the new black gravel from Menagerie is in there and theur new light ill b able to get my xmas moss all fixed up again, it was sooo green and bushy but in the 2 weeks i had the sand it went brown 
very quickly... 
I also netted down My Taiwan moss to a nice rock last night


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

lol. I know so addicting, until today I dont know why I ended up breeding shrimps alone.


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

GuppyLove said:


> Thank u !
> Shrimps are SO much fun to keep! When i started in this hobby i had not even heard of shrimps before, so i only kept fish. Once i had seen shrimps and had some myself i just fell in love with them! I am truely addicted to shrimps lol
> 
> Got My new light today! Its a coralife Aqualight t5 24" dual fixture...one 14 watt t5 6700k bulb and one 14 watt t5 colormax bulb in it
> ...


Hey I might have missed out on you explaining the process of your mosses dying. What made you think it was the sand? What was in it that killed the mosses?


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

having too many varieties and focal points in an aquarium can sometimes seem tacky. The poiNt of using live plants is to recreate a natural look. It's too early to tell now as you'll need a month to get out of the "new hair cut" phase, but definitely something to keep in mind when your tweeking and adjusting over the next few weeks.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Beijing08 said:


> Hey I might have missed out on you explaining the process of your mosses dying. What made you think it was the sand? What was in it that killed the mosses?


Hi Leon!- well when i changed out my original gravel and put the sand in almost immediately my mosses started browning and had never done that before, theyve always been very green ...as well as started losing some shrimps...the only thing i changed was the sand so i just am assuming it was that... I did have my water tested at Menagerie and Harold had also tested the sand separately but didnt find any traces of copper in either at all, though he did say the sand which is actually black shot that comes from copper smelting had some issues with snails and some plants such as vals 
My xmas moss browned the quickest, in just a couple days ...and my java moss has browned as well but not as badly as the xmas...
So without anything else in the tank being changed except for the sand I suspect it was that but cant say positively.. I got some new black gravel from Menagerie back in there now


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Heres a pic taken of the xmas moss the day i added the sand








Heres a pic of it now, some green left but serious browning:








And my java moss now, same thing:








Happened very quickly...


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

GuppyLove said:


> Heres a pic taken of the xmas moss the day i added the sand
> 
> 
> 
> ...


glad it was taken care of!


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## Cravenne (Nov 6, 2010)

Maybe a silly question..

It looks like you put a thin layer of moss on the rock and cover it completely with a hair net? 

Why have I never thought of that before..lol. I've tried everything else to keep my Java moss down..a huge PITA!


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Yes I bought a package of hairnets at shoppers drug mart, chose a color that blends in well, and have been using it instead of fishing line.. I find it soo much easier because its easy to tie onto rocks or anything...just place the moss onto your rock how you want it arranged and kind of pat it down, then stretch out the hairnet in your fingers and put over top of your rock and flip it over, then pull the hairnet tight and tie it...if you have trouble getting it tied snug enough you can use a small plastic zip tie...cut off the excess hairnet. i usually just tie it though. Unless you have a huge rock, one hairnet will do many rocks when cut it pieces. And its great if you only have bits and pieces of moss. 
You can also cut larger holes in the hairnet if you prefer it that way for branchier items. 
I have it on almost all my mosses, and also riccia on a rock and pellia on a rock, theyve grown in so well you cant see the hairnet at all now!
Ill post a few closeups tonight of my hairnet covered things so you can see how the growth looks


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## Cravenne (Nov 6, 2010)

Great! Pics are always welcome..lol. Genius idea, really..makes perfect sense.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Ordered an API Master Test kit today as well as API GH/KH test kit
Now im really going to have to learn for myself how to use and understand gh/kh stuff lol
When I do get it ill post my first try at testing and maybe others can chime in about my results


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Update: trimmed some of my moss stones that were getting really messy looking, still have a few pieces to trim that I must have missed....thanks to Igor showing me how to properly trim it when I visited him on the weekend to buy some stringy moss... 

Things seem to have come back to normal again in my tank after replacing the sand back to gravel... Today I saw 3 of my females are saddled again, normally they were constantly saddled/berried but they had stopped for a while with the sand...and even the copepods had all dissappeared from the tank but they are back  a good sign  
My mosses which had browned are now also coming back real nice- my xmas moss was the most affected but now its got lots of green new growth coming back all over...once it grows some more ill take it out and trim off any old brown moss bits... 
Ill try and add some pics later


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Every female in the tank is saddled once again  population explosion coming soon.... lol 
Added a Taiwan Fire Red shrimp from Menagerie just for fun and to kinda compare my cherry shrimp to... Ive been trying to breed my cherries more red and I have a couple females that are realllllly red.
Tested this tank too, my params are 
Ph 7.6
Kh 5
Gh 9
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10ppm
Temp 78


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

GuppyLove said:


> Every female in the tank is saddled once again  population explosion coming soon.... lol
> Added a Taiwan Fire Red shrimp from Menagerie just for fun and to kinda compare my cherry shrimp to... Ive been trying to breed my cherries more red and I have a couple females that are realllllly red.
> Tested this tank too, my params are
> Ph 7.6
> ...


yup, looks like Downtown Toronto Water


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Im trying to decide for my next tank if I should try and fight the ph and go with softwater shrimps , or go with the flow and up the ph and maybe try sulawesis lol


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

GuppyLove said:


> Im trying to decide for my next tank if I should try and fight the ph and go with softwater shrimps , or go with the flow and up the ph and maybe try sulawesis lol


either way, it'll be a challenge


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