# Ameekplec's 20g long CRS tank!



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I've decided to turn my neglected 20g long into a CRS tank for the nice JPRL CRS I got from Frank (Jiang604) a while back. Now that they're settled in and berried, I think I have the hang of them, so they'll be getting their new digs in a 20g long tank.

First I have to take down the existing tank. What will be transferred over will be:
Dwarf sagittaria
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Windolev Java Fern
staurogyne repens
Fissidens fontanus
triangle moss
peacock moss
needle leaf java fern

And whatever else floats my boat 

Equipment will be:
Eheim 2213 (with sponge over the intake)
9kg Netlea CRS soil
Current USA 2x24W T5HO (2x6500K bulbs)
20 gallon long (30 x 12 x 12)
Glass lid

Today I picked up a bag of Netlea CRS Soil:









Also, I bought this stump of manzanita from Menagerie a long time ago for this tank. When I found it I couldn't believe it had been sitting on a top shelf for months!

It measures about 26" x 10" x 14" (L x W x H) - I'll have to shorten it by 2 inches to fit in the tank.



















And these are the gorgeous little guys that are going to call the tank home (A/S grade JPRL CRS):


















I'm not a big fan of the predominantly white shrimp, and so the well balanced solid white/red of the JPRLs was what I was really looking for. One is berried for about 2 weeks now so Ma should pop any day now!

As the tank progresses, I'll post photo updates


----------



## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Nice start. The wood is a nice too.

Wouldn't we know it's your tank since it's your thread though lol


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Nope. I do freelance work aquascaping in the streets and alleyways. I like to think I'm a people's aquascaper, keeping it realz.

Yeah, I guess it's evident. Whatever. It's my thread, my tank. I'll name it whatever I want


----------



## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

YAYYY that's gonna be one amazing tank I tell ya.
And sure enough, those shrimp have super nice coloration! JPRL's for the win...
I call dibs on the offspring 

Also surprised you didn't ask for any Proserpinaca Palustris from AI...
I'll have a couple of stems ready for you in no time~~

watch me slowly convert you back to freshwater/planted/shrimps LOL.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

haha, dunno if I'll be a complete convert - I also bought a coral from Sea U Marine, so the balance is still in the reef 

Yeah, the shrimp are really nice - much nicer than the average A/s grade golden bee mixes. The white colour is absolutely solid on these little guys. They're so nice looking, my gf's dad thought they were fake 

The scape I'm hoping for is just a moss covered stump with some low-lying low light plants to partially carpet the bottom of the tank. Hoepfully I can make something nice and low maintenance, but pleasing to the eye


----------



## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I heard puffers make good tank mates.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

No puffers for me. I'm keeping sharks in here. With puppies. And small objects and toddlers.


----------



## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

i agree, that is a nice piece of solid wood you got there. a real good looker if you ask me


----------



## vhaaron (Dec 9, 2009)

can't wait to see ur new tank....


----------



## Greg_o (Mar 4, 2010)

Those are some beautiful shrimp, best of luck!


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Had some time last night, so I finally got around to changing the substrate over to the Netlea CRS soil.

I soaked it for a few days, and emptied out the tank ang gave it a quick clean:









To fit in the stump, I had to shorten the bottom root by about 2", and trim 2" off the left side of the stump. It fits really nicely now:









Filled up:









I had pre-rinsed it a few times, but it was pretty clean anyways. I like the texture of the soil, and how it's relatively heavy.

Planting was pretty easy, just time consuming. From the old tank, I brought over the java fern cryptocoryne wendtii, and the lawn of dwarf subulata. New plants are crptocoryne parva, staurogyne repens and triangle moss (from AI):









It's set up as a low-maintenence tank, so the plants are all slow growing. After the tank is stabliized, I'll move the CRS over. The canister was the same (uncleaned) from the old tank, so there should be next to no cycle.

I'll post pics in a few months again when it's grown out a bit


----------



## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

sweet tank Eric 

although there is one small flaw....you shouldn't have rinsed the soil at all. Active soil like these are acidic due to its composition...peat and other organic ingredients, so the more you put it through hard water, like Toronto's tap, the quicker you will deplete its buffering capacity. This is why people talk about using RO water instead of tap to top off and mix during WC's. 

I wouldn't worry about it too much (i.e. you can still get 1.5 years out of Netlea), but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you were to go the right direction with soil. 

Happy Easter


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Thanks - nothing like the stuff you guys get up to, but it's a lot less maintenance.

I just gave it a quick rinse to get rid of the dust, then the soak to weigh it down - the soak water and gravel all went into the tank. But hopefully I haven't taken out too much buffering capacity.


----------



## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> Thanks - nothing like the stuff you guys get up to, but it's a lot less maintenance.
> 
> I just gave it a quick rinse to get rid of the dust, then the soak to weigh it down - the soak water and gravel all went into the tank. But hopefully I haven't taken out too much buffering capacity.


No sweat. It's advisable not to rinse, but even if you did, it's not likely to change much.

Do give yourself some credit man, the setup is as good as any shrimp keeper can come up with. Canister with a sponge, nice low light plants/piece of wood...hell, you're setup is 10x better than what I had lol. Just don't forget to put in some mineral rocks because when you change the water with RO it removes a ton of calcium.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Heres' the tank after it's settled in a bit:








That rainbowfish was removed shortly after the picture.










The staurogyne is growing nicely now - every few days there is a new leaf, and there are 2 new shoots now  Unfortunately, yesterday the crypts melted, so I had to peel off a bunch of leaves but they seem to be fine now.

Last week we saw shrimplets hatching for the first time. At the time they were tiny and barely visible, but after 10 days they've coloured up really well and grown 1 - 3 mm.

Babies!!









Scale vs adults:









I've counted so far 10 of them at once, but I'm sure there's a few more. The white on them really is stunning, considering how small they are!

Well, that's all the updates....forever!  Now just to wait several months to build up the population


----------



## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

that, my friend, is the epitome of a "show tank"
Keep up the great work Eric.


----------



## Otaku (Feb 27, 2010)

awesome tank man, i love the drift wood you used!


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Thanks guys!

I just got some more plants (thanks Frank and Leon!) - haven't had time to plant them, but I think I'll be expanding the area one plant occupies, and moving around a few pieces to accomodate the new additions.

Anyways, here's a picture of 3 week old CRS:









They look nice, and have nice bold white and red bands. Looks like there's 16 of them, and they're growing oh so fast! Can't wait to see the next batch of little ones hatch (hopefully there is a next batch  ).


----------



## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

Let's see you breed those Zebra Otos too


----------



## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

Gorgeous setup!
I wish I had a creative/artistic mind to make such nice scapes!

Cant wait to see my babies grow up too!


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Oooo.. Super nice Ameekplec! Sorry I missed the thread from before.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Just another update on how the little guys are growing up. They're much bigger after 4 weeks, and looking just like their parents:










The big female I have is berried yet again, so here's hoping for another beautiful bunch of baby shrimps!

The staurogyne is growing in really nicely, as is everything else. I got a few stalks of hygrophila pinnatifida the other week, and now that they're growing out a bit, I think they'll get planted the back corner to conceal the intake pipe and heater.


----------



## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> The staurogyne is growing in really nicely, as is everything else. I got a few stalks of hygrophila pinnatifida the other week, and now that they're growing out a bit, I think they'll get planted the back corner to conceal the intake pipe and heater.


whoaaa hygrophila pinnatifida where did u get that from?


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Oh, just this awesome guy on the West coast!

It's been floating around for a few weeks now and the nodules have all put out plantlets - I'll wait a little while longer before planting them down so I can have a nice patch!


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Update time! I borrowed my folk's DSLR and got home just in time before the lights went out on the 20L.

The plants are growing in really nicely (the staurogyne is expanding really nicely), and I had to really trim back the dwarf subulata as it was taking over.

The CRS are growing and breeding nicely too - I think I'm on the 3rd generation now having babies. I've gone from one female producing eggs to at least 6 - 7, and from 8 CRS to...I don't know how many 

Without further ado, here are some shots from tonight:










Same guy with flash (this is what he really looks like):



























This is my favourite section of the tank:









And the FTS:









Whenever I get around to it, I'd like to trek up to Menagerie to pick up more zebra otos, and also get to finally planting the pinnafida, as it's still floating around. I'll probably end up pulling out the cryptocoryne parva as it just didn't have the effect I was hoping for the way I had planted it. Hopefully I can spread the staurogyne over where it is now.


----------



## george (Apr 11, 2009)

Eric, Harold has zebra otos if interested. But only like 6-7 left.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Thanks George - I'll have to talk to Harold again soon (it's been a while...) to get more of the little guys.


----------



## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

very nice looking tank and very nice looking shrimps.


----------



## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> And the FTS:


 whoa that lil stem of pinnatifia grew into that?!


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Yup - it's taken a few months, but it's finally filled out. Thanks again for the awesome plants and shrimp!! Everyone who sees the tank loves the shrimp!


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

fannntastic!!!


----------



## missindifferent (Jun 25, 2010)

Awesome setup, beautiful shrimp! I also prefer more balance in the red and white.
If you ever decide to sell some of the offspring, please let me know!


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Thanks!

I'll probably start selling a few just to thin out the crowd that's developing 

Another happy shot from a few days ago:









edit - ooh, I didn't realize it was such a crappy iPhone shot. I have the DSLR still so I'll take some shots tomorrow!


----------



## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

ouu wee that makes me miss shrimps!


----------

