First attempt at CRS tank
 

Finally decided to take the plunge and setup a crs tank.

Eheim 2213
Hailea 28A
Gush Crystal Garden 60M
Aqualighter 2 60CM
Benibachi Mineral Soil
Gush oPipe & gPipe

Using Benibachi mineral powder and Mosura BT-9 with benibachi active water.

Day 1 - 09 July 2016
Tank set up:
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...pstfiuabsc.jpg

Day 5 - 13 July 2016
Attack of the tannins :eek:
Dropped a packet of purigen to clear some of the tannins.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ps8qcqgwof.jpg


Day 6 - 15 July 2016
Glosso is growing in the tank.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...pskff8ji1e.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...psm4y0myhw.jpg
Day 7 - 16 July 2016
Measured the water parameters
PH - 6.5
Ammonia - 10 ppm
Nitrite - 1.0 ppm
Nitrate - 10 ppm
Tank temperature - 26 degrees

Seems like cycling has not started yet. :eek:

Maybe you can use photobucket, or flickr to upload your photos :)

You may want to consider raising the temp for cycling purpose. Did you on your chiller? And adding purigen may hinder cycling process since it will also absorb elements needed for cycling. Just my 2c

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

I had removed the purigen after one day.

Hmm, in that case I will off the chiller.

Is it advisable if I do a 50% wc to clear the tannins

Can do the wc n patiently wait for the water to be cycled.

Took another reading today.

Day 12
Ammonia: 10ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

Currently the tank water is cloudy, so I assume it's a bacterial boom but there isn't any nitrite or nitrate reading.

From the looks, seems like the tank have not started to cycle yet.

Everyday just sit and watch the plants grow for now.

i.imgur.c0m/Ve78e0x.jpg

Nice tank. When it fully growth it will be idea place for shrimps.
You may use Crystal Clear to remove the cloudiness. Dont over dose.

Unfortunately, I have problem getting the cycle going :(

Already did twice 70-80% water change, but ammonia level still remains at 8ppm.

It is quite puzzling to me as the ammonia level did not decrease even after massive water changes.

I'm thinking if my ammonia is super sky high till I need to do like 50% wc daily to bring it down to at least 4ppm.

Over the weekend, I changed filter to eheim 2217 and added a sunsun prefilter to ease my maintenance next time.

Did a 80% WC at the same time after which, I noticed my glosso start pearling. :eek:

hxxp://i.imgur.c0m/7dGkSq2.jpg

So your water cycled now?

If u keep doing such a big % WC, yr tank will not cycled. Just leave the cycling process goes on until ammonia and nitrite is 0. Nitrate should hv some low value, cannot be 0. Last time I threw in pieces of prawn into tank and patiently wait for the cycling without WC.

Even with high level of ammonia (it was darker than the highest level of Sera ammonia test kit; more than 10ppm), I should leave the tank to cycle?

Cause I was reading, the bacteria cannot high level of ammonia, hence all the wc to bring it down and also to clean the tank.

Right now the tank is constant at 5ppm ammonia, 0.5 nitrite and 10ppm of nitrate (suspect this is from tap, as I tested my tap and showed 10ppm of nitrate)

Currently dosing seachem stability and not doing any more wc. Only cleaning the inlet sponge and topping up water.

Don't wash the sponge as it houses beneficial bacteria. If keep on washing, cannot established bacterial colony. Only wash sponge if very dirty and wash using tank water only.

Noted about that. Thanks for all the tips. :o

Measured my parameter today and I saw some progress.

Ammonia: 5ppm
Nitrite: 2ppm
Nitrate: 25ppm

Hopefully by next weekend the tank is cycled.

National Day Update!

Parameters today are:

Ammonia: 1 to 5
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 50 to 100

My cycle is gonna be done soon.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 2
Nitrate: 50 to 100

Strange thing is the nitrite decrease but the nitrate liquid color still remains the same like yesterday.

Have to be patient ..

Tank was cycled on Friday.

Went to C328 on 13th Aug to get some shrimps to test water.

Got 10 of these guys from the packets near the cashier. Not sure if they are CRS thou...bag wrote SFTB, or something like that.

But nevertheless, the 10 commandos have been alive for 24hours now.

http://i.imgur.com/U1fw2qs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/B3raEOO.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rmIL6K7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/er8PcbH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VX5Ps2B.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/K0h39rZ.jpg

Looks nice those shrimp , good catch !

What's your water perimeters even cycled?

Hope you'll be able to keep them successfully.

I have pretty much given up on keeping CRS as they are very sensitive to water temperature. Although my water perimeters is good, I can never keep a constant temperature in my office.

I think getting a chiller to keep the temperature constant is important if you want them to thrive.

When you have gain more experience, you can purchase the mosura quality. They are such beauties to look at.

You may want to consider the PRL quality if you are really good at keeping them. They ain't cheap, but they are truly a beauty.

If you are free, can go to Aquarist Chamber and CRS Haven to look at the good quality CRS.

All the best.

Haha, had a hard time choosing them yesterday at C328. Too many people, too little space!

Water parameters are as followed:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15
GH: 6
KH: 0
PH: Didn't test today.
Water temp: 25-26 (initially set at 24, but too much condensation)

Acclimatized them using drip method for 1hour+

Yup, I got a chiller to provide the temperature they need.

Very tempted to get PRL, but I will try to resist and get CRS instead.

Most probably going AC/CRS Haven next weekend to take a look.

Thanks!

If you getting PRL, try not to mix with the CRS otherwise will be quite a waste. Update us here bro.

Yup, thanks for reminder. :)

Shrimps been alive for 72 hours and still feeding well. Dropped in 1/4 piece of Dennerle Shrimps complete food to test but they ignored it. So I suppose my tank have enough food for them.

My tank evaporation rate is quite fast, can I add distilled water to top or should I use chlorinated water.

Gh is about 6 now, I have mineral rock into the tank too.

Looking good. Getting better each day

Distilled or DI or RODI water are good. If you keeping PRL try not to have too high GH or put mineral rocks, imho.

Main thing is to monitor TDS. For my prl tank, I just maintain at 135. Just do minor water change with RO water. Did not bother with other parameters. From 9 prl, now got hundreds of shrimplets.

Wow! Can show your tank?

3 ft tank. Think can hold thousands of prl shrimps in a few months time.

Just a small update.

Since the water parameters have been stable for 1 week and I seen quite a few molting, I assumed the tank is quite stable now.

I have since took out the 10 commandos, passed it to my friend and added a few PRL (4Female/3Male) from Aquarist Chamber.

17 hours since PRL were added, no casualty so far. Finger crossed!

Wow. So fast start with PRL already.

Can take pictures and update.

http://i.imgur.com/zf6BeRT.jpg

Only 1 of them were infront of the tank for a nice shot.

Now I'm battling with brown hair algae on my weeping moss. Every 2 day I need to use toothbrush to comb it out.

I know adding amano shrimp will help with it, but will they be very aggressive towards other shrimps

Wow! Nice shot! Beautiful PRL you have there, hope they breed for you soon.

One amano shrimp is enough to do the job. You choose a small size one. I kept one before with my pool of crs and it was not aggressive

Some updates:

This is the algae that been annoying me. The grow rate is damn crazy, every day I have to brush it off. Haven't got the time to get amano shrimp yet.

http://i.imgur.com/xiqgaoa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gzHjPz9.jpg

Stroll in the park
http://i.imgur.com/ADoPbw8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hm5lE1f.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tkZzlq0.jpg

Panda loach finally resting. Super active 24/7, hard to get a shot of them.
http://i.imgur.com/o2Hog6u.jpg

Full tank shot
http://i.imgur.com/OfzL4G9.jpg

Very nice setup!!!

Beautiful!