Category: Shrimphaus

Week Aqua S-series light first impressions

Posted on by Andy Pierce

I have been using an Asta 20 nano LED light on the Shrimphaus, and that’s been fine but it’s a point source light so there’s not much illumination at either the back (shaded by the river) or the right side (furthest away).  Today I swapped that out for a new Week Aqua S400 Pro aquarium light.

What’s in the box?

Week Aqua S400pro
everything from the box

The S-series comes in three different light lengths:  321mm, 421mm or 471mm.  I went for the middle length S400 model.

You get the light itself with a solid yet lightweight aluminium shell powered through a generous length cord, voltage adaptor and your choice of plug ending.  You also get a milled aluminium mounting bracket with six polypropylene (?) screws to hold it all together.  The light mounts on an aluminium pole which comes with a silicone O-ring to hold the light in place.  Finishing up the package are two plastic zip ties for cord neatness, and a QC control certificate.

You do NOT get any form of instructions either for assembly, mounting or usage.  Fortunately it’s all pretty intuitive how to put it together.

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Planting Salvinia minima

Posted on by Andy Pierce

I have been considering floating plants for a while, but they always looked kind of big and dangly and nasty to me which has put me off.  Then the Aquatic Plant Society had a get together at Aquarium Gardens and I saw this pretty new (to me) much smaller floating plant from Tropica:  Salvinia minima. I picked up a pot to try it out in the Shrimphaus.

It’s a floating plant, so “planting” Salvinia minima is dead-easy.  Starting with an in vitro pot, you rinse off the media it came with and then I floated it in a bowl of clean water and forked it over into the Shrimphaus.

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Planting Riccardia chamedryfolia

Posted on by Andy Pierce
Riccardia chamedryfolia pieces
Riccardia tissue culture pieces

According to the British Bryological Society (naturally), Riccardia chamedryfolia, also known as ‘Jagged Germanderwort’ is a liverwort with a thalloid growth form and is naturally occurring in most parts of the world including commonly in the UK.  There is a lot more biology-talk about liverworts vs. mosses vs. hornworts that I don’t understand, but I did manage to pick up an in vitro pot grown by Dennerle from Aquarium Gardens and thought I’d give it a try growing on hardscape.  The secret hope is always to find something that will be able to grow in the Shrimphaus river even though many, many plants have failed there.  It turns out that always wet with flowing water slate chippings exposed to typically low humidity indoor air is a quite austere environment.  Still, hope springs eternal and I thought I could try out both the Shrimphaus river and also that wedged into cracks of the Fireplace Aquarium mountain would make a nice effect.

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Water change effects on alkalinity

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Regular and substantial water changes for an aquarium are a good idea.  With EI fertiliser dosing the built-in assumption is that at least 50% of the water will be changed out every week to prevent a build-up of excess fertilisers.  Both the Fireplace Aquarium and the Shrimphaus follow this maintenance schedule, although lately I have been doing around 75% water changes to better remove organic particulate debris from the Fireplace Aquarium and to remove salts from the Shrimphaus.

Pre/post water change parameters

Fireplace AquariumShrimphaus
pHalkalinity (ppm CaCO3)pHalkalinity (ppm CaCO3)
before water change7.852649.01342
immediately after water change7.962768.67306
next day7.752799.03309

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Marginal plants

Posted on by Andy Pierce

I haven’t had much luck growing plants on the Shrimphaus river.  Mostly they dry out either immediately or eventually, or sometimes they rot away.  This roots and bottom bits wet all the time but leaves out in the air niche is pretty challenging.  Some internet digging revealed plants that thrive in this setting are called marginal plants:  those growing on the margins of bodies of water, and they are popular for people with ponds.  Ok, so that’s the right setting, but outdoor ponds are much larger than the Shrimphaus so only the smallest marginal plants might work.  Some shopping around led me to try Bog Arum (Calla palustris), Golden Buttons (Cotula coronopifolia) and Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’).  All of these are listed as growing to a maximum height of about 6 inches.

The plants arrived well-packed in wet newspaper and the first surprise was how big they all were.  The pond world operates on a much larger scale than the aquarium world!  

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Baby shrimp newly hatched

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been 10 weeks since the tear-down and rebuild of the Shrimphaus.  One of the things that surprised me in that process is there turned out to not be very many shrimp in the Shrimphaus, and mostly not any small ones.  This suggested that things in the previous build were not as they should be environmentally such that the shrimp had stopped breeding.  The big question was whether the new build would turn that around or not.  It takes four or five weeks from mating until eggs hatch so there has been a bit of a calendar-watching excercise going on and…

We have baby shrimp!

I was pretty excited the first time we got baby shrimp in the Shrimphaus as well.

adult shrimp are much larger than hatchlings
proud parent?

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Planting Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ also known as Leptochilus pteropus is one of the many varieties of Java fern.  I picked up a pot from Pro Shrimp in an order that also included Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  Developed by Tropica, the ‘Windelov’ version I received was grown by Aquadip.

The ‘Windelov’ arrived totally overgrown and just a touch ratty on the ends in places as if it had been waiting for a sale for a long time.  I don’t mind actually, and the pot separated out into a nice variety of sizes and forms of plantets.  Java fern is a rhizomatous plant where a thick lateral ‘stem’ sprouts leaves growing upwards and roots growing downwards.  Although there are many terrestrial plants that grow with rhizomes underground, the conventional wisdom in the aquarium trade is that rhizomes must never be buried in substrate or they will rot and kill the plant.  Accordingly, best practice is to attach the rhizome to a component of hardscape, usually rock or driftwood, either by tying it on with thread/line, or more simply by ‘supergluing’ it on using a cyanoacrylate-based adhesive.  It is also possible to wedge the rhizome into a convenient crack in the hardscape where eventually the roots will naturally bind the plant on.

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Planting Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

After an unsuccessful go with Alternanthera reineckii (didn’t thrive) and another with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ (eaten by Amano shrimp), I’m giving it try with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  This AR ‘Mini’ came from Pro Shrimp, and was grown by Tropica.  I have had mixed results purchasing aquatic plant tissue culture cups before, but this AR ‘Mini’ cup is one of the best I’ve ever seen.  The plants arrived in superb condition, with a huge number of goodly sized, mostly correctly structured plantlets.  Sometimes tissue culture plants can have a confused growth structure where it seems the plant doesn’t really have a good sense of top (leaves) from bottom (roots) and in some quarters tissue culture plants have a reputation for being more fragile than their potted counterparts, but I’m really optimistic about this latest batch.

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Monolinuron does not control black beard algae

Posted on by Andy Pierce

After three weeks of treating the Shrimphaus with Tetra AlguMin in an attempt at chemical control of black beard algae, I can confidently report that monolinuron, the active ingredient in AlguMin, has absolutely no effect whatsoever on black beard algae (BBA, black brush algae).  The algae is as healthy and bushy as ever, does not scrub off even with vigorous rubbing, and may even have grown a little thicker.  I can’t really tell whether monolinuron was effective against green algae, as that wasn’t a major problem and so I wasn’t paying careful attention.  Certainly there was no visible green algae at the end of the treatment but there may not have been much in the first instance.

Monolinuron is safe for shrimp and snails

When used as directed at full strength, there were no adverse effects on either the zebra thorn snails, or on the cherry shrimp.  For a black beard algae reset, sterner measures are needed.

Chemical control of black beard algae

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Black beard algae (BBA, brush algae) used to be a bit of a nuisance in the Fireplace Aquarium, but since switching to a high phosphate, estimative index dosing regimen, BBA and really all forms of algae have been pretty much a non-issue.  Tanks need to sort their own equilibrium, and what works for the high-tech CO2-injected Fireplace Aquarium is not necessarily appropriate for the low tech Shrimphaus.  In general I prefer to ‘live and let live’ within reason for algae in an aquarium but in the Shrimphaus BBA has got to the point where it’s hurting the plants and not looking very pretty either.

What to do about it?

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