It's A Jungle Out There (Non-CO2 Planted Setup Pics) (Good reference for beginners)

[ShrimpUK]

Wow Chetan, very impressive planted Aquarium there... love the natural look when plants get established!

[Chetan]

@shrimpuk ... Thanks mate. Glad you liked it.


@pranav

Gr8 to know you liked it bro! Here's a quick answer to you questions. Let me know if you have any other queries.

Lighting ... Hmmm now that's a good question. I don't remember the wattage and its not mentioned on the tubes. They are just two regular fluorescent tubes. The brand is of some random company called - Tescon. Let me see if I can go to the lfs and check out the details for you. However I usually only keep 1 tube running for about 6-8 hours a day.

No fertilizers used at all.

The green cover in the above pics took place between jul-dec, abt 5months.

The tank is at room temperature, which is largely abt 30°C through the year. Right now in Jan its down to 25. And by May it'll rise over 30 I guess. But the RCS will survive easily. The bogwood will be cool inside its tunnels.

Initially when the tank was setup I was enthusiastically doing a 30% water change weekly. But after abt 2 months I stopped (lazy). Thereafter I only changed the water once in 2 months (the heavy plant presence keeps the water clean). Though I add extra water every 2 weeks to top off the evaporated water.

As you can see, this is a very low maintenance tank. The jungle ecosystem takes care of itself largely. You too can easily setup a tank like this.


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[Murad]

Nice set up Chetan especially the dense plants with that ingenious bog wood. thanks for sharing pics.

[pranavakira]

@shrimpuk ... Thanks mate. Glad you liked it.


@pranav

Gr8 to know you liked it bro! Here's a quick answer to you questions. Let me know if you have any other queries.

Lighting ... Hmmm now that's a good question. I don't remember the wattage and its not mentioned on the tubes. They are just two regular fluorescent tubes. The brand is of some random company called - Tescon. Let me see if I can go to the lfs and check out the details for you. However I usually only keep 1 tube running for about 6-8 hours a day.

No fertilizers used at all.

The green cover in the above pics took place between jul-dec, abt 5months.

The tank is at room temperature, which is largely abt 30°C through the year. Right now in Jan its down to 25. And by May it'll rise over 30 I guess. But the RCS will survive easily. The bogwood will be cool inside its tunnels.

Initially when the tank was setup I was enthusiastically doing a 30% water change weekly. But after abt 2 months I stopped (lazy). Thereafter I only changed the water once in 2 months (the heavy plant presence keeps the water clean). Though I add extra water every 2 weeks to top off the evaporated water.

As you can see, this is a very low maintenance tank. The jungle ecosystem takes care of itself largely. You too can easily setup a tank like this.


Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk

my tank is mostly 28-30 ! now its 27 due to rains in chennai! which algae eater do u suggest
Amano shrimp
Nerite snail
Otto
SAE

[Chetan]

my tank is mostly 28-30 ! now its 27 due to rains in chennai! which algae eater do u suggest Amano shrimp, Nerite snail, Otto, SAE

Just make sure to get your tank green enough before the madras heat kicks in from april onwards... else the temp spike will kill ur shrimp.

SAE are omnivores. As they grow older they will start targeting your shrimp.

Nerite snails I have no experience with. Though I don't think they will be happy in a freshwater setup since they inherently belong to sea water.

Ottos do the job well. They won't harm shrimp. But keep in mind that they are social fish and are found schooling in the wild. So ideally you should try to have 4-6 of those. Also will need to feed them externally a couple of times a week (algae wafer, blanched spinach etc)

Amano shrimps are green all the way. After all they are named after the legend Takashi Amano, because these shrimps are his favorites to use in his professional setups.

So from my end, ottos and amano shrimp.

[HYUN007]

RCS are very hardy, they breed anywhere as long as they are safe. [/B]
The substrate will play an important role for raising more delicate shrimp like the CRS. The RCS on the other hand are quite tough.

Not in very low PH water.
They don't like to breed in 5.5 region and more fragile than CRS in that condition.

[gourmettea]

Nice crazy jungle. I think you are totally right about the correlation between the hiding places and success of breeding.