# 75 gallon FW planted shrimp tank



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Hi,

So my 75 gallon tank (w/ overflow) is going to become a low maintenance planted shrimp tank. I had 4 fancy guppies I wanted to move out of the basement that I stuck in the tank first.

The tank still has some residual copper in the water -- leftover meds (bad news for shrimp!!) so I added a poly-filter pad to remove the copper. The pad turned dark blue overnight, indicating it had absorbed a bunch of copper. will re-test the water tonight. last night (before I added the polyfil) it was 0.25ppm.

Unfortunately, last night one of my fancy guppies got sucked into the overflow box and into the drip tray and I found it dead this morning. :-( I didn't think it would be an issue but it was... I then took some plastic mesh netting and covered up the gaps in the overflow. I think it'll be OK for the guppies but not so sure if it's gonna keep shrimp from crawling between the top of the mesh and the glass tank lid, though! there's maybe 4-5 millimeters of clearance there...Any tips here? 

I picked up 8 RCS from my LFS at an exhorbitant price of $3.60 each (ouch!). I'm sure the LFS appreciates the business... Anyway, I put them in my 30 gallon as the 75 is not shrimp-safe yet.

Hopefully they start breeding in the next month...after I shrimp-proof and get the copper removed from my 75gal. Side note: should I reduce the flow on this tank? my mag9.5 pump's doing about 800GPH out of PVC spraybar. I could revert to a weaker EHEIM 1060 that does maybe 1/2 that flow rate at the same head height.

Any tips on keeping RCS are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Zeke


----------



## rtmaston (Jul 14, 2012)

nice to have a low maintenance tank.post some pictures if you can. I would like to see it.


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Not much to look at so far..

I removed my mag 9.5 pump. it felt quite warm and my tank temp was a bit high!! 88F! 

I replaced the mag 9.5 with my old eheim 1060 pump. My house gets up to about 80-82 during the day, so I hope my tank doesn't get too much hotter than that...though the T5 lighting on the tank probably also contributes quite a bit of heat. That and the fact that the canopy is *closed* in the back. very little ventilation...

Anyway I shrimp-proofed the tank (shoved some pads over the overflow slots, and have a mesh over the teeth to prevent shrimp from getting sucked in. The tank tested for almost no copper so moved the shrimp over. They seem fine so far despite the 10 degree temperature differential from their old tank and new tank...I acclimated them over like 40 minutes...<shrug> Hope they are doing OK tomorrow!

-Zeke


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

You may never be able to add shrimp to the 75 after dosing with copper based meds. Even the silicone seals will absorb the copper, never leaving the tank.


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

I'll keep copper-removing media in the sump...Hopefully that'll be sufficient.


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

For the record the poly-filter I put in my sump last night seems to dropped the copper level in the water from 0.5ppm yesterday to basically zero today.

-Zeke


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Here's some pics, doesnt' look like much yet. but you can see I have oodles of green algae for these shrimp


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

the shrimp we either not happy about any residual copper in the tank or the stress of acclimating or both.

1 amano shrimp dead and 1 red cherry shrimp dead this morning.

Fingers crossed here. This might be the shortest build ever..:-|

Also I found 2 red cherry shrimp in my sump, still alive. moved them back to the main tank. I tried shoving some pads on top of my overflow box to 'shrimp-proof' it but it seems hopeless...they are 
persistent little buggers!!

I think i might have to just abandon the overflow idea and/or just add a sponge filter instead. All of this is moot if they all get killed by copper though. Will see how things are tonight...


1 red cherry shrimp is also MIA. Could be in the overflow box for all I know....

I'm 95% sure i'm going to find more red cherry shrimp in my sump drip tray tonight...sigh
-zeke


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I used tubing to seal my overflows when I saw my morray eal swim in and out of them.Just get like 1/2" clear ubing the lengh of overflow perimeter and slice it legnthwise.Slip it over the top lip of overlfow.I then used a size larger5/8,maybe 3/4" and did the same over he 1/2".It now touches my glass lid and there is no more in and out for the moray(they are escape artist).Try putting the mesh in the overflow between the walls that allow middle and lower intakes to overflow and it will not be seen but still work the same,and the shrimp wil not be able to climb it.Next check your wires for powerheads or heaters,they will climb out on those also.seall up where they come out.I duct taped the back of my glass cover(plastic part)as they ar not always tight fitting,especially with wires or air hoses comming out.
Seachem makes CUPRISORB to remove copper and it is very effective altthough I found much of it escaped he average mesh bag so maybe if they have pre bagged amounts that would be better.
Simple water changes also remove copper.
Good luck,love the shrimp!


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

I thought about doing that last night but went with the pads. i'll switch to the tubing tonight. hopefully the shrimp are still alive...

-zeke



coralbandit said:


> I used tubing to seal my overflows when I saw my morray eal swim in and out of them.Just get like 1/2" clear ubing the lengh of overflow perimeter and slice it legnthwise.Slip it over the top lip of overlfow.I then used a size larger5/8,maybe 3/4" and did the same over he 1/2".It now touches my glass lid and there is no more in and out for the moray(they are escape artist).Try putting the mesh in the overflow between the walls that allow middle and lower intakes to overflow and it will not be seen but still work the same,and the shrimp wil not be able to climb it.Next check your wires for powerheads or heaters,they will climb out on those also.seall up where they come out.I duct taped the back of my glass cover(plastic part)as they ar not always tight fitting,especially with wires or air hoses comming out.
> Seachem makes CUPRISORB to remove copper and it is very effective altthough I found much of it escaped he average mesh bag so maybe if they have pre bagged amounts that would be better.
> Simple water changes also remove copper.
> Good luck,love the shrimp!


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

What about people's rocks leaching copper into the water? Even if i never dosed copper meds couldn't you get contamination from rocks? 

There isn't a lot of information out there about what the LD 50 of copper for these shrimp are...or is there? My copper test kit revealed almost zero copper last night...sigh.

-Zeke




susankat said:


> You may never be able to add shrimp to the 75 after dosing with copper based meds. Even the silicone seals will absorb the copper, never leaving the tank.


----------



## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

This is great info from Susankat, I did not know this but am fortunate enough to keep a hospital tank which is the only tank that ever sees meds.


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

my house is too damn hot.

my 180 cichlid tank was 84F today. the 75 gallon was 88F today!

WTF?

-Zeke


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Most people don't use rocks in an aquarium that has copper in it. I have seen people put shrimp in tanks that hadn't been used in years, but copper meds had been used in the tank. Entire population of shrimp lost.

If the tanks are running that hot. Go to Walmart and get you some cheap clamp on fans to blow across the top of the tanks.


----------



## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Thanks. I'll see what I can do to drop the temperatures...

-Zeke



susankat said:


> Most people don't use rocks in an aquarium that has copper in it. I have seen people put shrimp in tanks that hadn't been used in years, but copper meds had been used in the tank. Entire population of shrimp lost.
> 
> If the tanks are running that hot. Go to Walmart and get you some cheap clamp on fans to blow across the top of the tanks.


----------



## oliver (Mar 31, 2013)

mount some computer fans in youre hood to pull the hot air above the water out.Seachems cuprisorb is very effective total cleaned out my planted tank of cupper residuse


----------

