Prl Tank

[Ron]

Hello,

I sold off the majority of my shrimp collection about a year ago and have recently decided to enter the shrimpy waters again slowly.

I am taking a different philosophy on my set ups this time around and spending more on them while keeping less of them. Right now the only ones on my radar are PRL and Aura Blues. I've never kept PRL but with the knowledge sharing of friends, I don't think it'll overly difficult. I haven't kept Aura Blues in years but I believe I remember their care being quite easy.

First off my PRL tank; I custom ordered this at the start of the month and it was finished this past Sunday. It's 24" x 24" x 14" with Starphire glass in the front and sides. The back and bottom are float glass covered with black vinyl and it was mounted on 1/4" black acrylic. There is a 5" Starphire baffle that is 12" from the back. I chose black silicone and the edges were all polished...yes even the baffle.

I used boyu UGF plates which worked out well as it was easy to make the Eheim installation kit work.

I then layered Eheim Substrat Pro on top of the UGF plates and started to layer my substrate. My breeder keeps his PRL at lower pH levels than most, hence why I used ADA Malaya and Amazonia. I know you'll think I am a nut but I sifted all the substrate so my bottom 2" are a larger grain than my top 2". I guess I kind of separated out my own "powder". I did 2 layers of additives within my layer cake using Ebiken Kou, Ebiken Ei and Ebiken Han and one of the layers I added ADA Super Clear. Personally I don't like the layered look so I have Amazonia along the front of the baffle so Amazonia is all you can see from head on.

No flash, tough to see....

Flash, still tough to see....

So time for the filtration; I chose to go Asian style with multiple canisters. I had these guys that weren't being used so why not, it was this or have a sump made. I am using an Eheim 2075 Pro 3 for mechanical and biological filtration and an Eheim 2076 Pro 3e for purely biological filtration.....can you tell I like Eheim .

Originally the Eheim 2075 Pro 3 was only going to be for mechanical filtration but a friend suggested less mechanical and more biological. So there is now 1 level of Eheim Mech, 1 level of filter floss and 2 levels of Eheim Substrat Pro in the first canister. I think I went overboard on the biomedia; there is ~3 L layered in the substrate, 3 L in the first canister and 6 L in the second canister. That's more bio media than I had in my Eheim 2262 that was filtering a 250 gallon stock tank. I'll probably add the majority of my mineral balls to the last basket in the second canister and I was also thinking of adding a Benibcahi zero plate but I might add that to the tank cause I like the look of them.

So here they are daisy chained together; sorry for the crappy pic, it's dark back there so I had to use the flash.

So I filled the tank and ran it over night, I'm expecting the ammonia spikes so I planned to do a few daily complete water changes to get the ammonia to manageable levels before I add bacteria. I got my vials of Prodibio BioDigest and Glas Garten Bacter AE today.

Thanks for looking,

Ron

[jumpsmasher]

AWESOMENESS! You should call just Ron's PRL Comeback tank : P

So asian - but when it comes to shrimps that is a good thing :P the only thing you need now is those japanese "Vortice" spiral lights that all the PRL breeders love for some reason : )

Nishiki-Ebi's PRL tanks

Will be interesting to see how low your pH get and how Frank's PRL do in them. For my first Taiwan been tank I used 5" of 50/50 Africana / Amazonia my ph got as low as 4.5 - 4.8. And while they survived just fine, they never really thrived. I think most of my tanks that used a Africana / Amazonia mixture are now around 5.2-5.8 now (even though I like to think they are around 6.0 - 6.4).

Good to see that I am not the only one that sift my ADA but Starphire baffle? that a bit overkill :P And i thought you didn't really cared about how the Benibachi Zero plate looked :P

But big congrats Ron - I am sure you are going to enjoy this very much as you been talking about getting some PRL since your first Ebi-Ken order! Take it from me, nothing is more satisfying than a tank full of PRL. I dosed my PRL cull tank last night with some breeding liquid and it was quite the sight seeing hundreds of PRL's dancing around the tank. I wished I filmed it as it will be another 2 weeks or so before i can dose it again.

Btw, I lowered the water level on some of my tanks by 3-4 inches... pointing my straybar straight down seem to cut down the amount of evaporation. Shrimps seems to like it more but hard to tell.

Have fun and enjoy the ride!

Edited October 1, 2014 by jumpsmasher

[Ron]

Thanks jumpsmasher, your PRL tank was definitely an inspiration and motivation for my tank build.

I always thought the Benibachi plates were bigger and would look out of place but they are actually a good size for my tank. I guess most pics I've seen of them, they've been in much smaller tanks.

[Ron]

I did 3 complete water changes with just RO/DI and today I filled up with remineralized water to get cycling.

I also installed a Hydor 200 W inline heater between the second and third water changes so I could get this tank warm for the cycle. Once it got above 72°F, I added one vial of Prodibio BioDigest and a spoonful of GlasGarten Bacter AE.

Now to start monitoring the cycle.

I'll start adding in the breeding tubes and sponge filter once I decide on what kind and how many. I have a fairly large piece of driftwood covered in Java fern, not sure if I will add it though.

[Ron]

This should be my last update for a while.

I was originally gonna go simple with my lights and maybe use a Finnex fixture but then I noticed Aqua Illumination was coming out with a new fixture. So I held off for a bit but then I decided to go bigger and buy an Aqua Illumination Hydra 52. I already have 2 of them above my reef tank and I have a controller that I can use to control all three so what the heck.

I picked it up earlier this afternoon and voilà

Not sure if I'll keep the big sponge filter but I am sure the shrimp will appreciate another place to graze.

Thanks for looking,

Ron

[hackerberry]

Cool.

[SKAshrimps]

wow that hydra seems have a pretty big footprint! you can always move the sponge filter to the back. I find my PRL and CRS in general don't the breeding tube - they prefer hangout in the moss more. The shrimplets really seems to like being on top of the coral moss (mini pellia)

[Ron]

At the height I put the light, it could probably cover a bigger tank comfortably. I like the height it's at, gives me plenty of room to work above the tank. I still have plenty of power, I think half of the colours are at 35% and the other half are at 16%. Thanks for the heads up on the breeding tubes, I'll probably still leave them, I still have a bunch sitting in bins. There's still plenty of room up top for moss, I don't think Frank has any mini pellia at the moment, wanna sell any? I have some fissidens in another tank that I am gonna move to this one.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Ron

[SKAshrimps]

I have some but not much - i only really have it one tank as that is the only one with a strong enuf light to grow. I probably could culture some by collecting some loose pieces that are all over the place (need to really clean up that tank) and tie them to lava rocks or a moss ball holder. will let you know. btw i didn't see any expiry dates on the benibachi stuff

[ckmullin]

Some flame moss would look nice in that tank.

[Bruno]

in the pic where you had just installed the UGF, it appears to be floating near the top of the baffle... but the next pic shows substrate in that whole area. How deep down does the UGF end up after adding substrate? having a hrad time figuring out how you did the UGF from the pics...

[Ron]

UGF plates are right on the bottom, reflections are playing tricks on you.

[Bruno]

that makes more sense - thx