New Bee Show Tank

Here is my new 10 gallon rimless display tank.  This tank was set up a while back, but because of the soil leeching ammonia, the tank has taken nearly 2 months to fully cycle.  I sunk the driftwood in about 2 weeks prior to adding  it to the tank.  The wood is manzanita.  Manzanita is a preferred wood of choice for hobbyist because it does not leech tannis and brown the water like Africana and Malaysian driftwood.  Manzanita also has very branchy characteristic, making it very appealing in nature scaped aquariums.

The tank is filtered with an Eheim 2213 canister filter and to help with water circulation, I added a Rio water pump attached on top of my undergravel filter.  This should help the water reach every inch of the tank.  Good water circulation is important because it will keep algae from growing on plant and gravel.  The intake for the Eheim 2213 is covered with a stainless steel strainer because it will help prevent sucking in baby shrimplets.  The tank is using ADA ASI as a substrate because it will help buffer the water parameters to ideal water conditions for shrimp keeping.  ADA ASI substrate is nutrient rich which is a benefit for people who wants to keep high tech plants.  I'm currently injecting Co2 into this tank to speed up plant growth and control algae.  The manzanita driftwood has weeping moss attached on the wood with thread, mini bolbitis, and regular bobitis growing in the back.  I'm hoping to carpet the tank and add some more midground platns in the near future.  Currently, the inhabitants includes 3 SS crystal red shrimps.

My goal is to someday keep Taiwan bees and be able to breed them.  The tank is currently using full RO water remineralized with Mosura Mineral Plus to achieve the desire parameters.  San Jose tap water contains lots of impurities that can kill shrimps so it's safest to use pure RO water and remineralize it yourself.  I try to keep a thicker substrate base because it's important to have a good bioloical filtration for shrimp tanks as they are sensitive to nitrate and ammonia poisoning.  Both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria are important, hence the canister and undergravel filter.

When deciding to keep shrimps, especially bee shrimps, it's normally safer to use driftwood as a scaping material rather than rocks.  Most rocks will dissolve over time which can increase and change the water parameters in a tank.  This can lead to a lot of problems because parameter swings kills shrimps.

Well that's it for today.  I'll update again as the tank develops and matures.

Equipment:
- 10 Gallon Rimless Tank
- Eheim 2213 Canister Filter
- Rio 90 water pump
- Eheim 'jager' heater
- PetCo undergravel filter
- Stainless Steel Filter guard
- Mini Co2 diffuser