# Breed CRS with lights only



## johnzhou2476 (Nov 28, 2006)

Here's an idea that I'm dabbling with for a CRS tank – a balanced semi ecosystem with low maintenance and high water quality. As you know high grade CRS are super sensitive to water quality. This is what I've been thinking to do. Set up a 10 gallon CRS tank with a lot of rocks and structure to provide large surface area for algae. Provide 5wpg of lighting to grow algae and to support a large CRS colony. Shrimp and snail will feed on algae. Shrimp poop will provide fertilizer for algae and plants. Crush snail every now and then to supplement shrimps’ diet. Adjust photoperiod so that rate of growth versus consumption are balanced. Water quality should be ideal under these condition thus reducing the need of water change. If the need arise, performed water change with balanced GH, NPK, and trace. What'cha guys think?


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## johnzhou2476 (Nov 28, 2006)

If you really think hard about it, there's really no need to perform water change at all if you balance your photoperiod perfectly. This an enclosed system, nothing gets taken away, including trace elements and minerals, it just get recycled. Lights provide energy for algae growth and in turn becomes food for the shrimp, waste produced by the shrimp are further recycled by the plants and bacteria. If you adjust your photoperiod just right, you should not see an accumulation of nitrates. So essentially, you are using light energy to grow and farm CRS shrimp.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

In my opinion, shrimp doesn't like strong light, so 5wpg is way too much.
I only use 9W for my 10G, and products enough algae for shrimp to eat.

second, rocks sometimes will alter water PH. so be very careful there if you want to keep CRS.

I stop dosing fertilizer for my shrimp tank too.

James


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

algae will be present even w/o high light such as 5wpg. A densely planted tank rather than a algae filled tank would be better for CRS. Algae cannot soak up nutrients as well as plants, leaving a ton of extra nutrients in the water. A better alternative for this would be low light tank packed with weeds such as water sprite. The "weeds" will grow despite the minimal lighting. Plants are the best filters. with good flow and lots of fast growing plants, your shrimp will be healthy and breeding for months w/o water changes. I know of many people who breed shrimp this way. Just feed every now and then to supplement the shrimp's diet. like james mentioned, there will still be algae in the tank for the shrimp to eat even with less lighting.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

I do this in one of my tanks. I have to top off water though.
Lights are on 24/7, 14 watt compact fluro over 10 gallon planted tank.

Mainly moss, a few stems in there. It does well.

This is no way to have a production tank, but it will keep a colony alive. I can regularly see a few babies in there.
I throw a few pellets in there every other day or so.


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## jon021 (Feb 23, 2010)

crystal reds only eat certain types of algae, i find at high levels of lighting as you're proposing - you get alot of staghorn or hair algae. Crystal reds don't really touch those two types of algae. If you want something low maintainance - check out diane walstad's natural planted tank method


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## Weq (Sep 1, 2009)

I run a plant filtered 7gal tank. No water changes, just top-ups unless i have some food related quality issues. In it i have a school of Ember tetra (14) and glass shrimp.

My best advice is to setup the tank and let plants stablish themselves and the cycle to finish. Then add your shrimpy friends.. My first batch of shrimp died because i added them too early and the ecosystem has not established itself properly. But once the plants (i used swords for filtring ability, HC, hairgrass, chainswords) started to grow out, things were good and my 2nd batch of shrimp have tank well and are really enjoying things.

My biggest issue is fertilising and feeding. Because i use high-tech plants, i fert the watercolomn and i use a spoon to move and distribute it throughout the tank (no pumps!) but it takes some time to find a good medium and i do have slight algea issues. Then there is feeding - shrimps are good at doing the whole cleanup crew thing, but my tetra are quite hard to feed and i worry alot about water quality from leftovers. They miss alot of food as it falls to the bottom, and this ends up going fowl in the hairgrass..! I hav to manually siphon lftovers out otherwise u get water quality issues - and unliked a filtered tank - these take a long time to recover from!

That said, after 6 months of plants growing, dieing for various reasons, the tank proivdes alot of nutrients to th shrimp and i dont actually feed them at all. They just live off the tank and any leftover food.

If u were to use tank water from an already establiushed tank things would start up quicker, i really took the long route as everything was new!

Day1









+2weeks later, when i added shrimp/fish









+1 Month later - added more shrimp. having issues with a leaking tank. water level got too low and after 4 weeks the shrimp had died. Tetra all good.










+1 month - building ttra school up. u cant see them, they are so small and love to hide!


















+1month - Added more tetra and plants. i decided to do my waterchange, but i changed out too much water and things took a massive dive after this. Lots my cycle, lots a tetra, all my hc, glosso and plant growth was stunted for a month after this...


















Havnt got a today photo, but a few weeks back things stablised again and i added more shrimp and more tetra. everything is back on the right track and all i do is dose in mornings, feed at night and top-up water with a soda bottle i fill up with RO water from the kitchen at work..

I got the idea for this from a trip to Japan, where i saw plenty of regular shops that had 2-5gal tanks as decorations, with shrimp, no filters, just plants and small lights..

Hope this helps with ur quest!


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## DBL TAP (Apr 21, 2008)

I ran into problems when I started squishing snails. As if the meal was too rich for the shrimp. And like a couple others, I just top off my tanks.

Good luck


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

In my experience, lighting only doesn't work well.

I notice my shrimp population decrease after I only provide crab bites every other day in very small amount. my lighting is not strong though. still can see the some algae but not too much.

After I increase the feed, it comes back.

James


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

You still need to feed them, lol. Lights only, no filter. 
Plants become filter for the water.


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## Elohim_Meth (Nov 4, 2007)

Here's my light-only shrimp tank 120 L:








There are B and C grade CRS and cherrys. No filtration, no CO2, nearly no water changes (maybe once a three months or so). Ferts - micro and macro once a week. 130 W of light. Both shrimp species are active and breeding very well. Feeding everyday, Sera Shrimps Natural and Dennerle Crusta Gran Baby, also apple-tree leafs.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Elohim_Meth said:


> Here's my light-only shrimp tank 120 L:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You fed your shrimp, why will you say it is light only?

James


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

he means no filter, only lights


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Gordonrichards said:


> he means no filter, only lights


Gotya!

James


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