# 1G shrimp only tank in my office



## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

I have been looking for a small tank for a while. I don't like the plastic ones.
Finally I saw this one at my LFS:

See attached picture.

Actually it is less than 1 gallon, around 3 liters, but I'm fine with its size.
It is built by regular glass with slightly green tint.

The plan is to put four to five RCS juveniles in it.
No filter(It's difficult to find small power filter), no air stone, on 3W LED light (may dim it later).
Will do weekly 50% water change.

Comments welcome!

Regards
James


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## IndianaSam (Mar 25, 2005)

I think that the thing that would scare me the most about the small volume is temperature fluctuation. Is the heat and/or cooling turned down overnight in your office?


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

IndianaSam said:


> I think that the thing that would scare me the most about the small volume is temperature fluctuation. Is the heat and/or cooling turned down overnight in your office?


Good point, but I believe the temperature in my office is pretty much around 75(F) degree all year long.
So shrimp should be doing fine even up down few degrees.

James


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## paleopaque (Jun 23, 2009)

nice little tank. i have a few but not quite as nice as that. how much was that thing? fyi, tetra/whisper makes a small 3l in-tank filter (driver by air pump) that works great.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

paleopaque said:


> nice little tank. i have a few but not quite as nice as that. how much was that thing? fyi, tetra/whisper makes a small 3l in-tank filter (driver by air pump) that works great.


$9.99.

I try to avoid put anything in the tank, due to its small size.

James


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## paleopaque (Jun 23, 2009)

wow, that's a great price. i paid more than $20/ea for my ugly plastic ones.... ugh!


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Here is the funny part:

3W RGB LED:
Three color dies built in one package:
1W Red + 1W Green + 1W Blue = 3W total










On heatsink, just for testing. I will put it on a bigger one later.


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## queijoman (Jun 23, 2008)

Your tank is totally awesome, I was looking for something like it when I started my 1.5 g work tank. I ended up using plastic. I have ~ 7 shrimp in mine, 1 crs, 3 amanos, and 3 ghost, so I think that you are fine by size. Are you going to use soil based since no filter? The downside of open top is that you will get a lot of evaporation. I tried w/o a lid and got tired of topping it off every day because the water level would drop off noticeably.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

queijoman said:


> Your tank is totally awesome, I was looking for something like it when I started my 1.5 g work tank. I ended up using plastic. I have ~ 7 shrimp in mine, 1 crs, 3 amanos, and 3 ghost, so I think that you are fine by size. Are you going to use soil based since no filter? The downside of open top is that you will get a lot of evaporation. I tried w/o a lid and got tired of topping it off every day because the water level would drop off noticeably.


This small tank does come with a glass lid cover. I will take picture for that later.

The LFS carries varies size up to 10G in this style (1G, 1 3/4G, 3G, 7G, 10G, etc.). I think 3G may another good size to pick

James


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Put java moss on stainless steel mesh, which is 6" x 3/4"










Add one inch sand at bottom.
When I use this type sand in my 10G tank, it alter water PH, for the first few weeks, PH kept around 7.6, which is fine for RCS. but now is stable at PH 7.2.
So for this one, I soaked sand in vinegar for few days, then rinsed it throughly. I will check PH after I change water several times.

I didn't put slope on sand, because eventually the shrimp will level it out.

Here is how it looks like now:










Plan to put two small rocks in the middle, and phoenix moss (still looking for it) at front.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Checked PH, it's 7.6.
Too high, will do water change daily.


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## gonathan85 (Sep 12, 2009)

James He said:


> Checked PH, it's 7.6.
> Too high, will do water change daily.


Looks neat! Probably the easiest water change ever? =)


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Update:

Put two small rocks and one baby Nymphaea micrantha from leaf of mother plant hold by tiny rocks.
I will check the water parameter and if everything is ok, I will start to add RCS.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Love the Nymphea Micrantha!


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Babies are in


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## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

Hi James,
I'm very interested in your Office tank.
I am not a fan of small tanks due to the extra work keeping them stable.
I am watching this thread to see how you do. I may add a small tank if yours goes well enough. Keep us posted!


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Figured out how to dose CO2 to this small tank.

I bought a big bottle of carbonated water. and dose 10mL every morning.

Works great.

When I dose the CO2, few minutes later, all the plants start to show bubbles.


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## jon021 (Feb 23, 2010)

try using flourish excel for liquid co2, in the long run it'll be cheaper for you since its highly concentrated. The dosage is 1 ml for 10 gallons.


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## joshvito (Apr 6, 2009)

this is great information; I just bought a 1.25 gallon glass cube to put on my desk at work. gonna use a desk lamp. if needed, but want to basically have a rock with soil capped with black sand.

Let us know how the plants grow in!


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## feiyang (Jan 27, 2007)

James He said:


> Babies are in


nice pic!


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## joshd (Oct 16, 2009)

Update??


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