Poor mans nano-cubes

[siren]

So I've been reading alot about breeding shrimp lately, and decided that I wanted to try it. So what the hell, lets make it my next project. After ordering "How To Raise & Train Your Peppermint Shrimp " by April Kirkendoll, I decided that undertaking this task was very possible and looked like a lot of fun. So I started planning.

My original plan was to go with the bare minimum to keep something like this happy and set up a single 10gal tank with a HOB filter and a small 12" PC fixture. Instead, I came up with the idea to do two tanks to double my chances of raising these shrimp. I decided to set up what I call the "poor mans nano-cube" (I also have a regular 12-gal JBJ nano-cube DX http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...0&pagenumber=1). To start, I made my run to Sams and got a rack to put all this mess on. I ended up with this:

It holds ~600 lbs. per shelf and comes with 6 movable shelves. Now that I had my rack I went ahead and got my tanks. I got 2 10gal tanks, 2 Quiet1 800 pumps, 2 JBJ surface skimmers made for 12 and 24gal JBJ nano-cubes, and 2 lock-line nozzles. I then went to Home Depot and got a 2'*4' piece of Plexiglas.

Here are the build pictures:

The pumps I got for this project worked really well. They are small and fit quite well in the tank. They also make very little noise.



We cut pieces of Plexiglas to fit across the tank to separate the filtration and the tank, and cut off the corners to accommodate the silicon on the bottom of the tank.



We then cut partitions to fit behind the plexiglass and make seprate chambers.



We used the same sort of design that JBJ used and made two partitions, one that was about 3/4" off the bottom of the tank so that water could get under it and into the next chamber. The second partition would be set to the bottom of the tank but have a slit near the top so that it could overflow into the pump chamber:

[siren]

The teeth didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped. The table saw that we used ended up chipping it up pretty bad, but they work well so I can't complain.





After we made the teeth, we drilled a hole for the return. We used lock-line as a nozzle, and connected the pump via a pvc nipple and an inside threaded connector.



After we were finished with all that, we painted the Plexiglas barrier black and used a liquid cement to glue on the partitions.







Now was the time to silicon it into place. We put a thin bead of silicon on the backs of the partitions and put into place. I've done silicon work on a sump before, but I never realized how sticky this stuff really is. The second we put it in the tank and pushed it onto the glass, it had a secure hold and wouldn't come off. Lucky for us, we got it right where we wanted it.

[siren]

We then put some on the outside of the plexiglass barrier and smoothed it down for a clean joint.







With the tanks almost fully constructed, all that was left was to let them dry and set them up.



The next day when the silicon had dried, I went to work setting up the return. Unfortunately I had some issues screwing everything in and it stripped away some of the black paint. Once I had it all in place, I put in about 1"-1 1/2" of sand in each tank and filled them with water:







I also added a set of old VHO's that we had sittin around:



Then added a mixture of live rock and base Utah rock, added some snails, and now I'm just waiting for them to finish cycling.





When I get the shrimp in there and start collecting larvae, I will grow them out in a 15gal tall tank that I have, and individuals that actually make it (if any) will be moved to an 8gal tub (3'* 1 1/2' * 6") for holding until they are big enough to give to stores and other hobbyists. Thats it for now. I expect the cycle to be over in a few more days time and will begin adding inhabitants and I'll post more pics then.

[herostar]

This is a very interesting project. Not many people are breeding shrimp. I'll be excited to see where this goes. I really like the work you did on the 10g tanks.

[seapug]

very cool. you oughta sell those!

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Nifty Lil' McGyver you are Siren, thumb's up keep up the good work

[Jimbo327]

It is very tough to raise shrimp fry. Most breeder get very minimal survivial to adult. I hope you figure it out.

[InLimbo87]

Very clean little setups. Well done

[brian430]

pretty freakin clever.

[brian430]

Oh, siren, if you would've put tape on the plex glass, and then put it on the table saw, no chips. maybe next time

[siren]

Originally posted by brian430
Oh, siren, if you would've put tape on the plex glass, and then put it on the table saw, no chips. maybe next time

haha, the one thing I didn't think of. In the pic that we were cutting the teeth, you can see we had two pieces of Plexiglas, one that we had practiced on and then the one that went in the tank. We did that in hopes that it would chip the one we practiced on and not the good piece. Didn't work though.

I've changed my mind about a few things. I've decided that I'm going to put a mantis in one of the tanks and put the peppermint shrimp in the other. I think I'm also going to put a few other inverts in with the peppermints as well.

[ctreefer]

very nice setups. Its amazing how a little money can go a long way. Nice job!

[dendro982]

Wouldn't it be a problem with floating larvae, going through the surface skimmer to the back chambers? Will they require something like planktonkreisel or a sponge filter to keep them suspended in the water column?

I thought too some time ago about raising sexy of fire shrimps, but kreisel, breeding tank and culturing live food - takes too much space and too much time.

Keep us posted about the progress with a shrimp

Love the workshop and equipment!

[AMIFL]

Looks good. Well done.

[siren]

Originally posted by dendro982
Wouldn't it be a problem with floating larvae, going through the surface skimmer to the back chambers? Will they require something like planktonkreisel or a sponge filter to keep them suspended in the water column?

I thought too some time ago about raising sexy of fire shrimps, but kreisel, breeding tank and culturing live food - takes too much space and too much time.

Keep us posted about the progress with a shrimp

Love the workshop and equipment!

well, these tanks are the breeding tanks, the larvae will be in a separate tank with nothing but an air stone in with them. When the hatching takes place, I'll shut off the pumps and put a piece of floss bio filter on the teeth so none of them get back there and siphon them out into the separate tank.

I read the book on raising them and it seems like it'll be easy enough with plenty of attention and just keeping up on it.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Very nice work. I'm going to have to come see that in person soon.

[siren]

Originally posted by Travis L. Stevens
Very nice work. I'm going to have to come see that in person soon.

reef tour on Saturday ;p

[Travis L. Stevens]

Originally posted by siren
reef tour on Saturday ;p

I'm not going to be able to make it

[siren]

Livestock!

I added a few 3 stripe damsels to get things going in the one on the right. I've also added a few mushrooms just as a test, they seem to be taking it well. The mantis was added to the tank on the left a few days ago:







Named it Xavier just cause... He's very active running around the tank and hitting EVERYTHING (other than the glass that is). Very fun little stomatapod.

The peppermint shrimp for the tank on the right showed up via fed-ex this morning. I also ordered two shrimp for my 12gal Nano that are AMAZING! Thanks to sealifeflorida.com that is.




Here are the pics of the shrimp for my 12:




And just cause I was takin pics... This is my hi-fin goby in my 12gal tank. If you look you can see his chin pokin out. Thats what happens when you try to fit 3 pieces of mysis, a bunch of flying fish eggs, and a JIANT bloodworm in your mouth all at once!

[Savas]

Wow, very well done. It is great to see you putting your knowledge to work in a project.

[TriGa22]

Looks great! How much to set 1 up?

[siren]

with the cost of the tank, the pump, and the plexiglas, it was about $90-$95

[dreboogie]

That's a really cool setup