And so it begins!

Dennerle 60L

It's May 2014 and I've just bought a Dennerle Nano 60L. If you have read the "Why" you will know how I got to Stage 1. I have all the kit. An Eheim internal power filter, Dennerle substrate, lots of plants, bits of wood and so on.

All set up in my study and left to run. My water test kit is one of those strip things which looks as if it will do everything I need. We have plenty of rainwater so I use that rather than tap H2O. Smart thinking I reckon.

After a couple of weeks i am running out of patience and pop down to my local emporium and buy 12 Cherry shrimp, they're easy I'm told. As I used to keep tropicals and koi I follow the same procedure I always have and floated the poly bag in the tank and casually added a bit of aquarium water every few minutes. After half an hour of messing around I decided it was time to tip them in to the Dennerle. Over the next week those that weren't sucked in to the filter die.

A major lesson learned I researched on the web and dismantled the tank. This time I used Oliver Knott substrate as that was all I could get locally and put everything back together again. It was about this time that I spoke to Dane Frampton and learned more in 10 minutes than I had in several days research.

Following the old mantra, if a job is worth doing well etc., I ordered Ebi Gold substrate, Bee Shrimp GH+, Mont Morillonit powder, Bacteria Bee 3 and a proper test kit. Also on the list was a TDS meter, I'd now learned a little bit about the relevance of total dissolved solids. This was all also on the basis that I wanted to head towards a pH of 6-6-6 for CRS, Taiwans etc.

The rainwater I had been using was run off from a stable and as that was due to be re-roofed after storm damage I also bought a reverse osmosis unit rather than risk contaminated water. This was all working on the basis that if I controlled everything which is controllable i would stand a much better chance of success.

I felt pretty confident that i was now heading in the right direction. The MM powder was sprinkled on the bottom of the aquarium followed by a cm of substrate, then a sprinkling of B3 and finally a good depth of substrate.

Oh dear, the old patience was running low and a couple of weeks later I could not resist the temptation of introducing some livestock. This time a dozen Sakura were bought. This time they were carefully transferred in to a glass container and tank water was left dripping in for 2 or 3 hours until their macro environment was 7 or 8 times the original water volume. And in they went.

The following morning, with some trepidation, I had a peep and they were still alive! A couple of weeks after that I was again chatting to Dane and he offered to send me some reject PRL to double check that everything was ok. The danger being that there could be something in the tank, perhaps from plants, which might cause a problem.

The PRLs were fine although they are now in my new tanks as the photograph! But I'm getting too far ahead.

Flushed with success, I was really getting in to this shrimp thing and ordered four TMC Signature tanks. The Dennerle was and is fine but cubes are really too tall for shrimp and do not give a great surface area to volume ratio. The TMCs are 45cmX45cmX30cm tall and are therefore much better suited and still notionally 60L.

The interesting thing is that whilst the TMCs are OptiWhite glass there is not a huge difference in clarity.

It was about this time that I ordered some stuff from Keen Shrimp and got chatting to Alan McCormack. Ramshorn snails followed and an incredible collection of mosses. What Alan doesn't know about shrimpiness and mosses probably isn't worth knowing.

The 2 pairs of TMCs installed and running nicely. We're now getting pretty up to date with proceedings. The original Frampton reject PRLs are in the new tanks and this Thursday I have a delivery of Taiwans and F1s from Alan.

Oh yes, one final thing, I've ordered 3 Dennerle Scapers! Did someone say that this is an obsession? Dane, Alan it's your damn fault!

I nearly forgot to mention, the PRLs and PBLs should be with me late July!