Matt's 12 Litre No-tech Cold Water Shrimp Tank

I once had crystal red shrimps and apart from the colour, your photo looks very similar 

The CRS didn't do at all well in my tank, unlike the cherry shrimps which are doing very well.

Tank now with a frosted background and in pride of place in the hall 

I'm experimenting with dwarf hairgrass and hellanthium tennelum in there... no idea what the outcome will be. They have good light and I suspect decent co2 due to small size of tank so high surface area and high aeration. Unheated though so will be interesting to see what happens...

I chucked this floating plant in and i soon had shrimp "hanging out" on it
 

I need to grow up...

Fresh from the pond (after a thorough rinse!)

It will grow far too big for this tank but it was just an experiment...

This tank is still going strong... so I decided a couple of months back that I would enter it onto the Maidenhead Aquatics Gallery Competition. I had quite forgotten about this until just now when I visited the site to check their news feed and blog pages... it seems I have made it into the top three!! So...

Any support you would be able to offer me by voting for my tank would be much appreciated Winning the competition would mean a huge amount to me as an amateur aquascaper...

https://fishkeeper.co.uk/gallery/

Thanks in advance to anyone who votes for me. 

Thanks @Rustle 

Nice one, thanks @Sue

I've either voted for you about a dozen times or not ar all. I'm not sure if it worked as I got no feedback from pressing the button!

Done. 

Quick update on this tank...

The tank is still shrimp and snail only... I can't find the fish anywhere! Ive also recently turned the air powered sponge filter back off as it just isn't needed without fish now I know the plants are growing ok.

I added vallis to the background and am experimenting with carpeting plants.

Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae seems to be doing ok
Hellanthium tenellum didn't survive a week...
Micranthemum Monte-Carlo to be honest I removed it shortly after putting it in... I have quite gone off the look of the stuff...
Eleocharis parvula seems to be doing ok.

In fact the reason I'm posting this update is because the tank will shortly look quite different... not sure how far I will go with a rescape quite yet to be honest but everything is definately coming out of the tank because I'm switching it to a planting substrate to help with the carpeting plants. Whatever happens with them it will be slow progress in the low temperatures so I figure I'm best giving them the best possible chance of success... hopefully by the time summer comes and things warm up in there I will get some decent growth! the overall look might stay the same... not sure quite yet... I like the wood the way it is but the stone less so. I have an idea of stacking some of the Dragon stone into the corner with the wood emanating from that point but I want the tank to be viewable from three sides and so this more island like layout seems better... maybe just less stone... I will just have to see what happens on the day!!

Anyways he tank will also be so much easier to look after... at the moment I'm having to use an airline tube every other week as a siphon to remove the snail droppings from the top of the sand... this also achieves a water change but on the other week when I do just change water it is sooo quick and easy to do a 50% water change when that only means changing 5 to 6 litres of water!!