What Tank ? Aquanano For Shrimps

After reading a few bits on this forum and seeing shrimp in our local MA centre iv started fancying some of these little crustaceans, but what sort of tank would be a good one to have, bearing in mind it really needs to be small. Our MA sells a Superfish Home 8 tank which is an 8ltr cube which is supposed to be good for  shrimp/betta housing, but im unsure with it been so small. Aquael make shrimp tanks a bit larger which could be ideal sort of size but again im unsure.

Please help !!! lol 

Thank you, just having a read now

I have the Aquanano 22 litre which I am using now as a shrimp tank. It currently has 12 different sized shrimp in it and they have plenty of room.

The powerhead/filter is VERY powerful for such a small tank and for shrimp you will need to do what I have done which is to mock up a spray bar and even that I have covered with sponge. Having said that, it keeps the tank brilliantly clean. (The official spray bars have been out of stock since we got the tank at Christmas)

It came with an 8 watt LED light which is excellent for this size tank.

If you go for shrimp I would strongly advise that you go for a dark (black) substrate as they are very hard to see on a lightish background.
The lid is a two piece glass effort which, frankly, is a pain in the backside as there is a gap all round the edge, big enough, and the clips which hold them in place are pretty fiddly and break easily.
The tank measures 30cm x 30cm x 30 cm
Weigh up what you would spend on a tank and then go for the biggest you can fit into the space.

I would definitely look at the aqua one - my quarantine tank has a lid made from perspex This tank used to be my betta's tank and the perspex lid was fine for him too.

Test the filter before starting to cycle. The filter that came with my aqua one tank was too powerful for my betta as it would have been for shrimps.

I love my Aquanano. Keep an eye on eBay and Gumtree too. I got my Aquanano 40 with cabinet, pump, 2 heaters, spare Fluval filter, a plethora of ornaments (none of which I use and intend to sell), bucket, net, siphon hose, lots of food, medications and other bits and bobs for 50 quid. I only had to buy substrate, ceramic noodles and I was sorted. The light blew soon after and I decided to go for an LED replacement, but still think it was a bargain.

When people fall out of love with fish keeping they seem to fall hard and just want rid of everything. There are some absolute bargains out there. Last week I saw someone giving away a Fluval Rio 180 with all the kit for free! It was gone before I saw it and my other half would have killed me but I had to ask if I could pick it up!

I have the one and long for another, but alas there's no persuading her!

Ah but, which one? According to aqua one's website there are three aqua nanos - AN 30 at 22 litres, AN 40 at 55 litres and AN 60 at 100 litres. I know we have members who own the AN 40 so they'll be able to hand on everything they've learned about the tank 

Ooops, missed your signature 

Perspex does work quite well.

I'd ditch the carbon and use the space to fit in more ceramic media

Morning Ady and congrats on the tank. Exactly the one I have for the shrimp.
1st - the lid.  They cost around £15. I know because grandson #2 sat on his and had to replace it. 

If you do replace it with glass, remember to get extra clips as they break pretty easily. (Even though the glass was broken when you bought it they should still have supplied you with the clips that held it in place ?)

I removed the carbon from mine and replaced it with an extra ceramic cartridge.

In front of these cartridges you will find a row of slots for the water intake. 
I'm sure they are big enough for shrimp , especially baby shrimp, to get sucked into so I have pushed a piece of sponge between the wall of that and the  first cartridge. It's a tight squeeze but doesn't affect the flow.  There is also a slot really low down, which when you fill the tank you will see water pouring out of it.  I tried to seal that off to stop babies getting in but it was too small for my fat arthritic fingers. !

I also have a piece of sponge, the same diameter as the cartridge fitted between the two ceramic ones. Again a tight fit but it goes in.

In the compartment next to the Filter/heater compartment there is a largish lump of black foam.  It doesn't completely fit the space so, on the advice of Aquaone I have filled that with ceramic rings and extra sponge and some fine filter floss. It gives you extra seeded supply for if you need to set up a quick quarantine tank.

I have a strip of black sponge along the edge where the cartridges/sponges, filter etc go. I did that to stop my original tiny Endlers being able to jump the gap. I've left that too to try and stop the shrimp climbing into the filter dept

Now, all of these extras were put in place originally because I kept fish in the tank. 
You may not need to go to those extremes for shrimp as their bioload is much smaller than fish.
I kept it all in as it was already there.

My water is crystal clear. In  fact, so clear that it puts my larger second hand one with its Fluval 4  to shame. There are always bits floating in that tank, despite  having added extra foam and filter floss to it.

I also made a mesh lid cover to keep the shrimp and snail in as there is quite a gap around the sides due to the way the glass fits to the tank.

I made (well my husband did) a perspex cover from greenhouse perspex as we thought that would work. Despite fitting all the edges with L" shape strips to strengthen it and help keep it in place (it just slipped over the top of the tank) , it still bowed to some extend, probably due to the heat from the lights and heater.

I was going to just get a piece of glass slightly oversize to fit on the top.

Hope that all helps.  The water level does have to be quite high due to the position of the slots.

The filter is VERY powerful for this size tank. I have another piece of the black sponge attached to a home made spray bar.
You will have some trouble getting the correct spray bar fitment and if you do manage to locate one I would really appreciate the tip as to where you got it please. Mine is Not pretty but is effective.