# Planted Tanks > Beginners' Corner >  New IQ3 pico tank setup

## Goldfisher

Hi guys,

I am setting up this pico tank. Currently, day 2 of my cycling process. Is 30 days the normal convention of cycling process?

Next I have this problem of planting the plants in my soil. They keep floating up. U guys got any solns?

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## hellomyfriend

Hello. Cycle the longer the better usually 1 - 2 months depending on your level of patience  :Wink:

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## Goldfisher

LoL. Seriously I am the kind of person who wanted to see results fast. I choose to cycle the most for 1 month. I can't wait to put shrimps in it. LoL. I heard crystal shrimps are quite hardy right?

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## lizhien

they are not the easiest of shrimps to keep. Hardy shrimps are cherry and snowball.

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## felix_fx2

What is the clump of plants?
You need to split if their growing from runners. Then have to plant them in abit so the root have something holding on (or rather to me the substrate holding down the roots)
Then slowly take out the pincer.

P.s: I was taught by a steady bro to lightly shake the pincer before taking it out, so there is some substrate fall on the roots. Just my .50cents. Opinions may vary with individuals.

About the crystal red, think you may have been mistake. Crs are sensitive to conditions. (1 of my 1st 5 died in the 1st hour in a 2 month old tank). Are you meaning cherry red shrimps?

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## Goldfisher

I read about Crystal Red Shrimps aka CRS from here http://www.fishyou.com/shrimp-crs.php. Pretty informative.
Alas, they are high sensitive to water condition. I guess I will not start with this first as I am a total newbie to shrimps. I saw cherry and snowball at 328 today. The color is not as nice as the CRS.

Felix: The clump of plants is what I found at Seaview. I cannot see properly because the staff handwriting is too "cursive". I think it starts with G... You can identify it?
I was thinking to get a very long pincer that is able to dip into substrate without splashing the water out. Have not really find the pincer yet. One of my colleague told me about shrimp is as hardy as goldfish but I think he do not know there are different species to it.

So what is the general hardy nice looking shrimp you would recommend to me to start?

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## RonWill

> The clump of plants is what I found at Seaview. I cannot see properly because the staff handwriting is too "cursive". I think it starts with G...


 _Glossostigma elatinoides_??

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## Goldfisher

Yesh. You are correct. You identified easily even the photo is not very clear  :Smile:

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## ZackZhou

Haha, read more before you start putting shrimps. Root plants can't be grown in that way.. Everything is hardy if your tank is stable. Head down to Gc when you are free, they do have a tank smaller than iq3 and with crs berried in it  :Smile:

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## felix_fx2

Keep cherries 1st.
I'm keeping glosso in my iq3 also, I just feel the temp Is quite high if it's not cooled.
Also I'm not using the packaged led lights, using some gex light I bought off another fourmer.

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## Goldfisher

Where and what is GC? Their focus on shrimps ?

Thanks for the guidance Felix  :Smile:

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## Ukiya

Nice setup! The LED lights provided won't last long soon you'll have to change a new one!

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## felix_fx2

> Where and what is GC? Their focus on shrimps ?
> 
> Thanks for the guidance Felix


Gc is the lfs by the name of green chapter. It is a nice place.

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## rcw

nice cute tank. You need some tall driftwoods.
Try using java mosses, they are the easiest among all.
Shrimps love mosses

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## Goldfisher

I hope my LED last longer. Is the dynmax LED so lousy? Haha. Pls don't fail me. 

You got the address of GC? Is the price lower than 328? I went 328 these few days find it quite competitive. There are 2 shops at 328 and is selling 1.5 for cherry and 5 for CRS. 

I intend to get the moss ball for the shrimps to hang on it. I think it will be quite hard to put a driftwood in the small tank. I intended to put some nice snails, tetras in it. U all got any ideas what snails to get?

See my new tank. I got a long pincer to plant in the roots. Damn hard to keep the glosso not to float up!!

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## RonWill

> You got the address of GC? Is the price lower than 328? I went 328 these few days find it quite competitive


 When (and I don't know when) you get to see what can be done to a humble IQ3, IQ5 or a feature-packed Lumiq tank, you *might* understand why prices at GC are a little dearer than the other more popular LFS.

I reckon they're not out for price wars but striving to provide a more personal level of service to a (unfortunately) too-niche market but personally, I think they might be on a positive formula that only time will tell.

If price is the only determining factor (you might want to read this), then probably other LFS will serve your needs better.

BTW, trimming off that yellowing blade of pennywort (_Hydrocotyle_) will make a better picture and your glossos are still planted too tightly.

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## Goldfisher

For the glossy, how should I really plant the glossos?

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## stormhawk

There is no instant gratification in this hobby. You can either learn it the hard way, or the easy way. Patience is key with fish keeping, as well as proper researching on the subject aka focus animal you wish to keep in the tank, along with whatever plants you wish to grow. Do understand that not everything will turn out the way you want. Not everything the LFS tells you is the truth. It is difficult to find a responsible shopkeeper who is not out to fleece you by using your newbieness against you. Therefore, it is best to study the fishes via posting questions on basic husbandry and also using the Internet to get the answers you require. As always, some answers are just 1 Google search away.

To plant some tiny rooting plants, a method I read about in the past was to weave them slowly into pieces of gunny sacks, which are then placed on the gravel bed with some gravel sprinkled over it to weigh it down. This allows the plants to root over time, since the piece of sack will rot slowly and thus disappear without any issues to the animals or plants.

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## felix_fx2

> For the glossy, how should I really plant the glossos?


Normally will try to plant them evenly across the desired place.
I do recommend to leave it as it is, it will grow runners. If you see it growing up more then 1.5cm (only a gauge) it should be light issue.

Quite good for 1st try frankly. Rome was not built in a day, right  :Smile:

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## Goldfisher

Thanks felix for the encouragement. And appreciate tomkhawk for the valuable pointer  :Smile: 

I just got a moss ball, 1 horned nerite and 2 cherry shrimps. 

It is fun watching them swim around!! Intending to get 6 more tetras. Hehe.

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## pyl

> I hope my LED last longer. Is the dynmax LED so lousy? Haha. Pls don't fail me. 
> 
> You got the address of GC? Is the price lower than 328? I went 328 these few days find it quite competitive. There are 2 shops at 328 and is selling 1.5 for cherry and 5 for CRS. 
> 
> I intend to get the moss ball for the shrimps to hang on it. I think it will be quite hard to put a driftwood in the small tank. I intended to put some nice snails, tetras in it. U all got any ideas what snails to get?
> 
> See my new tank. I got a long pincer to plant in the roots. Damn hard to keep the glosso not to float up!!



i using iq 3 to keep shrimps too. the led light very lousy 1. had mine for like 5 months, dying liao.

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## Goldfisher

Seems a lot of bros say the Dymax led is lousy. Maybe is time for me to sauce for one...

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## ZackZhou

Pricewise, Gc is less competitive, meaning their price is more steep. BUT they are quite a few exclusive items for sale. Regarding the dw used in smaller tanks, they do have a tree like dw that is very nice and perfect for nano tanks.  :Smile: 

Dymax led is lousy, easy to spoil and not bright enough, can try the new UP led. It's bright.  :Smile: 

Gc is located at Blk 354, clementi ave 2.

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## RonWill

Zack, I'm using both the IQ-3 and IQ-5. The rear IOS is nice in that it hides the media and powerhead from view. I agree that the LED lighting is lacking unless a custom bracket is used to remount and lower the light, so it gets brighter inside the tank.

Is the UP LED light available in 'daylight'? Not sure if I've seen it before... any links?

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## ZackZhou

> Zack, I'm using both the IQ-3 and IQ-5. The rear IOS is nice in that it hides the media and powerhead from view. I agree that the LED lighting is lacking unless a custom bracket is used to remount and lower the light, so it gets brighter inside the tank.
> 
> Is the UP LED light available in 'daylight'? Not sure if I've seen it before... any links?


Ronnie, c328 sure have them. It's available in 30cm, 45cm and 60cm types.. I saw it at pet boutique. 

Daylight wise from what I saw, the light temp most probably 10000k or 12000k.

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## stormhawk

I saw a new range of LED lightings from Tetra during Aquarama but they said it was not for sale. It is likely they will be out on sale soon. JBJ lighting sets for LED were pretty nice too, like the Nano-Glo. If durability is a concern then it is best to source for better quality sets. I think Arcadia has a new range of LED lights too.

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## Goldfisher

My cherry red shrimp just delivered a baby shrimp. 

I was wondering is the picture show their lava?

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## stormhawk

I can only see the snail and some food fungusing. If you're referring to that white speck on the glass just above the snail then yes it is probably a baby RCS.

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## Goldfisher

Capture.JPG

Is this the baby shrimp hatching?

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## stormhawk

I don't think so. In the area you circled shows a pellet or something with fungus. The shrimplets are usually white at birth and look like miniatures of their parents.

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## Goldfisher

OMG. Then I better remove the leftover pellet. I thought that was the shrimplets.!!

Does the fungus cause any very ill consequences if left for more than a day? Logically I know it degrade the water quality but apart from this, does it cause really great great harm?

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## stormhawk

Not really unless a shrimplet gets trapped in the strands. I'd remove it ASAP if I was you.

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## Goldfisher

Hi guys. I am happy that I managed to see 2 offsprings jumping around. Yeah!!

But one bizarre thing happened. I saw a ghost shrimp that is almost the size of my CRS died in my tank. I did not get any ghost shrimp inside my tank. What had happened?

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## stormhawk

Means in that bag of shrimp you bought, there was a contaminant, in this case the ghost shrimp. Seems to be holding eggs too.  :Laughing: 

Many times I see bags of shrimp sold at LFS with labels on them as RCS etc, but often, there will always be one or two missing. Example, bag says 10 pc, but only 8 pc inside. Sometimes you buy this shrimp, there's 1 or 2 random shrimp of other types. This often occurs with the cheaper shrimps.

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## Goldfisher

See my rcs feasting on the dead ghost shrimp.

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## Starlett

If you gonna have babies, don't add the tetras. 

I'm using IQ5 for crs, hence I'm using led as it's not do hot. But my plants are very low tech, I don't need a flourescent light tube. 
But I think for yr plants, dymax led may not be bright enough though. You can try first. 

I'll remove dead shrimps if I can spot any, even if they feed on it. IQ3 is very small, the pollution may affect your waters easily. 
However, cherrys are quite hardy, they may be able to deal with not so clean waters.  :Smile: 

Happy shrimping!

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## Goldfisher

Hi starlett thanks for the advice. I am intending to put in tetras and guppies. I have already 2 crs, 1 horned nerite and roughly 7 shrimplets in the IQ3. 

I always wanted to challenge myself to raise cardinal tetras in my tanks because I bought 5 of them in my previous tank and it died like 1 week later. I believed they have suffered new tank syndrome. 

This time round I have buffered 1 month of cycling before I will insert this small little fishes. You mentioned tetras will eat the shrimplets. How about guppies? But I think they won't eat shrimp because they are too big right. 

It is fun seeing shrimps giving offspring. Oh yea u mentioned removing the ghost shrimps. But I thought it sill be food for the shrimps as well?

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## Starlett

> Hi starlett thanks for the advice. I am intending to put in tetras and guppies. I have already 2 crs, 1 horned nerite and roughly 7 shrimplets in the IQ3. 
> 
> I always wanted to challenge myself to raise cardinal tetras in my tanks because I bought 5 of them in my previous tank and it died like 1 week later. I believed they have suffered new tank syndrome. 
> 
> This time round I have buffered 1 month of cycling before I will insert this small little fishes. You mentioned tetras will eat the shrimplets. How about guppies? But I think they won't eat shrimp because they are too big right. 
> 
> It is fun seeing shrimps giving offspring. Oh yea u mentioned removing the ghost shrimps. But I thought it sill be food for the shrimps as well?


Hi, maybe small fishes can't eat big shrimps, but the shrimps may be stressed with potential predators around. 

Yes, some people do keep fishes with shrimps, but usually in big tanks with many hiding places for the shrimps.

From my very own experience, my baby guppies ate my juvenile shrimps before, although I fed them enough, but I guess fishes are like that...Once they see anything moving in the tank, they may go after it.

It would be much better to remove the dead shrimp as dead shrimps may foul your tank water and the shrimps that die may have dieases that might be passed on to the shrimps that eat it.

personally, I think we should just play safe on this, as not to delibrately leave dead shrimps in the tank that may affect the quality of your water.

Sometimes, we may miss out dead shrimps as well, in planted tanks, it's always not easy to spot if they die in dark and hidden spots...

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## Goldfisher

Thanks. Wil venture looking into Otto as alternatives to tetras. I got 10 over offsprings now.  :Smile: 

I got a question. Do any one know what is the white color worm lookalike hat is crawling on my tank glass and in the soil?

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## stormhawk

Planaria, aka flatworm. Look at the head, is it diamond shaped? If the worm looks like this picture below:

http://www.petshop-zoomania.com/Shri...%20SEX%201.jpg

Then you have a big problem.

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## Goldfisher

It is too small and it is impossible for me to see the shape of its head. Unless I place the worm on the microscope!

There are plenty of them at the soil area. What should I do with them?

Help help....

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## Starlett

Most of the time, this problem is caused by overfeeding.

The fatest way to get rid of it is to introduce fishes to your tank to eat it. 

If you have shrimplets, then you cannot have fishes.

The other slower mathod is to feed less and these water pests will slowly die off.

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## lizhien

that's planaria. Don't squish it. use a net to net them out if they crawl onto the glass surface. Reduce feeding in your tank too

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## RonWill

> There are plenty of them at the soil area. What should I do with them?


 Go bomb the hell out of them!!

Do yourself a favor and visit LFS'es that specializes in shrimps. Check out their tanks and if you don't see planaria, (or better still) if someone offers you a buck for each planaria you find, ask them what they did right.

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## RonWill

> ...use a net to net them out


 That's slow... unless there aren't many of them. Try rigging a trap or suck 'em up with a turkey baster/bulb syringe. Faster and cleaner too.

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## Goldfisher

Thanks everyone for the contribution. The flatworms died off when after my holiday trip - no feeding for 5 days straight. Hehe. 

See my new addition. 5 small neon tetras, 1 otto. My 10 plus shrimplets got bigger (lucky me to get a mother shrimp with lotta eggs). I guess my shrimp colony will get stronger.

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## Look4koh

How much is your iq3? Come with a package? Where u bought it?

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## marimo

thats quite pricy?
i think i read there a ADA (china) which has the same exact configuration... Gex has also the same dimension but not sure about the internal filter..
and for the LED light , its for viewing purpose doesnt help the plants much

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## Goldfisher

I bought mine at seaview after discount is about $55. The price is bundled with a free Dymax lid. I would say good deal!!

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## destsh

> I bought mine at seaview after discount is about $55. The price is bundled with a free Dymax lid. I would say good deal!!


Good deal, was it on the shelf? cos I only saw iq5 when i went yesterday at Seaview

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## Goldfisher

Yup it was on the shelve but like 3 months ago. I guess it had been snapped up. U can get the IQ5 after 15%... still not that bad.
How much is IQ5 selling now?

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## destsh

> Yup it was on the shelve but like 3 months ago. I guess it had been snapped up. U can get the IQ5 after 15%... still not that bad.
> How much is IQ5 selling now?


I think 100++ with the Q-Lid bundle, can't remember the actual price  :Neutral:

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