5 Gal FW Planted Shrimp Tank

[bs6749]

1. Take out all of that light colored river junk that is in the tank. You should have a dark substrate for both RCS and CRS or else you won't see their full colors, especially the RCS.

2. You plan on keeping RCS and CRS together...are you aware that the requirements for them are completely opposite? CRS need soft and acidic water in order to LIVE, not only to breed. RCS need hard and alkaline water, though some keep breed them in a pH of 6.8 or so.

3. 72-74 is where you want the water temp to be for the CRS and RCS will do okay in that temp too. CRS show better colors IME at cooler temps. Take the temp to 78 and you will probably start to see CRS dying off.

4. You are going to need to find a source of pure/filtered/RO/DI water if you plan to keep CRS alive for more than a couple of months. I can see by the mineral deposits on your tank that you have hard water, and most likely a pH of around 7.6 or higher...definitely not acidic like the CRS NEED.

5. If you decide that you want CRS still and take the river rock out, you should use more ADA Amazonia (I/II, sand or gravel) since it will remove some of the hardness out of your water and it will buffer the pH right where it needs to be for your CRS. Don't rely on that to remove ALL of the hardness and lower your pH from the water you put in. You will need to do a mix of RO/DI/distilled water and tap water in order to keep CRS alive.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I'm sure that combo you have going is perfect for plants. I say add that sponge filter in there now, any kind of seeding will be beneficial towards the aquarium.


Update on pictures?

[fort384]

bs, thanks for the info. I am going to stick with the mix of light and dark substrate for now. pH in the tank is 6.4-6.6. It is fairly hard water, but my plan is to switch over to RO water once the tank is cycled.

[bs6749]

I'd switch over to softer water before adding any shrimp, but you probably plan on doing that.

Also forgot to mention that RCS and blackberries will interbreed and will produce poorly colored offspring if kept together.

[fort384]

Yup, thanks. I think after our PM conversation, I am going to stick with just RCS and CRS (RCS first for awhile). So i guess temp is ok for shrimp... should I buy a cheapo heater to put in just to move the cycling along, or leave it as is?

[bs6749]

I'd eventually get a heater (before you add any CRS) to maintain the temp of the tank around 72-74 but you don't need one now if you have those temps. The cycle won't speed up by that much.

[fort384]

bs, being in AZ, this is as cold as it gets. I am thinking I might have to get a chiller for both tanks when summer roles around.

[bs6749]

I was talking to someone in NM and they said it got down to the upper 30's-low 50's at night there sometimes so I thought it might be similar in AZ. You might want to think about having a fan blow over the top of the tank during the summer then. Definitely will want to get soft water if that's the case because of the amount of evaporation. The GH will increase over time if you don't remove some of the hardness during water changes and replace with softer water.

[fort384]

Good call. I think I saw a clip on fan that I can get to blow across the surface. That should help out some. It does get down in the 40s at night, but the house never really dips below 71-72. In the summer, it is usually 78 in the house... Do you have an RO system that you use for your tanks? I was thinking I could probably just get by with buying the 5gal bottles of water from the local H2O store. But, it looks like RO systems have come down in price over the past few years - I was just looking on EBAY and it looks like you can pick 1 up for 70 or 80 bucks.

[bs6749]

I just buy purified water from the store since it's $.29/gallon.