Shrimp Conditions

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Hello,

I have a small 12L tank. Was seeking some advice on the following:

PH
My tap water is 8.0 aprox and is very hard so difficult to chemically change, plus I like to use as little chemicals as possible. I read most shrimp like lower PH conditions, as low as 6.0 in some cases. Would my tap water PH be a problem? I have introduced plants (couple of ferns), but it didn't make much difference.

Substrate
I want to heavily plant the tank for the shrimp to hide in. What would be the best substrate for both the shrimp and the plants (for nutrients)?

Nitrogen Cycle
Do Shrimp really produce any ammonia?

Many Thanks

 

[Coursair]

You can use a substrate to change conditions
Example AquaSoil Amazonia which I have. Expensive and a PITA cuz it's so light but plants LOVE it and my Tiger Shrimp loves it also.

You can add Driftwood and Indian Almond Leaves.

You can do water changes using part Distilled or RO water. I've done this to lower TDS.

Some Shrimp like RCS are pretty hardy and may be fine in high PH. CRS , I wouldn't try.

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

PH

You can use a substrate to change conditions
Example AquaSoil Amazonia which I have. Expensive and a PITA cuz it's so light but plants LOVE it and my Tiger Shrimp loves it also.

You can add Driftwood and Indian Almond Leaves.

You can do water changes using part Distilled or RO water. I've done this to lower TDS.

Some Shrimp like RCS are pretty hardy and may be fine in high PH. CRS , I wouldn't try.

Liked your feeding video. I'll look into that thanks. RO water and drift wood. Cool.

 

[Coursair]

Liked your feeding video. I'll look into that thanks. RO water and drift wood. Cool.

I'm glad you liked it


Just remember not pure RO water or you'll need to add stuff to it.
Part Tap Water will keep minerals and trace elements in there.
Plus your plants need it. You can also use Flourish complete just fine and Excel ( start with smaller doses ) safely with Shrimp.


Shrimp have very little bioload. So I do fertilize my plants.If you check YouTube you can see videos that actually show my Shrimp

 

[bud29]

My responses in blue

Hello,

I have a small 12L tank. Was seeking some advice on the following:

PH
My tap water is 8.0 aprox and is very hard so difficult to chemically change, plus I like to use as little chemicals as possible. I read most shrimp like lower PH conditions, as low as 6.0 in some cases. Would my tap water PH be a problem? I have introduced plants (couple of ferns), but it didn't make much difference.

What shrimp do you want to get? Many neocaridinas are absolutely find in harder, alkaline water

Substrate
I want to heavily plant the tank for the shrimp to hide in. What would be the best substrate for both the shrimp and the plants (for nutrients)?

Caribsea Floramax is a relatively inexpensive plant substrate. There are other options as well (but more expensive) such as Eco-Complete, ADA aquasoil, and Fluval Stratum.

Nitrogen Cycle
Do Shrimp really produce any ammonia?

Indeed they do. Not nearly as much as some fish, but they still do. A cycled tank is still needed.

Many Thanks

 

[jcolon]

Agree with Bud29 RCS should be fine in 8.0 pH water.

As for substrate, what plants are you looking at?
With Anubias and Java Moss, substrate is not as critical as those plants pull nutrients from the water column. Root feeders like Amazon Swords and Crypts could use substrate like those mentioned above. I have a mixture of PFS and Petco Brand black sand as my substrate and use Osmocote as my root tab. So far no complaints from the few Crypts and the growing lone baby Amazon sword (thought it was a crypt at first).

As for the nitrogen cycle ... yep it's even more critical for shrimp since they cannot tolerate deteriorating water conditions as well as some fish. RCS which tend to be fairly hardy shrimp, could handle some variations in water conditions, but try that with real sensitive shrimp like OEBT's .. both black and or blues ... and you'll have expensive invert corpses.

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Agree with Bud29 RCS should be fine in 8.0 pH water.

As for substrate, what plants are you looking at?
With Anubias and Java Moss, substrate is not as critical as those plants pull nutrients from the water column. Root feeders like Amazon Swords and Crypts could use substrate like those mentioned above. I have a mixture of PFS and Petco Brand black sand as my substrate and use Osmocote as my root tab. So far no complaints from the few Crypts and the growing lone baby Amazon sword (thought it was a crypt at first).

As for the nitrogen cycle ... yep it's even more critical for shrimp since they cannot tolerate deteriorating water conditions as well as some fish. RCS which tend to be fairly hardy shrimp, could handle some variations in water conditions, but try that with real sensitive shrimp like OEBT's .. both black and or blues ... and you'll have expensive invert corpses.

I do not presently know enough about plants to know what I am looking for. I got sold some Cabomba plants which are in the tank, plus some Colombo Flora-Base 'complete aquarium soil' which is supposed to reduce PH and feed the plants. I also added some purpose aquarium drift wood which looks great and meant to reduce PH too.

My tank is taking an AGE to cycle. I will continue with another post for that though

Thanks for your help

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

My responses in blue

Thanks bud29, I will look out for shrimp that can put up with higher PH, and have now got some substrate, Flore-Base from Colombo. Hopefully that will feed the plants plus reduce PH over time.