CSM+B and shrimp, plus algae, help!

[newfound77951]

I have some cherry red shrimp in my low light 10g. The tank has 15 watts of NO fluorescent light. I had CO2 on the tank initially (along with another 15 watt light), but the second light died so I stopped the CO2 and waited to see how the tank would do with no CO2 and no ferts (kind of a la Diana Walstad). Well, I now have algae all over the place, including BBA and some whitish fuzzy stuff that looks awful. The plants (mostly crypts and Java fern) are happy, but have algae on them. I was planning on getting the CO2 going again and adding ferts to try and get things under control (after testing N and P, of course), but I'm worried about adding CSM+B with the shrimp....I feel like I heard something about the copper in the CSM+B being enough to harm the shrimp. Any advice on either front?

 

[Purrbox]

While there are a lot of advocates for not dosing any ferts with shrimp, I dose EI using dry ferts (including CSM+B) with my Cherry Red Shrimp and have never had any issues. Plus Cherry Red Shrimp are generally considered to be the most indestructible of the shrimp and can tolerate quite a bit. I'd say that as long as you don't have high copper levels in your source water and aren't feeding foods high in copper, then the little bit of copper in the CSM+B should be fine as long as you don't over dose.

 

[GlitcH]

I agree completely with Joy.........the only thing I would add is:
Weekly water changes are a must to be sure you don't get any buildup.

 

[newfound77951]

OK, thanks guys, that makes me feel better.....I love the little guys and don't want to harm them. And the algae is really starting to drive me nuts!