[GreenBart]

Hi all!

I'm planning to set-up a 5 gallon caridina shrimp tank (soil, RO water, GH+, no C02). For this I want to keep it rather simple in terms of plants: some mosses, bucephalandra, anubias (petite) etc..

Usually I add some fast-growers/floaters during cycle since I always have been thought these reduce algae growth by taking up excessive nutrients.

However, in this set-up with slow growing plants (reduced light) and thus little fertilizer needed, will it still be needed to add fast-growers? I know that in the end it's all about the balance, but what would you guys recommend?

Thanks!

 

[en7jos]

I like to add salvinia (salvinia minima I think) to my shrimp tanks. Helps to soak up excess nutrients and shades the tank nicely, hence I think helps to settle the tank and hopefully find the balance. Then, once the shrimp go in, they love it. Or really easy to remove if no longer needed. I still fertilise my shrimp tanks though even with only the salvinia and Christmas moss in them; not super heavy, but not light either (at about 2x Seachem 'beginner' dose).

 

[SardinePatheNews]

do you need to cycle it at all for a few shrimp i wonder?

 

[en7jos]

"Cycling" for a shrimp tank is more about giving the tank time to mature, parameters to stabilise, soil to stop leaching excess ammonia / fert's into the water column andgrowing a biofilm to sustain the shrimp than it is about growing the biofilter as per a fish tank. The two go hand in hand though; properly maturing the tank ready to accept shrimp typically takes much longer than cycling the bio-filter, so usually if the tank is mature, the biofilter has long since been ready.

 

[Tbakes]

Speaking of maturing before introducing shrimp - what’s the conventional wisdom? 1 month? More or less?

I added a few Amanos to my newly setup tanks thinking they wouldn’t survive but appear to be doing fine. I want to add RCS to get the colonies going before adding any other fauna but wondering how much longer I should wait...


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