Fertilizers and Shrimp

If you want to carpet dwarf hair grass you need co2, rich substrate, pretty high light and fertilisers.

What shrimp are you planning to add? Red cherry shrimp and amano are pretty hard and excel wouldn't be a big problem. If you dose the right amount.

As Nigel said, plants need all the fertilizers in order to grow healthy. S. Excel is supposed to be a carbon supplement. However, plants need other nutrients to grow such as nitrogen phosphate and potassium. Depending on how much you want to know about planted tanks, I suggest at the most basic level getting also Seachem Flourish Comprehensive or better read this as a starting point :
The Estimative Index of Dosing, or No Need for Test Kits - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report

and consider ordering some more complete and value for money fertilizers from nilocG.

If you dose Excel according to recommendations the shrimps should be alright. The same with other fertilizers when we are talking about amanos or neocaridina sp., like red cherry shrimp.

Regards,
duky

Red Cherry Shrimp to get my feet wet.

I do have plans to expand into a couple of tanks, but for now... just the one tank until I can sell the wife on the idea...

Considering what's required for the current tank, I wouldn't recommend shrimp in it. It's possible, but shrimp are sensitive.


Neos prefer a basic setup.

10 gallon tank (min 5g, 10g recommended)
Sand
Low Light Plants (moss, ferns, crypts, bruce, anubias....)
Min to no ferts (generally recommended to dose 1/4 to 1/2 recommended amount on ferts, if using any)


If you still want to use your current tank for shrimp, you may need to rethink some of your plans for it.

Based on the makeup of your current tank, I'd say no to hair grass. Stick with plants that don't require a rich substrate for rooting and the like. Things like Anubias Nana and Nana Petite, Java Fern, all the mosses.

You can build a gorgeous scape with simple plants like that that would be ideal for Neos like Cherries.

Maybe go that route. And once you've got all that under your belt and you feel like a bit more of a pro, then you could try a second tank that's more high-tech.