Plant combo for shrimp tank?

inthepacific said:

in my opinion, if you're looking to breed shrimp, its either plants or shrimp. sure you can keep shrimp in a nicely planted tank, but upkeep on plants and keeping parameters right for the shrimp is a bit of a headache for me personally. So i just have an easy set up with fissidens. If i were to make another tank, i was going to put plants like ferns or anubius which are both low light plants or even easy plants like rotalas or ludwigias and crypts. If you want a nicely scaped tank you'd probably want that in a separate tank. but this again is all my opinion.

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I agree. Shrimp + high tech plants make upkeep harder. It's doable (I'm doing it) but shrimp are far easier to breed in a low tech setup.

Today, I trimmed down about 300+ stems, trimmed my carpet, and did a 60% water change and my shrimp don't die, but they don't like it either. After the water change I dose excel, Dose ei ferts along with bebi, shield, and stout for the shrimp. Matching water params and temperature is just another headache which I consider needed for large water changes with shrimp.

As for algae, I would blame your Co2. Ever think about going Pressurized? I pump so much co2 while oxygenating my water for the shrimp. It's the only thing that keeps my lighting in check. Otherwise reduce lighting to match your Co2.

EI from my experiences does nothing to my shrimp as long as I do a 50% - 60% water change weekly. Excel could be a problem, but I've never had problems since I only half dose. I probably wouldn't even use it if I didn't buy a few 500ml bottles when I started out.

I let my nitrates climb up to 40ppm. that's my ceiling. No problems at 40ppm.

As for algae, I have to wipe GDA off of my glass every ten days or so, or I use to. I run my UV sterilizer for a few hours a day now and I no longer have GDA reoccurring. It could be the UV sterilizer, but it could also be other changes that helped. The UV is my best guess.

RCS are very resilient in my short experience with them.

inthepacific said:

in my opinion, if you're looking to breed shrimp, its either plants or shrimp. sure you can keep shrimp in a nicely planted tank, but upkeep on plants and keeping parameters right for the shrimp is a bit of a headache for me personally. So i just have an easy set up with fissidens. If i were to make another tank, i was going to put plants like ferns or anubius which are both low light plants or even easy plants like rotalas or ludwigias and crypts. If you want a nicely scaped tank you'd probably want that in a separate tank. but this again is all my opinion.

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Thanks for the tip! It's what I just discovered ,it's hard to make the two ends meet.I learned a lot from this forum ,and got help from many people ,but only in parralel ,plant care ,and critter care.I was putting the two together ,but it requires much more work ,and you meet more obstacles in the way.
I realise now that you need much more accuracy if you want to keep shrimp along with a wide range of plants.
Ferns and anubias will do ,for me ,I am not looking for any high-tech aquascape ,my time won't allow me ,so I will settle for a nice piece of nature in my living room.

So ,I intend to give up on the more demanding plants ,like (Hemianthus) - which ,by the way ,is doing great and has spread a bit,,no algae on it.It's a pity ,but.....oh well.

I will also remove some stem plants ,and the Vallisneria - not sure what level of nutrients it needs ,but ,as my tank is shallow ,leaves are reaching the surface ,so- free Co2 ,plus light close - I figure increased uptake.I could live without them.

What about the fast- growers?(Najas Guadelupensis and Wisteria)?Should I keep them ,in combo with the low consumers ,in order to remove excess NO3 faster, for ex),or ditch them alltogether ?Does fast "growing" mean more nutrient uptake ,but less Co2 and light needs?
I figure ,if I keep a large biomass of plants within the same (low) range of uptake ,it would be easier to control(by adding or removing the same species) ,than a large biomass of different plants ,with different needs.
I am not asking step by step info ,I realise that every tank is different ,and that changes must be done in time ,not gonna replace all plants in the same day.
I am looking forward to some general opinions ,or things I'm missing out on all my intentions to make my shrimp thrive .Thank you.

This is a pic of my tank.If there is anything in relation to nature about it ,is that plants are growing no matter how ,no matter where.I added them along the way ,gotten some from friends ,or replanting those dug up by Amanos in a hurry ,in the morning ,before work.
The tank is 10 inch high ,30 inch long ,and light is a single 18w T8 ,full spectrum.
I also have Peacock Gudgeons in there ,which breed regularly ,not affected at all by dosages.

I can understand the decisions you are facing, as I too am trying to simplify my aquarium. At the same time I'm also maturing my second tank as a shrimp tank. I don't have any shrimp yet. However, I began this shrimp tank on February 17 and it is now March 26, so over a month old.

Based on my reading, I decided that to provide a better environment for shrimp, I would do no CO2 and no fertilizing. When I set up the tank I did use some water from a fertilized tank, and a little more has been added later with some fish. But I am not dosing fertilizers. I have mosses, java fern, and floating hornwort. Just yesterday I added an anubias nana, so it's not possible to comment on that yet. However, other things are doing well. The java moss is doing better than it ever has since I bought it last May. It's growing and branching. Hornwort is the only fast-growing plant of these. I also used to have some pennywort, but removed that (it was doing fine, though).

I decided to go with these very easy-care, mostly low-demand plants so that hopefully I'll be able to do without fertilizers. I also decided not to have any planted stem plants, because if you uproot them to replant the tops, it disturbs the substrate, something I've read can be bad for shrimp.

If you have another tank for your plants that you don't want in your shrimp tank, that is a nice solution.

If you don't want to throw out plants you decide won't work in this setup, you might consider making an emersed setup to keep a sample of each going. I have actually done this in my kitchen windowsill. You can read more about emersed setups online, but for myself, I planted my plants in pots. Then I cut plastic juice bottles in two, placed the pot in the lower half, then slitted the upper half of the bottle to fit down slightly over the lower half. This makes a mini humidity dome. I filled the bottom of the bottle so the water level was about an inch below the soil level. I do have bright sunlight in this window. At least for now, in the winter, it hasn't been too hot. This idea will hopefully allow me to keep a stock of some plants that just weren't doing well in my low-light, non-CO2 29-gallon, so I can enjoy a lower-maintenance tank with plants that are happy in that kind of setup.