[mobruler78]

Hello - excited to start my first real project thread for a 5.5g nano shrimp tank. I've been trolling for weeks on advice and my best options but I'm still not confident on a few of the components and was hoping I could get some input from some experienced shrimpers.

Substrate
Kind of on a tight budget. Is it worth saving up for the 9L Amazonia powder aqua soil (when its available) or am I going to completely regret using Fluval Shrimp Stratum?

Lighting
I want to keep it somewhat clean looking but have been going back and forth on using a pendulum light system over the small tank to get that high light w/ unique look. Or am I over thinking this and should just get a 16" Finnex LED system?

Ideas for lighting:
ZooMed Combo fixture
suspended using ZooMed Lamp Stand
OR 16" Finnex Ray II LED?

Plants
Mosses, Glosso carpet

Fish
CPD's or Danio erythromicron

Filter
AC 50 w/ foam over intake

Appreciate any advice, feedback or necessary insults so I don't screw this up. Looking forward to posting updates and photos.

 

[ddrfreak_tung]

i've read some has had issues with stratum when they kept it with crs. I personally has kept this with only cherries and they were fine with it.

 

[Monster Fish]

First off, you need to know what's in your tap water before you try and keep any kind of shrimp. You'll need to measure your KH, GH, and PH. From there you can plan accordingly on what shrimp you'll be able to keep. If your water parameters are different from that of the shrimps optimum ones, you're going to have to either make adjustments to your water or use RO water.

 

[mobruler78]

You're right abut the parameters, moved into this new place in September and havent checked the tap yet.

My 25g is neons w/ Amano shrimp and they seem to have adjusted easily.

Just wondering if anyone has experience using that ZooMed setup I am looking at using.

 

[Monster Fish]

Are you going to use Spiral CFLs for the ZooMed Clamp Lamp? If so, my suggestion is to use only one lamp and to suspend it several inches above the tank. When oriented vertically, CFLs produce more PAR. The more PAR you have over your tank without CO2, the greater the chance of getting an algae outbreak.

 

[Green_Flash]

I'd save for 9l of powder amazonia or just use regular, I think it looks nice.