Water parameters for shrimp

[skyymanz]

Hi all,

Plan to keep sakura shrimp in my planted tank. Here is the current water parameters

Ammonia and Nitrite 0 mg/L
Nitrate 20-40 mg/L

Nitrate seems too high?

Thanks.

[Urban Aquaria]

Cherry/Sakura shrimps should usually still be fine in 20-40 mg/l nitrate levels, they are relatively hardy... though lower would be better.

Put more fast growing plants and floating plants (with sufficient light) to soak up the excess nutrients, feed less, do regular filter/tank maintenance and perform regular water changes to keep the nitrate levels low.

[skyymanz]

Thanks UA.

What type of fast growing plant to recommend? Currently i am using 1.5Ft tank with odyssea evo led light. My tank now have anubias nana and glosso. But glosso seems to grow slow and upwards. So think of changing to monte carlo.

[Urban Aquaria]

Thanks UA.

What type of fast growing plant to recommend? Currently i am using 1.5Ft tank with odyssea evo led light. My tank now have anubias nana and glosso. But glosso seems to grow slow and upwards. So think of changing to monte carlo.

Your light is more than sufficient for those plants... might even be abit too much at the start (especially if you are not using Co2 injection), the anubias is a slow grower and carpet plants need time to fill in, so have to regulate the photoperiod schedule or height of the light to adjust intensity accordingly.

To soak up excess nutrients (while not blocking light from the carpet plants), you can consider the common fast growing stem plants like HM, rotala rotundifolia or wallichii, cabomba, water wisteria, water sprite etc. Just plant them in the background and let them grow out, trim regularly to keep them from shading the carpet plants.

Once your carpet plants grow out and the tank is stable, you can remove the fast growing stem plants... or just leave them in the background since they look nice anyways.

Alternatively, you could also consider using floating plants, like frogbits, dwarf water lettuce, salvinia natans/minima etc. Under bright lights, they can grow very fast and soak up alot of nutrients, and they take Co2 directly from the air so don't compete for carbon supply with your other submerged plants. Only thing is you will need to harvest them regularly to avoid the water surface becoming all covered in floating plants and blocking light from the carpet plants.