Chad

I like my nitrates at 20 ppm or higher for happy plants. Not sure what algae that is exactly but lowering light intensity or duration is a slow process of experimentation that every fish keeper goes through. Try something, watch it for a week or two, adjust, repeat. As for cherry shrimp, I love them. They absolutely eat algae, unfortunately I’ve never experienced them eating a noticeable amount. Enjoy them, but don’t expect much algae removal.

Green neon tetras have been a great addition to my guppy and swordtail tank. But I would also second @T. Payne's recommendation. Cory's seem to go with anything, as far as I can tell.

I don’t think you’ll have shrimp wall to wall @Little Guys. Shrimp don’t seem to populate a tank like some snails might. But maybe I’m wrong, and let’s say they did. You want to have blue velvets? Unless I’m mistaken, everybody wants blue velvets and you should be able to easily sell or give the extras away if their population explodes. Seems like a great problem to have. All that said, I do personally recommend fish in a shrimp tank. Some things that can bother shrimp are simply food to fish. Better minds can chime in here, but I’m thinking of detritus worms and maybe hydra or planaria.

Hello @jodip, I’m located in central Iowa. Try joining the “Iowa Aquatic Hobbyist” group on Facebook. Good folks who can point you in the right directions locally. I have tons of Amazon frogbit. Bought it online, and as @jwcarlson mentioned, mine shipped poorly too. But once what survived got comfy with my water it went haywire.

Like @Tony s said, panda Cory’s are great. Mine have been bullet proof. And they really are a lot of fun.

I think you can get fish to help with this but I’ve kept guppies and tetras that all claimed to take out shrimp babies but did very little to stem the tide. For that I’m thankful because, for me, I needed those extra shrimp. You’ll need to cull more shrimp than you think once they get rolling to keep their colors looking nice. Also, what is overpopulated to you? For me, my tank is likely overpopulated, they’re everywhere anyway and it’s had no adverse reaction to my tank. No crashes, no die offs. Just lots of amazing little red shrimp to look at.

Phew, sadist 😉

Oh, so you have 1 Nerite snail too @Guppysnail?

Snails! Nerite Snails! This is a quick aside for the post above but I forgot about these little dudes until now. I never took pics of them but when I got the guppies I bought a couple nerite snails. I figured they'd be great algae eaters and I thought they were pretty. I'd heard mystery snails were no good for this kind of thing, and again, the nerite's shells wowed me. But, I hated them. They don't reproduce so easy to control and they're small enough to get into cracks and crevices. But, I hated them. Why? The eggs. For me, I found the eggs (think sesame seeds dipped in epoxy) impossible to remove. I still have driftwood and glass with scars from those eggs. Glass I'd scraped with a real razor blade. They were everywhere too. If they're your thing, then cool. Just not my cup o' tea. Also, and I might ruffle a few feathers here, but I don't think snails are that great at algae cleaning. Don't get me wrong, they do eat algae which is good. But I had misunderstood the level of "cleaning" they did. For instance, a half dollar size of brown algae on the glass would still be there but now had several little tracks through it where the snails had been. I have no idea how many snails you'd need to get crystal clear glass, if possible I never came close to those numbers. In the end, a scrubber or plastic razor blade with some wet forearms has done the trick. Snails for algae didn't do it for me. But later, I did get some mystery snails and they were one of the top good surprises for me in fish keeping. But that'll have to wait for another day.

Welcome to the group! Lots of better minds here can share insight regarding the Diatoms if you’re concerned. As for me though, all I can say is “hello”. There are a lot of fine and helpful folks here. Crazy talented too.

Welcome to the group! And share a pic or two when your tank is up and running.

I had success feeding my pleco at night, after the lights had gone out. I fed her algae wafers sometimes but always French cut canned green beans. She loved it. If your plecos hungry, snails are no match. I got rid of my bladder snail problem by using long tweezers and picking them out one by one. It didn’t happen in one swoop for sure but over time. I could grab them faster than they could reproduce. If you have several tanks I could see how this would be tough. But one tank. Not that hard, and simple. That’s how I’d recommend lowering your snail population.

I learned several things quickly with this set-up. First, guppies aren't bullet-proof. I bought these from a lfs and then a couple more from Petsmart. I was mainly to blame for the troubles that ensued. The lfs had a big aquarium of guppies, all sorts and sizes. I found several including the prettiest one, a shy yellow, orange, and blue beauty that didn't want to come out and swim like the others. He'd sit and hide in the back, but my keen eye spotted him and he had to be mine. I won't go on any longer and will simply say, DON'T EVER BUY THE SHY FISH. Unless of course you plan to nurse that poor soul back to health immediately and you really know how to do it. In a fish store, shy fish are sick fish. He was dead the following morning. Another gentle soul, just resting on an anubius leaf for a day, followed where the first had led. I bought more from a local PetSmart. Knowing what I know now please be very careful and know what you're doing if you buy from big box stores. They can be healthy, but too often they've got something. Usually Ich, which is easy to deal with, but it's no fun in your main tank. In this particular case, the guppies (and endlers) I bought from PetSmart were actually far healthier than the originals. So yes, it can happen and be a great experience. What I learned almost as quickly was how a group of male-only guppies can get along. I'm not saying don't keep a male-only guppy tank. But I will say don't keep 9 male guppies in a 9 gallon tank. Especially if a couple of those gallons is for the filtration in the back of the tank (again, Fluval Flex 9). One of the yellow tiger guppy/endlers and the tuxedo guppy (both Petsmart purchases) took it to every other guppy in the tank and were quite aggressive. Those boys need room to run, and hide, if you want this set up. Personally, I wouldn't do less than a 20 gallon long if I ever tried this again. In the end, I took what was left of the group (the two I mentioned above) to my lfs. While all this was transpiring I had watched another Cory video, one where he visited a guppy breeder/seller. I knew what I needed to do: get a pair from a quality source, make a family, and fill a tank with guppies.

Great question and one that is full-on opinion based. This is purely about what you want the fish to look like and each fish responds differently to their environment. So, I like the black background and a lighter colored substrate. The lighter substrate brightens the tank as the light reflects off it more. It also brightens up guppies, imho. I first had dark substrate and for the longest time was worried my guppies were sick. Seriously, where I thought they'd be silvery on their bodies, they were instead dark and dingy. Again, to me that's how it felt. I've heard it said that a darker substrate makes them color up more, and I guess it does, it also makes them darken up more.