Plants, easy green, iron & shrimp?

[smm333]

I have a couple of questions. I have a 10 gallon with sand substrate. It has a handful of plants, 8 strawberry rasboras, several baby mystery snails (temporary), pest snails, and soon to arrive 15 wild type neocaradina shrimp.

I love vallisneria, but my tanks  too small. I found vallisneria nana and dwarf sagittaria which seem like great substitutes. Is one easier than the other for a very simple tank? It has a basic fluorescent light fixture. 

Also, both say to add iron and recommend seachem flourish trace elements. I use aquarium co-op easy green. Is that sufficient for iron? My other plants seem to do fine with that. I don't want to add too much stuff and harm the shrimp.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Ninjoma]

On 4/3/2023 at 7:36 PM, smm333 said:

Also, both say to add iron and recommend seachem flourish trace elements. I use aquarium co-op easy green. Is that sufficient for iron? My other plants seem to do fine with that. I don't want to add too much stuff and harm the shrimp

Yeah, easy green will add enough iron. I wouldn't add any extra iron for val or dwarf sag. Root tabs would help them though.

[JettsPapa]

What's your tank pH?  Do your own research, but it's my understanding that the type of iron in Easy Green can only be utilized by plants in relatively low pH water (which I assume is why they sell Easy Iron).

[Tommy Vercetti]

Here you go (shrimp safe), enjoy: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-iron

[Ninjoma]

On 4/4/2023 at 9:33 AM, Tommy Vercetti said:

Here you go (shrimp safe), enjoy: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-iron

You definitely can add easy iron if you think extra Iron is needed, I would just be careful because you are likely to have a hair algae outbreak if there is too much unused Iron in the tank.