Hi from Tacoma,Wa

[Connor]

Hi everyone!

My name is Connor and I'm relatively new to the hobby and I'm looking into expanding my setup to 2 larger tanks. I currently have a Betta in a small 2.5 gal tank and I plan on moving her to a new 10 gal that will eventually become a community tank with some tetras, a bristlenose pleco, some kuhli loaches or some otocincluses , and some snails. I am also planning a 10 or 20 gal neocardinia shrimp and guppy tank that I hope to set up as a bit of a breeder tank. I plan to set up the tanks with a good variety of plants, an anubis and moss balls for the betta and dwarf sagittaria and water sprite for the guppies and shrimp. I had a couple questions I was hoping could be answered before I pulled the trigger and bought everything I think I'll need.

1) Living in the Seattle area, with very soft water, are there any changes I would need to make to the water in my guppy/shrimp tank if I want them to thrive and breed? Knowing that guppies prefer a higher degree of hardness and shrimp need calcium, I've looked at adding things like crushed coral to the gravel but I want to make sure it will be a worthwhile addition.

2) Would something like a 24 watt LED strip light off of amazon work as low lighting for a tank? Either with daylight (6000K) or RGB.

3) Are any of the aquarium co-op anubis especially good for a betta? I'd like to give her some leaves or something to rest on near the top

I'm super excited to set these tanks up, although I plan on taking it slow and only adding fish as the others get comfortable. I'm really excited I found this community and can't wait to make my first trip up to Aquarium Co-op in the near future!

 

[Ken Dyer]

Welcome @Connor to the forums!

1) I have had great results with crushed coral in my livebearer and shrimp tanks (usually one and the same). I didn't keep tanks when I lived in Tacoma so can't say definitively what you may find but I personally would use it.

2) Not familiar with these lights so not able to provide much on this one.

3) I would say pick the ones you like the look of and don't be afraid to use a suction cup to raise the level of the plant to where you like it, if you don't have hardscape (a stick/rock) tall enough to get it where you want it. Then as it grows and fills in you can move it around if you need to in order to keep the leaf height where you want it 🙂

  

[Maggie]

Hi Connor, welcome! I'm new too, and also have soft water. I currently have yellow neocardinia shrimp and put wonder shells in to buffer the pH because otherwise it drops like a rock. I also feed them Mineral Junkie Bites which are shrimp/snail "vitamins". One of my shrimp came with eggs but I never saw baby shrimp ☹ - now I am hoping she'll try again! Best of luck to you!

[Connor]

@Ken Dyer, @Maggie Thanks for the advice and warm welcome! I'll be sure to try out that shrimp food and the crushed coral and post the occasional update when I have the tanks started. From what I've read, its super important to give shrimp babies cover- that's the main reason for the dwarf sagittaria I plan to add. 

Ken maybe a better way to ask the question about that LED strip would be to ask if the wattage, lumens or color spectrum is going to be important in an aquarium light setup. I use grow lights for the plants I have and the color spectrum is very important to optimize growth and the efficiency of the light, are aquarium lights supposed to be set up in a similar way or does it end up being more to simulate night/day and the visual appeal? I'm hoping to save a bit of money in the short term by using strip lights before expanding to something more like a finnex or fluval aquarium light as I spend more time in the hobby.

[Ken Dyer]

I think the spectrum does matter to an extent, but seems to be pretty plant specific. I tend to only grow easy/moderate plants and have used chicken brooder lights w/ LED bulbs, Home Desperate LED shop lights (very yellow light and for me caused more algae growth), finnex, and fluvals. With the plants I grow they all seem to word fine. My few ventures into more challenging plants they still grow, just not really well (leggy/sparse) on the lower powered lights.

Long way of saying the strip lights should work fine for the "easy/moderate" plants depending on tank depth (punching through water really takes the oomph out of a light. Lighting a 10G or 20 long is way easier than lighting a 55G 🙂