First tank questions

[Beany1627]

Hello. I recently decided that I wanted to start up a neo tank. I got everything little by little and just set it up today. I added fluval plant and shrimp substrate, a piece of drift wood, two moss balls and a plant from my local pet store that they had in with their shrimp. I do plan on getting more plants soon. I used RO/DI water from the same local shop and added Seachem replenish as well as aquavitro bacteria seed. Now for my questions, my GH is 180, KH says 40ppm on one test strip but then 0mg/L on another, pH is 7.5, ammonia 0,nitrite and nitrate 0. Should I wait to add a softener or anything else to get the water parameters like GH lower? I’m doing a fishless/planted cycle and I’m having new shrimp mom anxiety that I messed up the water already. Does anyone have any tips? I did a bunch of research but now that I’m actually doing it, I think I’m psyching myself out. 

[Tony s]

Your gh and kh may actually be a bit low for neos. They need a bit of hardness to help create their shells. So no. I wouldn’t add any softener. You should be good 

[lefty o]

#1 tip for shrimp, take your time. shrimp do better with a well established aquarium. ive never waited more than 36hrs to have fish in a tank, but shrimp really do need a good amount of biofilm to graze on for them to thrive.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Agreed with @lefty o. You want a well established tank for your shrimp to thrive. You want algae and biofilm. 
 

My other biggest recommendation is get shrimp bred locally, if you can. Those shrimp will be used to your tap water, and will do much better much faster. I’ve bought local shrimp that thrived immediately, and I’ve also bought shrimp from the LFS that I’ve had to work super hard to get the colony established. 
 

Locally bred and a well-established tank and you’ll be off to the races. 

[Beany1627]

Yeah I’m definitely going to give it at least 4 weeks from what I’ve read. Let my plants really grow and flourish first. Luckily my local pet shop is family owned and all of their animals are from local breeders or just from them breeding in their tanks. I’m planning on getting Java moss and tie it to my drift wood as well as some hornwort but I’m not sure what else to add. 

[EricksonAquatics]

Sounds like you have a good start.

Java moss is a great option because shrimplets can hide in it and it gives the rest of the colony something to graze on. 
I would add as many plants as possible to really get that tank cycled and have some surfaces for algae and other stuff to grow on. 
Anubias, water sprite, Java fern, Amazon sword, crypts, etc are all super easy plants that you could try!

[tike]

Doing the right thing to take it slow with a new tank. I agree with others that shrimp do better in a well established environment. I like the 4 week waiting period. take parameters after that and post them here and we can give better advice. On a side note.....hornwort is a goos beginner plant but can take over fairly quickly. no worries on that cuz you can always remove them later. Good Luck!!!!

[Lonkley]

Honestly shrimp are hardier than people make them out to be. I would use tap water instead of rodi otherwise you'll need to add additives for minerals. 

I planted my tank and cycled with ammonia and Fritz. Started with 15 shrimp, mostly female. 2 died and three months later I have an infinite amount of baby shrimp at various sizes and ages. I've also only done a single water change since there's little waste.

[doktor zhivago]

You want a cycled tank for shrimps. No ammonia or nitrites. As far as rodi I just plopped my shrimp into my tap water and there's a billion of them now. Java moss is a must for shrimps. They love it. Sometimes they swim up to the hornwort but usually they like to stay on the bottom.

[Lennie]

In seachem's site it is stated that:

 

To start a cycle, you need an ammonia source there in addition to bacteria culture. If your shrimp soil release none, you can also ghostfeed to release some ammonia and start the cycle. 

Shrimp have super low bioload, so you dont really need to cycle with a high reading of ammonia IMO.

 

Keeping the parameters stable is usually more important. Your parameters are just fine. Try to aim keeping it stable in what way you can do. Healthy neocaridinas are crazy good at adapting different conditions. But constantly changing parameters are never good for shrimp. Don't worry too much. You will be a great shrimp mom considering your effort and worry about your future shrimp friends and trying to do your best.

 

By the way, shrimp soils tend to be a good choice for caridinas usually as they commonly soften the water and lower the ph. Usually combined with RODI and let soil do its thingy.

When I use tap with aquasoil, I barely see any result in ph tho. I did notice some gh decrease in the past for some time however.

[Beany1627]

Thank you so much. From yesterday to today all the parameters are the same. I added more plants and I’ll try to attach a picture. But I got dwarf hair grass in the foreground, a Java fern in the middle as well as a Java moss coconut bridge and then an Amazon sword in the background. I still have the driftwood in there as well as the moss balls and the unmarked shrimp plant from my pet store. I dosed my beneficial bacteria again as the bottle states on the instructions and have started ghost feeding as well. The tank is cloudy right now as I just added the new plants earlier today. There’s more of the plants you can’t see since it is cloudy and the driftwood is blocking it. A new question that popped up though, do I need to add fertilizer or CO2 for these plants?

[Lennie]

On 5/19/2024 at 12:06 AM, Beany1627 said:

A new question that popped up though, do I need to add fertilizer or CO2 for these plants?

When I use aquasoil, I am hesitant to add fertilisers especially at the beginning. Aquasoils commonly leech nutritions to the water column at the beginning, and decaying fish food will leech some too. Shrimp soils also have certain amount of nutritions even tho not as much as normal aquasoils. Later on you can support them with additional root tabs and liquid fertilizer. Plants take some time to settle too. Dumping in too much nutrition would lead to unwanted algae growth.

 

I have never used co2 in my life. I know my plant limits that require co2 so I dont go for those options. co2 is usually good for plants, but probably not something ideal to start and balance for a newbie. Also good systems can be costy, and cheap DIY ones can be risky. 

If I were you, I would keep easy plants, learn about shrimp keeping  and hobby more. And skip the idea of trying co2 at least for now.

 

Just as a side note, you dont bury Java fern rhizomes to the ground. You attach them to the driftwood/rocks/etc like anubias/bucephalandra or similar to moss. I can't see how it is exactly located in the picture but just wanted to mention this to make sure.

[Beany1627]

Thank you again, I do have it burried but I will attach it to my piece of driftwood. Other than that I’ll just let it cycle and keep an eye on the nitrate cycle. 

[johnnyxxl]

On 5/17/2024 at 11:43 PM, Beany1627 said:

Yeah I’m definitely going to give it at least 4 weeks from what I’ve read. Let my plants really grow and flourish first. Luckily my local pet shop is family owned and all of their animals are from local breeders or just from them breeding in their tanks. I’m planning on getting Java moss and tie it to my drift wood as well as some hornwort but I’m not sure what else to add. 

You are so blessed, I have to drive an hour or more for mom and pop shops and they don't have local fish yet.  Hopefully I will get them there.  

[Lonkley]

You can have it on top so roots can grab hold, just don't bury it. Although it's easier to move it than worry about it. 

Your sword is probably way too big. They grow a couple feet. Plus they suck up nutrients in the soil. 

I would definitely get a floating planting like red root floaters or salvia. They will remove any nitrate that exists and the shrimp love hanging upside down in their roots. 

Also, if you're doing fishless,I think it's better to go to your lfs and buy ammonia. You have no idea how much or when ghost feeding is producing ammonia. Easier to measure out a few  ml with a dropper.

[EricksonAquatics]

On 5/18/2024 at 4:34 PM, Lonkley said:

Your sword is probably way too big. They grow a couple feet. Plus they suck up nutrients in the soil. 

Agreed, they do get big, but they’re easy to manage. If you stay on top of trimming you can get lots of enjoyment out of them in a small tank. 
And eventually when it gets too big you can pull it out if needed. But I wouldn’t be too worried about it for now!

[Beany1627]

Hey everyone. Just a little update and check in I know it hasn’t been long. My ammonia is reading 0.5mg/L. Nitrite is reading 1mg/L and nitrate is reading at about 20-30ish mg/L. I know I still have a while, but I just wanted to see if that’s headed in the right direction? GH and KH are still the same and pH is between 7.0-7.5. 

[EricksonAquatics]

Yep, those are totally normal parameters for a tank mid-cycle. You’re on the right track 🙂

[Airborne 82nd]

I've never had a planted tank. But I see a lot of photos like yours where the water looks very cloudy. Is that normal or just a bacteria bloom because your not fully cycled?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 5/19/2024 at 11:16 PM, Airborne 82nd said:

But I see a lot of photos like yours where the water looks very cloudy.

Probably a bacteria bloom, or, more likely in my opinion, dust from the aquasoil. Most of my tanks are planted in some fashion, and I’ve only ever really dealt with cloudy water from green water, or my blackwater tanks before I had internal filtration/water polishing filters. 
 

I bet over time, the dust will literally settle, and it shouldn’t be cloudy. Plants themselves should not make your water cloudy 

[johnnyxxl]

On 5/20/2024 at 1:16 AM, Airborne 82nd said:

I've never had a planted tank. But I see a lot of photos like yours where the water looks very cloudy. Is that normal or just a bacteria bloom because your not fully cycled?

My tank looks like tea but that is because it's a black water tank full of tannins.I have some algae for the Otto cats, and tons of plants 

[Beany1627]

Hello, I just took my water parameters after the tank has been cycling since my first post here. And I’m a little panicked / think something is wrong. Ammonia is reading at a very faint 0.5, kind of looked like it was at 0 but again faintly a 0.5. Nitrite read bright pink at an 10ppm and Nitrate read at an 80ppm. pH 7.0 and then gh and kh have read the same and stayed stable. Should I do a water change? Is this just the normal cycle progression. And also here’s an updated picture of the tank all settled down and clear, my driftwood is growing what I think is biofilm/ bacteria from what I’ve read. Thank you! (Don’t mind the tie job on the Java moss) 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Nitrite at 10ppm is a little wild, but assuming you have no inhabitants it’s nothing to worry about. Nitrite SHOULD skyrocket as the ammonia comes down, because ammonia is converted to nitrite,  but 10ppm is still a little wild. Over time, that nitrite will become nitrate. Assuming you don’t have any inhabitants I would just let the tank do its thing and give it time. 
 

Definitely biofilm growing on the wood. It’s harmless, although unsightly in my personal opinion. If you water change due to the high nitrite, you can suck it off the wood with the siphon or the tubing. You can also take the wood out and rinse/lightly scrub it off. 

Edited May 25 by AllFishNoBrakes

[lefty o]

i would just let it do its thing. if readings suddenly go wild, then do something.

[johnnyxxl]

When it converts to nitrate your plants will use it as a nitrogen source.