Should I add cherry shrimp?

[Jayden Gomez]

About 3 weeks ago, I setup my 10 gallon tank which is my first tank for about ~1.5years, so I kinda forgot some stuff. It is very heavily planted aquarium, dosing beneficial bacteria weekly since day one, R/O water with added minerals to 6.8ph, 80ppm kh, 75 ppm gh. I dose a easy green twice a week, 1.5ml iron, 4-6ppm potassium once a week. No lifestock, just plants. I've had absolutely zero ammonia and nitrites for the first two weeks, and 0-5ppm nitrates. The past week, I've got 0.5ppm ammonia, 2ppm nitrites, 0ppm nitrates. And note that ammonia and nitrites are very rapidly decreasing. Has my tank really cycled that fast? I've only done one water change per 1-2 weeks besides 3 in the first week and I soon want to slow down to once every 3 or 6 months. I'm starting to get algae on my plants and biofilm on my wood. I really want to add red cherry shrimp and need the nitrates, but kind of scared I'm going to kill them someway despite me having good water parameters for them. What do I do?

Edited July 20 by Jayden Gomez

[Lonkley]

If you have ammonia and nitrites you don't have good water parameters. It should be 0.

[Lennie]

You should start the cycle by having an ammonia source in there at the first place, otherwise it will just read 0 unless you have a tap with ammonia or just very low numbers due to decaying organics

You should add ammonia source like ghostfeeding or dr tims product, read 1.5-2mgL ammonia and start cycle this way. Once both ammonia and nitrites drop to zero and you read only nitrates, you are ok. It wont just sit all alone and cycle really, and dosing beneficial bacteria wont do much as there is no food (ammonia) available at the first place for them to start going on If you didnt dose

Edited July 20 by Lennie

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Shrimp need a well established, seasoned tank to thrive. Give it a couple of months, let the tank become extremely stable, let it grow algae and biofilms, and you should have a much better, easier, more fun, and more enjoyable experience 

[lefty o]

3 weeks in, really is not long enough for shrimp.