Advice for my 10g

[Lucky]

Hi everyone. I am looking for some advice with my 10 gallon tank. Currently, the tank houses my colony of bloody mary shrimp and my breeding colony of guppies (10 guppies total). I remove the fry when I find them and put them into different tanks to grow out in. 

The 10 gallon is my main tank and is located right next to the desk I spend all day at so I am always looking for ways to make it better. Currently, there are a lot of live plants (anubias, buce, crypts, java fern, and bolbitis) and I noticed that while they're not wilting, they're also not thriving. I know most of the plants are slow growing but in some cases I'm not sure there is really any growth. Some of the plants are also showing signs of distress like discolorations but these are not common in the tank. 

I generally test my water every 2-3 weeks and every time I do, I find that the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are always at 0 or close to it. I know that this is a great for the fish but the lack of nitrates in the tank is also probably contributing to my plant issues (there are root tabs near the root feeders so they are getting nutrients that way). I know the common sense solution here is to just add in some easy green and use that to bring the nitrates up but I was also thinking that my lack of ammonia and nitrate build up may mean that I can stock my tank a little more. 

I decided to test my idea by slowly adding some of the largest fish from my grow out tanks to my 10 gallon. I also increased food roughly proportional to what I added. As I was doing this I was frequently testing the water to monitor for any sudden spikes but my readings stayed very low (possibly because of how slowly I was increasing the fish load). After about 3 weeks I had added 10 fish in and was feeding much more than before and still my ammonia and nitrogen levels were basically undetectable. 

I removed the guppies that were not part of my original breeding colony but now I am wondering if it would be safe to add in a school of 6 panda corys. Everything I have heard suggests that a 10g should not be able to stock guppies, shrimp, and corys but based on the fish load I had in the tank, I believe I might be able to safely add in a small school. Am I falling into a rookie mistake here or do you think I can try adding in my second species of fish? If I don't add in the corys should I increase the food I'm feeding my breeding colony since I know it is safe? Should I just use fertilizers with my weekly water change and keep everything else constant?

[ScottieB]

Well it sounds like your doing a lot of things right! You’ve got fish happy enough to make more fish and that’s a testament to what your doing. 
I suspect in a well established tank like yours ammonia and nitrite will continue to remain to undetectable unless theres some drastic change to the overall tank. You may worn to double check the test results, 0 nitrates would be tough to get. 

let me try to address the questions:

Rookie mistake? No, perfectly acceptable in an established tank with good bio filter, plants and healthy fish to consider a couple of Cory’s. 

And yes, try dosing easy green for the plants. One pump/once a week, your plants will thank you.

The fish sound like they are doing fine so there’s no need to increase feeding just to add more nitrates. Assuming the numbers are accurate, keep in mind your tests are giving you a Ball Park, moment to moment snapshot of the water. So try not to just treat or chase numbers. 

happy fish keeping!

[Lucky]

9 minutes ago, ScottieB said:

Well it sounds like your doing a lot of things right! You’ve got fish happy enough to make more fish and that’s a testament to what your doing. 
I suspect in a well established tank like yours ammonia and nitrite will continue to remain to undetectable unless theres some drastic change to the overall tank. You may worn to double check the test results, 0 nitrates would be tough to get. 

let me try to address the questions:

Rookie mistake? No, perfectly acceptable in an established tank with good bio filter, plants and healthy fish to consider a couple of Cory’s. 

And yes, try dosing easy green for the plants. One pump/once a week, your plants will thank you.

The fish sound like they are doing fine so there’s no need to increase feeding just to add more nitrates. Assuming the numbers are accurate, keep in mind your tests are giving you a Ball Park, moment to moment snapshot of the water. So try not to just treat or chase numbers. 

happy fish keeping!

Thanks for the advice. I just tested for nitrates again and its definitely showing at or very close to 0. I also checked and the test kit doesn't expire until 2022. My tap water has crazy high nitrates so I use distilled water mixed with seachem equilibrium (crushed coral in the tank for hardness). I do 2.5g water change every week. Since there is no nitrate coming from the water changes would that explain the reading. I can try to find a different test kit tomorrow and take some water into the pet store for free testing if the reading still seems impossible.

[ScottieB]

So far so good! If you use the same test kit on your tap water I’m assuming your getting a much higher reading? That might validate your test kit somewhat.

It also might not be that sensitive. Not knowing the specifics of the kit, If your Nitrates are 10 maybe that’s picking it up? It’s not impossible that the number is close to zero but unlikely in an established tank. Although considering the lack of plant growth and assuming you don’t have algae problems nitrates might be too low to register. Sounds like a good problem to have though! 
 

Either way, you could use your higher nitrate, conditioned tap water, easy green or more frequent feedings to aid plant growth. Also adding more fish and thus more food and more fish waste could do the trick? 

[Jeff]

Do you dose anything for your plants? Potassium? Easy Green? 

[FrozenFins]

I would dose easy green as it sounds like your not. Nitrates should be up a little more for the plants to feed off of. If your looking for plants that will grow under any conditions heres  a few:

-Hornwort

-Moss

I wouldn't add corydoras as they will probably eat the shrimp (unless you removed them, which  I dont remember reading). All though Pygmy Corys may be okay with the shrimp

[Kirsten]

IDK I think cory might be overkill here. Both guppies and shrimp are great scavengers as it is. I'd start using easy green to help out your plants and go easy on the water changes for a bit. Still test regularly to keep an eye on things, but you may be able to go longer between water changes if nitrates are at 0.

If you're hankering for a little more action in the tank, I'd go for a mystery snail. They'll also clean up and they'll also make a little more poop.

[Mr_Manifesto]

Corys and Shrimp are going to be competing for the same food.  Also Corys can and will eat baby shrimp (if you have any).   I have done this Cory (bronze) & Shrimp (blue dream) combo in a 20L and eventually, over time, there ended up being no more shrimp.  I'm sure you could do it, but feel like you might end up messing the balance you have going at the moment.

[Lucky]

4 hours ago, ScottieB said:

So far so good! If you use the same test kit on your tap water I’m assuming your getting a much higher reading? That might validate your test kit somewhat.

It also might not be that sensitive. Not knowing the specifics of the kit, If your Nitrates are 10 maybe that’s picking it up? It’s not impossible that the number is close to zero but unlikely in an established tank. Although considering the lack of plant growth and assuming you don’t have algae problems nitrates might be too low to register. Sounds like a good problem to have though! 
 

Either way, you could use your higher nitrate, conditioned tap water, easy green or more frequent feedings to aid plant growth. Also adding more fish and thus more food and more fish waste could do the trick? 

I use the same kit to test the tap water and it has come back with very high readings. I'm going to take some water over to the pet store near my house just to get someone with more experience to double check my work.

Right now I'm leaning toward adding in fertilizer.

Thanks again for all of the help with my tank.

[Lucky]

@Jeff @James Black As of now I don't dose anything. I have root tabs in the substrate near my root feeding plans but the water column feeders have been neglected. I am leaning toward Easy Green right now but I am a little concerned with using a weekly fertilizer since I feel like doing smaller, more frequent dosing would be better for creating a stable environment.

@Kirsten @Mr_Manifesto Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it the more I feel like my idea to add in corys might not be the best move. I would love to see a new species and I'm sure if I was attentive and on top of testing my water I could do it safely but one of the reasons I love my tank is because it is pretty stress free and having to worry about whether or not I'm overstocked might add some stress to my hobby. I think what I'm going to do is wait until I eventually buy a bigger tank before adding in Corys. I might move to a new apartment in a few months and if I do I am hoping to get a 40 breeder or at least a 20 gallon maybe even both. In the meantime I will focus on my guppies and try to find ways to breed them into a hardier strain.

I really appreciate all the advice you guys have given me. Thanks to everyone for sharing your insights on my situation.

[FrozenFins]

35 minutes ago, Lucky said:

@Jeff @James Black As of now I don't dose anything. I have root tabs in the substrate near my root feeding plans but the water column feeders have been neglected. I am leaning toward Easy Green right now but I am a little concerned with using a weekly fertilizer since I feel like doing smaller, more frequent dosing would be better for creating a stable environment.

@Kirsten @Mr_Manifesto Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it the more I feel like my idea to add in corys might not be the best move. I would love to see a new species and I'm sure if I was attentive and on top of testing my water I could do it safely but one of the reasons I love my tank is because it is pretty stress free and having to worry about whether or not I'm overstocked might add some stress to my hobby. I think what I'm going to do is wait until I eventually buy a bigger tank before adding in Corys. I might move to a new apartment in a few months and if I do I am hoping to get a 40 breeder or at least a 20 gallon maybe even both. In the meantime I will focus on my guppies and try to find ways to breed them into a hardier strain.

I really appreciate all the advice you guys have given me. Thanks to everyone for sharing your insights on my situation.

I would suggest easy green like you mentioned above. I don't see why more frequent yet smaller doses of easy green would be a problem, but I'm wondering why you dont want to use weekly dosing? I weekly dose with my aquariums and have had no problems.

[Lucky]

2 hours ago, James Black said:

I would suggest easy green like you mentioned above. I don't see why more frequent yet smaller doses of easy green would be a problem, but I'm wondering why you dont want to use weekly dosing? I weekly dose with my aquariums and have had no problems.

I might not explain it well but I feel like with weekly dosing I'm rapidly adding a lot of nutrients to the tank and then slowly they are getting used up. Because of this my water parameters from the beginning to the end of the week would show some significant swings compared to the smaller daily cycle that would happen if I dosed every day.

[Mr_Manifesto]

On 1/15/2021 at 6:11 PM, Lucky said:

I might not explain it well but I feel like with weekly dosing I'm rapidly adding a lot of nutrients to the tank and then slowly they are getting used up. Because of this my water parameters from the beginning to the end of the week would show some significant swings compared to the smaller daily cycle that would happen if I dosed every day.

Look at it like this.   Everyday your plants are going to consume a certain amount of nutrients.  If there is a bunch of nutrients in the tank, it'll take what it needs.... then the next day.... then the next day.... etc. etc.   

Picture the plant is a person and the nutrients it needs is one bottle of water, daily.   Everyday that 'person' is going to go to the fridge and drink one bottle of water.   it doesn't matter if there is 1 bottle in the fridge or 100 gallons in there.   its still going to drink 1 bottle.   Now, what you are trying to do is try to put that bottle in the fridge everyday before the 'person' drinks it, which is possible, but trickier.  The downside is that you might not be giving it what it needs, you might be only supplying half a bottle or 2/3 or 3/4, etc.  Now that 'person' is going to go thirsty.   The other side is you're giving too much and you'll end up with the extra 'water' in the fridge anyway.  So.  I personally would stock the fridge every week and let them do their thing.   Hope this analogy helps