8.5g shrimp tank for a noob? - New to Planted Aquariums

saltyinterests · 01-31-2011, 01:41 PM

hi everyone. I'm a reef keeper, and I know very little about fresh water tanks. I have a nice little 8.5g rimless tank that I was thinking about trying to do a planted tank with shrimp in it. Would this be a hard tank to set up and maintain? Could I do it with a simple hob aquaclear filter? I don't really want to take on too much because my reef tanks take most of my "tank time", so I want to keep it simple. My brother keeps a planted tank, so I could ask him for some extra plants, but I have no clue about keeping fresh water shrimp, are they hard to keep?

HolyAngel · 01-31-2011, 01:59 PM

It wouldn't be hard to maintain at all, especially compared to a reef

That tank should do fine with an HOB, that's what I and numerous others are currently using ^^

Depending on the shrimp you wanna keep will depend on water parameters, red cherry shrimp will be fine in pretty much any tank/water as long as it's cycled and stays that way. CRS/CBS however need soft water, like distilled or RO, but that's it. Weekly water changes or so, maybe some flourish comprehensive or root tabs and call it a day

saltyinterests · 01-31-2011, 03:38 PM

so I don't really need to worry about calcium in the water for the shrimps shell development? they get all they need from food? I think my brother runs his tank somewhere around 7.0 ph (could be wrong, I'll ask again tonight) is that good for most shrimp? temp about 78? I'm still unsure about what shrimp I want. I like the blue shrimp, but the one's above are nice too, anyone have any suggestions?. Do I need to pick a target group or can I just try to keep the one with the most needs happy and forget about the rest? will some fight? will they pair up (and maybe dance

) if I get the right ones?
Thanks for the help guys, as you can see I don't really know where I'm going with this.

ms.alice · 02-01-2011, 05:42 AM

tip: don't use the RO/DI water you use for your reef. I wouldn't overmuch worry about the water-hardness unless you have really hard or really soft tap water.

I would worry more about keeping the plants (but I'm admittedly no shrimp expert)! make sure your lighting is good and you use nutrient rich substrate. You might be able to get away with using liquid carbon...seachem flourish makes some.

Get some ghost or amano shrimp. I think the translucent ones are fun because you can see when they're pregnant