Advice for new sakura/cherry tank

I noticed my shrimp don't do too well in my community tank so I will set up a shrimp only tank. Right now I have a 2ft tank, a sponge filter and driftwood with java moss. I still need to get substrate and some other plants before it's set up.

1. Any suggestions on which substrate I should go for? My community tank uses fine Sudo sand (for my corydoras) so should I use that again or should I consider soil or gravel? Is it necessary to go for ADA or Gex soil?

2. Are these Seachem products safe for inverts? Prime, Flourish and Excel? Because I dose these on a regular basis.

3. I don't intend to get a fan or chiller. I read that sakura and cherry shrimp can tolerate slightly higher temps than other shrimp, is this true?

4. Lastly, how often should I do water changes and how much to change?

Originally Posted by houiej

I noticed my shrimp don't do too well in my community tank so I will set up a shrimp only tank. Right now I have a 2ft tank, a sponge filter and driftwood with java moss. I still need to get substrate and some other plants before it's set up.

1. Any suggestions on which substrate I should go for? My community tank uses fine Sudo sand (for my corydoras) so should I use that again or should I consider soil or gravel? Is it necessary to go for ADA or Gex soil?

2. Are these Seachem products safe for inverts? Prime, Flourish and Excel? Because I dose these on a regular basis.

3. I don't intend to get a fan or chiller. I read that sakura and cherry shrimp can tolerate slightly higher temps than other shrimp, is this true?

4. Lastly, how often should I do water changes and how much to change?

Hello Houiej,
1. If you are keeping only cherry/fire red shrimps, and don't intend to plant any plants, you can make do with any inert substrate. If you want to plant something in the future, or plans to keep CRS or other shrimps, you may want to consider getting ADA or GEX soil. These substrate does lower the PH. Very tedious to change substrate in the future if you have a change of plans.

2. I have used Flourish and Excel, not prime, on my 3ft planted tank full of cherry/fire red shrimps with no impact. Since you have a 2ft tank, you may want to moderate the amount initially. Too much of anything can be bad.

3. Yup. My cherry/fire red have live rather high temp tank of up to 31 degree. No fan, chiller. They have also experience low and high PH from 5.5 to 8.5 when some of them moved to my sulawesi tank. Multiplied in both circumstances.

4. If you are not feeding much, and have plants and not too overstocked, a little water change of 10% weekly will do. A 1ft tank I have given away to a lady only has water change every trip I make to her house, say 4months? It is full of shrimps multiplying there.
STHH

your cherries can survive at pH8.5?

Yup... They survived in ph 8.0 and multiplied alot. I moved them to the planted tank later, at ph5.5 and they survive and multiplied even more.

Originally Posted by STHH

Hello Houiej,
1. If you are keeping only cherry/fire red shrimps, and don't intend to plant any plants, you can make do with any inert substrate. If you want to plant something in the future, or plans to keep CRS or other shrimps, you may want to consider getting ADA or GEX soil. These substrate does lower the PH. Very tedious to change substrate in the future if you have a change of plans.

4. If you are not feeding much, and have plants and not too overstocked, a little water change of 10% weekly will do. A 1ft tank I have given away to a lady only has water change every trip I make to her house, say 4months? It is full of shrimps multiplying there.
STHH

Hi, thanks for your replies.

I am considering a low tech set up with plants like a moss carpet with a few types of nana so perhaps wouldn't need a fantastic substrate like ADA or Gex. But do shrimp prefer sand or gravel?

As for water changes, I use Prime as my water conditioner and I do not age my water. I just mix Prime into the new tap water and pour it in. If I do a 10% water change per week, would that shock the shrimp in terms of water temperature and ph level?

Originally Posted by houiej

Hi, thanks for your replies.

I am considering a low tech set up with plants like a moss carpet with a few types of nana so perhaps wouldn't need a fantastic substrate like ADA or Gex. But do shrimp prefer sand or gravel?

As for water changes, I use Prime as my water conditioner and I do not age my water. I just mix Prime into the new tap water and pour it in. If I do a 10% water change per week, would that shock the shrimp in terms of water temperature and ph level?

Small pea size gravel is easier to vacuum than sand. Cherry live in all such substrate with no complaints.