Shrimp Tank Beginner! Need some help and tips

[Jynn]

I'm a big fan of black with a planted tank.   If your natural tap water is a higher PH, maybe consiter a buffering substrate like fluval shrimp stratum, if youre already where you wanna be,   and would like to do more plants later, flourite black capped with caribsea tahitian moonsand is my usual go-to.   Plenty of nutrients for the plants and the moon sand is really glittery and attractive.

 

If you plan to stick with easy care rhizome plants like anubias or java ferns, plain black gravel or any black sand will do.    If you go pure sand, make sure to keep it shallow (under an inch) or get some burrowing snails like malaysian trumpets to prevent anaerobic bacteria buildup.

[Jorge_]

15 hours ago, Mr. F said:

Black looks nice with RCS. Black sand is my favorite. Lots of users on here use black blasting sand from the hardware store. It's cheap and looks nice.

I might consider it... I think it would look really nice. Would I just rinse it in water just like I would with other substrates?

 

[Jorge_]

13 hours ago, Jynn said:

I'm a big fan of black with a planted tank.   If your natural tap water is a higher PH, maybe consiter a buffering substrate like fluval shrimp stratum, if youre already where you wanna be,   and would like to do more plants later, flourite black capped with caribsea tahitian moonsand is my usual go-to.   Plenty of nutrients for the plants and the moon sand is really glittery and attractive.

 

If you plan to stick with easy care rhizome plants like anubias or java ferns, plain black gravel or any black sand will do.    If you go pure sand, make sure to keep it shallow (under an inch) or get some burrowing snails like malaysian trumpets to prevent anaerobic bacteria buildup.

Any plants recommended? I already have marimo, java moss, java fern, and anubias. I might switch to black sand or the caribsea sand, both look really nice! Would the otos eat it? I dont want them to be ingesting it and ending up dying. So any plants with those will be good

[Mr. F]

Yeah, make sure you rinse any inert substrate really well with cold water only. The only kind you're not gonna wash is active Aquasoil and the like. Make sure you read the bag tho, it should tell you what to do.

Also, no. Nothing will eat the sand. They will be fine.

[Mr. F]

If you're going with sand it'll be hard to plant certain plants. Swords do okay in sand. Rhizome plants do pretty good too but you can attach those to rock or driftwood. I would start simple, it's easy to go overboard with plants!

[Jynn]

3 hours ago, Jorge_ said:

Any plants recommended? I already have marimo, java moss, java fern, and anubias. I might switch to black sand or the caribsea sand, both look really nice! Would the otos eat it? I dont want them to be ingesting it and ending up dying. So any plants with those will be good

 

 

Depends on how much effort you wanna put into it.   If you wanna stick with easy care low light plants, most cryptocoryne species are really easy care,  anarcharis, water wisteria, Anubias, Ive got rotalla that does fine in low light as well.