New and I need help!

[InSoOverMyHead]

I got one of those deathtrap Ecosphere things but I decided to buy a tank for the little shrimp. I thought they were Red Cherry Shrimp but they totally are not, the guy at the fish store was misinformed and so was I. Creating a saltwater environment for these critters should be easy for me. I'm planning on heading to the ocean and filling my tank halfway with the saltwater and then the rest of the way with distilled water. Is this advised? Its a 2.5 gallon tank with a 7.5 W heater and a filter. I have 2 inches of gravel and an overhead LED light. Also, I got some Texas Holey Rock in there. The ecosphere came with a little plant and I'm going to put that plant in there.

Fish store guy told me I could easily put a guppy in there with them, but apparently the guppy is just going to feast on the shrimp. Guess that's not a good plan. Also he told me that I could put the fish and shrimp into the tank 2 days from now. Reddit is telling me 3 weeks.

Basically I have no clue what I'm doing and I need some help please!

[Varanus]

Well given you are mixing in actual seawater you may not need to wait as long for the tank to cycle, but I would still wait until you see some signs of algae growing before you put the shrimp in, just to be safe (and add some Prime or other water conditioner just in case the seawater is contaminated). There is no need to hurry as despite how awful the ecospheres are the shrimp can still easily survive in them for months.

And yeah, more than being a predation hazard I don't think a guppy would survive in brackish water either. Thanks to it being such a low nutrient environment all you can really keep with supershrimp are trumpet or nerite snails (the latter only if there is a lot of algae available) and in some setups small hermit crabs.

But it sounds like your setup should work fine once you are sure the tank is cycled.

[InSoOverMyHead]

Thanks V! That means so much to hear you say the seawater was a fine idea. I was afraid I was going to get someone telling me that it's going to kill the shrimp cause its from the Atlantic and not the Pacific or something. Hey so, I just did my first parameters check tonight. I'm just going to post them here instead of making a new thread.

I decided not to put my shrimp buddies into the tank until further cycling. Man am I glad cause I just checked my parameters:
Salinity: ~1.006
pH: ~7.0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
KH: ~40ppm
GH: >180ppm
Temp: 71.1 degF
I'm guessing I need to lower the hardness quite a bit for Opae U'la. My plan was to dissolve some aquarium salt into some distilled water. I have a 2.5 gal tank and need to raise the salinity to 1.010 - 1.020 range. I'm going to do a 25% water change in two days with 1/2 a tablespoon of the salt and see where that gets me. If you visit r/shrimptank you'll already have seen this, but here's a shot of the setup

I just added some algae! The good guys at the fish store gave me some java fern and java moss. Told me to keep the lights on all night so that I can get the tank good and algaey. Is this too much flora for a tank of my size? I want to get a nice distribution of algae so hopefully not!
Any suggestions for my Opae U'la cycling? Should I add more conditioner? Thanks in advance, all of you were super helpful last time!

[Varanus]

Raising the salinity a bit would be good, but why do you think you need to lower the hardness? If anything a PH of 7.00 or higher is recommended.

And Java Fern and Java Moss are freshwater plants, as far as I know they will eventually die in brackish water. There are very few plants that do well in supershrimp tanks, Mustafa's macroalgae and moss are among the few proven ones.

And no more conditioner should be necessary unless you have ammonia problems.

[InSoOverMyHead]

Right, I knew there was something I forgot to add in my parameters! Ammonia! My ammonia level is at ~0.25 - should I be concerned about this? And V, I was referring to the the GH being so high - does that not matter? I really wanna add the shrimp in, but I wanna give them perfect conditions, bless their little hearts

[Varanus]

GH isn't mentioned on Mustafa's site so I don't know, but someone else here may be able to chime in.

As for the ammonia, ideally you don't want any to be detectable before you put the shrimp in. Try waiting a week or two and see if it goes down. Since you used seawater chances are anything in that water that can't handle the reduced salinity of brackish water will have died and decayed, producing some ammonia. You need to give the bacteria in the tank time to reproduce until they are numerous enough to process the excess ammonia.

[Mustafa]

Don't worry about the GH or any parameters really. And take those plants out, they're just going to die. And under no circumstances add "aquarium salt" to the water. If anything you need "reef salt" for marine aquariums. They are not the same thing. And I think it's safe to say that you should stop listening to the fish store guys...they clearly have no idea what they're talking about.

And guppies can be acclimated to brackish and even to saltwater, but they're most likely going to harass the shrimp to death or at the very least eat their larvae so you won't have any reproduction.

My recommendation is to just sit back and relax after increasing the salinity a little bit (i've kept mine at 1.008 SG and they were find and bred...that's not too far off where you are). If you follow the Petshrimp instructions and the info on this website and forum everything will be fine. You really don't have to do anything. Just wait until the first surface algae show up and then your tank is ready. While you're waiting and doing nothing, take LOTS of time to read this forum.

[InSoOverMyHead]

The shrimp are in the tank!

I will be posting a short video of the little guys in their home. I got to see all four running around and starting their merry shrimp adventures. It's a bit removed from their destined tank date of December 25th, but I'm glad I got the water just right for them. I saw them running up and down and all around the tank so I turned the heater on and it seemed to quiet them down. The heater is off now and the water is a balmy 69.2 degrees. I'm so happy for my shrimp!

I hope they like their new home!

[Mustafa]

Congrats! Where is the video?