# Is it possible to keep healthy PLANTS and healthy SHRIMPS in a tank together?



## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

Hey guys, 

I know this may sound like a stupid question but I have kept a couple macro shrimps in my 10 G Planted tank. After I added a half dose of BA`s Plant Food Supplement, 1 of them died in a matter of a day. I added a half dose to see how the shrimp would react because I was informed that this supplement might have an effect on my shrimp- and it did. 
Is it possible to keep healthy plants with healthy shrimp? Can it be done? 
If you guys have any suggestions, please let me know.  

Thanks, Arya


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## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

Darnit, in the title I misspelled "shrimp" as "shrimps". 
Sorry guys, I'm a grammar Nazi.


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## Stephen (May 6, 2011)

Simply use co2 instead of any ferts. 
You really just need a decent bulb for lighting and co2.
I get tonnes of growth on my shrimp tank.

Seriously though shrimp hate additives to water don't do that.


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## Greg_o (Mar 4, 2010)

My CRS tank has basic low light plants like java moss and various floating plants, no CO2, no ferts. This is because CRS are sensitive. 

I keep less sensitive shrimps in my high tech (T5HO lights, pressurized CO2, daily ferts) tanks (amato aka amano, cherry, and tiger shrimps).

It will come down to what type of shrimps you want to keep.


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## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

Stephen said:


> Simply use co2 instead of any ferts.
> You really just need a decent bulb for lighting and co2.
> I get tonnes of growth on my shrimp tank.
> 
> Seriously though shrimp hate additives to water don't do that.


Gotcha!  I will look into a DIY co2 system, is it possible for me to use Seachem Flourish Excel instead? Will it affect the ph and etc?


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## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

Greg_o said:


> My CRS tank has basic low light plants like java moss and various floating plants, no CO2, no ferts. This is because CRS are sensitive.
> 
> I keep less sensitive shrimps in my high tech (T5HO lights, pressurized CO2, daily ferts) tanks (amato aka amano, cherry, and tiger shrimps).
> 
> It will come down to what type of shrimps you want to keep.


I have a 10 G tank with 2 11 W Fluorescent bulbs I picked up (from ikea, lol) at twenty-something hundred Kelvin. Recently, I had a HUGE behemoth Red Claw Shrimp which is a species of macro shrimp that I paid 10 bucks for and I was really starting to like him, I dosed with about a third a dosage of BA's plant food and he died about a day after, guess those guys are pretty sensitive too :S. The 1 other Red Claw Shrimp and my 1 ghost shrimp are still alive, I'm just afraid they will die of I dose regularly. I have a huge algae problem in my tank and its partially due to an imbalance of nutrients in the water, I have been informed. Because I haven't been dosing out of fear for my shrimp, the plants can't photosynthesize, so the algae steps in and eats everything.


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## Stephen (May 6, 2011)

unless you really look into the species of shrimp never put anything into the tank other then water haha.

Seriously I don't use excel on that tank at all. 
All you need for nice plants is co2 and light. Trust me.


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## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

Stephen said:


> unless you really look into the species of shrimp never put anything into the tank other then water haha.
> 
> Seriously I don't use excel on that tank at all.
> All you need for nice plants is co2 and light. Trust me.


What complicates things is that the folks at BA's 1 800 number told me that to kill off the massive amount of algae in my tank I would need to double dose the Seachem Excel daily for about a week for the algae to die. I will be sure to call back and ask if this will affect them, maybe I could set up a Q-tank for the shrimp, what do you think?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

MrTOTW said:


> What complicates things is that the folks at BA's 1 800 number told me that to kill off the massive amount of algae in my tank I would need to double dose the Seachem Excel daily for about a week for the algae to die. I will be sure to call back and ask if this will affect them, maybe I could set up a Q-tank for the shrimp, what do you think?


I wouldn't recommend it.

First of all, what kind of shrimp do you keep and what kind of algae are you experiencing? Algae can serve as excellent shrimp food.

I would also recommend DIY yeast co2 over excel.


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## MrTOTW (May 28, 2011)

solarz said:


> I wouldn't recommend it.
> 
> First of all, what kind of shrimp do you keep and what kind of algae are you experiencing? Algae can serve as excellent shrimp food.
> 
> I would also recommend DIY yeast co2 over excel.


Yes, it does make excellent shrimp food, but it grows to an extent that covers the glass in a matter of days and sits on top of my plant leaves very quickly, I'd say the 2 shrimp in my aquarium would have a huge surplus of food, and given the speed it's growing I don't think they'll ever catch up.

The shrimp in my tank are: 1 Ghost Shrimp and 1 Red Claw Shrimp (species of Macro shrimp),

As far as algae goes, I'm afraid I don't know what its called.
BUT, I can do one of two things, or perhaps both, I can describe the algae to you or I can take a picture of it.

I also have this annoying thing I have that grows in the glass of my aquariu,, its very lightly hued green and difficult to remove unless i scrape it off with my nail, no idea what that is.


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