Should I 'dirty Up' A New Tank For Cherry Shrimp?

[Gvilleguy]

Okay, peeps, major update here. I could not keep the temp on that 6.6 gallon stable. The baby glofish / danio hybrid (it is definitely both) has been moved to an insert in my 40 gallon tank and doubled in size. Doing well. I decommissioned the 6.6 gallon.
 
The major news is that my source for cherry shrimp in town is converting to salt tanks, and he wanted to completely sell his entire cherry shrimp 10 gallon setup. What a find!! For $50US I got an established 10 gallon colony with approximately 30 to 35 mostly young shrimp. Amazing luck there to get an entire tank like that. I have had the tank for almost 2 weeks and the shrimp appear to be doing just fine. I have 2 females carrying eggs under their tails (1 and 3 days old), and several other females with saddles. This makes me feel like they are satisfied with the current environment.
 
However, I wanted to share my stats just to see what you think:
1. Substrate is entirely crushed coral. Why? Tap water in Greenville is pH 6.0 with KH = zero. I tested the tank pH and it is 7.8.
2. Filter = large sponge filter. Seems to work quite well.
3. Cover = 2 pieces of driftwood plus clumps of java moss
4. Other stats: Temp 78F/25.5C; ammonia = 0; nitrite = 0; nitrate = 5-10; pH = 7.8; TDS = 115 (I have an electronic measuring tool)
 
Thoughts?
 
I will share some pictures once I get a chance to upload them.

 

[Mamashack]

Lucky find!!!
Crushed coral elevates the pH  (and TDS) by increasing the buffering capacity i.e. carbonate and bicarbonate which stabilises the pH and stops pH dips and swings. It may need replacing at some point tho no idea how long it will last as I've never used it. 
Cherry type shrimp prefer a slightly alkaline environment so that will be why the substrate is all coral - did you test the KH of the tank too?
 
You may want to reduce the temperature slowly to less than 21°C as the higher temps encourage bacterial growth (not the beneficial type) and leave the shrimp susceptible to infections. I know some people who have their tanks as low as 18°. Personally I can't get mine much below 20° even with fans blowing across the tank - which means I have to top-up every other day.
 
You might also want to gradually increase the TDS to nearer 200 as some shrimp have problems moulting at lower TDS.
Might be worth getting a GH kit which gives an idea how much calcium and magnesium is in there as a whole number called dGH - TDS tells you everything that is dissolved in there but doesn't indicate what exactly it is - could be nitrates - could be anything dissolved in the water really so the GH is a better indicator of hardness tbh and ideally should be 7+ for Neocaridina shrimp types (Cherry). 
 
What are you planning to use for water changes? Tap-water or demineralized RO water?
I use RO so I know there's nothing untoward present in the water that I can't test for such as metals etc. but it does need to have the minerals added to support the shrimp. 
 
Sponge filters are great as they are shrimplet safe too.
Good luck with the berried and saddled females - it's so exciting to watch them develop and when you see the first baby shrimplet it's such an amazing feeling!

 

[Gvilleguy]

Thanks for replying, Mamashack! Yes, the crushed coral is a must here. Our source tap water is 6.0 pH and zero KH / GH. Not good for shrimp. I have a large bag of crushed coral to slowly swap in as needed if I notice tank stats destabilizing.

I still have two berried females, but last night I noticed a tiny shrimp on the glass! So a female did have babies at some point that I missed. Or else right before I got the tank.

The tank has a LOT of little creatures swimming around that are little white specs. I need to get one under a microscope and try to figure out what they are. (they are not shrimp)

Next steps for me:
1. I will try to slowly lower the temp a few degrees this week and see if I can approach 21C.
2. I will test the KH/GH of the tank...I have the API test solutions for both.
3. For water changes I plan to use my tap water. The person I bought from said he just used tap water for years and did not have trouble. (and we have the same tap water source)

Questions:
1. How often to feed? I have been putting in algae flakes (very small circles) 3 times per week. The 30 shrimp consume the flakes within several hours
2. How often to water change and how much? 25%?
3. When cleaning should I just siphon off water and not vac the actual substrate? I don't want to suck up any shrimp

 

[Mamashack]

Sounds like you are doing ok if you've got berried females and babies in there.
To answer your questions:
1. I feed mine only twice a week, but as long as they are clearing it you shouldn't have any water issues. The only food I know of that can be left in without concern is snowflake food, but you only need a tiny bit as it expands, breaks up and drifts about the tank with the flow.
I also add Bacter AE and Beta-G with each weekly water change - bacter for biofilm growth stimulation and beta-g for improved immunity. 
 
2. From what I've seen people tend to do between 10 and 25% water changes - personally I do 10% weekly to refresh the minerals unless there are water issues, but I find 10% fine for my tank - the deciding factor for me being the nitrate level which I like to keep below 10 ppm.
 
3. If you've got babies I'd avoid doing a gravel vac for now - if it's a shrimp only tank there shouldn't be much muck to shift anyway and it sounds like they are eating all the food you add.
 
Would be nice to see your set-up and some of the new occupants - post pictures when you can

 

[Gvilleguy]

With Christmas activity I have not had much tinker time, but things do appear stable. I am excited to have this tank and anxious to share things as they happen! One female gave birth, another female has eggs with eye spots, and a third female is now berried! The "critter" population is exploding (and I'm not talking about the baby shrimp). I still do not know what they are, but I assume that might indicate too much food. So I am going to cut back to two days per week on the algae chips. I am lowering the tank temperature 1 degree F per day. Have gone from 78 down to 76 so far.

 

[Mamashack]

Try to get a picture of the critters and post for ID - some are OK like copepods but others like planaria can be detrimental to baby shrimp I hear. 
 
I've managed to get mine to around 20°C/68°F by leaving the tank lid open and turning the heater off altogether. I've realised that the lowest setting is 20°C and altho I hadn't seen it on until just recently it had obviously been kicking in and heating the tank back up to around 21-22°C. 
I'll probably upset pure-line peeps by saying this but I've put all my Neo shrimp in the one tank. I only had a couple of white pearl females left in the 19L tank - the rest having been wiped out by a bacterial infection. These last 2 seem to be quite large and sturdy compared to the others so I think they may be immune to whatever it was. 
They are now in the 30L with the orange sakura shrimp - both are saddled so it will be interesting to see what the babies look like if they manage to breed with the orange males. Got some orange babies too altho they are almost transparent still but colouring up as time goes by. 

 

[Gvilleguy]

I posted a new thread with tank pictures of the critter population.