Thinking About A Tank

[snazy]

Sweet! So I've got the stocking planned out, but do you think a small tank like that is worth cycling or testing the water? I heard anything under five gallons is hard to keep control of.

Absolutely, you need to cycle it, fishless cycle is the best way to go. Otherwise you could be facing 2 times 90% water changes daily for 2 months to keep the fish alive, not necessarily healthy because the ammonia and eventual nitrItes will sky rocket in no time in such a small tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Agreed. Cycle it. If you already have a tank, steal a bit of material and put that into the filter in the small tank, and you could fully cycled shortly. Before getting red cherry shrimp, which can be pricy, I'd get some ghost shrimp first and see how they fair. Once you are confident in the tank, you can switch over to the cherrys... The ghost shrimp could then be moved into another tank, or left as they are. Maybe 2 ghost shrimp to start.

 

[Blitz]

Alright thanks!

One more question....
Do I have to make it a planted tank for shrimp? Can I just have regular aquarium gravel and then a couple of Java Moss balls?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Planted is best, I believe. A few java moss balls and some java fern would be all you would need. The tank isn't that big, so you could have it that planted. ;-)

 

[Blitz]

Meaning I need planted aquarium substrate... Okay, that's fine I guess. Would I just vacuum it up while doing water changes with the gravel vacuum like normal?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You don't NEED planted aquarium substrate for those plants! That's why I suggested those - java moss and java fern.

Nothing really needed. The java fern and moss can be tied on to wood, rocks, etc. and just dropped into the tank. There's really not much more needed than that. In fact, having a good substrate would be a waste, since they both prefer NOT to be in the substrate!

Anything will be fine. Go with what you have or can get cheaply.

 

[Questions?]

you wouldnt need substrate if you have hava fern and java moss, since java fern needs to have flow over there rhizomes and java moss can be tied to things, or left floating