newbie here need help

[veggie]

Hi all i am a newbie just started abt a mth ago. I had bought a DYMAX IQ3 220mm (L) 170mm (W) 220mm (H). had abt 5cm of soils n a piece wood. I started out with just 5 tiger shrimps, 1 crown head crs, n 4 fire red. Which my buddy gave it to me. But in just 4 days i had bought 4 more bees, 1 golden & 3 grade B crs. So rite now i have 18 shrimps in my small little tank & i m still thinking of buying 3 more crs, is my tank overloading???

[knuui]

I just started having shrimps one month or so, no expert at all but Yes, I think your tank is overloading. Have you got your water parameter tested? I'm having a small tank as well and my experience by far is reduce the substrates (so increase water volume), use an external hanging filter (also increase water) and I got only a piece of wood. Bigger tanks are recommend for shrimps (I saw some said at least 10 gallon, but wow...), as water parameter are easier to control so I guess having more water is important, especially if you want to keep more shrimps.

[Shrimpnairf]

hello,
Let me throw in my few cents here, first i read your post and i think, all the shrimp you are describing to me are the same species, which means that they will interbreed with each other, so if you wish to keep your reds - red and your CRS's from turning a unslightly brown color not the parents but the young. It is my personal opinion that you should seperate breeds.

Now for the overloading of the tank. I you wish to keep such a small tank as a display then you will have to consider that your shrimp breed, they pee, they poo. your bacteria will eat these by products and produce plant food. Certain plants are good for absorbing high levels of nitrites like the banana plant. What you will need to consider is with more shrimp there will be need to increase bacteria levels, also increase in plant matter, fast growin plants like hornwort, duckweed, some bulbed plants. To increase bacteria level, i can make a few suggestions, but i dont know what your running. I would say add some filter floss to the back filter. you can even set up a refuse tank to increase bacteria count and keep all shrimp safe, im startin to blog on so if you have any question just ask?

[veggie]

wooh..... i still got a lot learn, anyway tks for the info from KNUUI & shrimpnairf. i will set up 1 more tank n seperate the crs from the rest. btw i just test my water PH level today it is 6.7 n the temp is arnd 25 to 26.