Yea their cycled pretty good problem I had was I started off with tap water bc my tap water is pretty soft it’s actually soft enough but it’s not consistent enough for the shrimp I’ve been doing small water changes with ro water and switching to shrimp mineralizer. I actually pulled my crystal reds out of their tank completely drained it changed to bio substrate and re acclimated them now they seem pretty happy

These tanks have been running for a little over a month now with shrimp in them and like a week now half set up before I got them I think the main problem was ph swings I think I got a handle on them now I probably lost ten shrimp out of 70 in a month as a first timer lol but I gained more then that back with my snow ball shrimp have had like three set of babies so far which is weird in the same set same water as the rest so idk

@@Toolman83 I get it, my tap is pure pure water but at a ph of 6.2-6.8. 0 everything else but rather acidic. So far the plants and fish seem to be raising the ph. I’ve not done anything to adjust the ph and after a month in the tank with fish and plants no water changing, the ph went from 6.2 to more like 6.8 or 7. I’ve found my set up does better without water changes. Just don’t over feed and no need to vacuum. My one tank took almost 2 months to cycle but this 20 long just did it in like 3 weeks. 7 platy and 10 plants got it 0 ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates.

@@Toolman83 I took cheap old ghost shrimp and put them in a new tank. I can’t get an accurate count because of the Java moss but yesterday I counted 5 berried shrimp. That tanks maybe a month old as well. I haven’t even checked the water lol

@@Toolman83 I know the tendency is to try to keep it crystal clear, but my fish and shrimp all seem MUCH happier with the filth. My one tank, the only 20 high I got, you can’t see past maybe 3 inches into it lol looks like a cow pond water but the fish all are super active, no red gills and seem happy happy.