# Fertilizers and CRS?



## sai_dee (Mar 20, 2008)

I want to give a shot at crs but not sure if I should since my tanks are or will be heavily planted so I have to fertilize them. 

I've seen some people with high tech looking tanks with crs in them, so i'm thinking there's some luck out there.

Does any one here dose their crs tanks with ferts?


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

I have shrimp in my 5g tanks, I use a "lean" EI type dose/water change routine. The shrimp are fine w/ it. I have DIY CO2 in one of the tanks, I use low Excel dosing in the other one (tons of cherries in there).


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

CRS respond VERY poorly to Nitrate dosage so EI is pretty much out of the question since that is based on over-fertilizing to prevent a deficiency of any one nutrient. even when dosing "lean" nitrate you will still see a negative response from your shrimp because they are very nitrate sensitive. also you cannot dose too much CSM+B aka take element formula because that contains copper which kills any invertebrate if dosed in excess. 

honestly the only thing that is safe to dose in a CRS tank is phosphate, calcium and magnesium, which is all you really need to dose if you set up the tank properly. if you really want to go the way of the CRS I would set up a planted tank around plants that do not need heavy nutrients to do well such as, HC, mosses, liverworts, toninas, eiros plants that basically only need light and sufficient co2 to survive this will subsequently make your CRS very happy and your plants will to fine.

theres a difference from surviving and thriving some people are able to make CRS survive in a heavy fertilized tank but they are not thriving you will never see them breed or grow big in a heavy fert tank. they will just loose them little by little over a long period of time


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