# Bad and good chemicals for shrimps



## MartialTheory (Dec 20, 2007)

I really want to add some ferst but I heard that there are some ferts and other chemicals that can hurt inverts. so far I have RCS

so far I have seachem's prime, flourish, and flourish excel but i'm afraid that it could harm them so i never used them yet.

can u guys give me a list of ferts and other chemicals that u used so far that are safe?


----------



## bencozzy (Jun 2, 2006)

everything should be fine to use be err on the side of caution and use everything at half dose when you first start using it.

some people say copper is bad for shrimp but thats not my experience which is mainly with SW shrimp and corals and i have high copper levels in my water and have never had problems keeping and breeding shrimps(copper plumbing).

nitrates should be kept to 80ppm or lower for neocardinia sp. and for cardinia sp. 40ppm or less, lower especially for the higher grade shrimps.

ive used with out problems: flourish, flourish root tabs, excel, kno3, regular dechlorinator and prime
chemicals that caused trouble: stress coat, and CSM+b


----------



## MartialTheory (Dec 20, 2007)

I was woundering about iron. I have some beautiful plants that I know needs iron but was afraid to put it in. 

Do u think iron would hurt RCS or CRS?


----------



## Purrbox (Jun 1, 2006)

As long as you dose within reason there should be minimal to no problems with Cherry Red Shrimp. I dose CSM+B, KNO3, KH2PO4, and K2SO4 with no visible ill effects in my RCS aquarium. They're breeding like mad. Other varieties of shrimp can be more sensitive and are probably more likely to have issues.


----------



## bencozzy (Jun 2, 2006)

if your really worried about it you could mix some laterite in to your substrate.


----------



## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

With Cherries, I wouldn't worry to much about anything you add. I had the most amount of breeding success with them in my high tech, EI dosed 75g tank. I added about 7ppm of KNO3, 1ppm of PO4 and 15ml of the standard (2 tablespoons in 500ml of water) CSM+B solution and 5ml of iron solution to my tank 3x a week. I typically kept my NO3 levels at 20+ ppm, PO4 at 2+ppm and who knows on the copper (from the CSM+B) and iron. The Cherries bred like crazy during this time. 

As has already been said, as long as you dose within reason, you should be fine and if you decide to go with some of the Caridina (Tigers, Crystal Reds, Bees, etc) species of shrimp, it is my understanding they are not as tolerant of higher NO3 levels as the Caridina (Cherries, Snowballs, etc) species.

I would worry more about CO2 usage than I would the ferts, assuming you are using CO2


----------

