Beneficial bacteria and fertilizer

ConorM

I just put bacterial additives into my tank to cycle it, and I was wondering how they will get enough food when I stock it. It is a 2 gallon and will contain live plants and 3-5 cherry (or similar) Shrimp. Will the shrimp produce enough ammonia to feed the bacteria? Some people on the interwebs have said they won't.

Byron

I'm not certain as to how much ammonia a shrimp produces, but whatever it is, it will be snapped up by the plants long before any bacteria get it. Live plants need ammonium as their source of nitrogen, and they will use ammonia fast.

Without fish to produce more waste as well as ammonia, you will likely have to use a liquid fertilizer that has nitrogen along with everything else needed by plants. CO2 (carbon) will also be in short supply.

Byron.

ConorM

Does seachem flourish have nitrogen? I don't have any, but it has been suggested to me a lot.

redchigh

It does have some, but I'm not sure if it has enough. Flourish comprehensive is great at filling in the gaps with what's usually produced by fish waste, but with only shrimp, it might be a little low in the macro nutrients (Nitrogen and Potassium especially.)

If you can, I'd look into PMDD (poor man's dupla drops) dosing. It's just as complete and easy, and nowhere as involved as the 'estimative index'. You dose it like flourish, once or twice a week.

Since you have to buy the chemicals (PMDD is a homemade fertiliser, you order the chemicals online and mix it yourself) it's extremely easy to just add a little more of the macro nutrients.
It's easy- there are recipes online that are comparable to flourish comprehensive.

google the terms in italic, and make a new post if you need help with PMDD. it's pretty simple.

ConorM

I did a bit more research and a lot of people have similar setups to mine. Their plants do fine with just shrimp, but I'll still switch to seachem flourish.