Bees Out CRS In Tank Setup

[RichardChen]

I have a 45 gallon tank having a lot of juv Bumble Bees in it. I used HOB and UG filters with pebble substrate. The lighting is All-Glass 25W rapid start.

Last time I was in Houston I visited Tim ("Armthehomeless") fish tanks. I was impressed by his planted tank. I decided to get rid of Bees and get some Cherry Red Shrimps. Why CRS? because my research told me they are for beginners (like me) and they were started from Taiwan (like me, again.) Meanwhile I am waiting on the shrimp shipment and reading articles on internet about RCS and plants.

My question is, can I use the current setup to raise RCS? The pH from tap is fine (7.2). I didn't check hardness (should I? I heard water in Port Lavaca is hard.) Or will it be better for me to get rid of UGF and use plant substrate. I think I read it somewhere the plant substrate will modify the water parameters. Will it make the water too acidic and too soft for RCS?

About the lighting, 25W divided by 45 gallon is about 0.556 which is kind of low for planted tank, isn't it? I went to plantgeek.net to read their articles. It is a wonderful website. They classify plants into different category based on the lighting. Somehow they did not define the WPG for low, medium low, medium high, and high lighting (or did I miss the definition.) I have two Coralife 96W lights on top of the 125 gallon tank which generate so much heat, I only turn them on when I want to view the fish. Is 25W light enough for the medium low lighting plants? Where to buy and get honest advice about aqua plants?

I had better top asking questions before Fishbox send me a bill (ha ha ha.)
Thank you all.

[TaTeR ToT]

It's not enough light for anything aside from java fern, anubias, and java moss, if you want things like riccia, hc, dhg,even rotalla and hygro, your going to need more light.

I would go with t5 Ho like a tek 4 bulb or a Coralife 2bulb even.

As far as substrate goes, I would switch it for sand and use root tabs and excell, or straight planted substrate.
As for filtration I would say ditch what you have and get a canister, something like a 2217, or rena xp2 would be perfecting. Put a prefilter, ie, a little sponge over The intake so the shrimp don't get sucked up.

[sunkenmetal]

I also have gone with Cherry Red Shrimp. I have a 56 gallon tank that use to house two jack Dempsey’s they went to a new home to make room for the shrimp.

I am in the process of making my tank into a low-tech planted tank. I have some Hornwort floating around at the top of the tank and picked up a 30" 130watt Coral Life Freshwater Aqua light at City Pets for 70 bucks. I plan on adding some Java fern attached to some drift wood. I’m not sure what else to add.

For filtration I am using a filstar xp2 with a fluval edge prefilter on the intake to keep the shrimp lets from getting sucked into the filter.
Oh and Hornwort is messy messy messy stuff and grows like crazy.

[RichardChen]

Oh, I forgot to ask the fresh water aquarium salt. Will the existing fresh water aquarium salt in the water hurt the CRS? will it hurt plants?