# A couple of questions for rcs colonies



## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

I've got a rcs colony set up in a six gallon fluval edge. I've got some basic plants set up - mostly Java moss, flame moss and some elodea. Does anyone use flourish in thier shrimp tanks? If there is any risk to the shrimp I won't bother using it.

Also, I see online advertised a lot of "mineral" rocks for shrimp. I've also seen some mineral water additives designed for shrimp, with our lower mainland water is it necessary? The shrimp I have seem to be molting fine on thier own.

Thanks!


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## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

Well quite a few of my RCS seem to have berried and are molting .... so I'm not going to complicate things and keep things as is for now. It seems to be working. Thanks!


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

If you're ever worried about soft water, you can always buy some crushed coral. The mineral rocks apparently help, I was wondering the same thing about them. I think if I was going to bother, I'd just add some crushed coral to bump up the mineral content.

Oh and flourish is fine to use in a shrimp tank.


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## YumiChi (Mar 16, 2015)

I am not 100% sure, but I have heard flourish will melt your moss?


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

Flourish excel will if you overdose.. but not flourish which is just nutrients.


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## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

My first rcs babies hatched today! I'm going to hold off on mineral balls and flourish since things seem to be going well and I don't want to introduce any new variables.


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

I use salty shrimp GH/KH+ for RCS because Burnaby has really soft water. (the GH test kit pretty much change color after 1 drop of tester.) Softwater will cause molting problem unless you provide calcium rich diet.

I don't think you need to dose flourish because none of your plants are high demanding plats.


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## DunderBear (Nov 9, 2015)

outsider said:


> I use salty shrimp GH/KH+ for RCS because Burnaby has really soft water. (the GH test kit pretty much change color after 1 drop of tester.) Softwater will cause molting problem unless you provide calcium rich diet.
> 
> I don't think you need to dose flourish because none of your plants are high demanding plats.


Most of the GVA has soft water Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby, West Minister, Surrey etc it's just really pure you don't even need RO water for shrimp/discus here.


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## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

Another update - second batch of cherries hatched. The earlier batch are getting bigger and have started to color up red now! I've stopped feeding the baby shrimp powder food as it resulted in an explosion of planeria and hydra.


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## YumiChi (Mar 16, 2015)

_noob said:


> Another update - second batch of cherries hatched. The earlier batch are getting bigger and have started to color up red now! I've stopped feeding the baby shrimp powder food as it resulted in an explosion of planeria and hydra.


At one point planaria gave me a bad headache. I have sucked up at least 200lish planarias using a siphon. After that I dropped the No planaria bomb. It took me a long time to get my shrimp tank to recover...

How often do you feed them? If I were you... I will stop feeding them as long you have live plants in your tank. Maybe once a week only.


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