Cherry Shrimp to Community Tank - Water Changes Query

I've read quite a bit about cherry shrimp care and in all instances I've been told that they do not like fluctuations in water parameters.

I have a 54 Litre (14 US gallon) heavily planted community tank and I usually do a 50% water change once a week. I was wondering whether shrimp would be able to handle this kind of water change, I add the water in slowly using the principle of a siphon and a small aquarium tube (the general size for air pumps, etc.). So the new water does not change the parameters too fast. It takes me an hour and a half to two hours to change this 50% water.

Would this be okay for them? Or do I need to do smaller changes just more often? I'm guessing this would be better, but I'd be glad if I could do the weekly changes instead.

I also plan on building a small aquaponics system which would have a lot more plants and more surface area for beneficial bacteria, maybe I should wait till this system is set up before I get the shrimp so that the amount of weekly water changes would reduce? I'd rather not wait though because it would take me at least 2 months before this is all set up.

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

 

Cherries can handle larger water changes as proved i believe by Flyfisha but it must be done correctly, the way you are suggesting is the correct way, big fast changes are no good, tell me what warrants 50%changes as it something to do with fish in the tank if so what fish as these could be more of a threat than water changes

 

Cherries can handle larger water changes as proved i believe by Flyfisha but it must be done correctly, the way you are suggesting is the correct way, big fast changes are no good, tell me what warrants 50%changes as it something to do with fish in the tank if so what fish as these could be more of a threat than water changes

Thanks for the reply! The fish are fine, just bronze cories, guppies, platys and mollies. I have a heavily planted tank and I now use the KI method of fertilization so that the plants use up a lot of the nitrates and the water change is to prevent a build-up of any kind of fertilizer.

I do not bother trying to remove dead leaves from the mid section of the tank because it's super dense there and I can't really get in easy, so there's decaying leaves that add to waste in the water. The shrimp would help clean up a bit, but the nutrients would not be going out of the system, the water change would do that at least until the exterior aquaponics system takes over to do some of the work.

I do not have an external filter, just a sponge filter which is internal. The purpose of the filter is to help me keep the water clear and maybe home to some bacteria. The filter is relatively new and the system was functioning well with just the plants as a surface for the bacteria. This is the filter I use https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000LXWV08/ The aquaponics system would act as some sort of external filter, but I plan on having the output from the sponge filter going into the aquaponics system. Larger particles of waste would therefore not really escape until they are processed. It's been two months an the tank does take care of the waste pretty well already.

 

You seem to to be well on top of things i don't see why this won't work for you, just do it it slowly as you said and drip well on the introduction

 

You seem to to be well on top of things i don't see why this won't work for you, just do it it slowly as you said and drip well on the introduction

Thanks. I've never really had anything other than guppies before. This tank is now just 2 months old, the last I had guppies was over a decade ago. I just wanted to make sure I was not doing something completely wrong for the shrimp.

 

If you want to do some tests then this is what you are looking for
Ph 7-8
Kh 3-4+
Gh 7-12
Nitraits must be under 20
Ammonia & Nitrite 0
It would also help to leave the tank a few more weeks total 3 months to get stability

 

If you want to do some tests then this is what you are looking for
Ph 7-8
Kh 3-4+
Gh 7-12
Nitraits must be under 20
Ammonia & Nitrite 0
It would also help to leave the tank a few more weeks total 3 months to get stability

I don't know about my GH but the rest are good. Thanks

 

Gh is very important if its to low under5 there will be moulting issues snd probable deaths high gh csn have problems but takes longer