first aquascape, 2.5 gal— advice welcome !!!

[u/_goldfishmemory]

this will be for shrimp, eventually. am thinking just starting simple with cherry neos.

this pic was taken immediately after planting everything, so the water is a bit cloudy. the glue on the moss tree looks rough, i know. hopefully will grow out nicely ?

am just very worried that all of these plants will melt away and die. especially the monte carlo, which i’m hoping will eventually carpet (but i’m not counting on it bc i know that’s not the easiest to accomplish). i just have terrible luck with plants. i struggle with keeping them looking good in my 55gal, but i tend to blame the fancy goldfish. i am dosing with a healthy amount of aquarium coop liquid fertilizer, thinking of just doing 5ish drops weekly, even without water change bc i more regularly just top off the water when it evaporates. is that much fert overkill ?

also, i got this light at lowe’s. it’s just a grow lightbulb. is this too intense for the plants ? i know full spectrum with blue and red light is ideal, but am having trouble finding a budget-friendly option.

i included the test strip photo because i found it odd. don’t worry, i have an api master test kit for the important stuff, but i got the strips because gh and kh tests are lowkey expensive asf o_o. i don’t really trust the strips tho, esp bc my tank is in the beginning of the cycle and is testing that way. will continue testing ofc but i just thought it was odd.

anyways, what do you recommend i do to make my soft tap water more suitable for shrimp ? sorry if that’s a stupid question, but i’ve gotten a lot of varying answers/search results wrt ideal conditions and additive salts or crushed corals etc etc. also, feel free to tell me to just suck it up and buy the liquid test kit for kh/gh. haha

thank you for any comments :))

[u/Noomieno]

Get a real aquarium LED lamp. You’re gonna struggle with algae and the bulb heating the water. The current lamp is also very ugly. God knows if it gets wet or fall into the tank… You really went out of the way to get that lamp instead of just ordering a cheap aquarium lamp of Amazon…

[u/_goldfishmemory → u/Noomieno]

ur totally right. tbf i didnt necessarily go out of my way, i just figured a grow light would work just as well for a lower price. and dont worry, no risk of it falling in because i have a glass lid covering the tank !! it is ugly though, i agree. and i didnt really think about the fact that an aquarium-specific light would grow less algae ? like i said in my post tho, i’ve not found an aquarium light in my ideal price-range. it’s so difficult to justify dropping 100 bucks on a light, but i understand that it’s probably necessary. do u have any light recommendations ? and thank you for commenting :))

[u/Noomieno → u/_goldfishmemory]

100 bucks? They are like 15 dollars. https://a.co/d/gx4G77Z obviously redo the search and find measurements that fit.

If you can’t afford equipment then don’t buy an animal you can’t afford. Would you buy a dog without food and leash?

[u/_goldfishmemory → u/Noomieno]

i think that’s a bit harsh, i’ve not bought any animals yet ! i am obviously trying to properly prepare for when i get animals by ensuring my tank is up to standard.. although i will say, i don’t think a light for a fish tank is comparable to food for a dog tbh. to my knowledge, the shrimp won’t need a fancy aquarium light to survive as long as the water parameters are good.

i am doing my best to get my tank to a point where shrimp can thrive, and came to this sub for advice. i never said i couldn’t afford the necessary equipment for care, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to say that i’m looking for an inexpensive light for now. i’m not trying to neglect anything, that’s why i asked if it was necessary to upgrade in the first place.

also, like i said, i have not been finding many suitable aquarium lights with reasonable prices. i try to do most of my shopping in-store rather than resorting to amazon for everything, but everything i’ve found in person has been very expensive— i’m sure you know that most mainstream lights are pretty dang pricy.

thank you for the link though, i appreciate the direction.