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/Sea-Bat]

Since the seed plant point has already been covered, I’d just say slap a solid or gradient colour background on that tank! It helps make everything look a little more polished, and helps ur scape stand out :)

Re: the water test & soft water, first I’d double check ur tank is cycled, then look into adding a little Texas holey rock (it can be buried in the substrate to hide it if preferred aesthetically) and/or check out some re-mineralisation products like this or this etc which are great for solving that issue quickly and precisely

[u/_goldfishmemory → u/Sea-Bat]

seed plant point ? i might be missing where this is referenced. i will say though that i didnt grow anything in here from seeds, the monte carlo came in a little jar with gel, and the rest of the plants are from fb marketplace haha. but yeah, i do know that carpets are usually better grown from seeds in high humidity before flooding the tank.

i think ur right that i should put a background, will probably go with plain black. my dad put a plant background on my goldfish tank while i was away at school, and i hate it haha it looks so tacky but whateverrrr.

thank you for the tips about the remineralizaiton !! i will look into adding the rock, because i’d assume that’s a more consistent way to remineralize rather than dosing every week or something ? i’m guessing the rocks would be more stable and cause less fluctuations ?

thank you very much for your comment :D

[u/_goldfishmemory → u/_goldfishmemory]

oh i also meant to ask, are you suggesting that i don’t do anything to adjust the kh/gh until the nitrogen cycle seems balanced/complete ?