# Nitrate limit for shrimps?



## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Depends on the shrimps, what ones are you keeping


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Amanos and low grade CRS.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

With crs I would try to keep it at 20ppm or lower


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## Kunsthure (Aug 2, 2010)

I look at ferts and high tech tanks, and shrimp as an either/or thing. Plants need the nitrogen, shrimp can't tolerate high nitrates. So who do you pick to suffer? That's everyone's personal decision, but I don't dose macros in my shrimp tanks. 

-Lisa


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

There is no set limit, it depends on other parameters too. 20ppm in tank may not have the same impact as 20ppm in yours.

I have a 20G that has stable 10ppm, no matter I over feed a bit or fast them for 3 days. It stays there. But I had issues with that tank a few weeks back and NO3 went way up and I started to have shrimp death. I have 7G with about 12 CRS, 8 supertiger, plus 40+ orange neo, NO3 stays at 5ppm. If it goes up to 10ppm I start to have trouble. It's a bit crowed because most of them are waiting for their permanent homes to be ready. 

What I'm trying to say is, each tank has its stable NO3 concentration. When that changes, it's a sign of tank losing balance and you get shrimp death, the death isn't directly linked to NO3, but a much more complicated unbalanced eco-system issue.

In short though, keep it stable with either filter made for nitrate or WCs, it could be 5ppm, it could be 20ppm. 

If I'm forced to say an absolute value, I'll say try to keep it under 20ppm.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I've dosed to 160ppm NO3 for 3 -4 weeks with Amano shrimp.

I dosed 45 ppm a week for an ADA AS sediment iwagumi with CRS's in the lower grades(thus less inbred) for a few years. Started wit 12, ended with about 45-50 after 1 years with dwarf Botia and other fish. Tank got 60% weekly water changes.

I'd worry more about dosing CO2 and Excel to CRS tanks than ANY fertilizer salt.
That's going to kill/harm/reduce their brood more than ferts.

Since few have bothered to test CRS with ferts, the advice is based on ignorance and fear, not anything factual. A well cycled tank is highly recommended. So good plant health, good filtration etc, but we can say this about fish and planted tanks generally.

Inbreeding of CRS has likely led to a great deal of hyper sensitivity, so that's poor breeding and genetics as the issue, not water quality or dosing so much. 

NO3 from waste build up vs dosing from KNO3 are 2 very different things also.
Shrimp die from many potential causes, NO3 is just one that many enjoy blaming without support.

Algae, fish and poor plant growth claims are some examples in he hobby where this was done with NO3 and it turned out to be myths in each case with KNO3 dosing also.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Thank you guys for the input!
This is the tank I'm working on right now. 
Just did water change. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 80-160


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

You need to knock the fert down(assuming the test kit is correct) but also make sure the test kit is reading correctly, see the sticky for calibrating NO3 test kits in the fert sub forum.

Few bother to check and NO3 test kits can be WAY off.


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