Shrimp for 20L/5g?

[Arnav]

So i have a soft coral dominated with one hammer coral 30cm cube tank which contains 20 L of water after rocks and everything, I already have a yellow clown goby, trochus and zombie snail, but my nitrates are pretty much non-existent; cyanobacteria is coming and my hammer is not happy with the lack of nitrates.

I'm already feeding heavily, but to add some more life and bioload I would like to add a shrimp -- I was thinking about L. keukenthali or a glass anemone shrimp, are there any other options that are reef safe and interesting - I would rather not sexy shrimp...

P.S. adding a photo of my goby because he's just so cute
I'm new to the hobby so would love some advice :) thank you!

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

No Sexy Shrimp?? I'm shocked, I love those little dudes, and aspire to try a small herd in a small tank.

I think your choices for shrimp might be limited by the small volume of your tank. In my experience, shrimp like cleaners and even Peppermints love to roam, and would appreciate more than 5 gallons. I will let others who've kept shrimp in a 5 gallon weigh in for sure on that.

I do not believe that adding a shrimp wil be a significant increase in bioload, such that your nitrate rises as a result.

That said, I think you have some other options to bring up your nitrate. I'd suggest first just feeding more. In a small tank, additional feedings should make an impact. If your phosphate is low, I'd suggest feeding Reef Roids, which is a coral food high in phosphate.

You could dose nitrate directly, but perhaps even better is dosing low-levels of ammonia that your corals can benefit from, and will result in elevated nitrate in the end. This thread has more:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ammonia-is-our-friend-thoughts-needed.1066535/

As does this thread:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/

I hope this helps and best of luck!