# "Is ADA substrate the Magic ingredient for breeding SHRIMP ? ? ?"



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

What kind of shrimp, what kind of water params are you trying to keep them in.


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

I can tell you from my experience using inert gravel that they don't require any special substrate.

Wait for someone who uses AS to tell you why as I haven't tried it myself. The only thing that's crucial to shrimp is stability in water parameters.

Keep everything as low as possible and they will do just fine. Ammonia is the main killer and Nitrates can stress them. The food is important as they have different needs than fish. You will need high Calcium content food so they can molt and build their shell.

If you don't have access to dedicated food you can improvise easily something better than fish food. Look for snail jello and shrimp homemade food recipes. They are better than plain fish food.


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i use all kinds of substrate, gravel, sand, and fss. i have never used aqua soil. depending on the type of shrimp it will help. need to know what kind of shrimp you have and what your parameters to be able to help.


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## chou (Feb 23, 2012)

ada amazonia helped me breed PFR shrimp, It also helped me grow my plants in all 4 of my tanks


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## Lexinverts (Jan 17, 2012)

It is the magic ingredient for most people that want to breed Crystal Red and Tiger shrimp. Other substrates are fine for most other shrimp.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

As others have said, it's all down to the kind of shrimp you want to keep and what conditions the ones you get were kept in.


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

It has to be your parameter and not the substrate alone. I've tried almost every type of substrate except Akadama and UP Shrimp Sand or those introduce later in 2012. 

The key element to breeding is keeping the parameter stable and not fluctuate too much. Also another important thing is NEVER rush. Let the new tank cycle for at least 2-4 weeks before introduce shrimp. You can speed up by providing water from old tank but doesn't mean you can rush putting in livestock. 

From experiences, ADA or active soil help lower PH which is ideal for some CRS and such, it does provide nutrient to plants. But other gravel and soil can do almost the same thing with additional addictive. I've breed shrimp in Home Depot play sand to expensive soil like ADA. 

I've successful using Peat Moss filtered water to do my water change and keeping PH at a constant 5.8 in my cheap sand tank. So ADA soil is not the only way to lower PH.


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

For neo shrimp I use inert gravel and tap water. For crs I use 50/50 tap and RO water with fluval stratum subtrate. Seems to lower the ph to a happy level


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

CRS shrimp and oebt shrimp

Dirted tank / special kitty litter/ floramax/florite top
water parameter: 
ph :7.0
kh :40/80ppm
Gh :30/60ppm
amo:0
nit:0
nitrate:0
degree:70f


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

danielt said:


> I can tell you from my experience using inert gravel that they don't require any special substrate.
> 
> Wait for someone who uses AS to tell you why as I haven't tried it myself. The only thing that's crucial to shrimp is stability in water parameters.
> 
> ...




How long have you been keeping shrimps and what type?


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

Lexinverts said:


> It is the magic ingredient for most people that want to breed Crystal Red and Tiger shrimp. Other substrates are fine for most other shrimp.


lolz, that exactly the shrimps i am trying to keep. I thought as long as the water parameter was stable, i am good?


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

SupaTank said:


> CRS shrimp and oebt shrimp
> 
> Dirted tank / special kitty litter/ floramax/florite top
> water parameter:
> ...


Do a Peat Moss filtered water. That's your only option if you are not using active soils. Search about Peat Moss on this forum you'll find many method of doing it. Remember to buy straight Organic Peat Moss.


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## Lexinverts (Jan 17, 2012)

SupaTank said:


> lolz, that exactly the shrimps i am trying to keep. I thought as long as the water parameter was stable, i am good?


You might have success with peat moss or just keeping stable the params you indicated, but you are more likely to have success if you get ADA New Amazonia and use that. I wouldn't start a new tank with anything else if I wanted to breed Crystals, Taiwan Bees, or Tigers.

Save yourself time, money, and frustration in the long-run and start with the best kind of soil from the beginning.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

danielt said:


> I can tell you from my experience using inert gravel that they don't require any special substrate.
> 
> Wait for someone who uses AS to tell you why as I haven't tried it myself. The only thing that's crucial to shrimp is stability in water parameters.
> 
> ...


High calcium content food never really cross my mind since I figured the special kitty litter would be enough since it made out of something with calcium in it. I was also under the impression that variety was the key, so i bought all the high quality food i can get my hand on from my LFS; all omega brand food, different algae waffer, blood worm, spirulina, spinach, dry, frozen you name it.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

CookieM said:


> It has to be your parameter and not the substrate alone. I've tried almost every type of substrate except Akadama and UP Shrimp Sand or those introduce later in 2012.
> 
> The key element to breeding is keeping the parameter stable and not fluctuate too much. Also another important thing is NEVER rush. Let the new tank cycle for at least 2-4 weeks before introduce shrimp. You can speed up by providing water from old tank but doesn't mean you can rush putting in livestock.
> 
> ...



I feel that my parameter are pretty stable; with my ph being at a constant 6.8-7.0 with a diy co2. AFA cycling the tank, it been running since 2011 before introduction of shrimp.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

SupaTank said:


> High calcium content food never really cross my mind since I figured the special kitty litter would be enough since it made out of something with calcium in it. I was also under the impression that variety was the key, so i bought all the high quality food i can get my hand on from my LFS; all omega brand food, different algae waffer, blood worm, spirulina, spinach, dry, frozen you name it.


If there is dissolvable calcium in your substrate, it could actually be detrimental to your shrimp as instability will be a problem thanks to a rising gH. 

ADA is a buffering substrate, what it does is makes a persons job sometimes easier by making up for your mistakes by buffering water down to a certain pH. It's pricey so I often choose other options, but it sometimes takes the trouble of lowering your pH to levels of ph 6 or ph 5.5 for taiwan bees. Even nowadays those pH levels are unnecessary and unneeded. 

Stability is key and your ability to match your vendor's water quality may also be important for their initial survival.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

Just use ADA Amazonia and skip all hassle around fixing other substrate. It will last 2-3 years if you are using RO water.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

shift said:


> For neo shrimp I use inert gravel and tap water. For crs I use 50/50 tap and RO water with fluval stratum subtrate. Seems to lower the ph to a happy level


I've try Ro water but, doesn't seem to make a difference, at least in the breeding department. The person who sold them to me say he only used tap water to do water change once every 2mth @ 50% & he have like a gazillion shrimps. I do feel that the shrimps survival rate is better when i do monthly water change vs wkly.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

CookieM said:


> Do a Peat Moss filtered water. That's your only option if you are not using active soils. Search about Peat Moss on this forum you'll find many method of doing it. Remember to buy straight Organic Peat Moss.


I believe my organic dirt Scott brand soil contain peat moss as one of it main ingredient. do you think my ph need to be lower than 6.8?


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

Good to know. Maybe I will start spacing my shrimp tank water changes further apart!


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

SupaTank said:


> I believe my organic dirt Scott brand soil contain peat moss as one of it main ingredient. do you think my ph need to be lower than 6.8?


It might help. But replacing a substrate would be detrimental if you can do it another way. If not, then try tearing it down.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

Bananariot said:


> If there is dissolvable calcium in your substrate, it could actually be detrimental to your shrimp as instability will be a problem thanks to a rising gH.


Really...? I was told in another forum to used cuttlebone, powder, or calcium/mineral stone in my tank. So they can have something to graze on if they are unable to molt due to calcium deficiency. Should I just take it out (It mix in there pretty well with the soil)?


Bananariot said:


> ADA is a buffering substrate, what it does is makes a persons job sometimes easier by making up for your mistakes by buffering water down to a certain pH. It's pricey so I often choose other options, but it sometimes takes the trouble of lowering your pH to levels of ph 6 or ph 5.5 for taiwan bees. Even nowadays those pH levels are unnecessary and unneeded.
> 
> Stability is key and your ability to match your vendor's water quality may also be important for their initial survival.


I ask him what his parameter is, and all he can say is he don't know because he never check for it.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

SupaTank said:


> Really...? I was told in another forum to used cuttlebone, powder, or calcium/mineral stone in my tank. So they can have something to graze on if they are unable to molt due to calcium deficiency. Should I just take it out (It mix in there pretty well with the soil)?
> 
> I ask him what his parameter is, and all he can say is he don't know because he never check for it.


 
CRS usually just get their calcium from their food. I would just use veggie sticks + calcium. If you have them mixed in your substrate it will dissolve and cause issues with controlling gH, which can be detrimental to your CRS.

Then I would try to match ur water conditons to what you see on planetinverts.com or other literature.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

+1 on what everyone said about aquasoil. I was skeptical about ADA substrate myself but after the time and money I spent on Inert, Fluval Stratum and Akadama it is better to start with Aquasoil. The best part about this substrate is the 3-4 weeks of ammonia leeching which build the biofilm and bacteria necessary for shrimps.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

I wonder how these guy live in the wild, i'm pretty sure it isn't as clean or as stable as the tank I'm keeping them in. 

On another note: This remind me of the time when I was trying to breed guppies, & I did everything to the "T" in keeping my tank in prestige condition; clean water, good food, etc.. But for some reason they either kept on dying or get all short of diseases. I finally gave up and went on vacation to asia. There, I saw a guy who kept them in a dirty algae grown 20"x20" styro foam box. to my amazement there were like hundreds of them healthy and swimming around like crazy. I ask him what's his secret was & he told me, "nothing, I just threw them in there and they multiply like crazy eating the algae." I came home 2 month later and my fish tank was dirty/black even (due to the filter clogging & my brother not cleaning it) and all the food from my automatic feeder fell into the fish tank. And guess what.... I ended up with 30 new healthy gubbies. so i was like WTF...


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

In the wild huge amount of fallen leaves and tree trunks lower the ph of the water.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

I use cuttlebone in almost all my shrimp tank with no problems or rise in the gh...


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

Bananariot said:


> CRS usually just get their calcium from their food. I would just use veggie sticks + calcium. If you have them mixed in your substrate it will dissolve and cause issues with controlling gH, which can be detrimental to your CRS.
> 
> Then I would try to match ur water conditons to what you see on planetinverts.com or other literature.


I feel like I Fail again, since that was what I thought I was doing.



sayurasem said:


> In the wild huge amount of fallen leaves and tree trunks lower the ph of the water.


You think it mainly a ph issue? From what I've been reading most people nowaday are saying it more gh or kh is the key? But i feel like it more have to do with Bio film /dead matter. 



Soothing Shrimp said:


> I use cuttlebone in almost all my shrimp tank with no problems or rise in the gh...


How is that compare to Special kitty litter since it made of clay rich in calcium? so far i only read it might lower gh since it is an absorbent form of clay.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

Since you guy seem to be more successful than i am in breeding harder to breed shrimp (crs,oebt...) Would you guy list me your parameter and how long you been breeding for? pictures would be much appreciated. thks


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

I breed the following
Neos
PFR/Fire Reds
Yellow Fires/Yellows
Blue Velvets

All are in PH 7-7.1 GH 5-6 KH1-2 TDS 200

Tigers
OEBT
BTOE
RED TIGER

All are in PH 7-7.1 GH 5-6 KH1-2 TDS 200

Cardinia
CRS/CRS PRL
CBS
Snow Whites

PH 5.8-6.0 GH 5 KH0-1 TDS 150-160

TB & hybrids
I have everything But the high crowns no entry..... and no Jellies want one soon! So I have BB GH Extremes Pandas, shadows, 1 bar 2 bars... Hybrids F1 and on

PH 5.8-6.0 GH 5 KH0-1 TDS 150-160


Other than my attach of Dragon fly nymphs in the one TB tank, I breed these all with good results in different soils and different setups. Keeping the water stable and clean is the key.

Substrate used

NEOS - FSS, Pool filter sand.
CRS/CBS/Snow Whites - Amazonia, Akadama
Hybrids/TB's - Amazonia, Africana, Akadama

I have equal amount of survival in all. I keep a PH probe in all my tanks, I check TDS and GH and KH daily..... I top off RO only. I remineralize to the same TDS every time. I take exactly 20% out weekly on water changes. I have a set feeding schedule on what they get and when.

Everyone has to find what works for them, that is a quote Nick told me when i started and it is so true. What works for me may not work for you. What works for nick may not work for me...



I do this to with no change

I use cuttlebone in almost all my shrimp tank with no problems or rise in the gh...


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

^^^ this, and especially the part, on what works for you, won't work for others. There are too many variables to factor in. 

I've bred CRS in 5.0pH with good results and I'm doing it now with no active substrate and 7.0pH with great results, but it doesn't mean anyone else can/will. A lot of it comes down to keeping things stable, whatever your params are and knowing shrimp a bit. I've had time where param's were perfect but all my shrimp were frozen in the tank and not moving like little white and red statues. Didn't realized when I was working on the tank, I unplugged my air pump and didn't plug it back in, a few days of no O2 movement in the water and they froze in place. Got the air stone going, back to normal in a day. Seeing something like that and freaking out, changing 80% of my water, adding this additive and that and more of this and this stuff from that site and some tonic and some other powders would have probably caused a lot of deaths and harmed them more than simply plugging the air back in.


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

@OP

I have a mix of Amanos, RCS, Rili, some Atrax(some wild shrimp I got from a LFS) and montain shrimp. Almost 50 of them in a 40L net tank.

I'm not too experienced with shrimp but as far as water chemistry goes, pH is irrelevant.

Read up on osmotic pressure and osmoregulation specially for inverts. TDS has more to do with success in keeping shrimp than pH.

Do small (1%-2%) water changes twice a week. It is better to do a small water change but often than a monthly large one.

Oversize filtration. On this 40L tank I have a Tetra EX700 canister which is designed for 100L-250L tanks. The canister is filled with Eheim SubstratPro which is close to Seachem Matrix in bio filtering performance. Use almond leaves, alder cones, oak leaves.

I pour some dried loose Stinging Nettle tea from the nature shop and let it float on the water surface, eventually it sinks. I do the same with walnut dried leaves tea. I use tea since it's not available fresh.

The invert diet is important as it can compensate improper water parameters to some degree. I found that high Calcium food is better than high dissolved Calcium levels in the water.

Get your hands on montomorillonite clay. Plaster of Paris is also a good source of Calcium. These two you can mix in a homemade concoction and provides enough Calcium. My shrimp are molting like crazy without a water change or some other change in the water parameters. I change 6-7L per week.

LE: Pictures of my tank.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

I agree to most of what you say besides this

"Read up on osmotic pressure and osmoregulation specially for inverts. TDS has more to do with success in keeping shrimp than pH"

PH is huge! Especially with Tigers, CRS/CBS and Taiwan bees. Too high or to low could be the difference in living let alone breeding


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

sbarbee54 said:


> I agree to most of what you say besides this
> 
> "Read up on osmotic pressure and osmoregulation specially for inverts. TDS has more to do with success in keeping shrimp than pH"
> 
> PH is huge! Especially with Tigers, CRS/CBS and Taiwan bees. Too high or to low could be the difference in living let alone breeding


I agree and disagree. lol. I think a lot of shrimp have become a lot more hardy in the past few years and breeders all over the world keep them in a variety of conditions. I've spoken with a few breeders in places like eastern europe where active substrate is almost non-existent, and while their tap water is very pure, or they have RO it's a high pH. They will have like 1 active substrate tank to make a low pH water from, import crs/tb/tigers, whatever from Germany/Japan/Taiwan that come from a low pH tank and spend 6 months acclimating them to a higher pH yet same mineral content and have crs/tigers and even TB's breeding in a 8pH water yet everything else is the same mineral wise. Is this for the light hearted? No. a 6 month acclimation of careful mixing of waters to know exactly how the pH will increase each water change and keeping it consistent is hard, yet they do it out of necessity. Once done though, they have a line of shrimp that is used to that water. The biggest part is getting babies born. As Liam even said a little while ago, shrimp born in a water outside their range are much better adapted to that water.

There are more and more stories of people keeping and breeding CRS in tap water or water with params with that the "norm" says they HAVE to be. There is a member of my local shrimp club who has a 5gal bare bottom tank with tap water and CRS breeding in it. Not the greatest baby yields, but those babies will probably have better yields and their babies better yields. A few years ago there was a member on our local aquarium forum who did the same thing and was selling just pure tap water CRS that were breeding hardy and like crazy that he was selling them and selling out all the time.

When I moved an adult population of neo's to my crs tank, from 8pH to 5pH, did they all die. Yup. When I moved a clump of moss full of new born neo's from a 8pH tank to a 5pH tank, did they live. Yup. The babies were probably only a few hours old and I just grabbed a huge handful of moss and moved it and they grew up fine in the water as they didn't know any better.

I've already moved my CRS stock from a 5pH water to a 7pH water and breeding is out of control, babies everywhere, berries almost back to back. Am I going to try and setup a small tank and do a long acclimation to my 8pH tap water with some of that stock. Yup.

Two years ago we were told TB's needed like a 5pH water and maybe at that time they did. Now they are as hardy as CRS and people are keeping them in a 6.5-6.8 water with breeding.

---------------------

Is it better to match the params of the shrimp keepers who you're getting from? Yes.

Do shrimp do better in the general conditions usually given? Yes.

Are these hard fast rules that have to be followed and any deviation from that will result in death? No

Is active substrate/low ph usually the best for beginners keeping crs/tb. Yes

Is there exceptions to the norm and can those norms be broken. Yes


I always love/hate threads like this because it opens up great debate that challenges the norm, but I always try and caution new keepers that it may not be the best way to go. I tried to stress that in my thread/journal about not using active substrate anymore, don't dump $500 worth of shrimp in a tank like I did and blame me if it goes wrong. I took the risk, did my best for a very slow acclimation into a very cycled 3 month old tank and am having good success but as with anything, YMMV and sticking with the norm for beginners is the best place to start, but it's not the end all-be all of keeping.


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

sbarbee54 said:


> I agree to most of what you say besides this
> 
> "Read up on osmotic pressure and osmoregulation specially for inverts. TDS has more to do with success in keeping shrimp than pH"
> 
> PH is huge! Especially with Tigers, CRS/CBS and Taiwan bees. Too high or to low could be the difference in living let alone breeding


I would love a detailed explanation on this. I know what pH is and what it does but it will help me a great deal to understand how it affects shrimp.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

I agree that people can keep them in high PH now, but look you even said it, "Two years ago we were told TB's needed like a 5pH water and maybe at that time they did. Now they are as hardy as CRS and people are keeping them in a 6.5-6.8 water with breeding."

it took the pro's in Germany/Taiwan/Japan to get them to acclimate to higher conditions. I am sorry I have seen it, where I did a PH water change on a baby farming tank that sits at 6.0 and it changed to a 7.0 on a drip acclimation of 12 hours and all the CRS/CBS/Hybrids died. Best is to match original source I agree. But to make a big PH swing from what they or their parents were born in is asking to waste a bunch of money. I don’t know about you but I don’t like to play roulette with high $$$ shrimp... I have spoken to some breeds in Germany and Denmark and as well as a well known importer in Japan, and they still recommend ideal conditions 7.0 and below down to 5.4 with tds from 140-225.... GH5-6 KH0-1

I have as well kept tigers in a PH of 6.0 and had no luck breeding them at all and baby die offs like crazy... Moved to 7, and that is near where my source was keeping them and now I have great survival and breeding with Red tiger Btoe and oebt.

Well I started in TB about 4 months ago, and I am have great success with them and breeding and survival(Minus dragon fly nymphs and tank tear downs because of it). I am keeping them in what it shows, I have also used some cheap mixed grades I got a while back in a tank setup like my neos and tigers, had 5 females and 5 males. I got hardly any breeding at all, they berried 2 times and out of them I got 2 baby shrimp to survive, plus some of the shrimp turned a greenish hue on the black shell. I could only think it was from stress due to the PH, as everything checked out and the juvi sub adult BTOE where fine. I then moved them to my normal tb tank on a breeder box and berried no problem and tons of babies. With all but 1 survived

I think we might be jumping ahead of the curve saying they can have 7.4+ for TBS right now and even higher grade crs/cbs.... I agree the line is creeping up, but I do not think their genes are there yet..... I mean look how long it has taken to make BTOE semi stable in healthy.... Not many people can keep these alive let alone breed, same with Red tigers. I say stay inside the recommended conditions unless you like playing roulette with shrimp.


I am just saying this so people who are venturing out dont spend there money to kill shrimp. Remember these post are viewed by all and as I agree PH is not the factor it once was, it is still a huge part and probably one of the most important.


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## Lexinverts (Jan 17, 2012)

danielt said:


> I would love a detailed explanation on this. I know what pH is and what it does but it will help me a great deal to understand how it affects shrimp.


I have a PhD in Zoology, but I don't have a clue what low pH does to shrimp, and why some shrimp need higher pH than others. I doubt anyone on this forum who isn't a crustacean biologist knows this. You don't need to know the physiological mechanism to appreciate that the vast majority of strains of Caridina cantonensis shrimp are much more likely to survive and breed at a pH of 7 or lower. We know this from our own experience, and the fact that the vast majority of breeders in the world have more success breeding at pH 7 or lower.

Yes, there are some strains that have been developed (most of them in the EU) that will breed well in more alkaline conditions. However, unless you know for sure that your shrimp are from one of these pH 7+ strains, or unless you want to create a selection program to create one of these strains yourself (which is difficult, even for a pro), you should probably stick with the parameters that most people use, and focus on breeding for coloration/patterns rather than survival. It's much more fun---believe me!


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## Lexinverts (Jan 17, 2012)

sbarbee54 said:


> Well I started in TB about 4 months ago, and I am have great success with them and breeding and survival(Minus dragon fly nymphs and tank tear downs because of it).


Wow. I didn't realize you have been only breeding TBs for 4 months. Didn't you say you have nearly 100 of them?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I agree with everything above, keeping them in ideal conditions is the best for breeding, and easy maintenance, beginners, etc. 

Some rules have to be broken or things tried outside that norm though to learn more. Going back on sites like shrimpnow, anyone that said they had a neo/card cross a few years ago was laughed and TOLD it's not possible and their crs HAD to have tiger genes in it or they have other shrimp they don't know about. Now we have confirmed crosses on here with respected breeders like Liam.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Yes I probably do have around a 100 now maybe a little more. I have bouht about 50 and as i counted at lunch when i added 5 more pandas, I have about 45-50 babies I saved from the death trap drangonfly nymph tank. Probably lost close to another 75 in there due to it and 8 adults.... I probably had close to 100-140 baby TB going. had 9 females in the last 2 months give birth.... I had about 50 tb and 40 mishclings in one tank. I had 15 berried mischlings at one point


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## LookAtMe (Oct 19, 2011)

sbarbee54 said:


> Yes I probably do have around a 100 now maybe a little more. I have bouht about 50 and as i counted at lunch when i added 5 more pandas, I have about 45-50 babies I saved from the death trap drangonfly nymph tank. Probably lost close to another 75 in there due to it and 8 adults.... I probably had close to 100-140 baby TB going. had 9 females in the last 2 months give birth.... I had about 50 tb and 40 mishclings in one tank. I had 15 berried mischlings at one point


Do you have any pics? Mind to share?


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

My photo skills suck but I have some pcs on my past journal post and I am getting a nice camera soon


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

So to sum up the OP's question and get past the 2 page hijack we got into, using kitty litter plus diy c02 probably isn't the best for CRS and ADA soil will help dramatically in keeping your ph/kh in check, use RO and remineralize with a shrimp mineral and you should be good. It's the easiest way to start with CRS. CO2 can be detrimental unless you know what you're doing with shrimp and ferts and hi-tech tanks. The soil does better for work you. Maybe even setup a small second tank, 10-20gal with a bag of ada, small filter and sponge filter, some moss or basic plants.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Aquasoil + RO is magic for shrimps.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

plamski said:


> Just use ADA Amazonia and skip all hassle around fixing other substrate.





sayurasem said:


> +1 on what everyone said about aquasoil..





sbarbee54 said:


> I breed the following
> Neos
> PFR/Fire Reds
> Yell the gh...





danielt said:


> @OP
> I have a mix of Amanos, RCS, Rili, some Atrax
> my tank.





GeToChKn said:


> So to sum up the OP's question and get past the 2 page hijack we got into plants.





GeToChKn said:


> I agree and disagree. lol.


Wow, I didn't realize I started a debate lolz. But I agree with everyone on that fact that all shrimps are not created equal, therefore we have to try different things to see what works. That is why this thread was created; to help me with a preexisting condition & let others gurus/experience shrimpers show off their shrimp colony,routine & parameters in the attempt to give others ideas that wasn't there before. 

I appreciate all the input: This thread will help me and others not to make newbie mistakes such as going out & purchasing all unnecessary products or spending on expensive stuff at the start (ie: ADA, Special mineral rock, calcium food, etc) and still end up with dead/non breeding shrimps. Hopefully by everyone putting down your routine, parameters & knowledge of the hobby, it will also exhaust all options & give me/guru/newbie who are just entering the hobby an idea where to start off or which direction to take next.


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

Bananariot said:


> ADA is a buffering substrate, what it does is makes a persons job sometimes easier by making up for your mistakes by buffering water down to a certain pH. It's pricey so I often choose other options, but it sometimes takes the trouble of lowering your pH to levels of ph 6 or ph 5.5 for taiwan bees. Even nowadays those pH levels are unnecessary and unneeded.
> .





plamski said:


> Just use ADA Amazonia and skip all hassle around fixing other substrate. It will last 2-3 years if you are using RO water.





shrimpnmoss said:


> Aquasoil + RO is magic for shrimps.


I don't know about Ro, but I probably have to try Ada AquaSoil at this point in the game from what majority are stating.


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## Puddles (Jan 5, 2013)

SupaTank said:


> I don't know about Ro, but I probably have to try Ada AquaSoil at this point in the game from what majority are stating.


Most use RO to minimize the amount of work the substrate has to do to buffer the water to the right pH. If you use tap at, say, 7.4, and it has high kH, it will deplete the buffering capacity of the substrate quickly.


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

I 50/50 RO and tap water to avoid having to re-minneralizing.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

shift said:


> I 50/50 RO and tap water to avoid having to re-minneralizing.


This rarely works long term since tap water changes season to season and it would have to be perfectly double the gh and 0 kh of your ideal tank parameters. I don't suggest anyone mix tap with their RO to remineralized. 

Luckily aquasoil can buffer even fairly hard tap water for a good long time.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

And it really matters what your tap is like. Mine is super soft (TDS 33 last time I checked). But other ppl have liquid rock pouring out the tap. So even in my CBS tank where I do use tap most of the time, I have to remineralize.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

I use RO mainly because it plays a double role.

1. Total control of your water parameter
2. Prolonge substrate buffering life


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

it seem that most agree on ADA aqua soil. There are so many to choose from, which is best to purchase for HQ shrimp then? Also what the cheapest place i can get it?

ADA aqua soil:?
AQUA SOIL - NEW AMAZONIA?
AQUA SOIL - MALAYA?
AQUA SOIL - AFRICANA?
AQUA SOIL - 2
AQUA SOIL - Amazonia old (don't know if they still sell this or aqua soil II)?

Also shrimp stratum vs stratum? any experience hobbyist can shine some light on it?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

New Amazonia, buy from aqua forest aquariu or aquarium design group, whichever is closer to you (so shipping is cheaper)


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## SupaTank (Oct 9, 2012)

mordalphus said:


> New Amazonia, buy from aqua forest aquariu or aquarium design group, whichever is closer to you (so shipping is cheaper)


Thanks i will definitely look into it.


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