# fluval stratum shrimp substrate



## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

First time I used it I washed it really well and ended up with super cloudy water. That was in a 30C tank so pretty small amount. Next tank I put it in was my GLA 11.4 and I didn't rinse it all. Got no clouding. Very clear water. Last tank I used it was my 40B and again I didn't rinse it and the result was no clouding at all. I'd say don't rinse it. It also seems to be breaking down faster in my 30C and turning to dust. That could be a coincidence though.


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

thanks gitmoe for your response

anyone else? does it 'melt' or as gitmoe says break down faster with washing? 
i didn't even know it was suppose to break down.. haha sucks
seems liek the directions state that it should be moved around gently, if re-arranged at all..


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## joshh (Dec 9, 2008)

I gently rinsed all the shrimp stratum I used. I put some in a bowl, pour water in, slightly swish the bowl around, then tip to drain. This worked for me and I did not get any cloudiness. I used a colander the first time and it didn't work as well(at least for me).


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

^haha good tip.. i was about to use a colander... -_- 
guess ill be super gentle with it


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I put my hose in a big bucket and poured my stratum on top of it and ran the hose for about an hour. Came out with minimal clouding.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Don't rinse it at all, you will rinse out some of the buffering capabilities. The only potential benefit is to lessen the cloudiness, but rinsing it does the opposite.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

I never rinsed mine either, DO NOT rinse i would say. Just put it straight it, and cushion the water as you fill the tank. I think rinsing weakens the soil balls muchly.


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

sweet, sounds good to me!


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

chiefroastbeef said:


> I never rinsed mine either, DO NOT rinse i would say. Just put it straight it, and cushion the water as you fill the tank. I think rinsing weakens the soil balls muchly.


this all i did was pour it in, cover it with a plastic bag to keep it from moving,and poured water on top till full


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

niceeee - i bought the 4.4pound bag for my 2.5

probabyl shouldn't use all of it right? haha


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

2 inches of substrate depth


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## Bahugo (Apr 18, 2011)

If you do not choose to gently rinse it to get the dust off, I would scoop it with a cup or something of that nature so you don't get all the excess dust if you were to just poor it straight from the bag.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

AAnyone seeing any of the supposed pH lowering capability? I’m sure not. My Aquasoil tanks are all down in the 6s, but my Fluval one (set up for a couple months now) stays right at 7. nyone seeing any of the supposed pH lowering cabibliyt?


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## tkbellwood (May 16, 2011)

I am using fluval flora in a 3 gallon and the PH was reliably in the 6.5 range with a little CO2. I do have supper soft water and have been adding some hardness and it is raising the PH a little.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Super soft water at my place too. Don't think I'll buy this product again.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Betta Maniac said:


> AAnyone seeing any of the supposed pH lowering capability? I’m sure not. My Aquasoil tanks are all down in the 6s, but my Fluval one (set up for a couple months now) stays right at 7. nyone seeing any of the supposed pH lowering cabibliyt?


Yah...it stopped altering the pH for me at 3 weeks in AND after a week I started using 100% RO water...still the same pH. No change. I contacted hagen actually. All they said was that the "pH altering" capabilities were only temporary.


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## waya81 (Aug 13, 2010)

Hmm, I've been testing the fluval for just over a week. I was about to put CO2 on it and see what happened. If the pH altering is only temporary; whats the point? Would you suggest amazonia over this then? Does it change the hardness as well as the pH? And how good is it for plants?


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

For plants it's great. I get plenty of growth. I've noticed though that root tabs make a world of difference. It's basically a nutrient deficient amazonia.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

For the pH altering ability to actually work, you need at least 2 inches of it in your tank.

Mine has been running 6.5 ph, 0 KH and 4-5 GH since I set it up. Using straight RO will strip the buffering capability faster.

I had problems with the buffering when I had an inch of the substrate in the tank, but when i increased it to 2 inches it's been fine.


If your pH is at 7 with 2 inches of this soil, could it be from sponge filters or airstones?


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

mordalphus said:


> For the pH altering ability to actually work, you need at least 2 inches of it in your tank.
> 
> Mine has been running 6.5 ph, 0 KH and 4-5 GH since I set it up. Using straight RO will strip the buffering capability faster.
> 
> ...


I'm at 6.6 but that's the same as straight RO for me....Yes I have 3-2 inches of the stuff in my tank. The buffering capacity is still limited.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

It wont buffer past 6.5, the fulvic acid in the soil is what buffers the pH and hardness. By using straight RO, you're stripping the fulvic acid from the soil. RO water is "hungry", water in an unnatural state, so it will pull nutrients and minerals from whatever it comes in contact with. If you "feed" the RO with a mineral additive like Seachem RO right, or mosura mineral plus, it will stop sucking at your soil.

Then again, you don't need the buffering of the soil since you're using straight RO.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I use a crud ton of barr's gh booster. I'm sitting at 6GH pretty constantly. I also don't really think that's true...since the concentrations of individual ions don't affect the dissolution of other ions...Whatever acid is in there isn't really going to be affected by the presence or lack there of of minerals. It's going to be affected by the presence of fulvic acid which in normal water isn't present...

As for whether not it will buffer past 6.5 If I use RO water it should theoretically buffer down to however much H+ is there so that doesn't make sense.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

lol, that's could certainly be true, it's something I learned while studying hydroponics. lord knows that field is rife with speculation.

And you said earlier you were using straight RO.

And just noticed you rinsed your substrate for an hour.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I just started a tank with this stuff. No rinse, cleared in a few hours. Super dark compared to AS looks nicer IMO. 

However, I'm running an AS Africana core with a Fluval Stratum shell. Hopefully the Africana will keep buffering the water. Maybe I'll increase the depth of the Stratum after reading this thread.


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

i love the immense wealth of knowledge on this forum. 

btw, i noticed that on my glass i've got some what appears to be tiny dots of substrate particles... is this a normal occurence whenever u plant with fluval stratum?


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

gnod said:


> i love the immense wealth of knowledge on this forum.
> 
> btw, i noticed that on my glass i've got some what appears to be tiny dots of substrate particles... is this a normal occurence whenever u plant with fluval stratum?


i agree, some much great info and knowledge on here 

sounds about right, especially if you didn't rinse it first. a bit of water movement on/near it will easily lift it off and get sucked up by the filter. if its dust like, I went through same thing after filling mine.

i've been running stratum in a two tanks now for a bit, and definately agree with everyone about not rinsing it first, just dump in and fill slowly. seems like great stuff so far.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

mordalphus said:


> lol, that's could certainly be true, it's something I learned while studying hydroponics. lord knows that field is rife with speculation.
> 
> And you said earlier you were using straight RO.
> 
> And just noticed you rinsed your substrate for an hour.


That might be why..but considering this has occurred several times to different people makes me believe that the way they make their product isn't very consistent. Sometimes they add enough buffer sometimes they don't. If you check on some shrimp forums you'll find this out and people have paid the price in shrimp and cash for this inconsistency.


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## RandomMan (May 31, 2011)

The bag that came with my EBI barely clouded. I bought a second bag at the LFS, and that one clouded really bad. However, I think the difference was the second bag I bought had suffered a lot of abuse on its way to the LFS, and the substrate had been rubbing on itself, turning it into a powder. 

The first bag had almost no powder at the bottom, while the LFS one had a ton that I had to throw away. I think the one that came in my EBI, since it was in a box, survived fine while the LFS one probably had been handled quite a bit as it moved through distribution.

Might also be why people are getting cloudy water AFTER washing it. Might be the washing causes the little substrate balls to rub against each other and break down.

/Pure speculation on my part.


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## PC1 (May 21, 2010)

Not to hijack but anyone use this to replace substrate in an existing tank? I'm curious if it has an ammonia spike like Ada stuff? I just ordered some to replace the substrate in my yellows and sakura tanks. Anyone have experience with this?


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I'm using it bro. It looks dark compared to AS. Very nice stuff. However the Ph buffering capacity is not as good as AS. It'll be fine for your Sakura and Yellows.


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## PC1 (May 21, 2010)

Did you notice any ammonia spike? Both tanks are already looong time running tanks so I'm thinking of changing it in intervals to try and avoid any large spikes in anything


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

No ammonia whatsoever.

And it buffers my water crazily. My tap water is 20ppm, 0 kh, 0-1 gh, 6.5 ph, after a few weeks in the tank its 5.5 ph.

I could see it may not buffer harder water as well, but in my tanks it works really well.


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## PC1 (May 21, 2010)

Thats great to hear! Your tap comes out at 6.5? Holy cow!!!! I think mine is like 12 lol well maybe not 12 but its in the 8's I have hard a$$ water


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

I'm blessed for shrimp. At least until my city decides to buy its water from a different reservoir. 

Luckily my CRS enjoy the 5.5 pH water they're getting busy in. Always berried and the shrimplet survival rate is very good.

If your water is really that hard, consider an RO filter or using half distilled water or something, it'll lengthen the life of your substrate by quite a bit.


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## PC1 (May 21, 2010)

I buy my water, 4 g of ro to 1 g of tap gives me a good balance at about 6.2-6.4 avg


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