# Best substrate for shrimp tank?



## ohbaby714

I'm not an expert but been using Fluval Shrimp Stratum on my tank both 40B and 10g.

Too bad Amazon is in Cali.
http://www.amazon.com/Hagen-12686-F...UL8S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314896004&sr=8-2
8.8lb is only $19.35 for me with primes shipping  and no taxes.
This is the cheapest i ever seen it, and end up buying 2 bags last week for reserve.

Anyway, very easy to work with a little light but decent at growing plants and my shrimps love rolling the pellets around. Plus they breed like roaches.


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## GeToChKn

I used eco-complete for my cherries, tigers and snowballs. My cherries are breeding like mad right now. About 15 babies I can see, 4 more berried, 3 more saddled and probably lots more babies I can't see yet.


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## piffy

I use ADA aquasoil amazonia II, which buffers my water pretty nicely. It's a little pricey though. I've heard good things about fluval shrimp stratum, but I've never tried it.

IMO, cherry shrimp will be okay in almost any substrate - shrimps that require specific water conditions is where you might be more concerned about what substrate to use.


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## mordalphus

Try to get a soil made for shrimp or aquasoil amazonia. Those are the best.

I use stratum, Mr. Aqua soil and aquasoil, ill be trying out the new up aqua shrimp soil soon too. They all work pretty good so far


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## dhgyello04

I use the Fluval Shrimp Stratum in both my 7.9 CRS nano and my 46 bow front OEBT tank. Both tanks are holding a 6.8 PH. The substrate is engineered to keep the 6.8 PH. I say go with the Fluval.

-Don


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## GeToChKn

I have the Netlea soil in my crystal tank, keeps it at like 6.2 and my crystals are breeding and finally see babies, but for the cherries and others that don't need a specific pH, I just have eco-complete. I do dose my tank with several Mosara products though too, even the cherry ones, so that may help, no idea.


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## msnikkistar

If you can get it, netlea. I drool over the stuff, but I can't get my hands on it


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## GeToChKn

msnikkistar said:


> If you can get it, netlea. I drool over the stuff, but I can't get my hands on it


My tapwater is 7.6 and fairly hard. I mix 4-1 tap with distilled and top off my crystal tank and it stays at 6.2 with the netlea. It is really amazing stuff. Drops my gH as well and I finally saw crystal babies last night for the time, so they must like what it's doing to the water too. I had them at first in tap water for months, put them in their tank with the netlea soil and its been about 6 weeks since they were in there and babies already, so that pretty much, in the tank, molted, saddled, preggers, berried, born. Soon as they got in the tank with the Netlea, they started getting down to work. I also put in some Eheim Peat Pellets into my filter as well just to help keep it softer as its filtering and get the maximum life out of the soil. Any of the buffering soils will eventually run out and start to raise pH as it runs out, so the softer the water you can add, the less buffering and the longer it will last. Some people say the Fluval shrimp stuff runs out too quick but I think if you do a mix of tap water/distilled water/ro water or pure ro, it will last a lot longer as well. the main thing is to keep a log or excel sheet of your readings once every few weeks so you can see when things start to change.


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## msnikkistar

Oh, it has nothing to do with that. I just want the stuff. lol My tap is already soft and I only do top offs with distilled, so not an issue. I just want the dang stuff. Dang Canadians, get all the good stuff.


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## GeToChKn

The only thing to watch out for is the netlea soil (and maybe others besides the fluval) is there is added ammonia to the soil to allow you to cycle it without adding anything. I would wait a good month if not two of setting up a tank with it to make sure it was fully cycled and no more spikes and stiring the soil around to make sure all the starter ammonia is cycled through. The plus side is that ammonia is usually converted to ammonium in a low pH environment so its really harmful but still better safe than sorry.


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## GeToChKn

msnikkistar said:


> Oh, it has nothing to do with that. I just want the stuff. lol My tap is already soft and I only do top offs with distilled, so not an issue. I just want the dang stuff. Dang Canadians, get all the good stuff.


For once!!!!!!!!!! lol.

Everything else is more expensive, or shipping is nuts. Pay $30 shipping on something from the 'bay that cost $20. lol. Shipping on shrimp. I so want some of Franks shrimp from your Canadian site, but $50 shipping for overnight sucks. I know its not his fault, that what our shipping costs, just to make that worth it, I have to get some expensive shrimp and a good quantity, cause again, I don't want to pay $50 shipping for $50 worth of shrimp. lol.


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## somewhatshocked

Great. You folks WOULD have to mention Netlea again. 

Now I'm going to have to bang my head against the table for a while to forget about how badly I want to get my hands on more of that stuff. It's been better for me than Amazonia when it comes to water param stability here in Louisville. 

HINT, HINT to U.S. sellers. Please get on that gravy train ASAP. There are nerds like us who would snatch it up in hordes.


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## jrwestcoast

+1 I have been looking for Netlea soil for sometime and can only look hope someone in the U.S. will one day sell it to all of us.:hihi:


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## GeToChKn

Opps, sorry I brought it up  

lol.


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## msnikkistar

Dang Canadians bringing up the goods we want.  

Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express


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## oblongshrimp

Who makes Netlea soil? Where is it originally from?


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## msnikkistar

It's from somewhere in Asia. In order to get it here, you would need to get USDA and AGI to approve it. That would mean getting it analyzed. It's a hot mess.


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## astrosag

Wow, didn't expect this level of response! Thanks for your input.

I started another thread asking about my water but I may as well add it here since you mention that some of these substrates help control pH.

My test-strip tests (color coded) show that my water is quite hard and ver alkanine. 

pH is 8+ and KH and GH are 300 ppm. This may mean that I need to invest in a pH controlling substrate?


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## HolyAngel

Yeah it means you won't be able to keep any caridina species, only neon's, unless you use aquasoil or something like it, or switch to RO water and supplements. Ph needs to be around 6-7 and kh=0-1 gh=less than 5. The liquid test kit is easier to compare then the test strips and more accurate as well.


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## jkan0228

I'm starting to use Fluval Plant Statum for my new CRS tank. Dunno how it's gonna tuen out! Very excited!


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## astrosag

HolyAngel said:


> Yeah it means you won't be able to keep any caridina species, only neon's, unless you use aquasoil or something like it, or switch to RO water and supplements. Ph needs to be around 6-7 and kh=0-1 gh=less than 5. The liquid test kit is easier to compare then the test strips and more accurate as well.


Thanks for the heads up. I won't pretend to know a lot about shrimp but I did a little research and it says the following:

Cherry Shrimp : Neocardinia denticulata sinesis

pH Range says 6.2 - 8.0 although ideal is 7.2
Kh = 3 -15 dkh (I doubt my test strips are accurate enough but even at 300ppm thats 16.8) - ideal is 8dkh
No GH range/ideal listed.

I've been asking for a while and most say cherry's should be fine. I don't think, and you're right here, that I can keep any of the more fragile shrimp species.


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## mordalphus

Yah, neocaridina can flourish under any conditions. But if you were to keep any crystal shrimp or tiger shrimp youd want to invest in a reverse osmosis water system.


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## madness

mordalphus said:


> Yah, neocaridina can flourish under any conditions. But if you were to keep any crystal shrimp or tiger shrimp youd want to invest in a reverse osmosis water system.


Mordalphus: how sensitive to the pH and hardness issues are tiger shrimp, in your opinion? Most of what you read says that they are very hardy and flexible, not as easy as Neos but far more flexible than CRS, bee shrimp, etc.

Obviously with OEBT and other really high end tigers people keep really specific water parameters but I was under the impression that was mostly due to the expensive nature of them rather than an inherent sensitivity to pH and hardness.


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## jkan0228

madness said:


> Mordalphus: how sensitive to the pH and hardness issues are tiger shrimp, in your opinion? Most of what you read says that they are very hardy and flexible, not as easy as Neos but far more flexible than CRS, bee shrimp, etc.


How sensitive are say S/SS grade CRS?
Sorry to hijack :tongue:


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## msnikkistar

All tigers and CRS are sensitive to the same water parameters no matter what grade. They can "live" in pH and hardness levels above what we suggest, but they will  not "thrive" and breed if the water is not to their liking.

HOWEVER, grades of CRS such as JPRL are on a whole league of their own in sensitivity.


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## jkan0228

So what are the MOST ideal parameters for CRS?


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## astrosag

So you hijack once and you apologize...then you continue to hijack the thread? 

I'm just playing with you. If these threads help more people out, all the better.

Thanks for the input everyone. I researched a bit more and for a silly little 1.5G (I'm not even sure how well it'll work out), I think i may just dump some of my established Eco-Complete rather than seek new substrate. 
I was hoping for a cheap, easy to get alternative that may help the shrimp out a little. 

But for the future, larger tanks, I will most definitely consider your recommendations!


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## elbandito78

jkan0228 said:


> So what are the MOST ideal parameters for CRS?


http://www.planetinverts.com/Crystal Red Shrimp.html

Hope this helps.


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## jkan0228

astrosag said:


> So you hijack once and you apologize...then you continue to hijack the thread?
> 
> I'm just playing with you. If these threads help more people out, all the better.
> 
> Thanks for the input...


Haha when I first saw that my back instantly filled with cold sweat. Lol But yea sorry :tongue:


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## astrosag

No worries, just joking!


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## mordalphus

CRS ideal is 6.2-6.8 pH, 0-1 KH, 4-8 GH, temp 68-74f
Tiger is similar but can thrive even up to 7.4 pH with similar gh and kh as crystals. Tigers also operate in the same temperature range (they are, after all, the same species)


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