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Soils, substrate, and bare bottoms.


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So here is a thread for you to post your findings with different solid and substrates, as well as how you keep stable params with a bars bottom.

When I started I started with floramax, a useless inert substrate that claims to have nutrients. It doesn't. What it does is acts like a sponge absorbing fertilizers until there is no nutrients in the water column and slowly releases them. Doesn't buffer ph whatsoever.

I moved to azoo plant grower. It was good, didn't leech ammonia, buffered ph to 6.4. The problem I had was that I was inexperienced and didn't know not to use tap water with buffering substrates. Needless to say it only held nutrients for 6-7 months and only buffered my ph for a grand total of 4 months, this of course was my fault using tap water reducing the longevity of the substrate. But it did grow my plants well and buffer ph well.

Now I use Amazonia. And I have been using it since last year around Holoween I believe. I have found a way to cycle the tank in 3 weeks. So that helped me a lot since I am an impatient person. I find it buffers ph very well at 6.4 after about a month of it being introduced to the tank. In the beginning the ph shifts a lot. The lowest I red with my ph pen was about 3.2. Which is perfect for wild fish but not for captive bred cards. The nutrients in it are abundant. I have it in all three of my tanks, all my parameters are the same except nitrate, I keep nitrate in my hih tech at around 30-40ppm. My breeding hongsloi tank are 10ppm. And my shrimp tank is steady around 20ppm, while nitrates are not good, my moss and Buce keep the nitrates stable and there's never a fluctuation in it... Yes I figured out what was wrong with my liquid test....and I believe keeping it here and having my shrimp breed so rapidly as well as about.... Say 40 eggs were produced, maybe 20 survive give or take 5 depending on a lot of factors.... I'm breeding a more hardy shrimp. I have had no deaths with this parameter,... Anyways on to my point, Amazonia is by far one of the best substrates.

I do however want to try control soil, yu crs center had used this for years and years,

I also want to try this substrate. It's abnormal but worth a shot

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://grass-gate.ocnk.net/product-list/9&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://grass-gate.ocnk.net/product-list/9%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D423

What substrate have you used? How did it affect your tank? How long does or has it lasted? Pros and cons? Share your experiences here

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I haven't tried very many, but I have used some shrimp sand, Fluval Shrimp Stratum, and the Amazonia. But now I going with a bare bottom tank with the

substrate in containers that I can lift out and clean in aquarium water and put back in. But it is just inert substrate, gravel. The tank that has

The Fluval Shrimp Stratum, I seem to get some of the harmless worms, hydra, planaria, water fleas, and other microscopic things in the tank

all of the time in the substrate, and it is way more maintenance than the other bare bottom tanks. Also I get more fluctuations with the shrimp stratum

substrate than I do with the inert substrate.  

 

I found as long as I use RO Water, several pieces of Malaysia Drift Wood, Alder Cones, live plants, a couple of pieces of Cholla wood, and the sponge filters,

An Indian Almond leaf, Mulberry leaf, Oak Leaf, and the Borne Wild Bee Balls. I am also trying the Bio Digest vials once a month in the 12 gallon tank now too.

I can keep my water parameters steady. I used to use some peat pellets too, but found I really did not need them.

 

I can keep my PH at 6.4, KH at 0, GH at 4, TDS at 150, with no nitrites, no nitrates, no ammonia, and the temp at 72.5 F. degrees with this setup

and it has been very steady. I am not getting hardly any fluctuations at all going this way, just using inert substrate.  The shrimp seem happy and

are doing fine. I have about 50 fry in the tank too. With the large container that holds the leaves, and I put in some power food and when I do

feed, I put the food in the leaf container. They all seem to know that is where to go to get their grub on.

 

I change about 15% of the water every two weeks using RO water and Bee Shrimp Minerals GH+, and a little Shrimp Shield Supplement. So far,

my water quality has been rock steady. I keep a journal on everything I do with my tanks, so If I get any fluctuations or changes with the bare bottom

tank, I'll let everyone know. I am still learning so much, so it is good to read about what everyone else is using. There are so many different substrates

in Europe now, and some of them are charged, and all kinds of things that they do.

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I just bought some of the fluval strathum (not the new shrimp specific one) and it seems pretty good. I get a steady pH of 6.4 using RO/DI water. I can't say how long it lasts yet, but so far it seems good. From the reviews I have read on it people seem to either love or hate this substrate. I still would like to get some amazinia, but my LFS has this fluval.

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I just bought some of the fluval strathum (not the new shrimp specific one) and it seems pretty good. I get a steady pH of 6.4 using RO/DI water. I can't say how long it lasts yet, but so far it seems good. From the reviews I have read on it people seem to either love or hate this substrate. I still would like to get some amazinia, but my LFS has this fluval.

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The new Fluval stratum is made for shrimp/plants it used to be two different product's one for shrimp and one for plant's. It has been reformulated and made into one product . People had a lot of issues with the old shrimp stratum and wanted to blame Fluval for killing there shrimp I think it was because it did not leach ammonia and people put shrimp in un cycled tank's and they died. So to correct this they went to a Japanese breeder and reformulated. It now leeches ammonia and is mineralized buffers to 6.0 to 6.4 I only have good thing's to say about the new Fluval shrimp/plant stratum. another issue with the old stuff was that it didn't buffer for very long about 6 month's I am around the 4 month mark and it still going strong so only time will tell if they fixed the buffering issues to.
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Ooooh i do have the new stuff then. I didn't know it leached ammonia now, I bought it because the employee there told me it didn't and I was planning on using snails to cycle.

So your liking it so far?

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The price went up a lot for the new ones right?

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I don't think it did 36$ for 18 pounds.

 

Ooooh i do have the new stuff then. I didn't know it leached ammonia now, I bought it because the employee there told me it didn't and I was planning on using snails to cycle.

So your liking it so far?

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I think it great stuff so far and I would recommend it .

Yes it dose leech ammonia here is a link to my journal where I used the new fluval shrimp/plant stratum. http://www.shrimpspot.com/index.php?/topic/661-10-gallon-shrimp-tank/

I have read bad thing about the old shrimp stratum

1. Turns to mud

2. Doesn't grow plant's well lacks nutrients

3 Stops buffering in six month's

4. Shrimp wouldn't breed and if they did had high mortality rate of young

5. Not good for cbs/rcs or any sensitive shrimp

People wanted to blame Fluval shrimp stratum for there lack of success when really it was due to user error and lack of experience.

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