JerSaint Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Hi All, I have a 20L dirted shrimp tank that is fairly heavily planted. I was just wondering how many others have gone the dirted route, and what pros and cons might come my way? Here is a recent pic of the tank: And some of the shrimp: MarkNJD15 and Merth 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Tigers, Crystals and cherries? very pretty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpinista Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Nice tank! Have not done a "dirtied" tank. Is this an alternative to ADA substrate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpinista Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Nice pics too! Would love to start a thread about photography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerSaint Posted November 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 You could call it an alternative to ADA substrate! It's just a base layer of miracle grow organic potting soil capped with sand. This is my first dirted tank and it seems to be fine for the shrimp and great for the plants. I just wonder if there is some reason why dirted tanks don't seemed to be used as much in shrimp tanks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mosspearl Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Your tank is beautiful! I've only dirted planted jars and a fishbowl, none of which have had shrimp in them (yet). I would be open to trying it. I'm not sure what you'd need to do once the dirt became exhausted of nutrients. The plants might suffer and need to be supplemented since they were accustomed to a good supply, so you'd need to find ferts you felt safe applying with shrimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Any idea what the pH is? I haven't used anything but aquasoil for softwater shrimp before but your tank looks great! Are your tigers and CRS breeding or just the RCS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelrod12 Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 I have a few tanks and a few vases with dirt substrates, none with shrimp yet though. I dirted my 20L that I'll be keeping shrimp in though. I can't think of any problems that could arise from the dirt specific to shrimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merth Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 I think the biggest issue would be trapped gases in the soil releasing and affecting params Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mosspearl Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Trapped gases can be released easily enough with a bamboo skewer or knitting needle... just poke the substrate periodically and release the bubbles. If you do that periodically, you can prevent a large build up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Can MTS be used for dirt substrates as well? That would eliminate the pokinginto teh soil in a natural way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merth Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Yes they can i had them in mine. They dont churn it up much. I found i still had trapped gases even with them in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Interesting. So basically useless in a dirt envornment, eh? OKay, so is there some anti-gas treatment to allow gass to disapate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mosspearl Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 MTS don't go deep enough. In a dirted tank, they only get into the cap. In my sand tanks, I only see them in the top 1/4-1/2 inch of the substrate, hence the suggestion to poke at the dirt to release the bubbles. It's easy to do, only takes seconds, and it's pretty effective without disturbing the underlying dirt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerSaint Posted November 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 Already did some poking into the sub and got bubbles this afternoon. No deaths so far and it was easy enough, that it will be simple to keep up with. Currently I have berried Tigers but no babies yet that I have seen. The cherries are breeding like ...well like cherries:) I have had a berried CRS but it didn't go well, no babies but I believe the mama is still around but I could be mistaken. The pH is around 7-7.2 a bit high for my liking. I think if I could slowly buffer it down I might have a higher success rate with babies making it from berried mamas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 Have you given thought about how to drop the ph? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merth Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 I put lots of driftwood in mine to help with ph somewhat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerSaint Posted November 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 Soothing we chatted about using sodium bicarbonate to slowly lower it on another forum. I haven't done it yet because all of my other tanks have a lower pH than this one and have lowered a bit with time. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merth Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 Maybe a peat bag in filter? would of course release alot of tanins making viewing less than desireable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelrod12 Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 I think it's better to pretreat the water before adding it to the tank in order to not have parameter swings. So maybe run it through some peat and test before adding. Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 I have cherries so don't need lower ph, but I *have* thought about a mesh bag of substrate to lower ph in a HOB or hidden behind plants. JerSaint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Soothing we chatted about using sodium bicarbonate to slowly lower it on another forum. I haven't done it yet because all of my other tanks have a lower pH than this one and have lowered a bit with time. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Sodium bicarbonate would raise pH not lowers it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerSaint Posted November 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2013 Oblong, would Sodium Bi also raise either GH or KH? It may have been one of those that we were talking about not pH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted November 11, 2013 Report Share Posted November 11, 2013 Sodium bicarbonate would raise KH but shouldn't raise GH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elo500 Posted June 7, 2014 Report Share Posted June 7, 2014 Sorry to bring up an older thread but I was wondering what your gh and kh measured in your dirted tank? I thought crystal shrimp needed a soil that would buffer ph because of the low kh requirement? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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