Cost effective substrate for Neocardina

Like I stated above I am looking for a more cost effictive and ph neutral substrate for housing Neocardina sp. shrimp. I'd also prefer if it can be easily planted in. Any ideas?! I'm about at my whits end with Fluval Stratum.

Plants can be grown in sand, but not as well as soil or other larger grain substrates. Pool filter sand might be a good happy medium because of its larger grain size.

I have a turface pro league tank that grows plants very well - it's pretty much the same stuff that they sell at aquariumplants.com, but it's colored like a baseball infield. You have to rinse it a lot before you put it in, but it's super cheap and I believe it's pretty much neutral. It's not terribly fun to plant (the clay granules are pretty light), but it doesn't turn to silt like the soil-based substrates do. I believe it affects PH less than fluorite or eco complete, but definitely do a bit of research first. When I did the research a couple of years ago the only place I could find the black stuff was on aquariumplants.com because turface quit making it in that color.

What kind of trouble are you having with the Fluval stuff? Unstable PH? Silt?

Silt and its to light to plant in.

You could try a sand cap over it - black tahitian moon sand would look fantastic. Granted, planting still won't be trouble-free, but it'll cut down on silt and make it easier than with just the fluval stuff itself. Another downside is that the water column won't be in contact with the substrate anymore which may negate some of the PH-lowering effects. Root plants won't care though - they'll grow just like they did before.

My sand-capped walstad 20g (miracle-gro organic potting mix and pool filter sand cap) is a jungle of root plants with very low maintenance requirements and no visible algae growth. I had a bit of a green water problem when I first set it up, but that went away after a couple of months.

If you do end up trying a sand cap, keep it pretty thin - thinner with finer-grained sands like tahitian moon sand.

with the fluval stratum you almost have to use it as the cap layer over some dark sand. the sand holds the plants better. that stratum is so light you can blow it away with water movement, and it doesnt compact. so pull it out and try some darks sand with it on top.

A good number of members in GSAS have been raving about Safety Zorb, which far as I can tell seems to be a fired clay substrate that doesn't affect ph and is only $10 for a 40lb bag. I may give this a try.

I appreciate the ideas on keeping the Stratum down but my main goal is to decrease the cost of starting up new tanks, with stratum is costs $30 bucks to cover 2 ten gallons.

Well, if you don't care about looks or plants you could always just go with a pure sand tank or bare bottom with floating plants to keep up the water quality (Frogbit, water lettuce, etc.).

Alder cones, leaves, and moss would provide plenty of surface area for bio film.

pbmax wrote:Well, if you don't care about looks or plants you could always just go with a pure sand tank or bare bottom with floating plants to keep up the water quality (Frogbit, water lettuce, etc.).

Alder cones, leaves, and moss would provide plenty of surface area for bio film.

That's always an option, Ill try a couple different substrates and report back on my findings. I want to try black blasting sand, large grain natural looking sand from A place for pets and Safety Zorb.

The only downside to natural-colored sand is that it causes dull shrimp coloration - at least in neocaridina (I can't speak to CRS or CBS).

Regardless, good luck! I'd like to see photos of the black blasting sand in a tank if you get some.

wait so is the only problem with stratum the weight of the granules?

Sooo,, I have to take back what I said about the eco complete. I was able to figure out what was raising my PH. I had a bag of regenerated purigen which was causing the PH swing. As soon as I removed it, the PH dropped to where I wanted it. about 6.8-7ph

I actually combined my eco complete with some up aqua sand, (I know it isnt too cheap) but within a week, my fire reds blew up and I now have babies littering the tank.

Its alot easier to plant in as well and dont blow away under the HOB filter.

binbin9 wrote:wait so is the only problem with stratum the weight of the granules?

Sooo,, I have to take back what I said about the eco complete. I was able to figure out what was raising my PH. I had a bag of regenerated purigen which was causing the PH swing. As soon as I removed it, the PH dropped to where I wanted it. about 6.8-7ph

I actually combined my eco complete with some up aqua sand, (I know it isnt too cheap) but within a week, my fire reds blew up and I now have babies littering the tank.

Its alot easier to plant in as well and dont blow away under the HOB filter.

Interesting, who makes the aqua sand?

upaqua - you can find some on ebay or amazon its still kinda pricey but there's no cycle time like amazonia. and I only use small amounts to do some buffering.

binbin9 wrote:upaqua - you can find some on ebay or amazon its still kinda pricey but there's no cycle time like amazonia. and I only use small amounts to do some buffering.

That is still pretty spendy, I may just mix stratum with black blasting sand.

Im getting ready to rip out my fluval as well. I'm noticing that the breeding has slowed to nil and the mysterious disappearances happens much more with my fluval stratum tank.

I'm thinking about employing some old school UGF with some eco complete and mixed with africana.

I was at sierra today in renton and it looks like they are carrying ada aquasoil!

binbin9 wrote:Im getting ready to rip out my fluval as well. I'm noticing that the breeding has slowed to nil and the mysterious disappearances happens much more with my fluval stratum tank.

I'm thinking about employing some old school UGF with some eco complete and mixed with africana.

I was at sierra today in renton and it looks like they are carrying ada aquasoil!

I havent had any issuses with stratum besides cost and the light weight of the granules. Yes Sierra has started carrying limited aqua soil. Why Africana over Amazonia? Why mix with Eco complete?

binbin9 wrote:
I'm thinking about employing some old school UGF with some eco complete and mixed with africana.

An under-gravel filter?? Why would you go with one of those?

What I've learned from conversions with some breeders is that the success rate of babies is due to high volumes of good bacteria.

So lots of sponges, lava rock etc. A UGF is old school but a very effective way to create a biological filter.

I redid my fluval stratum tank today.

I used a UGF, and drilled holes into the vertical pipes, then placed sponges over the pipes. My 1st layer are lava rocks, middle layer of amazonia, and then some ecocomplete to cap.

This should create some serious biological build up.

I'll let the tank cycle about a week before adding the shrimps back. We'll see how it goes. =)

Yes, big bio filters are a good idea - thus the popularity of sponge filters and HMFs. But what happens when the UGF clogs? And it will definitely clog with soil in the substrate.

Im not too worried about it clogging. I got one of these. I plan on removing the top off of one of the pipes to do my water changes from.

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Good luck I don't think I've ever seen a soil tank with a ugf, but that certainly doesn't mean it's not possible.

There's no soil, the 1st layer is lava rock, then amazonia, and topped with caribsea eco complete

If aqua soil amazonia isn't soil, what would you call it?

Yes true, I thought you meant actual dirt. But its more of a gravelly substrate like stratum. The lava rocks act more like a barrier though.

fyi - its the normal type not the powder type

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In my experience it turns to muck pretty quickly. Granted, I only have experience with amazonia 2, but I believe they're the same in that respect.