Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I've got a tank that I've had now for about a month and a half (including cycling time, more like two months). It's a 6.6 gal. "bookshelf" tank from Petco [1], that has about a half-inch of Fluval Stratum that's got several loose bundles of java/flame moss, a marimo, a couple of large algea-covered riverrocks, and a handful of juvenile CRS and green Heteropoda's, along with two otos. More to the point though, I recently bought some small windelof java ferns and don't have enough substrate to actually plant the root-balls. I'd really like to not have to plant more wisteria, but I don't know what the best method would be for adding more stratum (if not impossible). Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[1] Here's a photo of the tank, it's a 6.6 gallon long: http://i2.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo ... _a__Aa.jpg

Possibly irrelevant P.S. from a long time reader, first time poster: This is my 4th planted/shrimp tank, after having gotten interested in dwarf shrimp a little over a year ago and this is the first time I hadn't used enough substrate... I know the java ferns aren't necessary, and the shrimp will be perfectly happy with the moss, but I've scaped/planted all of my other tanks and would like to do the same with this since it's in my living room.

If your tank is doing well it's always better to just leave it as it is. But if you want to take the risk of disturbing the biological balance in your tank I would just add small amounts of substrate at a time over maybe a period of a week (or more) until you have the desired amount of substrate in there. That way you won't be completely covering the existing biofilm on your substrate and the new substrate will be colonized somewhat already by the time you add more substrate.