Hello EVERYONE !
My name is Jamie, I only recently took up the hobby of keeping tropical fish mid last year, starting with a Community Juwel Rio 240l, Planted with Co2 injection and dosing ferts, still trying to nail getting the balance right for the plants, VERY Hard water have been a member on Tropic Fish Forum UK since my hobby started, which has been great!
Link to my tank log http://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/ind ... ic=30535.0
So after a little while I managed to pick up a 23l Nano tank, I would like to make this a planted breeding haven for some Red Cherry Shrimp, I haven’t kept shrimp before so I am looking forward to it, but in no way am I rushing into it.
I have some questions regarding Substrate choice for planting and breeding, I have VERY hard water where I live, South of England in Portsmouth, water is often referred to as liquid rock. I had planned to use JBL Manando and Aquabasis which I have already purchased, but after some further researching I have read that the JBL stuff will increase water GH+KH which will not be suitable conditions for breeding Red Cherry Shrimp, what with my water being Very hard already, I have a bag of brown Flora-Base also, so could use that? Just want to make sure I start out well, even if it means I have to buy something else so that’s why I wanted to get the opinion from the experts, you lot !
I also plan to dose easycarbo and ferts, in the future I may grab a small Co2 injection kit, but not just yet.
So, that’s me
Looks forward to chatting to you all and sharing my progress
Jamie
New to Shrimp - Substrate Choice?
Moderator: Mustafa
Re: New to Shrimp - Substrate Choice?
Hi Jamie,
It really does not matter what substrate you choose. Sand and gravel work equally well. What's more important is that you prepare your water. If your water has a very high kh value (high gh does not matter *at all*), that needs to come down to about 1 or less to be optimal without CO2 injection. Without that, your pH will be sky high and you won't see many or any shrimp offspring. If you have CO2 injection, that changes everything as the CO2 will lower your pH even at higher kh levels, depending on how much CO2 you are using. A pH value of between 6.5 to 7.3 should be optimal for pretty much any shrimp out there. You can, of course, use "Florabase", but you must be aware that those kinds of substrates fall apart after a few years. And, especially in the beginning, they may lower your pH too much...so much that no beneficial bacteria can establish themselves.
Anyway, fertilization and anything that claims to be "carbon in a bottle" is usually not a good idea in a shrimp tank. Even if nothing obviously happens immediately, over time you *will* usually have "mysterious" shrimp deaths that start one day and don't stop until pretty much all of your shrimp are dead.
If I were you I would do *tons* of research on shrimp and water parameters in general both on this website and forum, and generally on the internet. These issues have been discussed many times over the years, and, although the topic is still evolving, some basics like "don't fertilize" or "don't overfeed" have not really changed.
It really does not matter what substrate you choose. Sand and gravel work equally well. What's more important is that you prepare your water. If your water has a very high kh value (high gh does not matter *at all*), that needs to come down to about 1 or less to be optimal without CO2 injection. Without that, your pH will be sky high and you won't see many or any shrimp offspring. If you have CO2 injection, that changes everything as the CO2 will lower your pH even at higher kh levels, depending on how much CO2 you are using. A pH value of between 6.5 to 7.3 should be optimal for pretty much any shrimp out there. You can, of course, use "Florabase", but you must be aware that those kinds of substrates fall apart after a few years. And, especially in the beginning, they may lower your pH too much...so much that no beneficial bacteria can establish themselves.
Anyway, fertilization and anything that claims to be "carbon in a bottle" is usually not a good idea in a shrimp tank. Even if nothing obviously happens immediately, over time you *will* usually have "mysterious" shrimp deaths that start one day and don't stop until pretty much all of your shrimp are dead.
If I were you I would do *tons* of research on shrimp and water parameters in general both on this website and forum, and generally on the internet. These issues have been discussed many times over the years, and, although the topic is still evolving, some basics like "don't fertilize" or "don't overfeed" have not really changed.