Fluval Shrimp Stratum

Pretty good stuff for shrimp tank. I use it on all my shrimps tanks. This stuff make keeping CRS, OEBT and, Cherry very easy. A bit light but settle well and don't cloud the water. It keep the PH low and gorw plant just fine.

Update:

09/29/11 Somehow the survival rate of the CRS and OEBT shrimplets are very low. Severial berries but only 3 babies survies so far. They are in 2 difference tank. Neocaridina (cherry veriaties) breeds like roaches. I changes out the products both tank with Akadama soils, and crushed bricks. Will update if it make any difference. But so it's not that impressive with Caridina.

Update:

10/11/11 The rest of my OEBT hatched fine in crush brick and serveral Crystal shrimplets are swimming around on Akadama. Conclusion: in my experience, I would only use this stuff for Neo. Don't waste your money if you are into a more expensive shrimps. This stuff is not good for survival rate.

From my experiance Stratum takes my pH down by .2 which no ammonia leaching. Keeps my shrimp and wallet happy!

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I've had very good luck with this substrate. I was a bit worried, because others have mentioned problems such as difficulty planting with it and breakdown over time. I've had good experiences on both fronts--I planted my 2nd tank with FSS with dwarf hairgrass, and I thought it would be a royal pain to slip in all the individual nodes. In the end it was a compete non-issue, and the hairgrass actually rooted more quickly and solidly than in Eco complete (which I have in another tank). The only item I had trouble planting was a heavy stem plant--for those, you'll want to weight or temporarily cover with a rock, etc. until they root.

Shrimp seem to thrive in tanks with FSS, although I have noticed a fairly severe pH buffering effect for the first few weeks, so be careful or you can have some die off. This seems to fade over time so if you need big buffering you will have to augment or look elsewhere. Once established, shrimp breed like rabbits (I have RCS and Blueberry Shrimp), and seem to enjoy themselves. I've had no real soil breakdown to speak of in about 8 months, but I will keep watch on it. No need to wash this beforehand, by the way; in fact, there are nice small granules n there you'll probably lose if you wash it. I had no problems with dirtying up the water at all, if you fill your tank intelligently, you won't have issues with clarity.

As a parting thought, I would like to mention the "look," I personally find this quite attractive for substrate; the dark color shows many types of shrimps, fish, and snails well, and it looks nice in photos. The only potential negative is it is ate dark--if you put very dark species against it, you won't get the same effect as a light species. In that case, you may want a lighter-colored substrate. Otherwise, thumbs up all around from me. Just watch that pH buffering effect for a bit, depending on your water type you may have some instability for a few weeks.

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I used this in a 2.5 gallon nano and it buffers the water nicely if you want a shrimp tank, I saw a nice drop in pH, kH, & gH, but this substrate is extremely light so I would not recommend it for use with fish and definitely not for bottom dwelling fish. I planted some low light, low growth plants along with a couple high light, high growth plants and everything is doing well, but I still wouldn't use this in a tank any larger than 5 gallons and never with fish.

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Lower layers turn into mush after a few months and is like having a layer of dirt on bottom of tank.Granuales are tiny and fragile and will break apart and get sucked into vac so its impossible to clean and if you stir it up it mucks the tank up real quick.

I also havent seen any benifits to the Shrimp. I have two ten gallons both with red cherries and the tank with regular cheap gravel seem to show better colors. So now I am stuck with a tank with dirt on the bottom that I cant clean and will have to replace.

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