Is it worth changing to ada shrimp soil?

[Walshy]

Hey guys. I'm pretty new to shrimp but I bought 10 a grade crs a while ago purely because they were $5 each and I found them interesting. Now a little hooked and wanting more lol. I threw them in one of my apisto grow out tanks 30cm cube (the first tank I used to put them in after separating from parents) the tank is heavily planted for cover with some driftwood and standard inert black sander it might be searches fluorite black sand (can't remember which tanks I used which gravel) Water from my tap is about ph6.5 and extremely soft. I have added shrimp balls to add a little minerals to the water because I was told that their shells wouldn't develop properly with nothing in the water. The shrimp seem fine. Breed well. I probably have about 30 to 40 new .5cm juveniles swimming around in there at the moment. My question is. Is it worth my time changing the tank to ada soil? They appear to be fine and I'm getting quite a few baby shrimp growing up but it's difficult to tell if I'm having a high survival rate because u don't see the juveniles until they are large enough to spot. The tank has plenty of inhabitants swimming around that indicate a healthy tank and I've not seen a dead shrimp in there ever really. I am just reading up on them and everyone seems to swear by this ada soil and says it promotes breeding and survival rates. Thanks for your time.

[CNgo2006]

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

[BlueBolts]

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

+1.... if you can easiy maintain a PH (6-7), TDS (>300ppm) & GH (4-8), then there's absolutely no reason to change. A Grades are more tolerant, so what you've describe seems to be working well, so no need IMHO. Got a pic for us ? Would love to see your tank.

[Walshy]

Thanks for the quick reply guys :) I will take a few photos when I get a spare moment and post it up. Nothing special. Just a heap of plants aimlessly thrown in there to attempt at keeping nitrates down. It was originally just a grow out tank so no real effort went into it. I keep Indian almond leaves in there because the shrimp appear to enjoy picking at them and eating them so the tank stays a little stained with tannins. I am gonna have my first attempt at aqua scraping with a 40cm cube I picked up not long ago. Will get the ada soil this week and begin the cycle. I want the get a dead bonsai and put some java moss in there to make it appear alive with something that will crawl along the bottom to look like grass. Few rocks here and there too but I'm yet to pick everything up for the tank. I think I'll pick up a 20 watt floodlight for it and get some golden/snow white shrimp and give them a crack. So far compared with my apistos these guys have bin pretty cruise care. So I think the goldens will give me a bit of a challenge. Hopefully not too much of a challenge tho lol.

[Magikarp]

Just be careful where you source the bonsai. I had the same plan and lucky for me there's a bonsai farm around the corner and the guys told me that they use herbicide on some of the their trees and advised against it. When you look around don't forget to ask.

Don't forget to keep a tank journal, would love to see the build-up. :encouragement:

[Squiggle]

I would suggest getting some goldvine driftwood & making a mini tree out of that, I was going to do that but I don't have a planted tank anymore :encouragement:

[Walshy]

Wow! That photo is exactly what I wanna do! Lol. Looks so good. The dead bonsai tree ill be buying from my lfs. They are aquarium ready. Expensive but I'm only buying one so ill cop it. I'm still unsure on weather ill use co2 or not but I'm leaning more towards not because of the cost involved. If I only had one tank then spending the dosh on it wouldn't be a concern but I've got like 20 lol. I think eventually ill turn one of my racks into a dedicated shrimp rack. If I can keep the higher grades happy etc :) they are pretty sweet lil things. I enjoy the fact that you just put them in there and take care of the water. No need to sit there for an hour a day making sure they haven't injured each other lol.