Can I please get some advice on which substrate to use, I can't decide?

[Jenbenwren]

I'm trying to decide which substrate I should use in the 25x25x30cm Aquael Shrimp Set 20 I won in the 12 days of Shrimpmas Comp 1. I'd like to move some of our Mischling girls, my female RR TBMM from my Misch, Tremo my male Extreme KK & maybe Squirrel my 1 stripe KK TBM in there when it's ready, as a temporary home till my racks built. The tank they are in atm has a ph of 6.7, so I'm a bit worried that if there is a large difference in ph between the 2 tanks that they might not survive the change even though they'll be slowly drip accliamatize moved several hours.

I'm still tossing up which plants I might use. I think I might use some of the Glosso I have growing submersed in an old icecream tub outside, maybe a couple of the crypt parvas or some dwarf hairgrass from out there too as well as maybe attaching some Peacock Moss, US fissiden Fontanus/ Pheonix Moss or Subbwassertang to some of the rocks.

I'd like to try to use rock this time and with the way I'd like to try to scape it, I'll most likely be using more than recommended amount of substrate. I'm a little concerned that the extra substrate may buffer the ph lower than I'd like it to be. I'm thinking it might be better to use a plant substrate instead of a shrimp substrate. From what I've read on the net the plants don't do very well in the shrimp substrates but shrimp do well with the plant substrates. I like the look of ADA Amazonia and how well our plants grow in the tank with it, but it does take a long time to stop releasing ammonia. The Benibachi is great too, but it's buffering the ph too low in our CRS tank as it's a little to deep. I'd like to stick with the darker grey - black substrates as well.

Since I got our RO unit, I've noticed the RO water has a ph of around 6.4 compared to our tap waters ph 7. Does this mean I don't need to get a substrate with a strong buffering capacity? Would Fluval Shrimp & Plant Substrate do the job? It's the easiest one for me to get, but I don't think it's the one I should use. I'd love to find out what substrate other members would use if you were setting up this little tank.

[buck]

I’ve used the fluval and ista shrimp and plants subs and found them ok, I didn’t really keep too much of an eye on the ph or how well they held there buffering because i was using tap water at the time. in thinking about using Amazonia in my next rack, even if it does have a long ammonia bleed.

when I’ve been looking at what breeders o.s us there were lots using ADA and swearing by it.

As for the question about buffering capacity, I think the idea is the stronger ones last longer with ro then the weaker ones because they have more of the buffering compounds then the weaker ones and it gets used up quicker in the lesser brands as it has less? That’s why when you use tap water rather than ro it exhausts the subs quicker because  they need to do more work.  

thats how i see it any way.... 

Edited January 3, 2015 by buck

[Jenbenwren]

Thanks for your reply Buck. :-)

 

I wasn't sure if the substrate would buffer only to a certain ph, for example a substrate that buffers water with ph 7 down to 6.5, will that same substate bring down the ph to around 5.9 if I'm using water with a ph 6.4?

 

I love how well the plants grow in our tank with ADA Amazonia, but doesn't it decrease hardness of the water? The gh & kh are rapidly stripped to 0 in this tank and the RCS in there aren't doing as well as the RCS in a tank with Fluval Shrimp. I didn't do any homework on ADA Amazonia before I brought it. I was ringing around trying to find a lfs that stocked Cal Aqua Black Labs and one of the last ones I tried recomended ADA. I asked them a lot of questions and based my decision to go for the drive and buy a couple of bags on their answers to questions. It was only after I'd had the tank planted and cycling for a week that I did some research and found that everything they had told me, (other than your plants will love it), was false.  It was only tonight I noticed it lowers the hardness of the water though.

 

I have no trouble with gh in our CRS tank with Benibachi soil, but there is nearly twice the recommended depth of Benibachi Soil, (its a second hand setup and thats how the previous owner had been running it with his CRS), in their tank and the ph is very low at around 5 so I've been slowly syphoning a little bit out everynow and then.

[petfish]

going by what youve said you have the said shrimp in now, you'd probably best to go the ISTA plant, it will stabalize at 6.6