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UP Aqua Shrimp Sand

35K views 102 replies 39 participants last post by  SupaTank 
#1 · (Edited)
Just because I didn't see much about this substrate in my searches, I thought I'd give my initial thoughts about it. Buffers to a pH of 6.5

1) It's a bit expensive, but I didn't need very much so it didn't bother me. Might not be my first choice if I was doing a whole rack of tanks though.
2) It comes in two grain sizes. They are both nice and black. I got the Micro grain size and it looks coooool!
3) It looks like the grains will be the perfect size for the shrimpies to play with, but it's also super floaty and light, and so very tough to plant it. Even positioning rocks in it was a bit tricky because with a very light touch everything moves, and slides around. But did I mention it looked cool? :tongue:
I don't have any shrimp in there yet, so I'll have to wait to update with how they seem to like it next week.

Here are some pictures.



Has anyone use the bigger grain size? Wondering if it is just as floaty and light.
 
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#42 ·
Just so no one gets too excited, mordalpus is right. This is just a "fancier" version of Mr. Aqua rolled in montmorillonite clay. I've been using it for almost four months in a few different setups and think $20 for a bag of it would be better spent on 2-3 Mr. Aqua or a couple bags of Fluval Shrimp Stratum. Even a $25 bag of Azoo Plant Grower Bed seems like a better buy.

It's cheap and easy to give your shrimp montmorillonite via the foods you're using or a mineral rock. Better bang for your buck.

P.S. on edit: I still like this stuff. It looks great in all the applications in which I'm using it.
 
#44 ·
Actually, its not. They are made in completely different factories with completely different formulas. Pound for pound shrimp sand is far more dense due do to its ratio of clay to ash. Fluval,Mr.Aqua are all 100% ash based. They are much lighter, and not nearly as dense grain for grain. Same go's for Azoo. All of which we have had in hand and tested ourselves. These are only a fraction of the soils we have come into contact with throughout 10 years of experience with soil substrates. Ash based soils are light in nature, very soft and porous.



I can not same the same for ContoSoil,Nature Soil,Fluval,Mr.Aqua,Columbo,Brightwell Aquatic, and several others that are all made in the same factory.

Contro-Soil Makes almost every Ash based soil in the market.

















 
#58 ·
UP aqua sand is AWESOME!!! I originally had 3 inches of eco-complete and use RO water and buffered a reading of 6.8 ph. I put in 2 of 3 bags of UP aqua sand and over night my ph buffered down to 6.4 ish. My shrimp are going crazy. They usually hide and aren't as active, but they're in the open and owning the tank! The sand does look pretty cool and the shrimp colors seems to pop more against the sand. I am a fan!
 
#59 ·
I have the micro version of this product in one of my crystal tanks. The shrimp love it. I find it very attractive, too.

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#61 ·
Sorry about the previous post. Tapatalk locked up on me. Lol

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2
 
#71 ·
LOLs. I never went to China before LOLOLOL. I meant those made in china rimless tanks. They looked like mr.aqua, but don't have a brand. They have those tanks at this LFS near my house. They also have a 12g long that looks like
a rip off of Mr.aqua. I decided on the rectangle one. I was going to do the 12G L, but it was 75$. My budget is tank + soil= under 100$. That's really expensive for the UP sand though. I'm going to go with ADA then. :p
If only I was rich.... *sigh*
 
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