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Hi to you all, I've been planning a 60 litres CRS tank (that's roughly 15.5 US gallons in Imperials), and have met some problem with the choice of substrate, so here comes some background info:
As my tap is plain awful for Shrimp (it has been a while since I last tested, only ever had RCS some years ago and they had quite some trouble with tap only) I plan to use RO water remineralized, so I shouldn't really need buffering characteristics in the substrate. The initial plan was to do an Iwagumi style tank, and I got some real nice, but real heavy rock. The plants I plan to having so far are HC in a carpet and moss in the rocks, probably will try to add some anubia, bucephalandra and crypts though (the lighting will be of 5 Cree XPG3 LED, dimmed enough so that they won't get too hot in a 50x10x2,5cm heat sink (20x4x1 in) and height will be adjustable from 2~22cm (roughly 1~11 inches) from the tank, the height adjustment is inspired by the CFL PAR sticky from i4x4nMore which show the importance of the distance of the light, the temperature stuff is to keep its lifespan long and to not induce heat in the tank);
What I have to disposition is:
1-MTS
2-Inert Black Sand
3-Flourite Black/Dark
4-Up Shrimp Sand and a National equivalent
5-Up Aquasoil and a National equivalent
6-Zeolite (for CEC)
So far I have been tending to 2 plans:
1-MTS+Zeolite capped with black sand
2-Up Aquasoil/National brand capped with black sand
My worries with them would be:
In plan 1 I might want to do some scaping with the rocks after it is filled, there is one particular rock which weight 10.5kg (23lbs) and I fear when moving it I would expose the MTS or that its weight could end up shifting the substrate and exposing the MTS by itself
In plan 2 it would be a very obvious increase in cost and I quite believe these industrial substrates don't last nearly as much as MTS (despite being low-tech tank it is intended to be a long-lived tank)
Also, I don't quite like the idea of Shrimp sand because I feel it wouldn't be good to the plants, the flourite I have not been liking much because it's main selling point is the CEC and the only number in CEC of it I found on net is 1.7me/100g;
Also, if needed I can get the mineral composition of the National equivalent of Aquasoil, I don't think I'll find one of these for the shrimp sand though.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, other pro for plan 1/con for plan 2 is the need for dosage, I would rather dose the minimum needed when keeping CRS
As my tap is plain awful for Shrimp (it has been a while since I last tested, only ever had RCS some years ago and they had quite some trouble with tap only) I plan to use RO water remineralized, so I shouldn't really need buffering characteristics in the substrate. The initial plan was to do an Iwagumi style tank, and I got some real nice, but real heavy rock. The plants I plan to having so far are HC in a carpet and moss in the rocks, probably will try to add some anubia, bucephalandra and crypts though (the lighting will be of 5 Cree XPG3 LED, dimmed enough so that they won't get too hot in a 50x10x2,5cm heat sink (20x4x1 in) and height will be adjustable from 2~22cm (roughly 1~11 inches) from the tank, the height adjustment is inspired by the CFL PAR sticky from i4x4nMore which show the importance of the distance of the light, the temperature stuff is to keep its lifespan long and to not induce heat in the tank);
What I have to disposition is:
1-MTS
2-Inert Black Sand
3-Flourite Black/Dark
4-Up Shrimp Sand and a National equivalent
5-Up Aquasoil and a National equivalent
6-Zeolite (for CEC)
So far I have been tending to 2 plans:
1-MTS+Zeolite capped with black sand
2-Up Aquasoil/National brand capped with black sand
My worries with them would be:
In plan 1 I might want to do some scaping with the rocks after it is filled, there is one particular rock which weight 10.5kg (23lbs) and I fear when moving it I would expose the MTS or that its weight could end up shifting the substrate and exposing the MTS by itself
In plan 2 it would be a very obvious increase in cost and I quite believe these industrial substrates don't last nearly as much as MTS (despite being low-tech tank it is intended to be a long-lived tank)
Also, I don't quite like the idea of Shrimp sand because I feel it wouldn't be good to the plants, the flourite I have not been liking much because it's main selling point is the CEC and the only number in CEC of it I found on net is 1.7me/100g;
Also, if needed I can get the mineral composition of the National equivalent of Aquasoil, I don't think I'll find one of these for the shrimp sand though.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, other pro for plan 1/con for plan 2 is the need for dosage, I would rather dose the minimum needed when keeping CRS
