# What Substrate



## daza.141 (1 Oct 2012)

Hi, so im starting a planted aquarium, i currently have a sprinkle of irish peat moss then a generous layer of john innes no:3 conpost and then was planning on adding a layer or akadama but after doing some research i have found out that the john innes compost raises gh in the tank and i was planning on having a load of cherry shrimp in there my friend has this too and his shrimp keep dieing so im planning on changed my substrate does anybody no of any good ones at a reasonable price as i dont have lots to splash out   many thanks Darren.


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## jack-rythm (1 Oct 2012)

I'm keen to see peoples opinion as that friend of darrens is me....


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## wazuck (1 Oct 2012)

Tmc nutrasoil? Cheaper than ada soil but amazing stuff. That's what I'm running in my tank on JD optiwhite


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## jack-rythm (1 Oct 2012)

of course! wish I had of thought of tmc! think u can get it pretty cheap too...


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## jack-rythm (2 Oct 2012)

This is from BigTom...

Hi Jack,

I've used JI3 and various other commercial composts in shrimp tanks without any issue. However, be aware that soils, unless mineralised, will leach large amounts of ammonia and fertilisers for the first few weeks or even months. Unless you have a large, healthy plant bioload to suck all that up, then it could be whats doing for your shrimp, assuming the tank is relatively newly set up.

I guess its also possible that you're getting heavy swings in pH and/or water hardness between water changes which is unsettling them, although mine always seemed pretty bombproof. Hard to say without testing for it.

As ever, my advice would be to increase the water changes and introduce some fast growing floating or emergent plants that aren't CO2 limited to use up any excess ammonia. You could also try adding some purigen to the filter, can't hurt.


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