# Substrates, Cat Litter, shrimp



## Sentral (15 Apr 2012)

Hello guys, 

I'm currently using akadama in one of my shrimp tanks, but it works out fairly expensive due to shipping, i'm going to set another tank up so I was looking at car litter as an alternative.

Does anyone have experience using the popular tesco type; and the buffering capacity of it? Will it reduce PH and GH at all? 

Any info would be great, also feel free to post pics of your setups with the substrate. 

Thanks

Ben


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## basil (15 Apr 2012)

Send a pm to dincho - he will probably be able to give you a good steer on this.


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## JenCliBee (15 Apr 2012)

Sentral said:
			
		

> Hello guys,
> 
> I'm currently using akadama in one of my shrimp tanks, but it works out fairly expensive due to shipping, i'm going to set another tank up so I was looking at car litter as an alternative.
> 
> ...




Hi Ben, im currently using it in my 70l cherry tank and have been for the last 12 months, i cant really help you on the buffering and weather the KH/PH alters.... ive not really noticed any difference in all honesty but then again i dont check them anyways.

The shrimp are thriving and the plants dont fair to bad either. Ive also used it with crs,cbs and tigers (normal and blues) and apart from it being a little redder than akadama, i would higher recommend it....for  me personally i prefer akadama for a more natural colour... but as you say, it can be quite expensive and more importantly it's getting increasingly harder to obtain.


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## Dincho (15 Apr 2012)

basil said:
			
		

> Send a pm to dincho - he will probably be able to give you a good steer on this.



Charming, someone mentions cat sh*t and you think of me! 

I can't help i'm afraid, never used it. What shrimp are you thinking of? you may not need the water buffered.


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## Sentral (15 Apr 2012)

Thanks all, I've had success with Sakura so moving up to CRS/CBS and perhaps hong kong blue shrimp. I've got catapa bark/alder cones that I can use as a buffer but was a little concerned about GH


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## basil (17 Apr 2012)

Where did you get the catapa bark from please?


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## Sentral (19 Apr 2012)

Incase anyone is wondering, using Cat Litter increased GH by about 3-4 and PH is unchanged. (This was far from scientific by the way, just what I found)



			
				basil said:
			
		

> Where did you get the catapa bark from please?


I got mine from eBay, pretty sure they've still got some


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## basil (19 Apr 2012)

OK ben, pm sent!


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