Wondering about this topic as several have mentioned heavy metals, iron and magnetic substrate, and who knows what is actually in there, which can be bad for shrimp.
I have been trying out Amazonia Light and had a huge issue which killed most of my PRL about 150 out of around 175 dead. I think it was a water provider flush thing which was the culprit.
But after the clean out and being concerned to not use the same substrate for shrimp in case of possible contamination. This brought up a not uncommon complaint I have seen a bunch of times over the recent years.
What is in the substrates and is there stuff which is okay for plants and not okay for shrimp. Often with shrimp we don't vac the substrate and make small water changes.
These things could lead to a build up of ??? whatever and be toxic to shrimp perhaps.
After leaving the substrate in a plastic bin for a few weeks, found it stained quite a bit iron orangeish which I am guessing iron rich and maybe other minerals toxic to shrimp in substrate.
I have used Garnet sand, no specific issues I noticed.
Petco sand (color wears of over the years).
Also used another product like UP Aqua, which is fired balls not mushy soil. I got it second hand and the seller couldn't recall the type.
Getting ready to try another which is Samurai Soil by CaribSea.
Minerals are often good for plants but I can see that there would be possible issues with some soils and what they contain, whether they blew up out of a volcano "X" number of years back or come from wetland type or woodland areas.
Anyone else have any thoughts here about this?
I have been trying out Amazonia Light and had a huge issue which killed most of my PRL about 150 out of around 175 dead. I think it was a water provider flush thing which was the culprit.
But after the clean out and being concerned to not use the same substrate for shrimp in case of possible contamination. This brought up a not uncommon complaint I have seen a bunch of times over the recent years.
What is in the substrates and is there stuff which is okay for plants and not okay for shrimp. Often with shrimp we don't vac the substrate and make small water changes.
These things could lead to a build up of ??? whatever and be toxic to shrimp perhaps.
After leaving the substrate in a plastic bin for a few weeks, found it stained quite a bit iron orangeish which I am guessing iron rich and maybe other minerals toxic to shrimp in substrate.
I have used Garnet sand, no specific issues I noticed.
Petco sand (color wears of over the years).
Also used another product like UP Aqua, which is fired balls not mushy soil. I got it second hand and the seller couldn't recall the type.
Getting ready to try another which is Samurai Soil by CaribSea.
Minerals are often good for plants but I can see that there would be possible issues with some soils and what they contain, whether they blew up out of a volcano "X" number of years back or come from wetland type or woodland areas.
Anyone else have any thoughts here about this?
