# crystal red tank redo questions



## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

i have a small tank 1.5 gal cube tank that is home to about 6 crystal reds. i really need to redo it cause the tank itself is verry old(about 2 years) and i think the soil substrate is going bad. i have new substrate i can use but not sure how to make a filter for it as the sponge i have in there now is totally grown over with fissidens moss and i dont want to pull it off. i also would like to make a moss wall for the tank so not sure a sponge filter would be good for it cause it would soon get covered by moss as well. any ideas on a filter for the tank? also will the 6 shrimp be ok in a jar with the old water from the tank for a couple days with an air stone cause i dont have any other tanks i can put them in with out cross breeding?


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## alexopolus (Jan 18, 2010)

What substrate are you going to use? They probably will be fine in the jar (add some moss and make sure the temperature doesn't change drastically )


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## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

im going from miracl grow organic with black sand cap to fluval shrimp stratum


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

DON'T RINSE the fluval substrate! 
I have some in a crs tank right now... I really like it so far, it's keeping the PH quite low, and the crystals seem very content.
BUT.. I've heard numerous complaints about it muddying the water/ taking days to become clear, etc (always from people who rinsed, or otherwise treated the substrate as if it were gravel... you're probably aware that it's much more like tiny balls of hard dirt than like rocks or gravel)... I did NOT follow the package directions to rinse mine.
I put the substrate in the tank, put the empty bag on top of it, and gently added water. 
the tank NEVER got cloudy, and within half an hour the water was perfectly clear.
now roughly 8 weeks later and the tank has been close to perfect the whole time.
what other Shrimp do you have that you're concerned about crossbreeding? personally I would not leave them for more than 24 hours unless I had a sponge from an operational tank (with bacteria).
As long as you can either test for Ammonia in the jar, or do a water change I'd tread carefully leaving them in a bucket longer than a day... JUST my $0.02


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## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

i have orange eye blue tigers in 2 other tanks so i cant put the crystal reds in there but i do have plenty of air in the tank and with it 1 shrimp in a gallon of water it should be fine for a few days.

i didnt rinse my fss eather. i just put it in the tank fill to let water cover it and plant then fill the rest of the way and it cleared within a couple hours. i have it in one other tank and when i played with the hardscape to much it got really muddy for a day but cleared up almost over night and not a prob since


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## madness (Aug 14, 2011)

The odds of your OEBT and CRS breeding during a limited exposure like that are probably pretty slim.

People usually have to isolate them (only males of one of species with females of the other species or vice versa) before they can get them to 'cross breed.'

Just throwing that out there as an option.


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## alexopolus (Jan 18, 2010)

Do not use Fluval Stratum!!! I did it and regret it so bad!!! 
When Fluval Stratum first came available, I changed the substrate of one of my small tanks with FSS, I tought it was a cheap alternative to ADA aquasoil, and it buffers your ph and doesn't spike ammonia... At that time, it was perfect!!!shrimp seems happy, very colorful and active... In less than a month a did all my tanks (6 total, expended $200 in soil)... One day I was reading a post in the shrimpnow international community, that people where having issues with FSS... They were claiming that Shrimp tanks with FSS were having a high mortality of shrimplets (babies were not making it), My first tought was that they were overreacting, so completely ignore it (I didn't really have a choice, just expended 200 and did all my tanks)... Well at the time I changed the soil I had 4 berried females, 2 months after only 6 young shrimp, later same females berried only a few babies survived. Finally after 1 year I'm going back to ADA... My bad experience with Fluval Stratum is with shrimp only, actually as a planted tank soil is pretty gooD and looks nice, plants grow well (too bad I can't have my crystal Red with this soil). 

You will do better with some other kind of soil, ADA is expensive and hard to find (but it's the best soil), a lot of people uses akadama soil (bonsai soil), the only problem is the brown/yellow color.


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## alexopolus (Jan 18, 2010)

alexopolus said:


> Do not use Fluval Stratum!!! I did it and regret it so bad!!!
> When Fluval Stratum first came available, I changed the substrate of one of my small tanks with FSS, I tought it was a cheap alternative to ADA aquasoil, and it buffers your ph and doesn't spike ammonia... At that time, it was perfect!!!shrimp seems happy, very colorful and active... In less than a month a did all my tanks (6 total, expended $200 in soil)... One day I was reading a post in the shrimpnow international community, that people where having issues with FSS... They were claiming that Shrimp tanks with FSS were having a high mortality of shrimplets (babies were not making it), My first tought was that they were overreacting, so completely ignore it (I didn't really have a choice, just expended 200 and did all my tanks)... Well at the time I changed the soil I had 4 berried females, 2 months after only 6 young shrimp, later same females berried only a few babies survived. Finally after 1 year I'm going back to ADA... My bad experience with Fluval Stratum is with shrimp only, actually as a planted tank soil is pretty gooD and looks nice, plants grow well (too bad I can't have my crystal Red with this soil).
> 
> You will do better with some other kind of soil, ADA is expensive and hard to find (but it's the best soil), a lot of people uses akadama soil (bonsai soil), the only problem is the brown/yellow color.


 You can check the International shrimp community Forum (shrimpnow.com) for more information about FSS


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

ya know, I had read some similar 'horror stories' about fluval shrimp substrate specifically.
(alexopolus, I DO NOT DOUBT you had issues with the substrate :-D )
but it does seem for every person who had issues there were three that didn't.
(it also seems most people had issues with it when it was still quite new on the market... perhaps there were issues with consistancy)
I'm really unsure about it frankly... 
I've got it in one CRS tank, (as does a buddy) I have EcoComplete in an (otherwise) identical tank with RCS.. 
I SURE hope I didn't go wrong with this one... (and I really don't like to rely on HOPE  )


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## alexopolus (Jan 18, 2010)

I'm still unsure, but I feel better being sure(who doesn't?) that's why I went back to ADA ($$$$..  ). Just keep track of yours crystal reds shrimplets, the issue is the newborns not making it. I'm not sure if there is the same problems with cherry shrimps. And you are right about not everyone have issues with it. Most people that had issues with it were breeders... Now, this is also very hard to notice... I didn't have a death shrimp (adult) using this soil (they were fine, very nice colors and activity) but I noticed that my colony wasn't growing. Again personal experience... 
By the way, for those who dont like to read directions FLuval Stratum bag (right in the back) Do not mix with any other soil...

Big fish if you can keep me updated of how your CRS are doing, I will appreciate it.


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