I used fluval stratum in the last few weeks based on your Asian filter video. So far I'm really happy with it after replacing my old soil. No ammonia and parameters seem stable after a few days
I have used and still use Stratum in a few tanks. It works well and the plants and critters thrive...all of them. Keeps the tank PH around 6.5 steadily with my tap water in Florida. Just make sure to add root tabs every once in a while to give it a boost if you have plants...and remember if the tank doesn't resemble a jungle, there ain't enough plants! My only con is the price but then again you get what you pay for with this stuff. Thanks for the video Mark!!
@@MarksShrimpTanks The other thing that will occur over a longer time, ~6 months or so, the little balls of Stratum will begin to breakdown creating more of a dirt like substrate than what you initially put in there but it still works great and the PH buffering remains steady at 6.5 for me.
@@MarksShrimpTanks Yes the more soil you put, the lower the ph will be. So if u want 6.8 PH, then add less soil. If you want 5.5 PH then add more soil, so you can sort of adjusting the ph according to your will by putting more or less soil, your choice.
People have problem with ph and cloudiness because they wash fluval stratum first and brake up just open bag and put it stright in your tank and then and do few water change and then your good to go
Where are you from? I'm from Aberdeen and am setting up a tropical aquarium for a fighter, wild green neons, shrimp (but am yet to choose between 2 different species) a few Cory and a zebra snail. I have made a beautiful hardscape with a piece of dragon stone , Manzanita and some miss glued on. I am using fluval stratum and initially it was beautifully clear but now it's so cloudy and won't clear up at all, I feel I'm going to have to remove all the water and fill it again. I have a 28 L cubic tank.
I'm struggling with my fluval stratum soil. My sponge filter is filled with the black murky balls lol its driving me NUTS. I just hate seeing the black murky water everytime i do a water change or move my sponge filter.
I've heard people barely getting a year put of that fluval stratum before it starts breaking down and getting weird water parameters, poor plant growth. I would agree on the phone being bright yellow/light orange as you said. Ever try a chunk of coral in your shrimp tanks and what's your opinion on it mark? Suppose to put more calcium in the tank helping the shrimp molt better.
I wouldnt put coral anywhere near a softwater tank, I used to do it with my neos but now I guess with powdered feeding they get enough calcium from the food and the buffers I add.
new tank, fishless cycle had amonia high after 24h (expected as it has nutrients) my water hardness droped from 8.2 to 5.5, I did 80% water change and ph went to 7. I didn't rinse it at first, so that's why ph went so low.
Most of what I’ve read about bee shrimp (and breeds) is that they only need 6-7 pH. Why do you recommend pH 5-5.5? What in your experience is an indicator that the shrimp are not thriving at higher, but still acidic pH (6.5-6.7)?
all my best tanks have been very low ph, I have had a few go below 5 and they have been the best tanks. once you get around 6.5 ammonia can become an issue.
Im hesitating to buy it cause of Its cloudiness, its seems like it cant be move to much can you vacuum clean it?or it will be cloudy every time i vacuum clean it? and i have corydoras that move the substrate will it get cloudy too? (sorry for my english)
Just so you know Jesse because I see you have left a few comments on my channel about this soil, people have had very different results using fluval stratum and the newer stuff nowadays seem to be better than it use to be.
All I can say is, I buffered mine with coral and lime stone for the first 3 weeks after that it was fine.... I agree it's not a great subtrate for shrimps depending on the water you use. I have soft water so I have to buffer it any way. I could see this being a problem having hard water and kh keeps dropping
That's true but I've managed to keep mine around neutral using lime stone and coral in small amounts after the subtrate lossed most it ability to buffer. I have soft water issues so definitely wasn't the best choice of subtrate for me but is working for me now
I’m setting up a small tank with Fluval Stratum and my tapwater is kH 2 and pH 7.8. I guess the substrate will lower my kH to near zero. To get at least some workable kH, I’m planning to use some limestone or chrushed coral, as long as the pH stays under 7. Seems like a good idea.
I definitely tried to aquscape and put Neocaridina in. They died, so did aa few guppies. But I also lost some caridinas. I used the entire bag, so what is that, 8 kg? But I used it in a Fluvaal sea ( 13 gal us) my next tank is ADA soil and powder sooo we shall see what happens.
yeah its a weird soil, I had no young shrimp at all in this tank, plants started to really struggle after a few months, its now been swapped out for akadama and Amazonia.
Milwaukee mc120 you definitely need to try one of these ph monitor I like watching your videos you trying to help us by showing what you do all the time and I thought I might share with you that product is amazing ph meter/monitor best ph meter I have ever used I have tried 20 or more different ones this one will make your life much easier and I’m sure you will thank me once u get it mate 👍🏼
Hi Mark, I love your videos you have helped me so much on my shrimp journey. About 12 months ago I purchased 2 breeding tanks and I have noticed that the substrate is starting to turn muddy. I am looking to change the substrate out but I have no where to put the shrimp that are already in the tank, so how do I go about changing the old substrate with new substrate and what is the process and what would the set up need to be and is it safe to do so. I have the fluval substrate already and my shrimp are neocardinia any advice or even a video would be great the tank size is about 20 litres approximately.
Mark this is the food that i feed my shrimp ,its called sera shrimp natural sinking granules.I personally don’t like that theres stuff like fish meal in them and that the proteins are too high especially considering the fact that i feed this every other alternative day rotating along with bacter ae and some tropical fish flakes. These are the ingredient for the sera food fish meal, wheat flour, wheat germ, brewers yeast, spirulina, Ca-caseinate, sea algae, gammarus, stinging nettle, willow bark, alder cones, fish oil (containing 49% omega fatty acids), mannan oligosaccharides (0.4%), herbs, alfalfa, parsley, paprika, green-lipped mussel, spinach, carrots, Haematococcus algae, garlic. Analytical constituents Crude Protein 40.5%, Crude Fat 7.7%, Crude Fiber 6.0%, Moisture 5.0%, Crude Ash 10.5%, Ca 2.5%, P 1.0%. Additives Vitamins and provitamins: Vit. A 37,000 IU/kg, Vit. D3 1,800 IU/kg, Vit. E (D, L-α-tocopheryl acetate) 120 mg/kg, Vit. B1 35 mg/kg, Vit. B2 90 mg/kg, stab. Vit. C (L-ascorbyl monophosphate) 550 mg/kg. .What are the commercial foods that you recommend from ur experience I would like to buy 2 more high quality solid foods that i can rotate around any recommendations?
Hey, glad you enjoyed the video! So, about the substrate, you can totally leave it alone if you want a more natural and untouched look. But if you're feeling a bit fancy, adding some sand or pebbles on top can give your tank a whole new vibe. It's all about personal preference, my friend!
been using the new version for about 6 months now - still perfect. cloudiness tends to occur if you fill the tank too fast. ph flux can happen, usually from other items in the tank, such as stones, rather than the soil. Mine has been holding sold at 6.5 with only one small piece of sieru stone in the tank. Only one water change and just water top offs since start up.
I use fluval stratum specifically to lower my pH so I don’t have to use peat moss. My water starts at 8.2 ph, with stratum it drops to 7.2. Is it supposed to be lower?
I used fluval stratum for my first bee shrimp tank. The first year I didn't have great success. Its been about 20 months now and it's going alot better (may be because of my improved knowledge). I do add humic and fluvic acid twice a week now. I did have quite an ammonia spike in my tank on start-up. 20 months in, tank sits around 6 pH.
I’m so glad you uploaded this video! I used flicks stratum and I was so happy to hear your opinion on it I DO have a question, and it’s if you have an established tank with fluval, and you use the water from that tank to fill up another tank completely , do I still have to wait for it to cycle? Plus I used the filter to seed the new tank
Hi mark. Just want to ask a question. My galaxy pintos keep dropping their eggs when they moly. What could the problem possibly be? All my parameters are stable.
@@MarksShrimpTanks So if my tank have no ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and tds is good, should I do the same? If I dont do water change, ph should not fluctuate up/down ? thx for your answer 🙂
Its been a while mark hope your eye surgery went well glad to have you back, will adding crushed coral to a neo tank having shrimps inside cause GH shock?
@@MarksShrimpTanks yes sir. But like you said it could have been an old batch. That was a yr and a half ago. I will be using Amazonia 2 for my 65 gallon build
I've got a 10G tank with a 2cm Fluval Stratum bed and Asian style filter and the pH is still 5.5 after 10 months. The KH has risen slightly over the past couple of months but that might be due to lazy water changes. I'm moving the shrimp to a new setup soon where I decided to use ADA Amazonia and the pH is around 5.9 though so I'm wondering if I should have stuck with Fluval Stratum 🤔
@@MarksShrimpTanks Yeah actually I'm 3 weeks into the cycle on the new tank with ADA and I've never seen so much algae 😆 I didn't get that with Stratum
I used fluval stratum in the last few weeks based on your Asian filter video. So far I'm really happy with it after replacing my old soil. No ammonia and parameters seem stable after a few days
I have used and still use Stratum in a few tanks. It works well and the plants and critters thrive...all of them. Keeps the tank PH around 6.5 steadily with my tap water in Florida. Just make sure to add root tabs every once in a while to give it a boost if you have plants...and remember if the tank doesn't resemble a jungle, there ain't enough plants!
My only con is the price but then again you get what you pay for with this stuff.
Thanks for the video Mark!!
yeah I agree on the fert side, this tank didnt green up at all like ADA soils do.
@@MarksShrimpTanks The other thing that will occur over a longer time, ~6 months or so, the little balls of Stratum will begin to breakdown creating more of a dirt like substrate than what you initially put in there but it still works great and the PH buffering remains steady at 6.5 for me.
@@MarksShrimpTanks Yes the more soil you put, the lower the ph will be. So if u want 6.8 PH, then add less soil. If you want 5.5 PH then add more soil, so you can sort of adjusting the ph according to your will by putting more or less soil, your choice.
People have problem with ph and cloudiness because they wash fluval stratum first and brake up just open bag and put it stright in your tank and then and do few water change and then your good to go
Thanks for sharing Mark! I agree that it seems like they have improved the soil. I have used Stratum for 4 years without issue. Good info!
looking forward to seeing how it is in a year or so. very curious about this
Fluval stratum manufacturing was fixed in recent years so the newer reviews should be more consistent with your experience.
Where are you from? I'm from Aberdeen and am setting up a tropical aquarium for a fighter, wild green neons, shrimp (but am yet to choose between 2 different species) a few Cory and a zebra snail.
I have made a beautiful hardscape with a piece of dragon stone , Manzanita and some miss glued on.
I am using fluval stratum and initially it was beautifully clear but now it's so cloudy and won't clear up at all, I feel I'm going to have to remove all the water and fill it again.
I have a 28 L cubic tank.
I live in Norway bur I am Scottish :)
I'm struggling with my fluval stratum soil. My sponge filter is filled with the black murky balls lol its driving me NUTS. I just hate seeing the black murky water everytime i do a water change or move my sponge filter.
yeah its like that with most soils in shrimp tanks.
Mark, just for cost saving use a thinner vial and use 2 drops per 2.5ml of tank water and you can maximise your test kit by x2
That is an awesome type thank you sir 👍
I've heard people barely getting a year put of that fluval stratum before it starts breaking down and getting weird water parameters, poor plant growth. I would agree on the phone being bright yellow/light orange as you said. Ever try a chunk of coral in your shrimp tanks and what's your opinion on it mark? Suppose to put more calcium in the tank helping the shrimp molt better.
I wouldnt put coral anywhere near a softwater tank, I used to do it with my neos but now I guess with powdered feeding they get enough calcium from the food and the buffers I add.
I capped fluval stratum over my old substrate which was just a aquarium rocks, is that a mistake to do ?as far as ph goes or water chem?
I couldnt answer that mate without knowing the parameters of your tank before mate.
Fluval stratum very deep subtrate with yellow shrimp and crush coral is addi g crush coral with fluvala bad idea?
This tank failed eventually, people have very mixed results with it, crushed coral and an active soil dont go together anyways for fututr reference.
new tank, fishless cycle had amonia high after 24h (expected as it has nutrients) my water hardness droped from 8.2 to 5.5, I did 80% water change and ph went to 7. I didn't rinse it at first, so that's why ph went so low.
you cant have ammonia at 5.5ph mate it would have been amonium which is not toxic at that level.
Most of what I’ve read about bee shrimp (and breeds) is that they only need 6-7 pH. Why do you recommend pH 5-5.5? What in your experience is an indicator that the shrimp are not thriving at higher, but still acidic pH (6.5-6.7)?
all my best tanks have been very low ph, I have had a few go below 5 and they have been the best tanks. once you get around 6.5 ammonia can become an issue.
@@MarksShrimpTanks thanks!
Im hesitating to buy it cause of Its cloudiness, its seems like it cant be move to much can you vacuum clean it?or it will be cloudy every time i vacuum clean it? and i have corydoras that move the substrate will it get cloudy too? (sorry for my english)
You can put Fluval Stratum into bags dedicated for filtration media and then cover it with sand, so substrate will not mix with the sand 😎😉
I said that in the video 😂👍
@@MarksShrimpTanks I didn't notice because I was busy writing this comment 🤣
Please tell me how works this soil after long time ? What shrimps ? Etc
Mark use some lime stone, crushed coral, coral stop bagging what u have no idea what u talk about
😂
Just so you know Jesse because I see you have left a few comments on my channel about this soil, people have had very different results using fluval stratum and the newer stuff nowadays seem to be better than it use to be.
All I can say is, I buffered mine with coral and lime stone for the first 3 weeks after that it was fine.... I agree it's not a great subtrate for shrimps depending on the water you use. I have soft water so I have to buffer it any way.
I could see this being a problem having hard water and kh keeps dropping
Fluval stratum is a great sub strate add some coral lime stone and you will have a perfect ph and kh gh for your shrimp
Coral limestone would raise the carbonate hardnes defeating the purpose of the soil which is to lower pH.
That's true but I've managed to keep mine around neutral using lime stone and coral in small amounts after the subtrate lossed most it ability to buffer. I have soft water issues so definitely wasn't the best choice of subtrate for me but is working for me now
I’m setting up a small tank with Fluval Stratum and my tapwater is kH 2 and pH 7.8. I guess the substrate will lower my kH to near zero. To get at least some workable kH, I’m planning to use some limestone or chrushed coral, as long as the pH stays under 7. Seems like a good idea.
I definitely tried to aquscape and put Neocaridina in. They died, so did aa few guppies. But I also lost some caridinas. I used the entire bag, so what is that, 8 kg? But I used it in a Fluvaal sea ( 13 gal us) my next tank is ADA soil and powder sooo we shall see what happens.
yeah its a weird soil, I had no young shrimp at all in this tank, plants started to really struggle after a few months, its now been swapped out for akadama and Amazonia.
Milwaukee mc120 you definitely need to try one of these ph monitor I like watching your videos you trying to help us by showing what you do all the time and I thought I might share with you that product is amazing ph meter/monitor best ph meter I have ever used I have tried 20 or more different ones this one will make your life much easier and I’m sure you will thank me once u get it mate 👍🏼
are they not expensive?
Hi Mark, I love your videos you have helped me so much on my shrimp journey. About 12 months ago I purchased 2 breeding tanks and I have noticed that the substrate is starting to turn muddy. I am looking to change the substrate out but I have no where to put the shrimp that are already in the tank, so how do I go about changing the old substrate with new substrate and what is the process and what would the set up need to be and is it safe to do so. I have the fluval substrate already and my shrimp are neocardinia any advice or even a video would be great the tank size is about 20 litres approximately.
Mark this is the food that i feed my shrimp ,its called sera shrimp natural sinking granules.I personally don’t like that theres stuff like fish meal in them and that the proteins are too high especially considering the fact that i feed this every other alternative day rotating along with bacter ae and some tropical fish flakes.
These are the ingredient for the sera food
fish meal, wheat flour, wheat germ, brewers yeast, spirulina, Ca-caseinate, sea algae, gammarus, stinging nettle, willow bark, alder cones, fish oil (containing 49% omega fatty acids), mannan oligosaccharides (0.4%), herbs, alfalfa, parsley, paprika, green-lipped mussel, spinach, carrots, Haematococcus algae, garlic.
Analytical constituents
Crude Protein 40.5%, Crude Fat 7.7%, Crude Fiber 6.0%, Moisture 5.0%, Crude Ash 10.5%, Ca 2.5%, P 1.0%.
Additives
Vitamins and provitamins: Vit. A 37,000 IU/kg, Vit. D3 1,800 IU/kg, Vit. E (D, L-α-tocopheryl acetate) 120 mg/kg, Vit. B1 35 mg/kg, Vit. B2 90 mg/kg, stab. Vit. C (L-ascorbyl monophosphate) 550 mg/kg.
.What are the commercial foods that you recommend from ur experience
I would like to buy 2 more high quality solid foods that i can rotate around any recommendations?
I honestly dont buy commercial foods because I cant say one is better than the other. I do get the odd tub to try but honestly they are all the same.
Hello nice video, what do u recommend to put on top of the substrate, or should I leave it alone?
Hey, glad you enjoyed the video! So, about the substrate, you can totally leave it alone if you want a more natural and untouched look. But if you're feeling a bit fancy, adding some sand or pebbles on top can give your tank a whole new vibe. It's all about personal preference, my friend!
been using the new version for about 6 months now - still perfect. cloudiness tends to occur if you fill the tank too fast. ph flux can happen, usually from other items in the tank, such as stones, rather than the soil. Mine has been holding sold at 6.5 with only one small piece of sieru stone in the tank. Only one water change and just water top offs since start up.
6.5 is a bit on the high side for me but its probably because you have stone in the tank.
If you have Instagram ill send you pictures if you are interested.
I use fluval stratum specifically to lower my pH so I don’t have to use peat moss. My water starts at 8.2 ph, with stratum it drops to 7.2. Is it supposed to be lower?
if your on tap water it can be a losing battle to adjust ph. if your on RO water its meant to be much lower. depends on your goals really.
HI Mark, tell me how akadama is doing? what pH? I have with my tank but I can't go below 6 ... what to do
Like all soils akadama will lose its ph buffering capacity this is something you need to check every couple of months a with a ph test.
I used fluval stratum for my first bee shrimp tank. The first year I didn't have great success. Its been about 20 months now and it's going alot better (may be because of my improved knowledge). I do add humic and fluvic acid twice a week now. I did have quite an ammonia spike in my tank on start-up. 20 months in, tank sits around 6 pH.
yeah Its weird I got no ammonia reading on two different test kits.
I’m so glad you uploaded this video!
I used flicks stratum and I was so happy to hear your opinion on it
I DO have a question, and it’s if you have an established tank with fluval, and you use the water from that tank to fill up another tank completely , do I still have to wait for it to cycle? Plus I used the filter to seed the new tank
yes you still need to give it time for the ph and stuff to settle.
Can I reuse Fluval stratum from a Current Neo tank and adjust water to caridina tank?
Probably yes
Hi mark. Just want to ask a question.
My galaxy pintos keep dropping their eggs when they moly. What could the problem possibly be? All my parameters are stable.
dropping eggs is normally doing a water change to fast or the new water doesnt match whats in the tank.
@@MarksShrimpTanks thank you so much for the advice.
Thank You so much for the video, just put some Fluval in one of my tank setup.🙂👍🦐
That is awesome!
Maybe try to get their new biostratum for the bottom front. Would be cool to check out
oh that sounds interesting I will google it, thank you. 👍
« no water change » You just add ro water to fill the tank? I always read to change 10% water every week…
this tank doesnt have ammonia so I just left it to do its think, the shrimp are thriving in this tank...... so far 😂
@@MarksShrimpTanks So if my tank have no ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and tds is good, should I do the same? If I dont do water change, ph should not fluctuate up/down ? thx for your answer 🙂
you should have a slight nitrate reading, your tds can drop slowely which is fine and your ph can also drop Slowey which is wht you want.
Is fluval stratum good at the end? Mark? :)
still not long enough to know for sure, right now it looks like it lowers ph ok but isnt nutrient rich like ADA.
Yes, finnally this video is ready...👍👍👍
🎉
Great stuff. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for watching mate 👍
Paint the bottom black, it works really well
the tank is already up and running, I might try that in the tank next to it 👍
Good video
Its been a while mark hope your eye surgery went well glad to have you back, will adding crushed coral to a neo tank having shrimps inside cause GH shock?
not if you dont add to much, my op is tomorrow morning 🤓
@@MarksShrimpTanks good luck mate, could you give a dosing recommendation for a 15 gallon and a 5 gallon like maybe in terms of tablespoon or teaspoon
what is your water gh and kh ?
@@MarksShrimpTanks
I heard crushed coral increases pH
PH 6.8
gh 8
Kh 2
Great info
Thank you mark
Mine lasted a year before it was up to 7 ph
were you on RO at the time Mike ? a year isnt that great
@@MarksShrimpTanks yes sir. But like you said it could have been an old batch. That was a yr and a half ago. I will be using Amazonia 2 for my 65 gallon build
I've got a 10G tank with a 2cm Fluval Stratum bed and Asian style filter and the pH is still 5.5 after 10 months. The KH has risen slightly over the past couple of months but that might be due to lazy water changes. I'm moving the shrimp to a new setup soon where I decided to use ADA Amazonia and the pH is around 5.9 though so I'm wondering if I should have stuck with Fluval Stratum 🤔
ADA is my go to because its pretty nutrient rich or it used to be, my only worry with stratum is the lack of algae this far .
@@MarksShrimpTanks Yeah actually I'm 3 weeks into the cycle on the new tank with ADA and I've never seen so much algae 😆 I didn't get that with Stratum