Substrate suggestions?

[CT_]

Hi all,

I've settled on a ~15 gallon tank for my upgrade and I'm now thinking about substrate.  I'm looking at Flourite, either the normal dark brown or the "red".  Does any one use these with blue shrimp?  How does it look?  The reason I don't want black is because my blue shrimp would be invisible on it as they're very dark.  

Any other recommendations?  Ideally small gravel that blue shrimp will contrast with.  I plan on planting, but most of my current plants (java fern anubias mosses) don't root into substrate so I'm thinking Flourite is overkill in terms of cost/benefit. 

[David Ellsworth]

If you don't have any rooted plants atm then like you said a nice small gravel may work great. You can get a color that shows off the blue well and if you get rooted plants later you can add a few root tabs. You could also do a light colored sand like pool filter sand or some of the caribsea stuff. Sand can be planted in later too if you so desire.  

[CT_]

I heard sand shows waste more easily and I like being able to gravel vac, which is why I'm thinking a small gravel.  But I'm not really sure where to go about finding gravel in a variety of colors.  looking through amazon most fish gravels are multi color mixes and its hard to tell what they look like and my petco has a pretty poor selection unless you want glow in the dark (i do not), then they have about 30 kinds.

[David Ellsworth]

If you have trouble deciding I would honestly google images of blue dream shrimp and look at the substrate they are on. You will see all kinds. White, black, aquasoil, etc. You can find what looks best and then look for that. 

 

Amazon has a wide selection of gravels. They have the polished natural pea gravel which would look pretty nice I think, or a variety of colors. Depending on the look you want even some of those colored glass gravel might look cool with the right set up. 

[gardenman]

I typically use Fluorite in my tanks and it's fine. I've also used Safe-T-Sorb (from Tractor Supply Company) and it works fine also, but at a much lower cost. For just a 15 gallon tank though the fifty pound bags of Safe-T-Sorb would be excessive. A dark shrimp may not show up as much as you'd like with Fluorite. It's still fairly dark. A whiter substrate would show off the shrimp more, but their color may fade more to try and blend in also.

[JettsPapa]

I have blue shrimp on pool filter sand.  I can't tell that their colors have lightened any, and they look good on it.  The sand has darkened some, but it doesn't bother me.

[Tory]

I use Flourite and my blue shrimp look great on it!

[CT_]

Is it the regular Flourite?  can you share pics?

[Kelly S]

My "natural" (tan) sand looks fine, but I have heard that white shows waste really well. I have a CaribSea gravel in my other tank. It's called "Gemstone Creek" and is rounded and I like the colors. I'll see if I have a picture. I like the idea of looking for images of blue shrimp and seeing what they look good on too. 

[Kelly S]

Here's a ghost shrimp with a Vibra Bite on it 🙂

[Socqua]

I have lava rock, driftwood and a bunch of plants in with some blue shrimp, among other things. Currently it's a crappy fake blue substrate, but I have some fluorite brown substrate I put in to see how it compares to the lava rock. I'm planning on setting up my new tank with the fluorite for the blue shrimp. The lava rock and fluorite look very similar.

Personally, I love how the blue shrimp look on the lava rock. The darker color I think brings out the blue more. Plus, the shrimp will spend a lot (probably most) of their time on the plants anyway.