Fluval 12695 Plant and Shrimp Stratum for Freshwater Fish Tanks, 17.6 lbs. – Aquarium Substrate for Strong Plant Growth, Supports Neutral to Slightly Acidic pH

This Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum stuff works pretty well. It's not too hard to put in the tank, which is nice because I was worried about that at first (I once spent like an hour trying to arrange some rocks, but then I realized they were all just going to get moved around by the filter anyway). Anyway, this substrate helps my plants grow good and it seems to keep the water quality decent. My shrimp are definitely happy with it too - they're always hiding in the little crevices and stuff. Makes me wonder if that's where they sleep? (I mean, I know fish sleep kind of differently than humans but still...)Overall, this Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum is a good choice for anyone who wants to keep their plants and shrimp healthy. It's easy to use and it does what it's supposed to do. Plus, the price was really reasonable - I couldn't find anything else that came close in terms of value (maybe because they don't have to ship all the way from overseas or something? who knows).

I SWEAR by stratum for my semi-hydro set up. Its amazing quality and is very durable when used as it should. It functions well for aeration and root growth! It’s perfect size and easy to use once you learn how to properly use it!

Watch your plants and fish thrive with this. Do not wash it and fill aquarium slowly and you'll be fine. Corydoras and shrimp love sifting through this for morsels

I read the other reviews and found myself questioning this product. I know how much cleaning gravel sucks and I’ve been victim to the cloudy mess that can occur. I went ahead and purchased. Now to rinse or not, what was my plan if it clouded to a muddy mess as some have claimed. I took a shot and went with the most reliable reviews. Here is what I did:I did not rinse it at all, from the bag to the tank. Once I laid it out to 2” depth I planted all my plants and added the drift wood etc. to fill it, one person mention a hand cup method, this works extremely well. I took my time and slowly filled up. Water still looks clear at this point. Now to turn on the pump, is this when my muddy mess will come. With a deep breath I turned the pump on. To my amazement, the water remained perfectly clear. Ok, I thought, let’s see what happens over night. The next morning the water was crystal clear, only then did I realize the day before the water had been slightly cloudy. I came to a point where I needed to move a plant. I was expecting a plume of “dust” when I disturbed the substrate. This did not happen, I was able to gently replant without issue. This substrate is lighter than rocks or sand, however, I’ve had no issues with plants floating.After the success of the first one I then changed out an existing tank removing sand and replacing with this. I emptied all the water saving about a gallon to reuse as mature water. I followed the same method with the same results. I will say this is a much smaller tank when I turned on the pump it go cloudy for about 10 minutes and quickly settled and filtered out. Plants are loving it in both tanks.I did not rinse it either time and never ended up with Mississippi mud, the water in the first tank is the cleanest I’ve ever seen a new tank run. I’m not sure what the other reviewers are doing but if you take your time and go slow you should have no problems.

The 17Ib bag was enough to add a good inch to the bottom of my 20 gallon high. I already had fish in my aquarium so this is how it went:I turned off my filter and I siphoned out a full 3 gallon bucket of water then put all my fish, frogs and plants into it, then added an airstone and set it aside.I then used a mesh strainer, poured the soil into the strainer and slowly lowered it into the tank and gently spread the soil along the bottom. I did this repeatedly until the bag was empty.I did not rinse this product like it suggests because it will degrade and all of my needed nutrients would be down the drain. I will say it did kick up alot of "dust" no matter how gentle I was, but I found it settled alot faster as long as I didn't rush the process.Once it settled down to where I could see everything I added back the plants first and then the fish. I turned on my filter and adjusted the flow rate of the water so that it didnt kick any dirt up and within 24 hours the water was pretty much crystal clear. I was worried about the ADFs eating the small dirt pearls but so far they have not tried.