Shirakura Red Bee Sand

**joe faria** · 24th Jul 2009, 03:49

Hi,
Here in Portugal, we a got an on-line shop selling Shirakura Red Bee Sand.

Do you have any experience with it? It's ok to grow demanding plants?
Any special concerns?

Regards,
Joe Faria

**imke** · 24th Jul 2009, 13:47

Hi Joe,

I use Red Bee Sand in one of my tanks. It lowers the pH, KH and GH. In general I'd recommand it for CR or if you have hard tap water in gerneral. For all full planted tank you must add fertiliser. I guess that a waterplant soil like ADA gravel is better for tanks in nature style like T. Amano showed.

The use of SRBS is discussed controversly in Germany at the moment. Some holders lost shrimp and it it not quiet clear why. I suspect the GH has been too low in some cases or that the simply refillment of eveporated water may advantage bad bacteria (if one is using a bad filtration).

Cheers,
Imke

P.S. Maybe this article on my blog is helpful too.

**Gexrian** · 24th Jul 2009, 15:04

Have there been any indications of when the shrimp lost started occuring upon usage of the Red Bee sand? Within days, weeks or months?

**imke** · 24th Jul 2009, 17:05

Hi Gexrian,

RBS is availible in Germany since spring 2009 (april), so we do not have long time experience yet. Some people lost shrimp because they did not cycle the tank properly and put the shrimps in too quick. But there are also single losses from day to day. On crusta.de there is a scale with water parameter which shows that pH perhaps drops too much. Thats why users should raise the GH with special tonic (and I wonder if they do). But I would not claim that the pH/GH thing this is responsible for all problems reported.

Imke

**Spid** · 27th Jul 2009, 12:38

Originally Posted by joe faria

Hi,
Here in Portugal, we a got an on-line shop selling Shirakura Red Bee Sand.

Do you have any experience with it? It's ok to grow demanding plants?
Any special concerns?

Regards,
Joe Faria

Red Bee sand suits more for CRS and other shrimps that require low ph. Its still best to use Ada soil type which comprises high level of fertilising content for demanding plants.

**Aria** · 27th Jul 2009, 14:50

Originally Posted by Spid

Red Bee sand suits more for CRS and other shrimps that require low ph. Its still best to use Ada soil type which comprises high level of fertilising content for demanding plants.

Hi just wondring if plant growth is not an issue then is ADA still a good choice compared to other soil substrates when it comes to CRS. This is because ADA may not be prefered by some people due to the excessive ammonia. Thanks

**sifreaks** · 2nd Aug 2009, 02:06

anyone in Singapore use this substrate before and what's the result like?

**imke** · 6th Aug 2009, 19:57

Perhaps interesting: there is new english information for the usage of Shirakura Red Bee Sand avalible (from the German distributers website).

Imke

**joe faria** · 8th Aug 2009, 11:18

Hi,
Thanks to all for the replies...

For what I'm reading, keeping or adding this kind of soil it's almost like gambling.

Maybe I will stick with akadama or other substrate.