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Do I need an active substrate?

If that is all your keeping then it's a waste of money buying soils, anubias plants will be attached to woods and rock above the substrate and not buried so there is no real need for the soil.

However people do like to use it as a beginner substrate as it gives more options if u decide to plant in the future. It's not essential but it's a great aim for beginner setups. You wouldn't want to use sand then half way through having the tank, add soil. It needs to be decided before u set up to be honest.

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The term "active substrate" is strictly a marketing term. If the material is of organic origin such as compost or rotted leaves it should simply be called organic substrate. In this regard, cow manure is an "active substrate". Marketing departments seem to rule the world now. I guess "active substrate" sounds better than "cow pie" though, I must admit...

Cheers,
 
Hi,
what shrimp species are they?
Some active soils do have the benefit of water softening for species such as Crystal red shrimp etc, but unless needed for this then with your suggested plants, as already said, you dont need 'active soils'.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
I forgot to mention, ady is right, when I planned to have certain shrimp I opted to buy some of EBI gold shrimp substrate as this if claimed to keep water parameters a little more stable for the shrimp :) I'm not sure what Clive thinks of this though?

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