# Netlea Soils - Lambo/Shrimp/Brown



## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

I am planning to start another 20g for breeding crystal shrimps. I want to know what is the difference and what would be a better choice. AI currently has the 

-Netlea Brown (for plants I believe)
-Netlea Lambo
-Netlea for shrimps.

I would like to get ADA, but AI said that the ADA soil quality is terrible these days, so they don't recommend it (they also don't stock it anymore). 

I have access to RO water in my house. I also have patience to let the ammonia leech out. 

I am thinking the Shrimp version. Any opinions/experiences?


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

i picked up two bags of netlea crs soil from AI on thursday for my new 30gal. its my first time using it so i really have no opinion about it yet but i think most people prefer the netlea over ADA.


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

Anyone know what is the Lambo version all about?


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## chinamon (Jun 16, 2012)

here is a little discussion about it. not sure if its what youre looking for though.

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32875


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

chinamon said:


> here is a little discussion about it. not sure if its what youre looking for though.
> 
> http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32875


No not exactly. I am just wondering what are the differences between Lambo and the the Brown/Shrimp version. Lambo is the cheapest of the 3 choices.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

CRS soil has pH buffering from 5.5 to 6.5 (around there, depends on source.) It also lowers gH to around 4-6. It has a few basic minerals in it for basic plants but that's about it. It leeches a small amount of ammonia for a bit at the start to help cycle a tank and give some moss a bit of food if you start it with mosses.

Brown soil has pH buffering from 5.5 to 6.5 (around there, depends on source.) It also lowers gH to around 4-6. It is loaded with minerals for plants. When I planted it, planted love it. Even mosses in the tank are bigger, green and more lush than in any other shrimp tank I have. It leeched a lot of ammonia at the start (4-6ppm) for potentially a few months. This would allow you to plant the tank, let it cycle for a few months and not have to do anything. It will take a while to fully leech and be ready for shrimp though. Like I said, plants love it though over anything else I have. ADA, Fluval, Eco-complete, normal gravel with root tabs, sand with root tabs, Netlea brown grows awesome. I have some that is 18 months old, still buffering the pH down and starting to break down a bit but I figure another year or two before it's really mushy and needs to be replace.

Netlea Lambo is there new version. It seems to be harder pellets and darker in color, so will give more of a black pellet look than brown. I'm hoping that by it being harder, it would last longer and not break down to mush as easy. It's buffering down to about 5pH right now with pure tap water. It's been about 3 weeks and it's leeching about 2-3ppm of ammonia still. It's supposed to gave a good amount of minerals in it, and good for plants and shrimp. It also comes in 3 different sizes, a almost sand size, medium pellets and large pellets. This allows you to layer your substrate which a lot of planted people like to do, created a sand to large pellet slope in a tank, etc, etc, so it allows for more aquascaping choices, which the heavy planted tank people like. 


So in summary, lol, the CRS comes with less ammonia and less nutrients, great on buffering. The Brown soil comes with lots of ammonia and nutrients, worked great for shrimp still, and allows you to plant the tank will little dosing, at least for a while. The Lambo is the new line, seems darker, more dense, a bit more pH lowering ability, fair amount of ammonia and nutrients and comes in different sized grains for aquascaping.

Really, any of them are good for any CRS/golden or Taiwan bee. They lower the pH too low for Tigers, or cherry/yellow/snowball/orange, other neos. My snowballs all died in it when I had them in that tank but the CRS thrived in the Brown soil tank as does moss. The lambo I have is still cycling and the CRS soil, while I've never used it, I've talked with enough people about it to know what the difference is. I also had someone help me translate their website in Chinese to understand the difference's. I can't find much about the Lambo online though, but it seems good and I don't see a problem with CRS/Bee's in it and the plants I have in the tank are doing fine in it.


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

Thank you very very much for your time on responding with the long, descriptive, helpful and insightful analysis of the 3 soil. 

I think I will get the CRS soil. I am very excited to share my results with this soil with other on this forum.

The PH seems to be very low. I hope my CRS will thrive just like your tanks. May I know if you use RO water and what are your parameters with the netlea soil?


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Fishyfishyfishy said:


> Thank you very very much for your time on responding with the long, descriptive, helpful and insightful analysis of the 3 soil.
> 
> I think I will get the CRS soil. I am very excited to share my results with this soil with other on this forum.
> 
> The PH seems to be very low. I hope my CRS will thrive just like your tanks. May I know if you use RO water and what are your parameters with the netlea soil?


CRS will adapt to a low pH no problem. I filter my tap water through a DIY peat contraption to get it to around 5.5 pH, 100TDS, 3-4gH and use that for all my tanks. Got sick of lugging around RO water 3 flights of stairs and too broke to buy a RO machine right now, so I spend a bit of time each week and make up about 20 gallons of water to use instead.


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

getochkn said:


> CRS will adapt to a low pH no problem. I filter my tap water through a DIY peat contraption to get it to around 5.5 pH, 100TDS, 3-4gH and use that for all my tanks. Got sick of lugging around RO water 3 flights of stairs and too broke to buy a RO machine right now, so I spend a bit of time each week and make up about 20 gallons of water to use instead.


Thanks for the reply. Was just worried after reading a post (was it you?), about bacterial in our sponges/filters not being survive well in low PH.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Fishyfishyfishy said:


> Thanks for the reply. Was just worried after reading a post (was it you?), about bacterial in our sponges/filters not being survive well in low PH.


They eventually take a foot hold, it just takes a while as it's not their ideal conditions. Eventually it will cycle though. The bonus side of a low pH is shrimp bacteria's aren't that common as they can't live in it, and any ammonia spikes get converted instantly to ammonium, which isn't really toxic. Not saying it's idea to have ammonia spikes, but they happen sometimes from over feeding, plants dying, maybe a few snails die, the ammonia from that won't be toxic to the shrimp as it would in a 7+pH tank.

If you get a pH pen, you can measure your pH and if you do small waterchanges while the tank is cycling, you can keep the pH near 7, the bacteria will live better and eat all the leeching ammonia faster, then do your final waterchange when the ammonia is gone, and let the pH lower to where it's going to be, then add the shrimp and the filter should adjust itself as it lowers.


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