Substrate of Choice

[zeneo]

My best substrate was the cheapest

Crushed red lava rock


But it was the hardest to get, has I had to crushed it with a hammer.

Specialy for HC it was the best.

[kakkoii]

That is interesting.

[Brian]

When I bought the eco complete it comes a rock in it. The rocks is black lava rock. The lava roks is one of the best substrate

[ERiK]

While working at one of the LFS I had the opportunity to use almost every substrate specifically designed for planted tanks. From my experience, no substrate can grow plants as lush and beautiful as ADA Aquasoil. I struggled with many difficult plants in other substrates, and got the best growth in ADA by accident. ADA hands down.
My only gripes w/ADA is the initial ammonia leach and PS coming up with plant roots.

[Garhan]

I use a home made base of red art clay, peatmoss or peat balls(Dupla), earthworm castings. Boil all this for 20 minutes. This is usually .5 to 1 inch thick.Top this with a mixture of 3-10 mm washed gravel (your choice of colours) with a mix of equivalent mix of sandblasting silica sand (usually plain sand colour) about 2-3 inches thick.

[John7429]

Aquasoil all the way!

[KristinM85]

Once I went with Aquasoil I never went back to anything else. I do want to try the new Flourite Black sand....just to try it, but Aquasoil is by far my favorite.

[epicfish]

AquaSoil.

[Orlando]

Cheap!

[neo20,5]

In my planted aquarium i use Dennerle depot mix profesional.It`s very strong fertilized substrate in 3weeks i couldn`t pull my red flame ehinodorus out,because it has rooted it self in about 15 square cm.Large 1-2mm so you can plant small hair like grass,gloso,i have tenelus and some smal gras but i dont now what kind of grass it is.And it`s cheaper than seachem or oders i payed 30€ for 9kg.
Has anyone used it for aquascaping?

[BryceM]

My favorite so far is Eco Complete. I like it better than the ADA substrates mostly because the majority of my setups are intended to last for several years between re-do's. With this in mind, pre-loaded nutrients are less important than color, grain size, and density.

SMS is also remarkable at growing plants but it's low density keeps it from being ideal.

[Black Spot]

Hi guys... can anybody help me where i can find ADA aquasoil in Indonesia???
Mail me at : chandrablckspt@yahoo.co.id
Thanks b4...

[Joetee]

I have one tank with 100% Flourite and I really like it.

Then I got this idea from Tom Barr so I thought I would give it a try in my new 50 gallon. My plants are growing much faster and look healthier and with a lot less algae than the flourite tank.

I went down to a local creek and got a bucket of soil/clay mix from the creek edge that looked pretty clean. I went to Lowes and bought 4 bags of "KolorScape Leveling Sand, step 2". It is a dark gray color, looks almost black in the bag. Each bag is .5 cu. ft. It cost $3.00 something a bag. I added 1 part creek soil to 3 parts of this sand, (about 2 qts soil to 6 qts sand) for this tank (48x12 footprint). This made about a 1 inch layer. Mix it up real good. Then I added 3 inches more of the KolorScape Leveling Sand only for a total of 4 inches. This used a total of 3 1/2 bags of the purchased sand. This is a really good sand. Good size and hold the plants well.

You can read the full story on how I washed and actually used the creek soil in the following link: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/blog.php?b=600

Joetee

[Caima]

I use my own mineralized potting soil ,peat with clay mixture recipe and on top of that a combination of different types and brands of absorbing clays like Moltan Thrifty Sorb, Oil Dry, etc... Some times I use pool filter sand and natural sand.

I recently hear of a product named Miracle Mud with great results.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

I use Cemex Monterery Sand (actually a fine grain gravel), 50# for $20.00. It covers a 36" X 12" about 4" deep. Stem plants, HC, Glosso, Dwarf Sag, Crypts all seem to thrive. I fert through the water column.

[Martin Schellinck]

Aquasoil...I used fluorite for a year before making the switch and it made all the difference. All of a sudden, growing HC, downoi, and eriocaulon's became easy. Also, I've never had an issue with the yellow tint of the water, but i do use a eheim 2216 on my 17 gallon tank.

[beaslbob]

other

I use play sand for most tanks with a little peat moss for neon tetras (or possibly other soft water fish).

my .02

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by Caima

I use my own mineralized potting soil ,peat with clay mixture recipe and on top of that a combination of different types and brands of absorbing clays like Moltan Thrifty Sorb, Oil Dry, etc... Some times I use pool filter sand and natural sand.

I recently hear of a product named Miracle Mud with great results.

FWIW Miracle mud is a product of ecosystems and sold for refugiums in marine tanks especially reefs tanks.


One analysis reported it is silica sand with higher then usual iron content.

my .02

[StanChung]

I find AS+PS works really well combined with high light. The plants just BOOM-Hg takes off and in a month it's already fully carpeted even planting with emersed japanese HG-notoriously slower than the other types.

S Flourite tends to be less forgiving if you're low on the dosing. My friend keeps blaming the pleco for what to me is obvious nutrient deficiency. Tsk Tsk.

I just rescaped my 5X2X2. I thought of saving some $$$ on PS by using lava rock, less PS, and Aquasoil. I didn't pound it though. I just used it as is but not before putting a plastic art sheet[the corrugated kind] under it] to protect the glass from scratches.
Poor man's slope solution.

Some of the ADA powders[Penac W Bacter 100-ran out of the others] been poured over plus some leftover PS.

This is a test so I may post results in coming weeks.

[KDahlin]

I've only used Flourite and Eco and of the two I much prefer Flourite. I especially like black fluorite; I'm not that wild about the look of the original Flourite and one of these days I'm going to convert my other two aquariums over to black Flourite like I did with my 20 gallon. Although, sometimes I consider trying Aquasoil in my 55 gallon.