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I've used their sands and gravels literally hundreds of times and they are very very good. They are generally clean enough to add to the tank without washing and they have a huge variety of gravels ,sands and micro gravels. Personally the Natural Sands are my favorite, Maui in particular. Most...

Hi Chris, there is no problem adding more substrate to a wet tank. I would suggest adding a substrate with the same grain size, if you use sand then your original substrate will eventually work it's way to the top. If you could get exactly the same substrate as you're currently using this would...

I've used them all and IMO they all do the same job. Some leave the water clearer than others on initial setup but apart from that, I can't find the difference. If it were me, i'd buy which ever one is cheapest :)

Hey folks, I just had this confirmation of RRP from TMC... NutraSoil 3 Litres – Black £14.99 NutraSoil 5 Litres – Black £21.99 NutraSoil 10 Litres – Black £38.99...

90% of the aquatics market haven't even heard of ADA mate, they'll see AquaGro on the shelf in MA and dive in as there is nothing to compare it to, it's hard to find Columbo in an LFS let alone ADA. Most companies are trying to make money at the end of the day, I know exactly how much this...

I wonder if those prices are correct, TMC are doing 15kg buckets and i recon what is labeled on the site is the price for 15kgs? To my knowledge, 10kgs is meant to retail around £35 which is the same price as ADA but with an 1kg.

Yep, it's exactly the same, which is a good thing because the others on the market are great! I believe TMC are to be doing 15kg bags which should make for quite a saving :thumbup:

It's not on the shelves yet, I believe it should be available in December.

I've used it a lot, personally i prefer their 2-3mm black gravel. Limpopo is very fine in comparison.

I've used them all and they are all much of a muchness. There are good and bad batches of all of them. You'll get the odd bag that will cloud the water where as another bag won't, it's just down to the nature of the product. Recently I added Columbo's Flora Base to an existing tank and simply...

Why not get some of TMC's Nutrisoil? that's the same as ADA, they do a 1kg bag too which will be perfect ;0)

No of corse not! :D

No one is suggesting that if you use ADA it'll be entirely algae free, after all, we've established that that is impossible. As i said earlier, with good aquarium husbundry these products work very well. We have only explained our findings whilst using this system, by no means is it magic...

Lots, If i were you and you wanted longevity from your substrate i'd go for Tropica Aquacare. In time, when it's exhausted then you can simply add the Tropica capsules to "top up" on substrate feeding. If you choose Tropica then you can cap with whatever you want, ie. black sand which will be...

In my view, the ADA system just works, i don't know how but it does. George's Iwagumi was algae free, trouble free and grew at an astonishing rate. He used the entire suggested range from The Green Machine and i'm sure he'll put his hand up and say it was fantastic. I've used most of the range...

Used it, loved it! The only real difference that i could see between that and ADA is the clouding that i've experienced with ADA in the past. The grain size of FloraBase appears bigger too.

Hopefully you'll like it, i'm using it at the mo and i'm very impressed!

I'm currently using it and it's really nice, i like the colour and it's lovely to plant into. I've not got the AquaBase under it so can't comment but as an inert substrate with a high CEC it's a goodun.

Whilst i'm aware that some people out there have had issues with AquaSoil, i haven't so i can't say whether or not it looks like that when AquaSoil clouds the water but i CAN say that it looks exactly like the issues i had a couple of weeks ago when i added a new filter to run alongside my...

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems Yeah thats also possible. It all depends on what type of "cloudy" it is (i know how silly that sounds)

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems Are you sure it's the Tropica stuff? If it's a new tank it's more likely to be a bacteria bloom thats making it go cloudy?...

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems Can you not just chuck more AquaSoil in there? I know it's pricey but thats your best option if at all possible?

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems It wouln't be my first choice because AS is so good, i don't think you'd really need the tropica stuff, it won't hurt though. When i've used tropica i've capped it with Unipac black gravel which is much heavier. As you said, oliver used a mountain of AS to cap it...

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems Agreed, my last three long term tanks have featured fossilised wood with no adverse effects.

Re: Tropica Substrate Problems How deep has he capped it? 5cm is a good amount but i've done it much shallower. With constant messing when the substrate cap is shallow i've noticed the tropica reaching the surface and then it can cause an issue. There are of corse various reasons for cloudy...

I've got some and i've thought about using it before, i've just never gotten round to it. I presume you "could" use it, i'm sure there are more appropriate dedicated substrates on the market though. If you just asking out of curiosity then my opinion would be yes. If you go ahead, please keep...

If you like the White sand then I'd go for tropica substrate. Put about 1cm over the entire bottom and cover with upwards of 3-4cm of sand, job done!

:lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks for clearing that up for us/me Mark, i'm sure many will find that very very useful! I'm looking forward to trying it myself and when i do, i'll put both in equal conditions and measure the difference in growth and clarity etc as accurately as possible. Thanks again...

I think your one of the only people on here who has used both Mark and it's evident that you've had some good results with both. Could you give us some details on the long/short term differences between them? What is the difference appearance wise? Do you have any comparisons between the two...

ADA Amazonia :wink: Some people say Oliver Knotts stuff is good but i've not used it so i can't comment.

Go for it Sam, it blew me away the first time i used it!

Do you subscribe to PFK? if so, George did a good review on almost every substrate available in the January issue (i think it was Jan) If it were me it would be ADA Aqua Soil because I and many others have had great results. The whole ADA substrate system is clearly fantastic but to do the...

I love the black stuff. It's a shame they don't do it in larger bags.

I've got ADA tweezers but they wern't £100 and they were a gift.

I ain't paid £100 for tweezers pal?

I was really surprised at the price, it's gotta be super special to command a higher price than AquaSoil. I thought that too, in todays market IMO theres no place for poor marketing like that, it's competitor; Aquasoil is beautifully presented along with many of the other producers like Tropica...

Very interested. I've never heard of it either.

Thats great Beeky, thanks for taking the time to do that. I've recently argued that Aquasoil is cheaper than using Tropica substrate and gravel. ADA all the way for me, the benefits of Aquasoil stretch further than just cost too. Nice one.

It does become compact at the bottom, about halfway up actually but you still don't get any clouding or any problems. I'd pay the extra for a nano but i'm not sure if i had to pay out on a big setup, say over 80cm. It's nice in the nanos because it carries the scale of the tank.

Yeah man, i have it in little mountain and it rocks, so easy to plant in and it looks great!

Hi mate, if you like a black substrate then you may like the ADA Amazonia and if you like really fine substrate the theres ADA Amazonia Powder here It may be pricey but it'll be better than Eco Complete and the cost won't be too much different, plus, it's re-usable AND it just rocks mate :D

I've got a 10l Dennerle nano and with it comes everything you need to set it up, in the package is what i think is one of the best gravels i've seen. It's black "sulawezi" gravel and 0.7-1.2mm, awesome stuff mate, I'll have a look at the catalogue when i get home and let you know if it's...

Unipac do loads of gravels and sands, TGM stock Unipac tuff, Zambizi sand might do the trick, it's quite a large grain sand but smaller than 2-3mm gravel, it comes in 25kg bags and it's real reasonably priced. TGM has loads of Zambizi. Graeme uses it in his "Varience" tank.

World of water are also a large stockist of Unipac products.

It does have an affect on fish as does any exposure to amonia, what Clive is saying is that it's considered minimal in comparison to the effect that it has on algae ie. algae loves amonia and will thrive on it. But if you can deal with the WCs then it would be well worth it! :D Like Clive said...

Sounds like you might not have the substrate deep enough? how deep is it?

I've always been a gravel player and i still am although planting into sand is a veritable treat! When i had an exclusive sand substrate i did get a few anaerobic spots but it was a new tank with very slow growth and very few roots so i suppose thats expected. I probably get/got anaerobic spots...

Hiya, if your not intending to grow plants then i'd stick with an inert substrate to your liking. Have a read through James' thread on akadama and see how it alters the water chemistry. (i can't remember off the top of my head)

Hi Mate, i would suggest adding some of the black gavel that i suggested. It might give it a nice texture mixing the two. I haven't used any sands, AE sell some although i don't know how black it is. http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... cts_id=191 HTH

thanks for your thoughts guys. I'll have a play with it, so far I've used it to bulk up some tropica substrate but thats it. I'm not really in a situation to do much testing at the mo so id be interested to see if anyone has actually used it to any significant advantage. thanks again folks.

Has anyone used "aquaclay" http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... cts_id=189 Unipac sell this stuff and i was wondering if anyone had any experience with it. I have some but i'm yet to test it. Any thoughts would be great.

oooooo, now youve gone and done it! lol.

Hiya and welcome, i suppose it comes down to asthetics really. You have the nutrient rich substrate so i'd leave that where it is and not worry about it. You could either cover the sand in 2-3mm gravel which has a colour that you like or you could try and syphon the sand off with a hose and then...

sorry guys, never told you all that my issue was that my tiger lilly has had pups and i wanted to plant one in my nano but i never wanted the leaves to be as big as they are in my other tank. I new that pruning the roots would keep the leaf size down and i wanted an easy way to control this...

Hi guys, after some advice i have decided to pot one of my tiger lillies in a small clear plastic pot. I was just wondering what you guys would suggest as a potting substrate? Any thoughts would be great :wink: Cheers Dan