# Newbie Soil Substrate Advice



## carlnewboult (17 Jun 2015)

Hiya all,

Been reading your site for a few hours as going to be starting again with my juwel 180 bow fronted tank.  As i love the aquascaping look have decided to go for soil substrate as money is tight lol.

Having read the many and varied methods and options i think i have narrowed it down to the following 2 options, but am open to alternatives as long as they don't cost the earth.

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/homebase-top-soil---25l-648091

OR

http://www.homebase.co.uk/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10201&partNumber=604982.P

have a breeding paid of bristlenose catfish so am going to need to make a cave so any advice on the depth i can go to with this substrate would be appreciated.


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## Tim Harrison (18 Jun 2015)

Never tried homebase top soil myself, so I can't comment on that. JI #3 is tried and tested and works very well, but has a tendency to raise TDS a bit. I use a 1:1 mix of these and it works well for me...




There is more info in the Tutorials section...


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## Manu (19 Jun 2015)

Hello,
I'm also new to aquascaping and I've followed James thread : "Akadama, a cheap substrate". It is quite affordable and the plants are growing really well, I also like the colour but that's just my opinion. Do a search for Akadama and you should find the article. I hope it helps. Cheers.
Manu


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## Manu (19 Jun 2015)

Here's the link:
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/akadama-a-cheap-substrate.741/

Cheers


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