# Aqua Soil Africana



## wolfewill (22 Nov 2012)

Does anyone have experience with aqua soil Africana? It's quite a departure from Seachem's fluorite, which is what I've been using to date. Cheers to all.


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## ceg4048 (22 Nov 2012)

Hello,
         It's not as much a departure as you might imagine. Both of these products are un-enriched baked clay. They may look differently, but that's just because the the soil that each came from has different combinations of minerals which have different colors. 

Since Africana is not an enriched substrate it is not as good a value as ADA's Amazonia which is packed with nutrients. Amazonia is a much better value at those prices, unless the color and aesthetics of the Africana is more important to you.

Cheers,


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## wolfewill (23 Nov 2012)

I am trying to manage the pH at the moment. I have been told to buffer the GH (with Equilibrium) and KH to 6.0. Otherwise the KH is less than 1, and the GH is zero (tap water is KH 2, GH 3 here). Your input is greatly appreciated.


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## ceg4048 (24 Nov 2012)

Hello,
         You should stop trying to manage pH. That is one of the absolute worst things you can do in a planted tank and in any other tank for that matter. You also need to stop thinking rigidly about KH and GH solely in terms of their numerical values.

I think that's the biggest problem in this hobby. People become hypnotized into chasing numbers without understanding the meaning of those numbers. Any natural pH/GH/KH number can work depending on the situation. What you must learn to do is to understand what each of these numbers mean so that you can understand what the ramifications are for the health of your plants and fish.

Lets start with GH because it's the easiest to understand:
The term General Hardness for our purposes is an expression usually associated with the amount of Magnesium and Calcium dissolved in the water. Most South American, Central American and the Congo River basin tributaries are very low in Ca and Mg, and the fish have evolved to live and breed in these waters. On the other hand, the waters of the African Rift Valley are extremely high in Ca and Mg so their bodies are adapted to live in these types of waters. So if you measure the GH in a tank with Malawi chiclids the readings will typically be high because the hobbyists will put salts containing Mg, Ca and other types in the water in order to be consistent with the lake water.

For tanks containing "New World" and Congo River Basin tropicals, such as tetras, angels, discus and so forth, the situation is just the opposite, and since the waters are almost devoid of Ca, Mg and other metals, fish from these areas do better in tanks filled with water having been filtered with a Reverse Osmosis filter. We have seen however that these soft water fish can do fine in waters that have high dissolved mineral content, but for many of the more exotic species, breeding and best health is with water low in dissolved salts.

For plants there is much more flexibility in terms of dissolved salts and mineral content. Magnesium and Calcium are important nutrients and the plants seek out sources of these elements in their natural waters which are low in Ca/Mg content. When you measure GH though, this numerical value tells you nothing about the relative amounts of Ca and Mg. Normally, the water coming from our tap is high in Ca because it comes from ground waters which are in contact with limestone or other Calcium containing minerals. But if you are using RO water, or water that is naturally low in GH then that water will have a zero or nearly zero content of Ca and Mg so you'd want to add enough of both in order to ensure that the plants have access to sufficient levels to both. As it turns out, although both Ca and Mg are required nutrients, they are not needed in large amounts. They are very similar to our need for vitamins. The amount of vitamins you need are very small in comparison to the amount of starch or proteins that you need. And so it is with Ca and Mg for plants. Since they only need a small amount, and since soft water fish do better with low amounts, the general rule of thumb is to target a low GH value that ensures sufficient amount of Ca/Mg. So the numerical value of 4-6 range is often quoted, again, as a general rule of thumb, but you stlll need to ensure that there is both Ca and Mg in the water because it's entirely possible to have a GH reading of, say, 4, and to have all of it due to Ca with zero Mg, or, the reading could mean that 100% of it is Mg with zero Ca. If it's the first case then the plants would suffer a Magnesium deficiency and if it's the second case they would suffer a Calcium deficiency.  If the reading was due to a 50/50 (or somewhere thereabouts) split, then that would be fine, but since we don't know the split, the safe thing to do is to add a product that we know contains both Ca and Mg. Equilibrium is such a product, but there are other cheaper products that will do exactly the same thing from a GH perspective.

On the other side of the ledger, we have seen that similar to the soft water fish, plants also have a high tolerance of dissolved salts and minerals so if your tap water is very high in GH, i.e high in Ca and Mg, then this is not a problem. There are only perhaps a half a dozen plant species that dislike high Ca/Mg content. The vast majority do not care.

KH is a indicates a different chemical content. It is normally referred to as Carbonate Hardness. There are two basic species in the expression "Carbonates". The most abundant is Bicarbonate (HCO3) and Carbonate (CO3). These two compounds have the effect of combining with acids in the water and sequestering them. This is why, when you have an upset stomach after a large meal (which causes a high acid production in the gut) you can take bicarbonate product like Tums or Alka-Seltzer. The tablet dissolves in the stomach and releases the Bicarbonates which then combines with the acid. Bicarbonate is a very effective compound in controlling the level of acid in a solution and it is this action that the term "buffer" is related to. If there is a large amount of Bicarbonate/Carbonate in the water then any acid that is produced get quickly sequestered. When we talk about "acid" what we really are talking about is the Hydrogen ion H+ which has a positive electrical charge. Bicarbonate/Carbonate both have negative charges and so they attract the H+. That is one way in which an acid is neutralized. The H+ is still there but it is much less reactive since it is in a way, tied up by the HCO3/CO3. Our bodies and fishes bodies produce bicarbonates in order to control the level of acid (H+) in the bloodstream.

From a plant standpoint, some plants use Bicarbonate to help them produce CO2, which is super important, so again, there is a general rule of thumb to try and have a sufficient amount of KH, but if you are injecting CO2 then this is much less important. In a non CO2 enriched tank it is often suggested to regularly add a bicarbonate source to help those plants produce CO2. From a fish standpoint the situation is similar to GH, in that fish from soft waters typically don't see very much bicarbonate levels and those fish from Rift Valley are immersed in high levels. The general rule of thumb is to have a high enough amount to satisfy some plants but not too high for the fish. However, we see time and time again that fish are very adaptable to a wide range of bicarbonate/carbonate levels and it is not too much of an issue unless you want to breed them.

Then, the parameter which most people worry about and which happens to be the parameter that is the least significant is pH, which is a simple ration of the amount of Hydrogen protons (H+) to the amount of Hydroxyl ions (OH-). If you connect H+ to OH- you will get HOH, which of course is water H2O. Water is nothing more than a combination of H+ and OH- which are constantly combining and separating. If you count up all the separated H+ in pure water and put that number in the pH formula you'll get the number 7. If you count up the number of free OH- and use the same equation you'll also get 7. That's because, in pure water, the number of free H+ at any one time has to be exactly the same as the number of free OH-. The difference come when we add H+ or OH- to the water. 

If we put vinegar in pure water, there is a rise in the amount of H+ compared to the amount of OH-. Vinegar is a weak acid. It's also known as acetic acid and it has a formula (CH3)(CO2)H.
When you put it in the water that H on the end of the formula is pulled from the vinegar so you get H+ Hydrogen ion, plus acetate (CH3)(CO2)-. But vinegar is a "weak acid", so only a very small percentage of the (CH3)(CO2)H gets separated. But in pure water even this small amount, when used in the pH equation can give you a very low pH. Weak acids are a staple of our diet and it is what makes things "tangy". Hot sauce, citrus fruits, tomatoes, vinegar - they all taste good or enhance the flavor of things because they release only a very small amount of H+.

Likewise, in the tank weak acids do not have a negative effect on the fish, especially fish that originate from waters which have weak acids, like tannins, dissolved in the water. So the pH can go very low due to these weak acids without any effect at all.

Strong acids on the other hand are highly toxic because they disassociate almost completely, releasing massive amounts of H+ into the water which then becomes highly toxic.

You can see now from the above that when water  has some KH, meaning that there is a population of bicarbonate/carbonate, and when acids (H+) are released into that water, then the two tend to cancel each other out, because they attract each other and sequester each other from the rest of the water. Water with a low KH has a low population of bicarbonates (or a low population of other chemicals that behave similarly to bicarbonates) so it does not neutralize as many H+ and so the measured pH will be lower than if we put exactly the same amount of acid in water which has high KH.

That is why it is completely insane trying to manipulate KH/pH. They are directly related and so whatever you do to one will affect the other. Also their values do not really matter. Fish and plants do not really care what the pH or KH of the water is and unless they are supposed to be breeding.

So when you see some substrate vendor rave about what effect their product has on KH it's better if you ignore it because firstly it doesn't really matter, and secondly the effects will not last forever. If a product claims that it lowers KH all that means is that it attracts and removes bicarbonate (or other chemicals which affect the alkalinity) from the water, and after a while it will become saturated with bicarbonate (or the similar chemical) and will no longer attract anymore unless there is some other factor which removes the bicarbonate or other chemical from the surface of the grain.

The best thing to keep yourself sane therefore is to simply get the substrate that you like the look and feel of, or the substrate that will feed your plants, or the substrate which is cheaper (depending on your priority) and to completely ignore the claims about KH. Similarly you should think more about "do my plants have enough Ca and Mg?" more so than blindly trying to adhere to some predetermined GH value. Lastly you should absolutely ignore the pH and absolutely NOT try to manage pH because that will cause 10 times more problems that it will ever solve.

Cheers,


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## wolfewill (25 Nov 2012)

So, I should try to provide enough nutrients for the plants to grow well, and ignore the water parameters. And just to clarify, we in Ottawa have tap water very low in KH and GH (2 and 2.5 respectively), so I'm using it directly from the tap to the tank (plus dechlorinator). Your patience and detail is greatly appreciated. Cheers.


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## ceg4048 (25 Nov 2012)

Yes, the two important things worth worrying about are:
1. Nutrition. The more well fed your plants are, the healthier they are. The healthier they are the more effectively they remove toxins, such as ammonia, from the water, the more Oxygen they saturate the water with, and the less susceptible to algal blooms they are.

2. Cleanliness. The more well fed the plants the more organic waste they produce, which builds up in the tank and smothers the plants making them unhealthy. Doing large regular water changes frequently and regular removal of detritus from the substrate, wetted surfaces and filter media serves to make both plants and fish healthier.

These two items are critically important in a CO2 enriched tank. In a "low tech" or non-enriched tank there is much more margin for error.

If you simply add enough Equilibrium, or GH Booster (or any other product containing both Calcium and Magnesium) to raise the GH to your target value of 4-6 then you automatically will have enough of these elements to avoid deficiency. You can add a little potassium bicarbonate to raise the KH a point or two, but that is not really mandatory and you don't have to obsess over either of these parameters. Then, let the pH fall were it may based on the GH/KH adjustments, if any, that you make. Then, forget about them, because items 1 and 2 listed above are about 100X more important than almost any parameter.

You still should dose the water column with the more important nutrients NPK, and if this is a CO2 enriched tank then you need to worry about filter/pump flow throughput and even distribution of the water around the tank which delivers nutrition to the plant leaves.

Cheers,


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## wolfewill (25 Nov 2012)

Ok. All above noted and I have been doing #1 and #2 for years now, so no problem. And, I am testing my nutrient levels regularly (N, P, Fe, etc.), but what about CO2 targets? I'm trying to target 20 to 30 mg/L. Does the pH / KH chart still work if weak acids (aka tannins, presumably) are present?


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## O'Neil (25 Nov 2012)

You should sticky this thread Ceg.


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## ceg4048 (25 Nov 2012)

Well, rule #3 is to absolutely stop testing, because test kits are utterly incompetent at measuring nutrient levels. You need to dose your tank based on a scheme such as EI, PMDD or whatever method you chose, and to forget about tests, because if you depend on your test kit readings to tell you when to add nutrition I can guarantee that you will regret having done so.

Additionally, you cannot use the pH readings of the tank to tell you how much CO2 is in the tank because the other acids in the tank affect the readings so your CO2 value will almost always certainly read higher than is real.

Please go to the Tutorial section and read about nutrition schemes in the thread http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1211

CO2 measurement is discussed in the thread http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=467

Cheers,


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## jack-rythm (26 Nov 2012)

great read


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## wolfewill (28 Nov 2012)

jack-rythm said:
			
		

> great read



Yah! I'm really impressed with this site. Going to buy ceg4048 a pint or two for this. Wow.


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## viktorlantos (29 Nov 2012)

There are differences using clear (non fertilized clays). The number 1 is the water clearness. Amazonia is a great value, but for a beginner it could be challenging sometimes. In the first weeks this colorize the water. Africana not. With africana you will have such a clear water than you would use purigen from the start.

Africana is a great soil for beginners. Water will be super clear from day 1. No hassle with cycling. No hassle with rich substrate early issues like diatom. Plants grows slower there? Yeah maybe. But believe me if you give all to your plants Africana will please you for sure. Is it worst value than Amazonia? ABSOLUTELLY NOT!

This one is an africana tank. http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktorlant ... hotostream

We have many beautiful installations in Malaya and Africana too. So then what is the advantage of the Amazonia over on them? The richness. If you're a good scaper then your plants mainly foreground plants will shoot out much quicker then in the others. Color maybe better for most of us. But sometimes Amazonia gives a though time for beginners. That's why i recommend the other soils too for people.

Of course all other advantages are there like with other premium soils. Clay size and weight, will be easier to plant with this, and your slopes will not disapper like with Manado and other small grain size clays. It's important if you build different levels there. Water parameters are ideal for plants and for some shrimps too.

On the water parameter issue i do not agree that pH is something you do not need to worry about. We not only keep plants and fishes. What if you plant to keep Bee shrimps for example? pH will be your number one water parameter to check.

I do keep now 100 taiwan bee in a 60L aquascape. pH is the main parameter there as its kill your shrimps quickly if you're above the ideal values. Then hardness as shrimps will die if they could not molt. (checking TDS there not KH and GH)

So let's think outside of the box too. Plants feel ok in most of the conditions. They looks very different if you add in all bells and whistles... That's the reason why we also use CO2 to be able to use more plants and grow them successfully. So pH maybe not an issue there, but there are situations where you will use pH meter more than any other test kit. Just fall in love with those red stripe CRS and you will understand it.


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## wolfewill (8 Dec 2012)

Viktorlantos, your observations are bang on: The water clarity is very good, there were no issues with cloudiness. There was no ammonia at all, either, and just a small amount of nitrite (which is expected apparently). And there is no algae or diatoms. I think I could have added livestock soon after setting up. I have yet to decide on the quality of the soil as far as plant growth is concerned, so we'll see. It's only been 7 weeks from the start up.

I have been corresponding with an ADA rep from California on this topic. He said, to date, problems with low pH and the livestock are unheard of. And reiterated what Ceg states: Only worry about providing the plants with what they need and everything will be ok. But, apparently, the ADA tanks are KH buffered to 2 dKH to keep the pH swings under control. Tom Barr also suggested the same. He suggested keeping the KH at 3 dKH. In Ottawa, we have very soft water: 2.5 dKH and 3 dGH out of the tap. So there is very little there to buffer the substrate's effects. I'm adding three teaspoons of baking soda every three or four days now. Less than in the beginning 'cause the buffering effects have lessened once I started adding the macros (and perhaps as the substrate's CEC properties diminish). The ADA rep also said that contrary to the approach with Amazonia, Africana doesn't provide high nitrate and phosphate, so dosing the water column is a good idea from the start rather than waiting 'till the 1 year mark.

I've had the livestock in for about 10 days now and everything is looking good. I especially like the colours. I have a tank with Fluval Substratum, which has such a  much darker, heavier look.


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## wolfewill (13 Dec 2012)

The fish and crustaceans have been in for a couple of weeks now. No ammonia or nitrate spikes at all. I've found some nitrite, but too little on the test kit colour chart to have a value (Ceg, you close your eyes, now). I have been following Ceg's advise, except that I do test the water to make sure I'm experiencing what I was told would happen (by the California ADA rep). And the Congo tetras are very comfortable, as I'm sure the otto cats are as well. I do need to add a couple of tspns of baking soda on about a weekly basis to keep the KH in the 1 to 2 range. GH is stable at 4, and the pH cycles between 6.8 and 5.8 from night to midday. It'll go as low as 5.5 if the KH falls below 1, but I've seen no behavioural differences in the livestock at any point in the daily cycle. Plant growth is not as great as would have been had I used a richer substrate, I suppose (Amazonia or Fluval Substratum), but it looks they way I had hoped, there is absolutely no algae, and a Barclaya longifolia bulb I planted has started to leaf. So, really, I'm very pleased with everything. And, again, thanks to the help of Ceg, I'm enjoying a pint or two on Friday nights in front of the beasts, and not wringing my hands with anxiety. Cheers.


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## viktorlantos (14 Dec 2012)

Yeah the tank is young now. So the start was easy, but as most of the algae comes for different reason and in different age of a tank, you probably will meet them anyway.

The substrate made the start easier. But later on watch out for the big pH swings. This isn't good for fishes. So better to have some buffering. I've seen a pH shock once in the past with Popondetta Forcata fishes. They just fallen down to the substrate and died in a second because of this.

Also with too low pH the biofiltration decrease and if the tank is not well balanced (more light etc) then you will face with algae quickly. Would be ideal to keep the pH around 6.5 or above.

Have a fun with the substrate. You will be able to reuse it later once you rescape the tank just need to be washed.
If you're unhappy with the growth rate you still can use bottom fertilizers for carpet plants. But after i time i enjoys the slower growth as this need less maintenance. --- contest tanks are different there need an afterburner in most of the cases


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## ceg4048 (14 Dec 2012)

Big pH swings occur in tanks everyday without any consequences. In high light CO2 injected tanks the daily pH swing is up to 1 unit, which is a 10X change in acidity. It's a really bad idea to focus on pH stability. Also the pH can be as low as one wants. there is no limitation and the so-called pH crash is another myth.

Substrate has nothing to do with whether the hobbyists gets algae or not. It's whether the principles of plant and fish husbandry are followed. Water changes, reduced lighting, good flow/CO2 distribution. There is no correlation between substrate brand and the occurrence of algal blooms.

Here is a tank at pH 3.5
There were no problems whatsoever.
Healthy plants will uptake ammonia. Biofiltration is performed by plants - by definition, therefore it simply does not matter what the pH values are.






Here is a tank that fluctuates beween pH 5.5 and pH 6.5 every single day as a direct result of CO2 addition. Again, no algal blooms and no ill fish, pH simply does not matter.







			
				wolfewill said:
			
		

> No ammonia or nitrate spikes at all.


How couyld you tell if there were spikes aduring a period in which you were not taking a measurement? These kits tell you nothing, even when they are showing a value. These are simple forms of self-delusion.

Cheers,


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