# Recommendations needed for New Substrate



## REDSTEVEO (10 Sep 2017)

Hi Guys,

Anyone who knows me on here will remember my journal 'The Full Monty'

As you will have read, the Full Monty gradually over two years became a semi planted Discus tank, and eventually, sadly into a bare bottomed Wild Discus tank.

Well the Discus have all gone to a new home, so I am stripping down my tank, binning all the filter media and starting again from scratch.

The intention is to use 30 X 10 cm natural slate tiles and section off areas to the right, back centre and left sides of the base of the tank. So creating a sectioned planting area leaving a centre section for my Bogwood centre piece.

I am asking for advice / views on my new selection of planting substrate. I have read some of the posts on here and seen some conflicting views. Previously I have only gone with ADA Substrates, Amazonia soil etc. But now I am looking at planting substrates from Tetra, JBL, Caribsea Eco Complete, Tropica and a few others. Having read some of the reviews I am totally unsure which one to go with this time around.

Any advice or recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve


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## techfool (10 Sep 2017)

I like tropica aquarium soil. Plants root well in it. It does kick up quite a lot of dust, but that settles quite quickly.
I certainly don't recommend coarse gravel, it's a pain to plant into.


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## Tim Harrison (10 Sep 2017)

It can appear to be something of a minefield, but from what I've read the better Gucci substrates all make very similar claims; I've used Amazonia and Colombo Florabase before and they're very similar.
I think I'd be tempted to try Tropica Aquarium Soil - the all in one substrate, not the Plant Growth Substrate that needs capping - if only because it's easier to get hold of in the UK and competitively priced.
However, all things being equal I'd probably stick with what I know and use Amazonia. Although, that said, I will try the Tropica product at some point.


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## REDSTEVEO (11 Sep 2017)

Thanks guys, A long time ago I used the Tropica Soil and when it got wet it turned into a solid kind of mud. Whenever you tried to relocate a plant it made the water very dirty and took ages to clear.

I am thinking of using the JBL, Plant Pro base substrate and the JBL Plant Pro On top.


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