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I used Tetra Complete Substrate years ago. I had good success with it, plants seemed happy. If I remember correctly, it's meant to be capped with gravel?

Hey mate, You should be able to do it without issue. I've added fresh Tropica soil to established tanks several times now. However, if you'll be away and not able to do water changes I'd say wait until after Christmas and you're back home.

I quite like the 'Aqua Substrate - Speckled Sand' sold at Maidenhead Aquatics. It has a great colour and texture and interestingly never went 'dirty' even during the light diatom phase.

Is this pure sand or enriched with anything else?

This is really good to know! One of the many reasons I love UKAPS.

I feel like you're referring to the Tropica 'substrate'. If so, you can put a thick layer of Tropica Soil on top but not mixed! You really don't want that stuff in the water column, trust me. Tropica Substrate is better capped with sand or gravel though. If you mean Tropica Soil Powder, go for it.

You can also get telescopic magnets from Riverwood Aquatics, I think it was about £2.50 or something... Works as you'd expect.

Yeah I was thinking the same. It's possible that they're both as moist as each other but the larger grain size makes the moisture more 'apparent' to the touch.

I've found that (at least in my experience) the powder version is pretty much bone dry but the regular one is moist. Dry enough to pour and move without sticking to anything but definitely discernible moisture.

Thanks Nick! I'm thinking the easiest thing might be to dry out out.

Hey guys, I have some Tropica Soil that is unused but cycled in a bucket (around 14L) as I grossly overestimated how much I'd need for a rescape. Since it's already wet I'm thinking it would come in handy when I upgrade my wildlife pond in the spring as it used a fair bit of soil. This summer...

I've used Alfagrog successfully in my substrate and I use it in all my filters.

Oh right I see what you mean, you could go the Tropica substrate route and cap it with sand or Tropica Soil Powder by itself.

Hey Gadget, welcome! I have some juvenile apistogrammas at the moment and use 2-3mm inert gravel, no problems so far. I also did the same with an Apistogramma cacatuoides in the past without issues. I'm guessing sand is preferred. 🤷‍♂️

Tropica Soil is usually a good one

Unrelated but that tank is STUN-NING! Expert at nothing, dab hand at many.

If I was doing a tank that size I'd go with capped dirt. It's the most economical option. I used Cal Aqua Black Earth on my 4ft tank and even that took 4 bags, which was expensive enough.