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From the looks it should be like Nature Soil, JBL has one also, all of them should be great in a planted tank, choose the one it's available in your area or is cheaper.

Aqua Soil Amazonia, Initial Stage Maintenance ||| ADA Nature Aquarium - Aqua Design Amano Co., Ltd

You don't really need clay beneath the soil, just add fertilizers daily and CO2 (required) to your tank. Regarding the depth, if you use some fine tweezers to plant it, at least 1" will do, you can go for more if you make a slope. Anyway it can grow in less, actually in my tank it developed also...

The heavier ones hold the HC roots better, aim for 0.2-1mm quartz/volcanic soils.

Thanks Darrel for the clear explanation, I really don't think anyone may come with a better one. :) Do you know why some soils harm some shrimp species and others don't. I can see some clues in your post above but I don't want to guess. Cheers, Mike

I used manado mixed with sand in my low tech tank for over two years. No issues, a little bit light when starting the tank but after a while when it releases the trapped air works like a charm.

Forgot to mention that I've used PowerSand Special that is also enriched with nutrients. I had only one aquarium with this soil and comparing with the others setups I've made the plants started growing madly from the first week. Amano's is using this technique to finish his scapes in three...

If you plan on finishing the scape in a couple of months go for it, if you are not in a rush just use AquaSoil. As a side note I won't be using ADA soils until I upgrade my filters, you need the big ones to keep the filter media in check for pristine water. Mike

Mate you don't really need a proper substrate to grow plants. Gravel is enough, hopefully yours doesn't have a crazy pinkish color :). Just keep on dosing ferts and change the water every week until it settles in. Fancy to share a picture with us? Mike

Mine looks good also but it's only 6 months old. I think with a careful wash it can be reused if a hard scape positioning is required. I don't dismiss it for being a bad soil, it serves its purpose very well but I think people should choose soils by the looks like when choosing light bulbs...

On the other hand it crumbles, it's not made for heavy replanting cause it's messy and you have to spend another week after a session to clean the tank of debris. I just find it suitable for ADA style of setting a tank: add plants in, trim and throw it away when you need to rescape.

Yes, but after a couple of months when the nutrients leach in the water column the enriched soils like Amazonia are no better than regular clay based soils. IMHO the only valid reason to buy a fancy soil is for aesthetic purposes and not for their "miraculous" properties.

Tropica/Tetra/JBL/Sera substrate (or home made) capped with quartz gravel (try and find Dennerle if you want other colors than white), crypts grow better than in ADA soils for example (tested). Mike

Fired clay is usually very light, floats and even if it doesn't it's kinda painful to plant carpeting plants. It also has the tendency to level after a while. I've tested a broad range of clay substrates from Manado, Stoffels GranuPor, Dupla Ground etc and none made any difference in plant...