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I don't think MTS will eat carpet plants, but they could disturb shallow roots of some carpeting plants before they have established. If you introduce MTS, after some months or so I would also introduce a couple of Assassin snails to keep the population in check.

Interesting ideas. I currently use some acrylic pieces to retain substrate, but it doesnt allow a continous curving profile.

I am looking for somthing that would work as a decent substrate seperator and be flexible. I came across these PVC door strips, what do you think? Clear Flexible PVC Door Strip Curtain 300mm x 2mm x 1 metre length items in Flexible Trading store on eBay! Any other ideas?

I use pond soil in some of my breeding tanks capped with gravel. Others combine pond soil with other types... I cant remember off hand. I think Troi does this sort of thing.

I would not keep fish without a planted tank, but then I would not keep a planted tank without fish. However for breeding purposes I tend to use bare bottom tanks. In between breeding when sterilising tanks it is far easier to go with bare bottom, also for tiny fry it is easier to minimise...

Your other option is the Dennerle crystal quartz black gravel which is in the 1-2mm range, but it is relatively expensive. Swell sell it: http://www.swelluk.com/aquarium/substrate-1695/substrate-1696/dennerle-crystal-quartz-gravel-black-278070.html

Mxx, the black sand they were talking about is not the Limpopo sand i believe, but finer stuff. I dont think there have been issues with that. They also do a fine black gravel 2-3mm which is also inert. Dan Crawford uses/has used the black gravel and seems to rate it well. From personal...

Yup, I dont have sand substrate, but use MTS for the purpose of turning over the substrate. If you ask nicely, your local MA store may give you some free when you purchase fish from thier store. These snails cause them a bit of bother, but I find they are great in planted tank. I also keep...

What is the black sand like? Is it more fine than the limpopo? If it is im not sure about it due to compacting. I tried some Limpopo in a bucket of water over a few days and it did raise the PH to around 7.8 to 8.

Just a note, the Unipac Limpopo is not a black sand. Its more like light grey with black in. I think they do a 2-3mm black gravel, but i dont know what that looks like.

I never wash my susbstrates, id be washing them all week if i started.

Hi, I think I am one of the other people who has bought the same batch of Limpopo. However my set up is more akin to the TGM display tank which uses Limpopo and Amazonia. I do have tropica under the limpopo. I was wondering whether you are injecting co2 or not? After hearing about your pH...

Anyone know where to purchase this in small quantities i.e. not 25kg bags. I would have thought this would be a more suitable form of osmocote, many of the more common forms relaease over a much shorter period. Are there any equivalents people know about? Thanks

A little birdy suggested that maybe this wonderful intermediate offering might actially be a faulty batch, hence the "limited quantity" ... the wonders of marketing eh :lol:

One thing i dont understand is that some seem to suggest it might become depleated after a year? I suppose this would be in the situation of not water column dosing. I mean it is a clay based soil so it must be good at adsorbing nutrients from the water column and therefore be used in the...

I do wonder whether we are all being taken for a bit of a ride sometimes with the aquatic industry re packaging some things, perhaps making them more conveniant and then whacking a big margin on... well thats my cynical side lol. I guess that is why we have forums like this, there are...

So Darrel when are you starting up your own Aquarium substrate business? The market could probably do with a little competition. :D

I wonder what is special about the Japenese clay? Perhaps it is just that the process is established overthere and there are no start up costs with thier supplier? Otherwise there is clay all over the world and stuff from Japan is not often cheap. I think I did read the origin is from Japan or...

Oh thats not good :( I dont view them as a high end provider of a niche market. They are medium range affordable... but not in this case it seems. It doesnt even make sense.

Any ideas when this product will be available? I noticed prices on Swell alyhough there are no products instock. The prices listed do not seem particularly competitive with existing products. That is unless they are not correct prices. I would hope that TMC would be somewhat cheaper like a lot...

I dont know why people say these substrates are inert after a year. They are clay based substrates and have a high CEC capacity which would mean they would bind nutrients added from the water column. One could perhaps compare them with kitty litter after a year or so, but not sand or gravel...

They are all clay based products and as you say will absorb some of the nutrients added to the aquarium. I only have experiance with ADA and even though I have used what is supposed to be the softest, i found it pretty much was intact after two years of use when i then upgraded and used some of...

I use Malaya, it has a stronger impact on lowering pH than the others soils and for longer. It is marketed for use in longer term set ups, but in terms of Ammonia and phoshate it has the lowest of all the soils.

Probably more importantly i had no black anaerobic areas in my tank.

I am going to be reusing some 2 year old Malaya which i posted about in another thread on here. It keeps its consistancy pretty well even though I have been told that it is least good at doing this of all the four types of AS. Being a clay based soil I would have thought through EI the nutrient...

I have just been going through the mammoth task of braking up my tank ready for an uprade in less than a month hopefully. My curent tank is 8ftx2ftx2ft and has a substrate depth of 3" to 6-8" in places yet after approx two years it is looking pretty healthy, no black anearobic patches. The ADA...

I would understand why he put a cheesey photo on his product? Maybe, a sense of humour and all the better for it.

My thoughts exactly. lol

Malaya does not have very much N or P as you rightly say, but I think perhaps the suggestion that it is better for longer term set ups might be down to its softening effect on water. In the ADA catalogue it suggests Malaya for longer term setups. Brittleness wise I cant speak for other...

The Malaya is promoted by ADA as the one most suitable for longer lasting setups.

Dont wash it!!!

Re: ADA vs Oliver Knott I have used ADA Malaya and will use it inpart again. It does not have the NH4 that the other ADA have but does lower the pH more and my tanks tend to be longer term set ups than many. I dont like it for shallow rooted foreground plants simply on the basis that is it...

I dont think it would be a problem using a bit more to the depth you were thinking.

Hi, I havent used Tetra substrate, but I have seen good reviews, however JBL Aquabasis is a subsrate that worked well under silica sand. It is soil like and so smaller particles than the sand and therefore does not rise up over time into the upper substrate...

It is a pain in the backside when it comes to trying to keep shallow rooted plants like Hair grass and Glosso. In my previous set up I got a great carpet of dwarf hairgrass, the substrate being silica sand over JBL Aquabasis. It held very well when doing maintenance. Not so with aquasoil and i...

I have added fuval ammonia remover \9im pretty sure its zeolite), the filter is new seeded with bacteria, but the amount of ammonia being leached by AS i dont think it would have major negative effect on the bacteria.

doesnt activated carbon adsorb ammonia?

Just add a bit more...

Helloooooo, The ADA catalogue recommends for a 150x60x60: 9x9l Aquasoil 1x18l Powersand However i am in the process of setting up a 240x60x60 and have used 10x 9l Aquasoil, 1x18l powersand that is placed over 50kg of unipac silica sand. I wanted some height for scaping, however this is...

I have usually found this a little messy in that the larger gravel peices eventually mix with the sand. The smaller grain always sink down over time. In a similar way in Eco complete the larger grains settled on top and the smaller ones form a lower layer over time.

Thanks for that Saintly. Will soon see on monday when the aquarium arrives... got to make sure it doesnt get dropped first.

Do you think it would be ok to lay silica sand down first (1-2mm) and put the powersand and aquasoil over the top in order to bulk up?

Hmmm... i ve just looked at your journal again and the Aquasoil didnt seem to go very far. I wonder if i put somthing like JBL aquabasis under the aquasoil that might bult it up? or maybe ill have to order more bags! :shock:

AS I would say from my research, I have chosen Malaya mainly becuase i dont want it to alter the water chemistry too much.

Hello, I was thinking that too, I have ordered x10 bags and 18ltr PS. Havent ordered any powder though, not sure if it is needed except for asthetics? Anyhow am going to try and completely carpet/plant around rocks/wood.

Thank you.

it took about two months to stabilise for you aswell? So did you add your fauna after the two month period when everything settled or before? I will also be adding a mature filter to the aquarium if that will help the process any? Thanks

I guess I could also add coral in the filter to buffer kh if it gets too low?

Thanks for your comments. The main issue now for me is the ph & kh drop. I was looking at AS Malaya. I have kutubu, boesmani and western australian rainbowfish which seem to be found in alkaline down to slightly acidic water. My tap water in coventry is about 7.5 i think kh is around 8-9 and...

Guys is 8 bags of 9l ADA aquasoil enough for an 8x2x2?? I was quoted this approximately when visiting the Green Machine (very friendly people, excellant place). I have seen a quote for 1 bag for a 60 litre (not sure if that was Aquaessentials). The other issue I can get ecomplete for £16 a...

Hey Mr planter, i am probaly ordering 15 x 20lb bags of eco-complete for and 8 footer. Does it just alter the KH or other parameters. Dont really want problems for my fish when i transfer them. Also it seems ot have tken 2-3 months to get your KH down, were you doing 50% changes every week...

Yes Unipac silica sand is the brand I am using. :)

I got the silica sand from Maidenhead Aquatics. It is around 1-2 mm. The other sand is far too fine.

Thanks for that input, i thought it looked similar to the Tropica stuff.

I haven't seen any post with this substrate, which I thought was quite common and relatively cheap compared to ADA and ecocomplete. I have used it before and plan on using it again in my high tech. I has a heater cable there is already old soil in the tank im just adding some more to boost and...