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Substrate, ferts and lighting question

Steve Aspery

Steve Aspery

Seedling
Joined
5 Mar 2016
Messages
5
Location
Southampton
So as i gather information on my first proper planted tank and compile a shopping list i am finding one or two areas where i have no experience and seem to find my getting confused as i research.

I am torn between the ADA 60p and the TMC signature 600. I think ill probably go for the TMC

I really really want an HC cuba carpet... its the dream!

First question ison substrate, looking at the ada system, addatives, power sand, powder.. it gets really expensive!

I dont want to be tight but is it all really required? Are the additives really worth it?
I have read up on flourite and other alternatives but whenever i see a tank scape i love it normally seems to have ada substrate.

So i guess the question is how important is substrate to growing hc cuba?

Next is lighting, i have 2 x grobeam 600s. Would they be enough to grow hc cuba? I will be having co2 i realise it is very important.

And finally ferts, again the ada system looks great, i have read up on the tropica system too as well as EI. The question here is does it make that much difference?

I appreciate any advice before i start spending money in a few weeks time getting things together!
 
I think the TMC has a lot going for it with a Iwagumi layout over the ADA 60P

You mirror some of my recent hopes, I wanted a decent HC carpet and I have a good one at the moment 5 weeks in. In my tanks last incarnation I went with ADA substrate and it worked well so I went with it again. Power Sand, aquasoil and the powder for the top layer. I'd also read that the ADA ferts worked well with the ADA substrate so that was the direction I followed this time over EI. My lighting is high I'll grant you but so far my carpet is growing like wildfire, I'm really chuffed with it for a first attempt
 
I find the ADA system a bit too expensive. I do have a 60P and have used Aquasoil a couple of times, I prefer to use tropicas plant growth substrate under either aquasoil or the tropica/tmc equivalent instead of powersand. There's definitely something to be said about certain ADA products being snake oil...

In regards to your lighting, two growbeams will be fine, but i would suggest you get a controller so you can dim them, too much light is definitely worse than too little, make sure your flow/distribution is on point rather than worrying too much about light (we've all been there). Get an inline diffuser, this has made a huge difference to my co2.

For ferts, aquarium plant food do an excellent, easy to use EI kit, i'd advise that, it'll save you £100s over a few years(I'm really not exagerating).
 
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I used Tourmaline BC, Penac P & Penac W. The money I was spending on the Power Sand & Aquasoil, I figured "in for a penny, in for a pound". My plants have carpeted really well this time around but that could just be due to other factors other than the ADA "snake oil" products. Last time I had just used the power sand & aquasoil and this time I didn't want to feel I'd failed for want of a few more quid spent. I used all the Tourmaline but I have loads left of the Penac stuff so it's not all wasted money.

The Aquarium Plant Food EI starter kit is well worth it in my opinion. It's so easy to mix & dose etc.
 
I'm open minded although I accept that some of them may well offer very little but I doubt the pure "snake oil" claims. It's hard to deny that there are some very successful tanks using the ADA doctrine on this forum let alone elsewhere. What they do is just do it differently and at an elevated cost for some of the products.
 
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