• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Volcano mineral out of stock everywhere in uk?

Siege said:
Both are proven performers that work.

power sand advance will outperform any other base layer (note quoted above above is the wrong size and size bag for your tank I think?)

powder will hold up slopes and hold carpet plants in much more securely.

the substrate is the bedrock of the tank, no point on skimping on it. You can get away without the power sand but really don’t think you can replace it with pea gravel, good if your substrate is a foot deep but you are not building a massive steep sloped tank so, not worth it.
What is going to happen when the stem plants roots hit the pea gravel? They will stop and spread everywhere looking for food leading to weaker stems..👍😃
Click to expand...

My recommendation is for the cheaper lava rock gravel, I am not saying the power sand doesn't work, I just don't think it is necessary or good value for what it is.

Good point on the powder soil, it is great for carpet plants, but again in IMO if trying to save some money it is not needed to grow a carpet in any way.
ojustaboo said:
Yay
Superfish Lava Rock Filter Media Pond & Aquarium 10L
Click to expand...
Bare in mind that the superfish is rather large lumps of lava rock, rather than a gravel type substrate.
 
I got mine from 25 kg crushed lava rock granules 4-11 mm - lava mulch 4250913213356 | eBay
Although you might want to go for the next grade down 2-8mm

As someone with more than a smattering of geology under his belt, trust me there really is no difference between this product a few root tabs and ADA power sand...
But then again, @Siege is right if you want a predictable outcome and you're relatively new to the hobby then ADA power sand is the way to go.
 
ojustaboo said:
Today I watched one of the Aquascape vids and liked how they did their initial setup, thought I’d give it a try, approx first 3 mins of
Click to expand...

Can I ask what it is you liked about it? Only asking as you’ve honed in on using a powersand advance equivalent and not really understanding why it’s a necessary choice for the intended goals? None have been stated so it’s unclear what the goal is currently.


Siege said:
Both are proven performers that work.
Click to expand...

Can agree with @Siege on this given its use in a showroom scape in the mentioned video. There are reasons beyond cost why you would choose certain products. They are aquascaping products and serve a predictable outcome beyond obvious function due to standardised processes.

Show of hands for people who’ve scratched the hell out of their brand new £1000 optiwhite tank by using crushed volcanic rock rather than a product that has been screened for sharp edges.
 
Geoffrey Rea said:
Can I ask what it is you liked about it? Only asking as you’ve honed in on using a powersand advance equivalent and not really understanding why it’s a necessary choice for the intended goals? None have been stated so it’s unclear what the goal is currently.
Click to expand...
To be honest, it’s more what I didn’t like about the way I did my old tank.

It was just over 3 years ago that I went the dirty tank route in my Juwel 190L bow fronted tank. I followed a ton of advice on here (and got great answers to my many questions) , used soil at bottom, then netting, then silica sand.

I put gravel in old tights to raise the back corners.

I had been using C02 since around 2011.

I tried possibly too hard to get everything right.

I also went the macro/micro dosing route.

That all turned out fine (for a while)

But I remember the amount of physical effort involved on just washing the sand for what felt like 1000 times when setting up, I simply am unable to do that now.

Over time the raised corners effectively became flat

I also found I was in a non stop fight with my CO2 (don’t think the bow front helped) and the amount of both time and money spent on different diffusers both the external UP type to various glass etc internal ones.

At one point I had two external filters, an external pre filter to try and get co2 more mixed etc

Sure in large parts of my tank, the plants took off with the CO2, but I never got it right, you could always see where the co2 was missing.

To cut a long story short, health isn’t what it was (nothing terminal) and for a few months all I did was min water changes, removed fire extinguisher when it was empty, didn’t bother putting in any plant fertiliser at all, and fed the Fish.

Roll on a few more months and most of the plants were still growing. Roll on about a year, still zero CO2 or fertiliser yet plants still growing.

There was one brief period a few months ago where most my fish died, I put various things in to treat the water and the fish, don’t know what caused it, maybe gas trapped under sand?

Anyway while I can just about manage the weekly water change, it’s very painful and a bit too much for me. At one point I was regrettably thinking of getting rid of the tank altogether but I didn’t really want to. My wife suggested a smaller tank that’s more manageable for me.

So for Christmas (but I’m allowed it early 🙂 ) my wife bought me the Eheim Vivaline LED 126 which arrived today.

I can keep both tanks while setting the new one up, so I can take my time with it.

In the past my tanks have been second hand, now I have a nice sparkling new one.

I don’t intend using the internal filter supplied with the tank, might treat myself to a new external, my Eheim 2317 that I got second hand 3 years ago has done well, but is now in poor condition and new heads aren’t available. Maybe get an inline heater too.

When I saw that vid in my OP that looked like an easy (just pouring in straight from bags) way for me to get a good healthy foundation for my tank to grow plants in with no co2. I presumed everything was there for a reason, and I presumed it might be a good starting point.

I don’t have to use any of that but I haven’t got the energy to mess around with tons of cleaning gravel/sand while setting the tank up.

My goal is to have a nice looking low maintenance tank, don’t want sand and I really liked the look of the Tropica soil.

I would like a few bits of wood with some sort of moss like plants attached, I’m thinking of raising one back edge quite high and making some sort of rock/ plant display on there, along with the wood, not 100% sure how I’m going to plant the rest, want some grass like plants near front but don’t want it to be carpeted.

Dont want it too overloaded with big plants, but I want it interesting and also fun for the fish.

I would like it to have a good sense of depth

While I will put my few existing fish in there, I intend to end up with a shoal of something like Tetras.

I’m hoping most weeks it will be a small water change and maybe a bit of trimming. I have an Eheim prefilter that I’ve never used, not sure it will comfortably (to the eye) fit in nicely in the smaller tank, but if it does, hopefully that will make the main filter go for a few months without being looked at.
 
Last edited:
So the new tank is:

(Width) 80.00 cm
(Height) 45.00 cm
(Depth) 35.00 cm

It’s sold as a package including lighting, cabinet, filter, heater and filter media. That’s that taken care of and you’re going to use an external filter rather than the internal one supplied.

The impression from the above is you originally liked the idea of Co2, but like many, the water changes that usually accompany Co2 injected tanks with EI dosing proved a pain given circumstances.

Co2 or non Co2 injected tank, creating an easy way to siphon water out and replace it appears to make many much happier in their hobby. The question to always ask is how can this be done without lifting a single ounce of water? That way removing 10% or 50% requires the same effort and you won’t shy away from water changes.

Two cheap hoses can help, one for draining the tank, the other for connecting to a mixer tap to fill up at correct temperature. Then dechlorinate the water in tank with a product like Seachem Prime. Just one method and if you have this in mind before you put the tank together, you can make sure there’s accommodations for where you will extract water from and return it without disturbing the setup.

Before going any further consider what plants you want, see whether they realistically need/don’t need Co2 injection to thrive if you want to go low tech to create a good list of species for the setup, then look at how to use the 80x45x35cm space. You can create a very nice setup in those dimensions.


ojustaboo said:
My goal is to have a nice looking low maintenance tank, don’t want sand and I really liked the look of the Tropica soil.
Click to expand...

Seems pretty well defined.


ojustaboo said:
I would like a few bits of wood with some sort of moss like plants attached, I’m thinking of raising one back edge quite high and making some sort of rock/ plant display on there
Click to expand...

One point, it’s far easier to have a piece of hard scape (rock/wood) create the height than to bank soil up and attempt to keep the gradient. Gravity will have its way with it eventually even with the best planning.
 
Could someone please let me know if you really need Lava rock or Volcano Mineral under a banked substrate or can you just use a solid layer of complete substrate? I've seen some talk of anerobic build up if not used and the lava rock being an added filtration/bacteria area. I managed to get some heavily discounted bags of Dennerle Scapers soil so I have plenty of complete substrate and was planning on using just that with a layer of JBL aqua basis plus underneath with possibly a scattering of Osmocote? I would have gone the Tropica/ADA route that seems most popular but the Dennerle stuff was less than half the price and I couldn't turn it down.
 
ForestDave said:
Could someone please let me know if you really need Lava rock or Volcano Mineral under a banked substrate or can you just use a solid layer of complete substrate? I've seen some talk of anerobic build up if not used and the lava rock being an added filtration/bacteria area. I managed to get some heavily discounted bags of Dennerle Scapers soil so I have plenty of complete substrate and was planning on using just that with a layer of JBL aqua basis plus underneath with possibly a scattering of Osmocote? I would have gone the Tropica/ADA route that seems most popular but the Dennerle stuff was less than half the price and I couldn't turn it down.
Click to expand...
It's not essential.

Aquasoil doesn't tend to compact like sand and other substrates so less of an issue with anaerobic conditions. Even sand etc has to be very deep to cause issues.
 
Just reviving this thread as I’m currently on the hunt for some crushed lava rock/Pumice myself. But finding the same issue as OP seems to be out of stock everywhere (including links in this thread)

Any one point me in the direction of somewhere that still has stock?
 
Last time l looked olibetta still have it jbl deliver within two weeks check first though . Notice the price as crept up. Ha ha
 
Wonder if they have paused delivery to Uk while sorting customs paperwork out due to brexit. They had tons a week before xmas, many different sizes too.
 
Just checked the details, the actual company that it came from was Der Naturstein Garten (even though ebay shop said sun-of-india) aand sure enough on their site, they still have tons, so it must be something to do with delivering to the UK

Lava
 
ojustaboo said:
Just checked the details, the actual company that it came from was Der Naturstein Garten (even though ebay shop said sun-of-india) aand sure enough on their site, they still have tons, so it must be something to do with delivering to the UK

Lava
Click to expand...
Interesting, let’s hope it’s only temporary then

thanks for the detective work!
 
Seems to have incresed think l got mine around the £20 mark before Chistmas delivery wasnt bad but things with covid now
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top