# What is the best substrate?



## Dave_Discus (Sep 10, 2006)

I am tearing down my 125 to start over.
What is the best substrate?
What is the current trend?

I was thinking of 2 tone kinda color thing...dark and light?

All dark is fine too. I have substrate heating and high tech
set up....I want the absolute best...even it it means mixing
5 different thing. Educate me please.


I currently have 1 year old ecomplete.....re use it? Toss it?
Tank was plagued by bba and snails.


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## Ibn (Nov 19, 2003)

Toss the substrate and take a look at ADA Amazonia soil, with the assumption that you're keeping fish such as discus.


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

Yup, that's what I'd suggest too. Read up on the ADA product line though, as I hear recommended dosing is a bit different than with other substrates.


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## SammyP (Apr 26, 2006)

some say soilmaster select is great 'for the money'. thats what i'd do if i had a big tank to plant like that. buuut if you have a couple hundred bucks to spend on it go for ADA stuff. they have lots of different colors and types of soils: 

Aquarium Design Group | flash detection


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## Dave_Discus (Sep 10, 2006)

Ok....well enough. ADA it is. Im going to listen this time to every word you guys say.

Amazonia it is...

How many liters (how it's sold) will I need. Keep in mind the cable substrate heater.


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

aquasoil, aquasoil, aquasoil. That is all I would use. What are the dimesions of your tank?


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

I am waiting for flourite black.


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## Dave_Discus (Sep 10, 2006)

It's a 125....6 ft long....


Should I mix in any of the thier products?

Whats the power sand for?

I want the best performing substrate I can get.

(I have a black thumb...so I need this advantage)


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

72”x18”x21” is that the dimesions? If so 6 bags should do it. Power sand provides some macro nutrients. PS special is suposed to have some other stuff in it as well. I use it but it is not necessary.


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## Dave_Discus (Sep 10, 2006)

Thanks. 6 bags it is then.

I'll post agin when I get it, and
we will move on to step 2.


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## CardBoardBoxProcessor (Sep 17, 2006)

:icon_eek: :icon_eek: hey I need Aqua soil. my tank is 48" X 15" X 18" how many bags do I need? and what size bags? the 9 liter ones? 

don't mena to hijack.. but why waste a thread?


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

3 bags should be enough, get 4 if you want to tier it.


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## CardBoardBoxProcessor (Sep 17, 2006)

mm.. I do I do.. now that you mention it.. how do you tier? :eek5:


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

My only reservation with new AS is the pH has gone so very low. But the fish are OK. But after seeing Wayne Sham's tank, I'm wondering if one has really soft water to start with, perhaps a combo of Africana and Amazonia might be a nice ticket. My plants do love the AS, even without much CO2 yet. I'm adding crushed coral at the moment to allow some CO2 without dumping the pH below 5.8... Any thoughts...?


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## CardBoardBoxProcessor (Sep 17, 2006)

mm.. I would find some rocks that raise PH. then break them up and palce them in the filter. for example.. my 15 gallon eclipse. Had its gravel (which kept the pH at around 7.0) replaced with flourite with does nothing. I took soem rocks form my 72 gallon and put them in the filter tray and now it is a constant 6.5  for the past 3 weeks or so anyway.


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

I would definately go with ADA. From what I've seen, there's nothing better. I currently use Fluorite in my 20H and used sand/peat moss before that. I'm thinking about doing a "trial run" and converting my 20H to ADA substrate, before I go all out on my 90g. It looks like it would be easier to work with than Fluorite as well, as the granule size of fluorite is too large for my liking. It makes it hard to keep some plants rooted.


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

Betowess said:


> My only reservation with new AS is the pH has gone so very low. But the fish are OK. But after seeing Wayne Sham's tank, I'm wondering if one has really soft water to start with, perhaps a combo of Africana and Amazonia might be a nice ticket. My plants do love the AS, even without much CO2 yet. I'm adding crushed coral at the moment to allow some CO2 without dumping the pH below 5.8... Any thoughts...?


Why a combo? The only difference from Africana and amazonia is the color. They both lower pH. 

CardBoardBoxProcessor, to tier your aquasoil, you could use some egg crate or just rocks to help hold your mounds of aquasoil.


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## CardBoardBoxProcessor (Sep 17, 2006)

egg crates? xd and what size bag are you talkign about? 9 liter bags?


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

I'm thinking around 7 or 8 nine-liter bags for a 125. Your footprint is a little larger than that on my 90g and I'm told that I'll need around 6 when I decide to go that route. You could do something like:
Your tank is 60" x 18" right?

60" x 18" x 1" (or a 1" cut section of your tank) = 121.920 cm x 45.7200 cm x 2.54000 cm = 14,158.423 mL (cm3 = mL) 
14,158.423 mL = 14.158 L (1.573 bags for every 1" of substrate)

This doesn't sound right. Am I forgetting something? This means that for 3" of substrate, you would need only ~4.5 bags for a 125g? Methinks its something to do with volume of solid vs volume of liquid, but its been too long since college calc...My brain hurts!


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

Just think about it this way, ADA says you need one 9L bag AS plus a 2L bag of powersand for a 24 x 12 inch footprint. So 11 liters of total substrate for that footprint. For Daves tank which is 72x18, it is 4.5 times bigger than the other footprint. So about 49.5 liters of total substrate is needed. So 6 bags will do it.


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## Dave_Discus (Sep 10, 2006)

Okay...tiering...now I was always told it was bad to get too
deep for fear of hydrogen sulfide. I would like to tier mine too.

I see where people say to ad mulm or peat...is this needed with
aqua soil? Could I leave in the eco and layer over it?

Or am I better off breaking it down and bleaching everything
to kill any trace algea?


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

I think if you were to leave some eco in there it would stay at the bottom, but do you really want to mix the two substrates up? You probably do want to add some mulm and peat if you are not using powersand. And I think you will be fine with some tiering, Amano uses some pretty thick substrate, 5 inches plus sometimes in the back of the tank.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

ianiwane said:


> I think if you were to leave some eco in there it would stay at the bottom, but do you really want to mix the two substrates up? You probably do want to add some mulm and peat if you are not using powersand. And I think you will be fine with some tiering, Amano uses some pretty thick substrate, 5 inches plus sometimes in the back of the tank.


Yeah, newer Eco is definately finer (and heavier) than AS. I would leave it in there as some base for deeper areas. I have in mine and its fine. The nutrients of broken down AS will drift deeper into it fortifying the Eco IMO.


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## XenoMorph2049 (Jun 17, 2006)

Dave_Discus said:


> Im going to listen this time to every word you guys say.


For the absolute BEST results, buy Xeno a 2000-2001 BMW M5. Perferably black or midnight blue.:thumbsup: 

In all seriousness, I picked up 5 9L bags (AS)for my 75. Only used 4 with a healthy tier towards one side of the back (kinda twists up going left to right).
Ive had wisteria in the tank, about 6 stems, for no more than a month and ended up clipping it into 18 more stems, plus tossing some. Now Wisteria isnt hard to grow, but the kicker wwas the roots. All I can say is WOW. It wasnt impeading the roots in the least, yet it took a little effort to remove the plants form the AS. The largest stem I had had root structure the size of my hand, if not bigger. Great stuff, well worth the coinage.


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## xcooperx (Jun 21, 2006)

Flourite is the Best


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