# should I cap my aquasoil?



## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

Nope---they will enjoy digging through it. They will rearrange it for you, but it will be fine.


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## Mr_ed (May 24, 2011)

shane3fan said:


> Nope---they will enjoy digging through it. They will rearrange it for you, but it will be fine.


but wouldn't all that 'rearranging' also unroot my plants? How do people manage that?


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## PinoyBoy (Mar 14, 2008)

Getting ADA Aquasoil and capping it is like getting a 1 piece granite slab counter top and coveing it with placemats and dishwashing cloths.

Even if you cap it with gravel, then it's the gravel that will get re-aranged. What's worse is that when your bottom dwellers start to dig around, it will create a salt-and-pepper style substrate because the gravel and aquasoil will mix. If your fishes don't do that, then you will eventually when you start uprooting, re-aranging, and planting plants.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

PinoyBoy said:


> Getting ADA Aquasoil and capping it is like getting a 1 piece granite slab counter top and coveing it with placemats and dishwashing cloths.
> 
> Even if you cap it with gravel, then it's the gravel that will get re-aranged. What's worse is that when your bottom dwellers start to dig around, it will create a salt-and-pepper style substrate because the gravel and aquasoil will mix. If your fishes don't do that, then you will eventually when you start uprooting, re-aranging, and planting plants.



:thumbsup:


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Just in case you didn't know, AS is a soil product that's been baked into pellets the size of small gravel and not actually soil. Fishes disturbing it won't be enough to create a cloud of dust or anything.

You don't need to cap it.


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## Bahugo (Apr 18, 2011)

Mr_ed said:


> I have a noob question.
> 
> I have never used Aquasoil before, but plan to use it in my next 90G tank project. My question is. if I plan to have fish like cories, plecos and loaches, would I need to cap the aquasoil with some gravel in order to protect it from being disturbed too much?
> 
> ...


From my experience, the only fish that will tear your plants up or do any serious stirring of the substrate will be your loaches. I really wish I didn't get loaches sometimes (alot of times) in my planted tank. Depending on what type of loach you get, I would highly recommend you stay away from "delicate" stem plants and most, if not all, foreground plants. This is just my experience with yoyo loaches.


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## lbacha (Apr 13, 2011)

Just so you know I pulled some stem plants out of my Aquasoil Malaya today, some camboba and hygro that were just planted to suck up some nutrients and I'll tell you your fish aren't going to uproot them once the plants start sending out roots in Aqua soil. It is actually easier to pull plants out of gravel than aqua soil.

Len


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