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How Effective is ADA Powersand?

Emyr

Member
Joined
20 Jul 2011
Messages
343
Location
London
Im looking into substrates at the moment for my new scape that I will be setting up a journal for soon. I have pretty much decided on the good old ADA Aquasoil. However am considering whether or not powersand really makes any different and if its worth getting as it is yet another extra cost. What do people think about powersand? Is it worth getting? Thanks.
 
Here's a radical idea why not use good old potting compost; it's a fraction of the cost? Check this out: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=18943 if you want to go down the EI and CO2 route it can still be tailored to achieve the desired results. The link also has some interesting info on Aquasoil.

And actually, what is "powersand", what is the active ingredient/s, so to speak? Does anyone know for certain?
 
Its pumace stone made with some soil plus a number of the other ADA products mixed in such as tourmaline BC.

I wont be going down the potting compost idea this time. want a nice smart and easy aquasoil. Just want to know if it is worth getting powersand and how much of a difference it could make as well as the benefits.
 
Why not get the tropica substrate? Tried and tested, only need a bag really and it is cheap. A mess when you uproot plants, big issue.


___________________________

I don't know what is the secret of success, but the secret of failure is trying to please the world!
 
ghostsword said:
Why not get the tropica substrate? Tried and tested, only need a bag really and it is cheap. A mess when you uproot plants, big issue.


___________________________

I don't know what is the secret of success, but the secret of failure is trying to please the world!


Second that, and I've used powersand. It was good but for the price I'd use the tropica stuff 2nd time around
 
If you plan on finishing the scape in a couple of months go for it, if you are not in a rush just use AquaSoil.
As a side note I won't be using ADA soils until I upgrade my filters, you need the big ones to keep the filter media in check for pristine water.

Mike
 
I was thinking on using powersand but it was said to me that it takes to long to end up with a mature tank with crystal water and steady plant growth rate.
Also heard somewhere that ADA is going to stop fabricating it, probably just a roomer.
 
Forgot to mention that I've used PowerSand Special that is also enriched with nutrients.
I had only one aquarium with this soil and comparing with the others setups I've made the plants started growing madly from the first week. Amano's is using this technique to finish his scapes in three months, never believed until they've started posting their scapes on YouTube.

On the other hand AquaSoil releases in the first months a lot of nastiness that needs to be filtered right away at the beginning with active carbon and later on with bio media. Having a small filter I wasn't able to fulfill the required filtration for my tank so during the live of the setup I had to constantly change large volumes of water to keep it in a good shape. Unfortunately I couldn't keep up with the maintenance required so I had to rescape it. Maybe sometime in future I'll give it another try ...

Mike
 
Does anybody know what flow rates this is safe with? I want to use my eheim pro 2026 on a 20-30l tank. The flow
Rate won't be too much but would possibly move powder sand.
 
Not sure i really understand your question. Substrates arent safe or unsafe with certain flow rates. :/

Powersand is a substrate additive that goes underneath aquasoil for optimum plant growth. It is only optional and really only needed for a scape with a lot of stem plants. So using it or not using it or in fact whichever substrate you use shouldnt be disturbed by flow rates at all and if they were they you would be using a filter far far to big for a tank to keep anything in really.

In many of amanos more complex scapes that are more hardscape orientated that he is doing at the moment he is not using powersand at all, its only really for tanks with a huge number of plants. Or for people who want the complete ADA substrate system.
 
I used powersand on 3 tanks origianlly, never could find any differences between those and aqua soil alone.
So I suggested that it is a non significant/unimportant part of the ADA sediment system, along with Peanc (good god), tourmaline (crazy Bio electric gibberish) and most bacterial starters.

To further corroborate this claim, I tested PS and ADA AS, ADA As is where all the nutrients are.
PS has a little NO3..........but this quickly leaches out of any sediment, unlike the NH4 in ADA AS.
Pumic is just something that Amano used before the days of aqua soil.

It was popular as the heating cable myth and for the same reasons.
But well growing plants rapidly form huge root systems in soil, so they add O2 to the soil.
So there is no need to add flow etc to soil, in fact, Tropica show that simple diffusion in plain sand was actually optimal.

So there's 4 pieces of evidence that strongly suggest otherwise and virtually no support for the claims made by ADA.
Semantic arguments will never win this one. Plants do grow due to magic or some weird Western perception of Asian mysticism.

Horticulture is well understood.

My 120 Gallon tank used only ADA AS, all my 3 planted tanks do with rooted plants.
I have many of the so called hardest submersed plant species, growing and thriving in that tank.

They grow much faster than ADA tanks.
Maybe it is the lack of power sand eh?

Who knows, could be....just saying....... and using the same logic folks use to support it's use :crazy:
Same stuff was pulled supporting heat cables too 25 years ago with Dupla FYI..........

No support for it.
 
Emyr said:
Not sure i really understand your question. Substrates arent safe or unsafe with certain flow rates. :/

Powersand is a substrate additive that goes underneath aquasoil for optimum plant growth. It is only optional and really only needed for a scape with a lot of stem plants. So using it or not using it or in fact whichever substrate you use shouldnt be disturbed by flow rates at all and if they were they you would be using a filter far far to big for a tank to keep anything in really.

In many of amanos more complex scapes that are more hardscape orientated that he is doing at the moment he is not using powersand at all, its only really for tanks with a huge number of plants. Or for people who want the complete ADA substrate system.

I think I had confused myself and misread what powersand was. Thanks for the help! Very useful. :clap:
 
jw258 said:
I think I had confused myself and misread what powersand was. Thanks for the help! Very useful. :clap:

No problem, I guessed that must have been the case. :)

Great post Plantbrain. I think anybody who looks at your amazing 120 Gal tank can see that just aquasoil alone is more than good enough and as you say, all the other stuff really doesnt seem to make a difference.
 
Emyr said:
jw258 said:
I think I had confused myself and misread what powersand was. Thanks for the help! Very useful. :clap:

No problem, I guessed that must have been the case. :)

Great post Plantbrain. I think anybody who looks at your amazing 120 Gal tank can see that just aquasoil alone is more than good enough and as you say, all the other stuff really doesnt seem to make a difference.

I read powder soil for some reason.
 
Emyr said:
jw258 said:
I think I had confused myself and misread what powersand was. Thanks for the help! Very useful. :clap:

No problem, I guessed that must have been the case. :)

Great post Plantbrain. I think anybody who looks at your amazing 120 Gal tank can see that just aquasoil alone is more than good enough and as you say, all the other stuff really doesnt seem to make a difference.

Well many ADA fan boys love any and everything ADA, which is fine..........but that's not justification.
I asked Amano point blank once what is in power sand, his response? "Power", he was being funny, and that is how he is, but I was not amused:)

I suppose I should have been, would make me a happier person?

That said, PS does NOT harm a tank either.
The same is true for heat cables.

These types of myths/arguments go on and on the web and nothing gets resolved unfortunately, arm chair philosophers instead of folks willing to test stuff. That does not do the hobby any good nor advances the knowledge base.
 
plantbrain said:
These types of myths/arguments go on and on the web and nothing gets resolved unfortunately, arm chair philosophers instead of folks willing to test stuff. That does not do the hobby any good nor advances the knowledge base.

On the contrary, without philosophers there wouldn't be any tests to perform. Advancing knowledge first involves the ability to comprehend possibility. Don't be fooled into thinking the guy wearing goggles with a test tube in one hand and pipette in the other is the person responsible for advancing knowledge, he is just confirming/denying a hypothesis created by a greater mind :)
 
sWozzAres said:
plantbrain said:
These types of myths/arguments go on and on the web and nothing gets resolved unfortunately, arm chair philosophers instead of folks willing to test stuff. That does not do the hobby any good nor advances the knowledge base.

On the contrary, without philosophers there wouldn't be any tests to perform. Advancing knowledge first involves the ability to comprehend possibility. Don't be fooled into thinking the guy wearing goggles with a test tube in one hand and pipette in the other is the person responsible for advancing knowledge, he is just confirming/denying a hypothesis created by a greater mind :)

Well, what is Science and where did it come from? Philosophers actually.
But there's a big difference between those folks.....and the "arm chair" variety :lol:
 
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