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Eco-Complete or ADA Soil

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adamhawk

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23 Jun 2012
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So thats the questions Eco-Complete or ADA Soil,

What I want is:
A Substrate that works
Last a good length of time
Looks nice
Cost effective

So what do we recommend?
 
Reading the articles on substrates and posts by those who I would consider 'really know what the heck they are talking about', there seems to be a greater success rate with ADA.

Haven't used it myself though.
 
Yes reading up allot about it, but major difference seems to be look and price.
 
I've had both and ada looks much better.
Yes I agree it looks better, but what about what it does, much difference, length of life? Apparently Eco turns poo to food.
 
The eco is like mixed grades of black lava rock and doesn't crumble. I think plants will grow well in both so in the end it comes down to looks.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
The other that I can't find too much about is the TMC Nutrasoil
 
Hello,
According to the Original Post, the specific items of interest appear to be as follows>

A Substrate that works
All substrates work. The object of a substrate is to:
1) Anchor the plant to prevent it from washing away.
2) Provide an alternate source of nutrition to the more efficient foliar uptake via engagement with the root.
3) Harboring specific bacterial species which facilitate the fabrication of particular nutrient products.

Each substrate type or brand can achieve the above three goals with varying rates of success. One therefore must prioritize those objectives.

Sand retains structure for millions of years.
Sand looks nice to those that like sand.
Sand is very cheap.
Sand does an adequate job of achieving objective 1), a less than average job of achieving objective 2), and an adequate job of achieving objective 3). The lack of competence in achieving objective 2) can be easily compensated for by the regular addition of water column nutrient dosing, or by the addition of low cost nutrient added to the base of the substrate.

EcoComplete retains structure for millions of years.
EcoComplete looks nice to those that prefer dark substrate.
Ecocomplete is hideously expensive.
EcoComplete does an excellent job of achieving objective 1), a marginal job of achieving objective 2), and an adequate job of achieving objective 3). Themarginal competence in achieving objective 2) can be easily compensated for by the regular addition of water column nutrient dosing, or by the addition of low cost nutrient added to the base of the substrate.

ADA Amazonia retains structure for a few years and can turn to mush.
ADA Amazonia looks very nice to most and is a dark substrate.
ADA Amazonia is outrageously expensive.
ADA Amazonia does an adequate job of achieving objective 1), a phenomenal job of achieving objective 2), and an excellent job of achieving objective 3). It's high competence at achieving objective 2 greatly reduces the need for regular water column dosing and no supplementation is needed at the base of the substrate.

Cheers,
 
Hello,According to the Original Post, the specific items of interest appear to be as follows>

Now you have spoken in a term and form I can understand, thank you, massive help. What about the TMC then?
 
How about regular river sand?
I have had the same substrate in my tank for 14 years now, put some clay/laterite under it before i filled it, put in some heating cable to get some circulation in it, had MTS in it for years. Its 5-15 cm deep, never had any problems (my tanks is 2m square).
 
So any info on TMC?
 
From my experience so far Amazonia is difficult to manage. It interferes with the CO2 levels in the aquarium and often leads to CO2 deficiency in plants. Yes it does have a lot of nutrients, but at the start and the first two months is a hell of a maintenance and water changes or everything goes busted.

Amazonia is the best there is for CRS tanks, it is real good there as long as the light level is low and there is no need for CO2 injection and monitoring. After been for a year in a CRS set up and gets well saturated with organic waste it becomes nothing short of a miracle, but that's also the case with many other organic substrates that I have used.

Can not say anything for EC, but for silica sand just about everything.
As long as the silica sand have been released/cleaned (preferably by HNO3) from contaminants that can potentially alter the water chemistry it is the best, of the best, of the best ever. WHY?
Because it does not interfere with anything in aquarium and leaves the entire management of nutrients, CO2 etc to the aquarium owner. So with silica your aquarium will be as good as you manage it to be and in this regard the hell expensive clay substrates have very little to add.

Just check how plants are grown in nurseries. Stone Wool. It is just as inert as silica sand.
 
Sand is not an option for me, either TMC, ADA or Eco.
 
They are also typically grown emersed so have an unlimited supply of CO2.
CO2 is not related to substrates much if at all. CO2 have no relevance to the media in which plants can be planted to grow.
 
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