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Constantly for a certain period of time, depending on the soil and your water chemistry.

You could always mix it with a fine gravel, or even soil to get a deeper fertile substrate layer. You can then cap with sand, or a fine gravel.

Just use plain old Aquasoil, no Powersand.

ADA congo sand/gravel :) Or, P@H do a slightly darker grey gravel of a similar grain size.

I've used it before with great results in low tech :)

Working very well for me :) Can't even remember the last time I fertilized the tank - It's been completely neglected for 2 months or so. My Crypts seem to love it.

I'm having happy times with Fluval Stratum and ADA Africana at the moment. Mud is also working well for me ;)

Try the Unipac Stuff :) Or Pets at Home have a similar one but maybe slightly more expensive.

You can do it fine just with Aquasoil and the liquid ferts :)

Yep. Have a look at the chart that shows the NH4 content across the different soils.

I have no experience with akadama so i might be wrong. however, have a look at the online aquajournal section on substrates re. ammonia content. I would give you a link but im on my phone Tom

Akadama would be fine, as would Aquasoil Africana or Malaya - just depends if you're fussy about colour!

Bucket and hose probably. It's inert as far as I know, so you should be able to just hose it down.

Fire Extinguishers are only DIY in that you buy the cylinder, regulator and diffuser/tubing separately. If you can pick up something like a 2 or 5kg FE (Dan Crawford sold me mine a while back), then an 'UP' regulator with solenoid valve off eBay, some CO2 tubing and bubble counter/difffuser then...

Cheap CO2: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=266

B&Q is probably your best bet as it's pretty cheap. I use their kiln dried sand too rather than silver sand as it's half the price than from our local builder's merchants, but as with all sand you need to rinse it thoroughly to get rid of the dust. Is there any way you can turn off one of the...

You might be better off with plain old aquatic potting soil. I've used it several times under silver sand for my low tech setups and it's worked brilliantly for up to 3 years (still good at this point). I had 3-4" soil and 1" sand. What lights do you have?

I'm almost 3 weeks into my AS setup and I have stock in there now. I will definitely use AS again next time :)

Doing daily water changes in the first couple of weeks will help control the buildup.

Yeah, that would do you fine for the normal size Aquasoil I would say :) Just good luck if you need to uproot anything! You's probably need to cut the roots if you're using the mesh.

Possibly - it would depend on the gravel grain size, and what soil you use

A thin, small-holed plastic mesh?

It smells :P I have stirred up nasty black anaerobic sand with fish in the tank with no ill effects, but I'm not sure how bad it actually is. Just looks and smells bad!

If you use fine sand or something, it can go 'anaerobic' and will be nasty if stirred up. Non-planted areas of fine sand might benefit from a stir occasionally. Initially it will help to release trapped air and settle the substrate. Larger grains shouldn't need stirring.

That's very possible. I doubt a 3l bag of Aquasoil weighs 3kg. Anyone got one to test? Would powder weigh more?

TMC have never been cheap have they? :roll:

Whatever you get sand/gravel-wise, wash it thoroughly first!

From a builder's merchants, try Silver Sand. Building sand is too dusty. I'd personally avoid local river bed stuff as it's likely to be quite silty/dusty. If it's just gravel or something it should be fine - wash it first! You can use aquatic potting soil, but only under another substrate like...

That tank looks more like an ADA 120cm than a 60cm! Aquasoil or similar should be fine for Corys, as it's quite soft (clay) and round in shape. You could always use decorative sand in the foreground like in that example.

Thanks George :) That'll test my wood for any floaters too. I've used milliput to stick some of the smaller branches together, so hopefully they'll stay in place.

I'm getting impatient with this Mini M as I can't use the CO2 or lilies until the 10 liter is finished, so I am contemplating a dry start. Just until the plants get rooted really, unless they really take off. Plant choice is HC, Glosso, E. Parvula and Crypt parva. I've got some Spiky moss and...

JI works well :)

Hi again, I've just looked at the link again, and the sand stuff should be smaller grain than the regular Fluorite, and if that's the case it should be perfect. I'm not sure exactly how it will work with regards to holding nutrients, but that may well be the case. Tom

You should be fine, as long as you give it a good inch covering. The Flourite grains are fairly large if I remember right, so as long as you give it an inch or so I'd say go for it if you like the look of it. Either that, or some inert black sand - Unipac do some nice black sand. Tom

Garuf please do :lol:

A cheaper alternative to PS might be root tabs, or just adjust your macro dosing as necessary

You would have a thin layer of PS on the bottom, then AS on top Tom

Stick with Malaya on it's own, unless you want to try powersand or something. I would imagine you would have an easier time doing EI with Malaya than with Amazonia. You can be more accurate with your dosing with Malaya, as it won't be chucking out it's own nutrients at a massive rate...

If you have enough Malaya for your tank, I would stick with it. I had great success with it, dosing ADA Brighty K, Step 1 and Special Lights. The difference with Amazonia I would imagine, is that you wouldn't need as much N and P. I'd stick with what you've got. How were you planning to dose...

Have a look at this: http://www.aquajournal.net/na/notes/001/index.html

Pretty much silver sand, but it's cheap at B&Q. Be sure to wash it thoroughly in a bucket first to remove the dust

Maybe they were stirring it up or adding/pulling plants? If it was that bad, it wouldn't sell so well surely.

I'd go for regular silver or silica sand. Or I also use a lot of B&Q Kiln Dried sand

I thought that was the idea? My old Malaya soil compacted into smooth clay-like stuff after a while, but didn't get dusty...

Unipac do a pure white if that's what you're after? Around £2.95 for a small 2.5kg-ish bag.

What were the reviews claiming just out of interest?

Take what ADA say with a pinch of salt - if you do everything they recommend, you will end up spending over 10 grand, no joke! Having said that, I've used the basic system and it is incredibly easy to use in a high tech setup. Just don't go mad on all the additives and glassware!

Yeah it should be fine with sand on top. But if you're going to cap it with sand the substrate aesthetics don't matter anyway, so I would go for the cheaper option using the aquatic potting soil. Tom

You won't need sand on top of fluorite but you could use it. I would say without sand on top it might be a bit harsh on Corys though, having a large, hard grain.

Have a look here: http://www.aquajournal.net/na/notes/001/index.html It lists the types of Aquasoil and their different properites. Tom

I would look at something like the ADA Malaya if you did want to use ADA. I don't think it releases as much nutrients as quickly as the Amazonia, so would be a better choice for lot tech where the nutrient uptake is slower. Tom

Nope, I mean stuff from a garden center or B&Q! No need to spend that sort of money for low-tech. Pick up a bag of soil for maybe £5 and sand for around £3-4 and you're good to go. Wash the sand thoroughly to get rid of the dust first. If you use B&Q, try Kiln Dried Sand. That's what I use...

Go for a 3-4" base of aquatic potting soil, topped by 1/2" of silver sand/topping of choice. Tried and proven, works fantastically for low light, low tech tanks - especially with Crypts, Swords and Dwarf Sagittaria which is what I've used over the last few years in the same setup. Lasts a very...

I've had better results with ADA than anything else I've tried, with no algae from day 1 to finish. I've had some sort of problem with every other setup I've tried. I used Brighty K, Brighty Spec. Lights, Brighty Step 1, and Aquasoil Malaya in my 25cm. The tank was finished by day 71, and grew...

I don't know about eco complete, but most substrates will cloud the water very badly if you just put it in while water is still there. I would remove water and fish to a bucket or container, saving as much water as poss. Then fill up the tank again gradually once the substrate is in, making sure...

As in just initially to divide it, or permanent? When I set mine up I just used cardboard and gently lifted it out afterwards. Tom

Are you using 4kH water in your drop checker?

I would try and treat the cause, rather than the algae. It will just come back again otherwise

I think it was PowerSand

Can't really compare them yet as the Africana has only been going a couple of days and plants are still adapting. Will be interesting to see, especially when I use the Amazonia as well in the 60cm. Tom

Here's the CAU link - http://www.cau-aqua.net/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=40 Then I presume you can mix and match the different qualities of each for what you want to do. Tom

Why does the granule size of PowerSand matter if it's under AS? How about using more than one type of AS? Over on CAU I saw in one of their articles about using Amazonia and Africana together, to get the best of the high nutrients of Amazonia and the low pH of Africana. They put the Africana in...

CAU were probably using aquasoil, which IME can stay sloped. If you take my tank as an example, the front substrate was <1cm of sand, sloping up to 10cm aquasoil over a space of 27cm (front to back). I didn't have any problems with the substrate slipping. Tom

And if you rearrange substrates underwater you can end up with liquid mud!

So what happens if you use Plant Nutrition?? Does it suck it all up? :roll:

George very kindly dropped half a bag of Amazonia (Powder) at college this morning so I have used that. Thanks again!! Tom

OK, thanks, I spoke to Jeremy today, and he said he might be able to get some for me, along with some glassware which would be great. Tom

I need some aquasoil asap for my college tank, preferably by end of next week, but aquaessentials doesn't have any in stock. Anybody know anywhere else to get it? Thanks, Tom