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I'd suggest tropica soil or powder, either on its own or capped with an inert substrate. I went with florite black sand over tropica powder.

infact if you want to see how they behave in sand I'll get a vid of mine digging later :) its ace!

akadama will bo OK for them but won't let them behave naturally. If you don't mind an innert substrate then just get black sand from the pet shop, shouldn't break the bank (about £5-10) however if you want something that is going to hold nutrients the way akadama does then Flourite black sand...

Personally rather than risk upsetting the balance of the 500lt and possibly cause an algae outbreak I'd just soak the akadama in a bucket. Why not fill the bucket with declorinated water and add say 10 times the ususal EI dose to it and alow it to soak for a while, maybe give it the odd stir...

bonus :)

Also to add I will be using FE CO2 from the start with this tank so PH swings would be a worry for me initially if the KH does crash.

Just a quick one..... and this really really is my last substrate question lol I've got my 300lt with the soil settling and the filter running. My wife is going to feed the tank to get the filter cycling with no fish so I can add fish quicker when I get home. I've ordered flourite sand to cap...

Ouch..... hadn't realised that was a US site, gonna cost me over £40 for two bags from a UK supplier! Never mind, will be worth it ;)

Cheers tom. Seems most places have sold out of the unipac blak sand, at least the larger sizes. Will keep my eyes peeled. I take it the flourite stuff will hold the nutrients if I do I dry fert dose and release it to the roots?

nobody?

Hopefully this will be the last of my substrate questions for a while lol I've just collected the 300lt tank and have used westland aquatic compost as a substrate and am looking for something suitable to cap it. I've got some large black rock and some medium black stones along with the black...

Hmmmmm. Can't remember where I was reading it before (maybe the ecology of the planted aquarium book) but they defo advised waiting the two month period before adding the fish. What you have found above backs up the reasons why with the ammonia and PH swings but as you say it just advises...

Ah.... I hope you weren't planning transferring fish anytime soon! When you use terestiral soils in the aquarium you need to leave a long period (over a month) for the chemical changes to take place. There will be a large and prolongued ammonia spike and also the PH of the tank will drop...

I'd be tempted to go for a soil compost mix but wasn't sure quite how well it would work in an aquarium. It will pretty much be a planted tank with fish but I think there will be a variety of fish if you know what I mean. Certainly stocking levels will be on the lean side and will be stocked...

As in the title I'm needing some advice on substrates. I've been reading up on all the different ones on here and what they do, I've read about capping them with other substrates etc... What I am looking for is something that has the texture/colour of potting compost as I would like the...

Thanks for posting your experiance bud. I'll find this one really helpfull when it comes to doing mine :)

Cool. Need to do as much research as I can over the next few months as I'm going to be starting my first seriously planted tank :) Not sure how much of what I've got (if anything) will come over from my current one though lol Cheers buddy

Whats the deal with the "this stuff is said to be skyrocketing in price next year" stuff all about??? Also whats the purpose for putting peat moss under it? cheers, chris