j arthur bowers bonsai compost

[sheag35]

Hi all

I'm relatively new to planted tanks although i have 30years fishkeeping / breeding experience, i have heard of all the people talking of akadama as a substrate but cannot get my hands on it anywhere near me, now my question is, is j arthur bowers bonsai compost a good alternative, how does it affect the water quality, will it cause my water quality to crash is it good for plants... all advice, help hints etc will be much appreciated, i am doing this to my Altum tank and dont want to hurt these beauties

Thanks in advance
Seamus

 

[BigTom]

I've not been able to find a breakdown of the components for this mix, but I strongly suspect it'll just be a standard compost mix with added grit. As such, it probably contain a hefty amount of limestone, phosphates and sulphates. Whilst this will do a great job of growing plants it will also likely cause your pH and hardness to skyrocket, so I wouldn't recommend it for an Altum tank.

I would suggest searching ebay for 'Original Aquasoil' which comes in big blue bags and, according to Alastair, doesn't have a large impact on water parameters. Even so, if using in an altum tank I'd test some first to see what effect it has on your pH and hardness, in case there is variation between batches.

 

[sheag35]

thanks for the prompt response, was hoping it would be like the akadama and cause a ph drop, my friends ph dropped from ph 7.8 to 6.2 with akadama which would be perfect for altums, i will check out that ebay link thank you for that as i'm not looking to break the bank on substrate

 

[sheag35]

blast looks perfect but they dont ship to Ireland ... ah well anyone know of anything else that would do the job for plants without breaking the bank with the beneficial side effect of lowering ph and softening water???

 

[BigTom]

You could always try making your own compost... roughly equal quantities of peat, lime-free grit/sand and loam would do the trick. Tricky bit is finding loam without any added fertilisers - but you could always just dig some up if you've got some clean woods nearby.

 

[sheag35]

hmmm that might be worth an experiment must attempt it

 

[ceg4048]

Or you could just use cat litter, or any molar clay. Akadama is simply inert clay. The whole point of the Akadama article is about simple and cheap alternatives to expensive brand name aquatic sediments which themselves are molar clays.

Cheers,

 

[biffster]

i have had some success with j Arthur bowers aquatic compost
capped this different medias play pit sand cat litter sharp sand (not yellow builders sand)
and also gravel the last one i don't like much as i don't care much for gravel
but hey that's only my preference