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Woth the cost to change the substrate?

PLANTASTIC

PLANTASTIC

Member
Joined
31 Oct 2014
Messages
33
Location
Germany
Is it woth the cost to replace my jbl manando with a aqua soil like ada or tropica plant soil.

I feel that with a tank kh of 7-8 I can't get the plants to really flourish.
They are all growing well. But i think some rotalas would really take off with a lower kh brought on by the aquasoil and a few extra nutrients.
I'm dosing ei and while it's going fairly good I also believe that some plants should be growing like weeds.

The manando was put in over a year ago with a thin base layer of jbl aquabasis at the bottom. And at the start I seemed to have plants growing even better then now. could it be that nutrients in the soil definitely contribute to keeping really healthy plants and it would be worth the cost to get a nice plant soil.


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Also the kh has raised from 5 to 7-8 since the time ive had the manando. I'm not sure if this is due to the manando or because I took out a large piece of wood. (Not sure if wood can lower kh)

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I have put capsules in the substrate and they have seemed to of had a good effect.
I suppose I'm just trying to justify buying the soil to lower the kh and see what the plants do.
For the last 8 years I have always grown plants in hard water with a kh ranging from 5 - 9. And I've found so far that it was easier to grow difficult plants with a kh of 5 opposed to 9.
Although plants grew in both kh I have found that macandra etc seemed to grow more like a weed with a lower kh.
I'm not interested with the hassle involved with a ro system that's why I'm wondering if I should use a good soil to lower the kh.


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Hi all

Changing the substrate is a pain (lots of work, probably algae bloom due to dirt all over the tank, etc.) and I cant imagine another thing that changing the whole layout. I've had both manado and AquaSoil, and my opinion is that AquaSoil is much better. You can rely on the nutrients stored in the substrate and keep a lean dosing scheme. Additionally fertilizing is not that critical, you can easily skip some days if you are out, etc.
I would keep on with Manado and then I would use Squasoil in the next layout... At least that's what I did!

Jordi
 
If you are not 100% happy with your substrate,then change it.
It is a pain,but once done,you can cross it off your"must get right"list.
 
The manado is not the greatest of substrates...I haven't used it personally but the reports we hear all the time are confirming this. It is definitely disadvantage that it rises the pH. Changing the substrate - to me that means total rescape. It is hard work, but the best way! This will allow you to have better environment for plants and fish and also to perhaps improve or enhance the scape. But do a full restart, rearrange the design, re plants and treat the scape as a new scape. Water changes etc.
 
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