This topic is very important! Many people say as long as the substrate is nice it's good and I am against that sentence! More people need to understand and watch this video!!!
In my case I found out that the most affordable option would be a mix of different types of soil, and anyone can do it, I used a combination of dirt, Seachem Flourite red and Fluvals stratum, Seachem Flourite is also a clay based substrate, and people in the US are also starting to use non clumping kitty litter which is also a clay based substrate and super cheap, I unfortunately couldn't find it in my country, and you are right dirt can be a pain in the butt at the beginning, specially if you failed to properly cape it with sand or fine gravel, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I believe kitty is quite porous, so it makes sense to use it if there's no added chemicals to it. However, I never thought about using it before. Even Fluval substrates are starting to get expensive here in Canada...
@@TropiscapeAquatics Yeah I know is crazy 🙁 only the people that really love aquariums and plants are up to spending on the equipment to keep everything alive and looking great, about Kitty litter I am still tempted to give it a try, I might if I am able to find it. 🙂
Looking back at it now, making aquasoil is very easy... Dirt + clay + activated carbon (crushed eggshell powder optional) (dried powdered banana peel also optional) Ratio is 1 part of soil 2 parts clay half part activated carbon and 1/4 eggshell and dried panana peel powder if used. Wet them and get them to a consistency, make those small granules and dry it for 2 days in the sun, then spray/moist the granules a bit and bake them in the oven 190°C for an hour, or 2 hours if you can. Then its ready !! Activated carbon keeps the soil clean, preserves and helps treat water too. This is literally how aquasoil is made except more macronutrients are added. This method is cheap and works.
I have some cheap potting mix that I am soaking to remove anything harmful, then I plan on adding some potash for potassium, some dolomite for calcium and magnesium, and some pottery clay for iron and to bind it all together. I will cap this with some sand. First time trying this, so hopefully it works.
I'm wondering if you could add a bag of activated carbon and maybe an airstone in that soaking soil. It might remove a lot of chemicals faster instead of letting it sit there. Not sure if this would be cheaper, but you could add some crushed egg shells into the soil instead of dolomite. However, I don't think there's magnesium in eggshells.
Not really. The nutrients in the soil will be depleted over time with or without a sand/gravel cap (can take about 2+ years for this depending on the aquasoil). When it gets depleted, you can resort to using root tabs. There's no need to restart a tank each year just because the soil is depleted from nutrients. My current 12 Gallon Tank has been running for almost 4 years now, and I have not restarted the tank yet. I've just been using root tabs and occasionally adding more aquasoil in areas that I think are lacking. There's a few reasons I can think about why you would cap aquasoil. 1. Aesthetic reasons. 2. Using plants that have very small and fine root systems (i.e., HC 'Cuba') 3. Less ammonia leeching. However, I would say this is not ideal as the ammonia will be more concentrated in the aquasoil layer and potentially afflict ammonia burn to plant roots. Furthermore, if you have a good filter, the ammonia can easily be taken care of. If the initial ammonia leach is a scare, you can just do a "dark cycle," which is cycling the tank with no lights and no plants. Just the hardscape and substrate. The ammonia leach will be enough for the nitrogen cycle.
Depends on your plant mass. If you are going to use more plants, a 60/40 ratio of Stratum to Eco Complete might be good. Less plant mass, or you mainly have slow growing plants, then I would use a smaller ratio. Personally, I would prioritize using more Stratum than Eco Complete. Another thing you can do is use Stratum as a "base substrate" and then have a layer of Eco Complete over top of it as a "cap". Capping Stratum, or any aquasoil for that matter, isn't really necessary unless you prefer the aesthetics of Eco Complete more, or you don't want aquasoil rolling down certain places.
If you mean putting it in a filter bag and using that as the base layer for the substrate, then yes. I believe MD Fish Tanks has done it before. I've also done it in the past. It makes it easier to remove if you want to tear the tank down or do any re-scaping as tons of soil won't be released upon uprooting plants. That's something I should have mentioned in the video. However, the only issue is finding a large enough filter bag to accommodate the large amount of soil, while also have tiny holes in it that are able to let plant roots through all while keeping the soil in place.
Excellent information.. Found it very helpful
Glad it was helpful!
@@TropiscapeAquatics just wish the stuff was cheaper as I want do a 125 gallon next... Think I will be using bags of soil and root tabs ..
Yeah, I wish prices were better as well, but can't help it, unfortunately...
This topic is very important! Many people say as long as the substrate is nice it's good and I am against that sentence! More people need to understand and watch this video!!!
In my case I found out that the most affordable option would be a mix of different types of soil, and anyone can do it, I used a combination of dirt, Seachem Flourite red and Fluvals stratum, Seachem Flourite is also a clay based substrate, and people in the US are also starting to use non clumping kitty litter which is also a clay based substrate and super cheap, I unfortunately couldn't find it in my country, and you are right dirt can be a pain in the butt at the beginning, specially if you failed to properly cape it with sand or fine gravel, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I believe kitty is quite porous, so it makes sense to use it if there's no added chemicals to it. However, I never thought about using it before. Even Fluval substrates are starting to get expensive here in Canada...
@@TropiscapeAquatics Yeah I know is crazy 🙁 only the people that really love aquariums and plants are up to spending on the equipment to keep everything alive and looking great, about Kitty litter I am still tempted to give it a try, I might if I am able to find it. 🙂
Looking back at it now, making aquasoil is very easy...
Dirt + clay + activated carbon (crushed eggshell powder optional) (dried powdered banana peel also optional)
Ratio is 1 part of soil 2 parts clay half part activated carbon and 1/4 eggshell and dried panana peel powder if used. Wet them and get them to a consistency, make those small granules and dry it for 2 days in the sun, then spray/moist the granules a bit and bake them in the oven 190°C for an hour, or 2 hours if you can. Then its ready !! Activated carbon keeps the soil clean, preserves and helps treat water too. This is literally how aquasoil is made except more macronutrients are added. This method is cheap and works.
Making thousands of small granules sounds like a pain lmao
Can i add gravel on top of the
Tropica Plant Growth Substrate? Thanks
Yup!
I have some cheap potting mix that I am soaking to remove anything harmful, then I plan on adding some potash for potassium, some dolomite for calcium and magnesium, and some pottery clay for iron and to bind it all together. I will cap this with some sand. First time trying this, so hopefully it works.
I'm wondering if you could add a bag of activated carbon and maybe an airstone in that soaking soil. It might remove a lot of chemicals faster instead of letting it sit there.
Not sure if this would be cheaper, but you could add some crushed egg shells into the soil instead of dolomite. However, I don't think there's magnesium in eggshells.
Can you use aquasoil and cap it with sand? That way you wont have to change the soil every year.is that correct?
Not really. The nutrients in the soil will be depleted over time with or without a sand/gravel cap (can take about 2+ years for this depending on the aquasoil). When it gets depleted, you can resort to using root tabs. There's no need to restart a tank each year just because the soil is depleted from nutrients. My current 12 Gallon Tank has been running for almost 4 years now, and I have not restarted the tank yet. I've just been using root tabs and occasionally adding more aquasoil in areas that I think are lacking.
There's a few reasons I can think about why you would cap aquasoil.
1. Aesthetic reasons.
2. Using plants that have very small and fine root systems (i.e., HC 'Cuba')
3. Less ammonia leeching. However, I would say this is not ideal as the ammonia will be more concentrated in the aquasoil layer and potentially afflict ammonia burn to plant roots. Furthermore, if you have a good filter, the ammonia can easily be taken care of. If the initial ammonia leach is a scare, you can just do a "dark cycle," which is cycling the tank with no lights and no plants. Just the hardscape and substrate. The ammonia leach will be enough for the nitrogen cycle.
I’d like to mix eco complete with Fluval stratum. What ratio would you mix?
Depends on your plant mass. If you are going to use more plants, a 60/40 ratio of Stratum to Eco Complete might be good. Less plant mass, or you mainly have slow growing plants, then I would use a smaller ratio. Personally, I would prioritize using more Stratum than Eco Complete.
Another thing you can do is use Stratum as a "base substrate" and then have a layer of Eco Complete over top of it as a "cap". Capping Stratum, or any aquasoil for that matter, isn't really necessary unless you prefer the aesthetics of Eco Complete more, or you don't want aquasoil rolling down certain places.
Has anyone experimented with putting soil in a filter media bag?
If you mean putting it in a filter bag and using that as the base layer for the substrate, then yes. I believe MD Fish Tanks has done it before. I've also done it in the past.
It makes it easier to remove if you want to tear the tank down or do any re-scaping as tons of soil won't be released upon uprooting plants. That's something I should have mentioned in the video. However, the only issue is finding a large enough filter bag to accommodate the large amount of soil, while also have tiny holes in it that are able to let plant roots through all while keeping the soil in place.
In other words, you can have cheap, fast, or good, but you can't have all 3.
More or less... Although, I'm have a project in the works that might have all three. Only issue is I don't know if it will work or not