Eco Complete also works well for HC carpeting, but it wont leech ammonia.
Eco Complete Vs Fluorite Vs Ada Amazonia
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yasinullah
Fish Crazy
i also went for the large columbo black substrate, because Ps3Steveo uses and his tanks are amazing, and the reviews looked good. Very happy with it my previously melting Blyxa Japonica really took off again. I took all my fish out, inc 11 neon tetras, and 2 red cherry shrimp at the time.
I put the colombo florabase on top of the old black gravel+sand as it wasn't a very thick layer, left it a few hours, regularly rinsing the filter floss, until the cloudiness came down a lot, then put my fish + shrimp back in as I don't have another tank, all of them survived, but maybe I was lucky! I did do 2 extra water changes for that week also.
I put the colombo florabase on top of the old black gravel+sand as it wasn't a very thick layer, left it a few hours, regularly rinsing the filter floss, until the cloudiness came down a lot, then put my fish + shrimp back in as I don't have another tank, all of them survived, but maybe I was lucky! I did do 2 extra water changes for that week also.
I guess there are 4 main boxes to tick or not when choosing - Aesthetics - Price - quality - value
Aesthetics for me would be putting something like ADA top where there's a fair amount of choice with the look your going for. Unipac sand would be high up that list too - Cat litter...not so much
Price is obvious
Quality - Will it turn to mush, if you don't want it too...maybe quality is a touch harsh there. Tropica for instance isn't supposed to be hard....
Value - Is nutrient value. You're high value products, ADA, Columbo etc will leach ammonia for instance. That's what makes them good. Plants wet their pants over it....fish not so much, but if we plant heavy and do water changes, they don't mind. Cat litter and stuff like Eco sit in the middle. No inherant nutritional value, but a reasonable CEC, and as quality plant keepers you use that CEC value to your advantage when you add ferts. (As you should with ADA stuff rather than bath in it's reflected glory, not adding ferts until it's depleted then wasting cash replacing it...) Unipac sand on the other hand..not much value.....
IMO
(Thought I'd post that, as Go Compare don't do susbtrate comparisons and we weren't getting a like for like quote in places.....ignore it if you already knew this)
Aesthetics for me would be putting something like ADA top where there's a fair amount of choice with the look your going for. Unipac sand would be high up that list too - Cat litter...not so much
Price is obvious
Quality - Will it turn to mush, if you don't want it too...maybe quality is a touch harsh there. Tropica for instance isn't supposed to be hard....
Value - Is nutrient value. You're high value products, ADA, Columbo etc will leach ammonia for instance. That's what makes them good. Plants wet their pants over it....fish not so much, but if we plant heavy and do water changes, they don't mind. Cat litter and stuff like Eco sit in the middle. No inherant nutritional value, but a reasonable CEC, and as quality plant keepers you use that CEC value to your advantage when you add ferts. (As you should with ADA stuff rather than bath in it's reflected glory, not adding ferts until it's depleted then wasting cash replacing it...) Unipac sand on the other hand..not much value.....
IMO
(Thought I'd post that, as Go Compare don't do susbtrate comparisons and we weren't getting a like for like quote in places.....ignore it if you already knew this)
I've just stumbled across this post a month after last reply, so sorry for bringing it back up. I'm currently looking for a new substrate to plant in for the first time, (low tech), but also needs to be fine grains so not to upset my panda corys, and have come across all the ones mentioned above. Could you recommend which one I should use? I'm sorta toying with either flora base or cat litter.
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