The mysterious ADA Aqua Soil....What is it?

[hubbahubbahehe]

Does anyone use ADA Aquasoil?? Can anyone here please tell us U.S residents what it's like?

I am very curious to know if we could obtain it here in the U.S??

[Art_Giacosa]

ADA's Aqua Soil is not available in the US. It is similar to Profile, Eco-Complete and Flora Base. Essentially, it is a baked clay.

Nothing mysterious about it.

[IUnknown]

I read somewhere that Flora Base was modeled after ADA soil. There is an on-line website that carries ADA products and will ship to the US. I have the link at home if you want it, but it is probably to expensive to be worth it. And you might have a hard time using it, I think Amanos methods are different than what we do here. More emphasis on soil rather than water column dosing.

[Anonymous]

I used to import ADA products into the US. Nothing special about the substrates just different than what the US is used to.

Amano relies on substrate and water column fertilization. Similar to what we do here although water column exclusivity seems to be more popular these days.

[hubbahubbahehe]

yes i noticed flora base looks a lot like ada aquasoil.. boy is florabase expensive!!!

i went ahead with the eco-complete and the fluorite....they both look like solid substrates to me...

[Robert H]

I thought it contained pumice and some sort of volcanic rock native to Japan?

[SCMurphy]

Originally Posted by Robert H

I thought it contained pumice and some sort of volcanic rock native to Japan?

The PowerSand is a pumice and peat mix, is that what you are thinking of?

[Robert H]

I guess so.. Art used to be the exclusive american distributor for Amano, so I guess if anybody would know it would be him!

[Art_Giacosa]

ADA uses a two part substrate system. I like that system very much and am trying to find a way to emulate it for commercial purposes.

A base layer of Power Sand (pumice, peat, etc.) is used to provide a long-term, semi-organic nutrient storehouse where nutrients are made available to the roots and recycled. Over it, 3-4 inches of Aqua Soil (a baked clay) is used. Aqua Soil comes in three different colors meant to resemble different biotopes.

Some good qualities of Aqua Soil are that you don't pre-wash it, it softens water (careful if you have soft water to begin with), is porous and provides excellent exchange between the substrate solution and water column, resists compaction (especially with Power Sand underneath), provides some nutrients and adequately holds plants down (unlike Turface or Profile).

Anyway, I would use Power Sand even if I was using Flourite, Eco-Complete or Florabase.

Regards,

Art

[Raul-7]

Where can you find Power Sand anyways?Maybe Marcos from aquahobby can send us some, he's in Japan now.

[Art_Giacosa]

Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Denmark from what I remember.