Hi There,

So I've read through the substrate sticky and have done some searching within in this forum, another forum and a few youtubers. This will be my first planted tank I'm not too worried about leeching and things of that nature although I'm worried about cloudiness and the substrate breaking down in a year or two. Hopefully I like my hardscape enough to keep it for a long time. That being said, I am also in a shelter-in-place area and most of the LFS are closed. A couple in the area have online store fronts and are still fulfilling orders and I would like to support them during this time. Lastly, the sooner I can get a substrate the sooner I can put water in the tank to help my families cabin fever.

These are the substrates I have narrowed it down to and that I have available to me:

ADA Amazonia
ADA Amazonia Light
ADA Amazonia Ver 2
Tropica Planted Soil
UNS Controsoil
Ista High Activity Ph 6.5


With any of the substrates I plan on using the larger grain size with only a thin layer of powder on top. I also plan on using ADA Powersand (probably basic) with Bacter 100 as a base.

This is going in a 30g. It will start off "low-tech" and without Co2 but within a month or two it will get CO2 and be as high tech I can get with my limitations (I have no under cabinet storage, so it will be all HOB).

Thank you for your advice and opinions!

-Brendan

What do you mean by long-lasting? I don't know a lot about aquasoil, but it should last at least a year. However, it does release a lot of ammonia in the beginning, so you'll need to wait on livestock. I don't know anything about the others.