# I hate Aquasoil!



## Justindew (Apr 15, 2011)

Maybe I am the only one out there because everyone else seems to love the stuff. But I tore down my old beautiful tank which was growing at a miraculous rate with black sand blasting sand and oscomote root tabs to go with a completely aquasoil substrate.

I did this for three reasons the first being the uniform size and consistency that the substrate brings. I assumed I wasn't going to have to use any additional ferts because aquasoil would take the place of my oscomote root tabs. I was very wrong I ended up having to use oscomote as well as MTS/EI root tabs. This is still giving me lack luster growth. No where near the growth I was getting in my old blasting sand.

Next reason I decided to go with the aquasoil was for the appearance. I now realize it doesn't look nearly as good or natural as black sandblasting sand. However this is subjective some may love the look.

Lastly I went with the aquasoil for ease of planting. I quickly realized it actually sucks for planting crypts. I have to replant a plant a dozen times before it gets enough roots to grow. The old sandblasting sand was literally an absolutely dream to plant in. My crypts all stayed in place. Small plants such as parva were so easy to plant in blasting sand. It is nearly impossible in aquasoil even with pinsettes.

I will be moving in a few months and when I do I will be getting this stuff out of my tank. It was literally the worst purchase I have made to date for my aquarium. Not to mention it is easily 5-10x the cost of blasting sand. Take it for whats it worth but test out a small amount of this stuff before you go buying 7 bags like I did.


----------



## Kubalik (May 24, 2008)

I must agree with you . I don't like AS neither. I been using it for almost a year now and I dont find it any good. I must say that fluval stratum in my other tank is perfectly good , the tank is low tech , so no addition of co2 nor fertz and plants are growing very nice , they grow slow but no sign of any deficiencies or algea .


----------



## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

If you have trouble planting you may need to make it a bit deeper, how deep is it?

As far as have to supplement ferts, yes AS "wears out" in about a month for me. I typically start dosing right from the beginning, then increase as the plants tell me.


----------



## azfishguy (Jul 1, 2005)

I share your sentiment.... I used to run my tank on eco complete and never had any problems with my plants or algae. It was easy to clean and fairly easy on the eye. Then I followed the hype about AS and everything changed. The plants grew ok but i started having issues with plant health, all sorts of deficiencies or over abundance of nutrients (who knows). I found balancing the nutrients challenging which was something I did not have any problems with before. After a while the stuff started breaking down turning into a powder. Then i started having green dust algae on everything. Then I started asking myself what is so great about AS? Then I realized that nothing. It grows plants but I can grow plants on Eco just as well but without all the horrible mess I get when uprooting plants from AS. We all know what a treat that is. So to me, maybe it is a good substrate if you do a scape, reach your goal, take a few pretty photos and then tear it down to do another scape with a new bag of AS. However, for a long lasting, easy to maintain scape, AS is not it. Im going back to Eco.


----------



## UltraBlue (Mar 8, 2011)

Even at the start up Aquasoil doesn't have much for Potassium hence the Brighty K and potassium heavy dosing in the step series. 

IMO (which was provided by others much smarter on the topic than myself), it is advantageous to dose the water column as well as having a nutrient rich substrate. Aquasoil's good cation exchange makes it a great long term substrate as opposed to inert substrates. 

I think your troubles amount more to other issues than the substrate, primarily not dosing the water column at all.


----------

