# "Shultz" Aquatic Plant soil?



## brownietrout

I found this at Lowes for about 7 dollars for a 10lb bag. It says it is 100% Natural Ceramic Granules made from fullers earth. Will not cloud the water or float and clog filters, is PH neutral, safe for all fish. Also will help to hold nutrients for plant roots.Even used by Nasa for hydroponic experiments on the space shuttle.
My initial test looks good, no water clouding and I will test the water parameters tomorow.
Has anyone ever used it? How did it perform? What do you all think?


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## hooha

It's very similar to Soil Master Select, many people have used them for planted tanks with success. I't would be a good option for your tank


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## imeridian

Doesn't it look like a pumpkin exploded though or is that something else?


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## brownietrout

No pumpkins exploding here  Must be something else.


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## joycould

I found it to light to hold down stem plants I ended up putting a layer of fluorite over it.


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## Blazelore

Its good to have as a bottom layer. I have it as my botton layer with Eco Complete on top and then a thin layer of pool filter sand. Its inert so it doesn't have any nutritional value for plants but what it does is absorb every bit of fertilizer you put in your tank. So it can be nutrient rich based on your fertilizing. Its good cheap alternative for people who can't afford 6-10 bags of Eco or Flourite to cover their tank bottom.


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## starrystarstarr

im also planning on getting some and toping it off with eco complete. With my small budget its gonna come in handy.


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## goalcreas

It has a high CEC which is good as a bottom layer, or if you need to use it as your sole substrate, you can. It has Iron in it so it is not totally inert and is made for use with aquatic plants, mostly ponds, but aquatic plants.
I have used it as a sole substrate for a holding tank / grow out tank since it was soooooo cheap and not quite as ugly as Flourite red and SMS red.
if you use it and get some aquarium sand www.aquariumsands.com (I think that is the right link) for a thin top layer it will help you hold stems down and with carpeting plants like UG and HC.

It is not a bad idea, when you buy it at Home Depot, to also get a $3 bag of peet moss and spread a very thin layer under the Shultz.

The best three things about it is price and color and no need to rinse first. The price is certainly cheap enough and the color is not hideous like some others are, plus you can just put it in the tank and fill with water, but if you wet it, it would be easier to shape as desired, like sloping it.
The worst two things about it are how light it is which makes it a challenge to plant some stems, but if you have a deep enough base (3") in the back of the tank where you put your stem plants, you can just get some tweezers and push it all the way down and they WILL stay down, but forget small root carpet plants like HC or UG unless you use some sand or powder type substrate on top of the schultz where you plan to plant the carpet plants.
Another thing that some consider to be BAD is the HIGH CEC, not the CEC part of it, that is good for substrate to have, but when you first fill your tank with water, it will take a few days for all the trapped air to get out, sometimes pushing up small plants when the air breaks thru. This mostly only happens with small plants like the HC and hairgrass.
Anyway, HTH.
Go for it if you want. it is so cheap you don't really lose anything by trying it out.


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## goalcreas

starrystarstarr said:


> im also planning on getting some and toping it off with eco complete. With my small budget its gonna come in handy.


You can get some of the Black Sand at www.aquariumsands.com
They will send you samples, or it is cheap enough, it is very attractive. Donaly B. (I think that is who has this tank set up, I can't be sure however) used it in his 4 x 4 tank that is awesome and it will work just as well as Eco, and you won't have to short yourself if you only get one bag of eco and have to spread it around.
That being said, I have always loved Eco and think it is about the most natural looking of the packaged for aquarium plants substrates out there, just since you said you are on a small budget, this might be the thing for you.


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## cell

Hi, I used shultz aquatic soil in my 25g. tank and it was a mistake. After reading a few good reviews, I decided to try it too. 

I rinse it several times before introducing it into my tank. Substrate and water only. And one day after filling my tank, ammonia was already at 8mg/L. Few weeks later, ammonia reached over 16mg/L. And 2 month later, I had the same amount of ammonia (API liquid tests):yield:. I was very far from the "0,0,0 cycle success"!

I then used chemical to remove the ammonia... but now nitrates are up the roof... and I'm tired of making 90% water changes! I'm really determined to trash this substrate into my garden!

This is my story.. hope it will help you make the right decision!


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## hooha

heya cell,

sorry to hear about your troubles. It's quite unusual for any ammonia to be present because of the Aquatic Plant soil. Are you sure you don't have chloramines for your water? Test your water out of the tap for ammonia as well and see if it comes out positive.


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## helgymatt

cell said:


> Hi, I used shultz aquatic soil in my 25g. tank and it was a mistake. After reading a few good reviews, I decided to try it too.
> 
> I rinse it several times before introducing it into my tank. Substrate and water only. And one day after filling my tank, ammonia was already at 8mg/L. Few weeks later, ammonia reached over 16mg/L. And 2 month later, I had the same amount of ammonia (API liquid tests):yield:. I was very far from the "0,0,0 cycle success"!
> 
> I then used chemical to remove the ammonia... but now nitrates are up the roof... and I'm tired of making 90% water changes! I'm really determined to trash this substrate into my garden!
> 
> This is my story.. hope it will help you make the right decision!


Substrate is not your problem. I used Shultz...no spike of anything. You have more issues than that it sounds like. You sure your test kit works? Did you have fish in the tank? Did they die?


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## Blazelore

cell said:


> Hi, I used shultz aquatic soil in my 25g. tank and it was a mistake. After reading a few good reviews, I decided to try it too.
> 
> I rinse it several times before introducing it into my tank. Substrate and water only. And one day after filling my tank, ammonia was already at 8mg/L. Few weeks later, ammonia reached over 16mg/L. And 2 month later, I had the same amount of ammonia (API liquid tests):yield:. I was very far from the "0,0,0 cycle success"!
> 
> I then used chemical to remove the ammonia... but now nitrates are up the roof... and I'm tired of making 90% water changes! I'm really determined to trash this substrate into my garden!
> 
> This is my story.. hope it will help you make the right decision!


That's odd. You have to have other factors that are dictating your results. For an inert substrate that doesn't make sense unless you immediately overstocked your tank.


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## prBrianpr

If you well planted your tank from the first day nothing of that hapened. plants love amonia, more than nitrate.


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## cell

hooha said:


> heya cell,
> 
> sorry to hear about your troubles. It's quite unusual for any ammonia to be present because of the Aquatic Plant soil. Are you sure you don't have chloramines for your water? Test your water out of the tap for ammonia as well and see if it comes out positive.


I checked my tap water parameter not long ago, I'm don't know how to test for chloramine, but ammonia shows 0. And I was doing a fishless cycle, so no living things inside the tank for the first 2 weeks. After that I planted it... and then I had snails.. but for the first few weeks, ammonia showed up by itself.

However, I agree that my plants were beautiful! They grew very fast also! And Schultz substrate is cheap, compared to Eco-Complete which is sold 39$/20lbs in my area!:fear:


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## hooha

cell said:


> I checked my tap water parameter not long ago, I'm don't know how to test for chloramine, but ammonia shows 0. And I was doing a fishless cycle, so no living things inside the tank for the first 2 weeks. After that I planted it... and then I had snails.. but for the first few weeks, ammonia showed up by itself.
> 
> However, I agree that my plants were beautiful! They grew very fast also! And Schultz substrate is cheap, compared to Eco-Complete which is sold 39$/20lbs in my area!:fear:


Sorry to hijack brownietrout's thread, but I want to look into this further if possible....

so when was there extra ammonia - during your fishless cycle? What did you do for the fishless cycle?


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## cell

> so when was there extra ammonia - during your fishless cycle? What did you do for the fishless cycle?





> That's odd. You have to have other factors that are dictating your results. For an inert substrate that doesn't make sense unless you immediately overstocked your tank.


I just remembered that I put a piece of wood on day one. So I wasn't sure of nothing yesterday...

Today, I did a test for ammonia with Tap water only, and another one with Schultz aquatic plant soil+Tap water. Picture attached:









:yield:


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## hooha

is that schultz from your tank or from the bag?


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## cell

> is that schultz from your tank or from the bag?


From the bag


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