# aquasoil and other substrates



## coralife205 (Jun 2, 2009)

i am planning on setting up a long term aquarium. a discus aquarium. ive read that aquasoil turns in to mud after a year, and ive also read that some people have had flourite for several years....so whichone is better for long term. im skeptical about aquasoil. i mean, i have a 150 gallon tank. i dont want to have to redo it after a year... 

can some of you please help me to decide on why aquasoil is better? ive gone to the website, however, im very confused on the 3 differnt types. im also debateing weather it is worth the money. i would have to spend 675 dollars to get enough for my tank... when i work for a fish store wehre i can get that much flourite for less then half of that. 

is it true thta aquasoil is a pain when you first get it

is it true that it turns to mud after a year

is it not a good substrate for long-term 

i would appreciate everything you guys know about it from personal expiernc. im goign to be useing heating cables in the tank (i belive they work from previous experince). 

i woudl grately appreciate any help you can give. keep in mind this is going to be a long term tank.

the tank specification will be :

6 discus
20-30 cardinal tetras
some corrys
some kind of algea eaters
probably melaysian driftwood
heating cablles
sump filtration
metal halides, sunpods
pressurised CO2 system

several crypts
maybe one or two amazon swoards
melon swoards
limphnophila aromtica
rotala macondra( i think thats how you spell it)
drawf hairgrass / or glosso

i will be fertiliseing with DRY ferts

i would appeciate any help you could give me in decideing a substate.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi coralife205,

None of the above! If I'm not mistaken Soilmaster Select Charcoal is no longer available. I'm perfectly happy with normal inert gravel or Turface Pro League Grey which is comparable in price to SMS.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

You can still find SMS, but you have to order from sports field maint companies. John Deere discontinued it. Is turface pretty much the same as SMS? It looks the same in the pics I've seen.

-Dave


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi davemonkey,

Don't want to pirate the tread, but to answer the questions Soilmaster Select Charcoal and Turface Pro League Grey are very similar in color and grain size. SMS is a little dustier, softer, and lighter than Turface. Both are calcined clay products. Member of GSAS who have tried both seem to prefer Turface Pro League Grey. I have not had compaction problems with Turface.


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## kimcadmus (Nov 23, 2008)

I am certainly no expert but I had the same longterm substrate desires. I have used aquasoil and ecocomplete and have elected to use the ecocomplete as my longterm substrate. I have aquasoil in my grow out tank. 

Something you may want to consider between these two is what type of water will you be using. If it is tap than what is its chemistry. As I understand it many people use the aquasoil for its water softening effect.

I personally like the non-clouding of eco when I rearrange plants or prune plants that you don't want to top but rather have to uproot and trim from the bottom. 

You will find posts regarding problems with previous batches of both substrates. I would read up and get recent batches from a reliable source.

As a side note I also wanted a stable long term fert regime and ended up choosing pps-pro after trying EI in one setup. I didn't want to have to keep up with 50% water changes of EI every week. That being said EI grows plants like crazy but I wanted a perpetual stable system for when life got busy.


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## bradac56 (May 9, 2007)

davemonkey said:


> You can still find SMS, but you have to order from sports field maint companies. John Deere discontinued it. Is turface pretty much the same as SMS? It looks the same in the pics I've seen.
> 
> -Dave


SMS and Truface are from the same company Lesco.com - John Deere was a (still is) distributor.
SMS was the old baseball field product and Truface is the new product. There a touch different
but very similar.

- Brad


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Well, if price comes into play, I just found a dealer in Houston with Turface Pro-league 'Red' for $13.95 fro a 50lb bag. He gave me a number for a place in S.C. that has the Pro-league 'Grey' for about the same price.

To give a comparison, I bought a 5-gallon bucket of a similar substrate (same stuff, fancy name) for $50. It was about 25lbs., and covered my 55 gal tank 3" deep. So, I spent $50 when I could have shopped around and only spent $14 and had enough leftover to do a second 55 gal tank (or share with someone else) .

My personal experience with this substrate: 

Cons - Very light-weight and can be a pain for holding down certain plants; easily disturbed by fish until the plants start holding it in place

Pros - Does not compact as much as other substrates; is light-weight so plant roots grow easily through it - promotes HUGE root systems; won't turn to mud like certain others after a couple years; it's inert/doesn't affect water chemistry; won't cloud the water; has a high CEC to hold nutrients you add and make them available to the plant roots; 

-Dave

One major downfall: If you can't find it local, it is pretty exspensive to ship a 50lb bag of anyhting. A group order would help defray the cost of shipping.


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## edwardn (Nov 8, 2008)

bradac56 said:


> SMS and Truface are from the same company Lesco.com - John Deere was a (still is) distributor.
> SMS was the old baseball field product and Truface is the new product. There a touch different
> but very similar.
> 
> - Brad


Makes you wonder how old is that SMS, especially that I used Turface in soil mix for succulents already in the middle of the year 1970...


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## bradac56 (May 9, 2007)

edwardn said:


> Makes you wonder how old is that SMS, especially that I used Turface in soil mix for succulents already in the middle of the year 1970...


Yea there both older products and oil-dri still actively makes SMS for several aquatic companies that repackage it as there own substrate usually after adding in some ferts. While Turface is the 'new' product line they package for Lesco.

It's only in the last ten years that Lesco has figured out that those strange fish guys are a growing market.

- Brad


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