Should we start a new experiment? Or keep this one going? Everything I'm using for this experiment (affiliate links) Tank US: bit.ly/3qE968B EU: bit.ly/3S0rJ2J Light US: bit.ly/3dVYmPQ EU: bit.ly/3D7RAB1 AQUARIO NEO SOIL US: bit.ly/3Hopkda EU: bit.ly/3fxvcHp FLUVAL STRATUM US: amzn.to/3fqiKJr EU: amzn.to/3SruUQL WIO WETLAND EONIAN EU: bit.ly/3Ci1uPv 🚨Watch this next!🚨 Inspiration playlist! ruclips.net/p/PLrlvf56gZy-ipL3105SdfKsUBrMUSttoh CO2 buying guide! ruclips.net/video/dIVrr1yS3sU/видео.html How to SETUP your CO2! ruclips.net/video/qSHZ4F2PI2o/видео.html Simple fertilizer dosing! ruclips.net/video/I_KBOUM1RXM/видео.html 👉🏻Cool Aquascaping T-shirts: mosscotton.com/ Code: mjaqua10 👉🏻Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my RUclips channel: RUclips.com/mjaquascaping 👉🏻 Use Code ''MJAMSTERDAM'' for 10% off Fzone products #plantedtank #aquascape #mjaquascaping
How about a deep dive into the two top, unexpected contenders? Maybe scape two tanks, one with pond soil + aquasoil and another with Fluval and see how they compare to each other and your past history with the Neo stuff. New scapes!
I'd say keep it going a touch longer. I also suggested in another video for a comparison of, still water, moving water (agitated but no added air/co2), normal air agitated and co2 added to see if ambient air will have any effect on plant growth vs not having any at all. C02 and stagnate is control in this test.
Number 2 for me! Internodal distance looks good and all round health and colour looks excellent. Interested to see Fluval stratum compared head to head with Tropica soil and Ada Aquasoil with and without CO2. There’s your next 6!
Please continue with adding co2! Great light+great soil+ co2 = i wanna see these results! Only way to properly gauge, in my opinion! Thanks for this experiment so far!
Keep it going. You have so much experience with all different sorts of aquariums, your opinion on just which substrate might be better in which situation would be very helpful. I’m going to set up two large aquariums in the near future, I’d love to have an idea going in what would be the best substrate for what I want to do. Thanks for your terrific videos!!
Not sure what you mean by 'Pond Soil'. At least I cannot find anything by that brand name. I am in Thailand and I would like to be able to duplicate your results in #6. I do not see the affiliate links or a recipe for DIY in your comments. Internet search not helpful.
i think ill go with pond soil on bottom and fluval on top of it. maybe 1 inch pond soil, and 2 inch fluval. ill pass from a 13gallon tank, upgrade to a 31gallon tank. + So i want to start the best as possible.
it would be interesting to see this experiment again with more heavy root feeder like carpeting plants, crypts and swords. also im really surprised the root tabs caused the most nitrate and not number 6.
Such an underrated channel. Usually channels with videos of this level of production have many more subscribers, but I imagine it’s just a matter of time :)
Man you have the best channel. Idk why you have so few subscribers for this quality. I love love love that you use scientific method, you get straight to the point with no personality selling and you’re really talented with this hobby. You have to keep this set up going. Add more time then right before worse tank plants get to unsalvageable add co2
Due to random variability, you need to replicate each test as a way to account for variation. Choose the two best, and replicate those three times each, thereby using all your six tanks.
Nice experiment! I would have added a cryptocoryne in each of the compartments. Just to compare a pure root feeder versus stem plants which receive most of their nutrients from the water instead of the soil.
been waiting for this video!! excited to see what the results are I'm towards the end and holy cow those weird worms in tank #5 are pretty gross... burn it with fire!!
@@IndoorEcosystem But I am perplexed. Root caps are "sterile" looking, and sand is relatively sterile. I can only surmise that the transplanted plants had some eggs or something on them.
I think you should start again, but keep the fluval and tropica and put them up against some other brands/mixes. Like a tournament. Like others have mentioned, I think you should try and control the lighting more to make it more consistent across all the tanks. Using black plastic dividers or something.
Very good info, thank you. I have sand substrate and my tank went through a huge crash or two in the past month. I decided to add some stratum to the tank that has just inert sand. I wish I could replace it all, but I am going to leave the sand and just add stratum to it and let the fish decide what to do with it when they are able to get back into it. Theyve been in a hospital tank since the crash that happened after a water change. My plants have never grown very well, and when they did, I ended up getting staghorn algae. I do water changes 10-25% every week, but my water changes constantly because we get our water trucked in and I have a water softener. I am so annoyed with this situation, but I dont want to give up on fishkeeping. I really don't know what to do at this point. I am still water changing every week without fish in the tank, as it had to go through the nitrogen cycle again after the crash. I probably should have just started all over again. My water comes out at 6.0 or less pH - what can I add to my tank to buffer the pH to stay around 7.0 pH? Eggshells?
i think we should also consider the plants in the middle of each tank getting more light then the ones on the outer side since they have 2 connecting led sides and the others only have 1 side, which could be also a factor of to much light to much algae orso
Keep them going. Add 1 or 2 white cloud minnows or similar to each tank and add a little maintenance as you would with your other tanks. Fascinating experiment.
Now i know which soil I will buy for my next tank - FluvaL Stratum. I got no idea why i did not see this video before, but I love results with this tank. Awsome colours and health of all plants, almost no issues with algae and fact that lack of CO2 is not making a mess is huge win for me. Thanks for this video. I plan to rescape my tank in ner future, so this will be way to go. Now only design is left to choose and I am not best designer lol.
The way capped dirt works is the nutrients leaching slowly into the water. Too thin layer of sand (soft gravel) and nutrients cause algae calamity. With recommended 2"/5cm thickness the nutrients seep slowly and the plants need to reach nutrient-rich levels with their roots. So the plants won't grow fast from the start, but over the months that would change. As the experiment goes, I think #4 wasn't capped properly and #6 may see some issues in the 1-2 months, but maybe not. Aquasoil also falls apart after some time. I'd say the best substrate would be thick bed starting with rich soil, thick layer of sand, some aquasoil and thin capping of sand. That is if I were to start a large planted aquarium going for years. For nano-tanks I'd go with pure aquasoil.
Nice video and good to see different soils and substrates work differently for a low tech setup. My guess would be due to the high ph in your water that was always lowered by your co2 usage in your other tanks, making it ideal for the plants. The pond soil + aqua soil could’ve better results due to the fact that the ph was lower and is favorable for plant growth.
I think you should keep this going. No need for many major changes just keep it going with water changes and algae growth. I would like to see which substrate “exhausts” the substrate over time
Outstanding video/information. One question though. Is the pond soil a product from a supplier? Or is it actually where you’ve taken a bucket to a pond and got some of the substrate from the bottom of the pond?
I have been using pond soil from brico for 2 years and my 60 liter Aquarium with no co2 and low dosage of nutrions are really awesome! In my experience it went really well with pond soil.
Eu mantinha a experiência pelo menos mais um mês. Estou realmente surpreso que as abas de raiz causaram mais nitrato e não o número 6. O número 6 é uma excelente surpresa. Abraço desde Portugal! I kept the experience for at least another month. I'm really surprised that the root tabs caused more nitrate and not the number 6. The number 6 is an excellent surprise. Hugs from Portugal!
I think it would be great to try this with RO water or distilled. It was great that you tested pH since that will affect certain plant growth too and I'm not sure what you're water is out of the tap. Obviously different aquasoils will lower the pH to differing levels, but it would be interesting to see how much that might have had an effect. Really great video!
I'm sorry but when you say pondsoil and aqua soil what exact product are you reffering too? you only list 3 soils products and for all others you say gravel or pond soil or aqua soil maybe because I.m new to some of this,but it seems a little vague on pond soil (what brand )? aqua soil? (what brand) I love all your videos your really helping me learn, thank you for that!
Hey! The pond soil is from a brand called Velda. It is a type of potting soil specifically for water lilies. The aquasoil on top of the pond soil is Tropica powder soil.
I would love to see you keep it going for a while longer. As someone who had her first aquascape in June and then had to move, I'm still setting up my new one. I use fluvall stratum and I'm gratified to see that it is performing well so far. I have never had nitrates, nitrites, or ammonia at high levels.
Fluval stratum is good, I'm using it but the soil is quite light. Hard to plant if you shallow plant. Need to put more soil so you can push it in further.
Tank #6 seems like a clear winner. Not sure why MJ was reluctant to declare that. I am also wondering what was more beneficial in Tank #6 since the other tank with same pond soil kinda failed. Was it the aquasoil that worked the best or because it was combined with aquasoil? What were the ingredients in each substrate? Looks like Fluval stratum has higher iron (hence the bright red)
It also depends on nutrients leaching from the pond soil and how well the upper layer capped it. I think with #4 the nurtrients were leaching too much and with #6 pond soil nutrients didn't saturate aquasoil that much yet. Frankly I have no idea, if that changes in 2-3 months or later after the aquasoil falls apart.
Brilliant experiment! I really appreciate your methodology 👍 My suggestion for a follow up test: take results from 4, 5, 6, and now run similar setups with base layer of pond soil, but this time 1st capped with inert black gravel / 2nd with smaller amount of pond soil and capped with sand layer 3 times thicker than soil / 3rd keep same as original #6. Maybe you’ll find an even better substrate combo.
Would be interested in: peat+aquasoil, just peat, dirt+cap, just dirt ... I have a dirted tank with no cap, just sand mixed in. Would be interested to see what happens with peat, especially PH wise
Keep it going, at least through the 3 month mark. I think that's a good amount of time to see how it's going to perform longer term. 2 weeks, things are still settling down to an equilibrium. Great info!
It would be interesting to see how you’d revive those set ups that were not doing so great. Perhaps some lessons from there to the aquarists having similar problems.
Awesome video , glad too see Fluval looking good. I think maybe now try CO2 on the tanks and give another few weeks, or even top 4. Awesome video again MJ Aquascaping
An interesting follow up would be: How would you fix each tank (not changing the substrate) for example: how would you set the light, or dose nutrients, or ad co2, etc… to make each substrate work?
Great experiment! Thx for doing it. Would also be good to know which substrate is most beneficial for keeping healthy fish with the least amount of water changes. 😅
I think tank # 6 would be perfect for people who want to submit their tanks for competition. You can get insane and healthy plant growth really quick, but that also would lend itself to higher maintenance. # 1 I think would be ideal for the more permanent tank in your living room as it can grow plants well, clearly, but it's not going to give insane explosive growth and cause a big chore every weekend.
I would like to see it keep going, maybe add a small bioload like shrimp to each. I am wonder if the zero nitrates are inhibiting the growth of 2 and 3 at this light level. Number 6 is really interesting, I used to use the old garden soil and sand cap method with mixed results...maybe this updated version is the way to go on low tech aquaria?
Pondsoil + aquasoil hightech setup pleasee. Considering it has the lowest ph and lowest Nitrate, that would be interesting. This will come in handy especially if you use it in iwagumi setup which is the hardest to balanced out (because of the low plant mass)
Good start and good video. The thing with substrate is that in nature it is stratified and has a complex structure. The other thing is that plant choice is important. #6 did better because the substrate was more complex. Add a little clay to the bottom and some buried rock/gravel (not sand) structure, and it would win by even more and with more types of plants.
I used aquasoil and fine round pebble sand. Had to clean the sand a lot though, but it's a dark colour with specks of other lighter colours. Looks like teeny tiny micro pebbles. Has worked fantastic. I cut the plants back weekly. No ferts and no C02 at all. The only issue is diatoms, no algae at all. But it's a shrimp and snail only tank and full of baby shrimp that graze on the diatoms, so guess that's great. It is a deep bed with red scoria at the bottom then the aquasoil and then the sand. I have to say the sand is so much easier to plant in that aquasoil, so glad I did it this way.
Great channel and love to see these kind of tests. For me No. 2 is the prevered one and looks the most natural. Was hoping that you would also test the ADA aqua soil amazonia 2 Maybe you can add this one together with 2 other prefered soils (No 2 and 6) and start adding CO2
I would like you to keep this experiment running until nutrient deficiencies start appearing in the tanks, this would help to evaluate which one is the best in the long term. Thanks for this experiment and all your videos, really interesting and useful!
Appreciate all the effort and the scientific unbiased approach to the tests! As a next step you may compare Aquasoil and Fluval with different amount of light and CO2. Thank you for the great content!
I recently built a tank with WIO Wetlands Eonian Black (coarse) and I have noticed that it keeps raising my GH levels very high (at first over 50dGH in 5 days). Currently, I have to use RO water every 3 days to get the level back down below 10 dGH. Did you have the same issue? If yes, how long does it take to stabilize? It has been over 2 weeks for me and I'm not sure if I should switch substrates.
How about warm vs cold water experiment? I live in the tropics, tank water sits at around 28'C. I can't get it to go down further without a chiller. I know for you guys in Europe and the US keep the tank water at around 24-25'C. I wonder how different the growth of the plants will be between those temperature ranges, with all other things equal.
I appreciate this video, but I think you haven't expressed enough confidence in your conclusions. I wouldn't say that it was up to personal preference, but rather, in the absence of CO2 injection, the clear winner is pond soil + aquasoil, with Fluval Stratum as a close runner-up. If you later want to investigate the effect of added CO2, that's another experiment, but this one was well done and provides compelling evidence. Thanks for doing this!
Hi MJ, I'm changing my substrate (i have inert right now) with the Tropica Aquarium soil, do you think that i should add root tabs (considering im using apt3, i thight about apt jazz as root tabs) immediately or wait a few months? Thanks
Everyone ignores the fact that water is not static in nature and even hydroponic set ups require flowing water for healthy roots, the conventional substrate set up promotes anoxic conditions without movement of freshwater, slowing plant growth, Just pump more CO2 and liquid fertilizer I guess,
Thanks for the experiment. I was about to order aqua soil for my low level aquascape project, but I think I better spend a little bit more and buy fluval stratum😊
@MJ AQUASCAPING - MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME :) I'VE GOT A VERY LOW TANK SETUP AT THE MOMENT, BEEN GOING FOR 9 MONTHS BUT NOT HAD MUCH PLANT SUCCESS VERY CLOSE TO BUYING A NEW TANK WITH TWIN STAR LIGHTING SO SHOULD BE REALLY GOOD FOR GROWING PLANTS, IM LOOKING AT EITHER GOING FOR POND COMPOST OR AQUA SOIL. WITH DOING SOME RESEARCH, THEY SAY THAT AQUA SOIL CAN CHANGE YOUR PH WHICH SEEMS SCARY TO ME AS MAY KILL THE LIVESTOCK IN THE TANK. IS THERE A AQUA SOIL THAT DOESNT AFFECT WATER PARAMETERS OR DO YOU FIND THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE OK AS LONG AS YOU DAILY WATER CHANGES IN THE SET UP STAGE? MY TAP PH IS 7.5, KH IS 6 KDH.
You sir are legendary! I can’t tell you how many questions I’ve had that you answer in each video. Thank you for your content, it helps a lot when one doesn’t have access to be able to run my own experiments!
I am curious why your pH is so high on all tanks…some of those tanks should be turning acidic with all the nutrient decay I would think. Is starting tap water very high in dissolved minerals and pH?
I haven't the process of balance fully understood...it just seems that the tank with excess nitrates should have given the plants a boost rather than stunt growth; why is algae growing in this tank? Maybe adding floater plants to the tanks to see what happens next. It's an interesting (although tedious for you I imagine) experiment. If it doesn't burn you out, I'd vote to add one more variable (whatever that might be) to the tank to see what happens.
I want to know what type of worms these were and what caused them! Next time, it would be helpful to keep all the options more or less consistent in color (so use dark brown or black gravel).
Add CO2 to all of them and see which one bounces back faster and recover from algae. I think we would have a great comparison between which one is better for low and high tech setups. :)
Cool little experiment, but way too many variables for me to be happy accepting any real "result" at the end. I'd like to see this experiment on a larger scale and taking more variables into account, some controls would be great too.
Is it possible to keep it going with your help in trying to balance and fix the tank, is it possible with water changes to fix 5 ? Is there anything you can do to try and save these setups? Just for another 30 day.
Should we start a new experiment? Or keep this one going?
Everything I'm using for this experiment (affiliate links)
Tank
US: bit.ly/3qE968B
EU: bit.ly/3S0rJ2J
Light
US: bit.ly/3dVYmPQ
EU: bit.ly/3D7RAB1
AQUARIO NEO SOIL
US: bit.ly/3Hopkda
EU: bit.ly/3fxvcHp
FLUVAL STRATUM
US: amzn.to/3fqiKJr
EU: amzn.to/3SruUQL
WIO WETLAND EONIAN
EU: bit.ly/3Ci1uPv
🚨Watch this next!🚨
Inspiration playlist! ruclips.net/p/PLrlvf56gZy-ipL3105SdfKsUBrMUSttoh
CO2 buying guide! ruclips.net/video/dIVrr1yS3sU/видео.html
How to SETUP your CO2! ruclips.net/video/qSHZ4F2PI2o/видео.html
Simple fertilizer dosing! ruclips.net/video/I_KBOUM1RXM/видео.html
👉🏻Cool Aquascaping T-shirts: mosscotton.com/ Code: mjaqua10
👉🏻Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my RUclips channel: RUclips.com/mjaquascaping
👉🏻 Use Code ''MJAMSTERDAM'' for 10% off Fzone products
#plantedtank #aquascape #mjaquascaping
keep it going for a few more months! See what happens long term.
How about a deep dive into the two top, unexpected contenders? Maybe scape two tanks, one with pond soil + aquasoil and another with Fluval and see how they compare to each other and your past history with the Neo stuff. New scapes!
Keep it going for at least 90 days.
I'd say keep it going a touch longer. I also suggested in another video for a comparison of, still water, moving water (agitated but no added air/co2), normal air agitated and co2 added to see if ambient air will have any effect on plant growth vs not having any at all. C02 and stagnate is control in this test.
I think the test should run at least 3 month. But you should handle each aquarium individual to see if ist possible to get similar results
Number 2 for me! Internodal distance looks good and all round health and colour looks excellent. Interested to see Fluval stratum compared head to head with Tropica soil and Ada Aquasoil with and without CO2. There’s your next 6!
UNS Controsoil if possible!
oh yes, both Tropica soil and soil powder that goes underneath inert substrate!
This needs to be done for sure.
Many of us use fluval stratum for above ground plant medium for starter plants. It works great for Hoyas and really small plants with delicate roots.
I'm a chemist and for a quick experimental set up this is genuinely impressive.
Yes! Bio-engineer here. I like how he really tried to keep most variables constant.
The only problem here is lack of reps... But the results are very interesting anyway
@@aquapucci Yeah, its not even powered...
Can help me with me chem test😭
@@aquapucciwhats reps .sorry am lost
I think would be interesting to go ahead and add co2 in selected top 4 aquarium...
Yup! Maybe redo the root cap one with less of them and add co2.
Please continue with adding co2! Great light+great soil+ co2 = i wanna see these results! Only way to properly gauge, in my opinion! Thanks for this experiment so far!
Hell yeah !!
Add co2🙏✌️✌️
Keep it going. You have so much experience with all different sorts of aquariums, your opinion on just which substrate might be better in which situation would be very helpful. I’m going to set up two large aquariums in the near future, I’d love to have an idea going in what would be the best substrate for what I want to do. Thanks for your terrific videos!!
Not sure what you mean by 'Pond Soil'. At least I cannot find anything by that brand name. I am in Thailand and I would like to be able to duplicate your results in #6. I do not see the affiliate links or a recipe for DIY in your comments. Internet search not helpful.
It would be great to see a runoff between the Fluval & the Pond Soil in full Walstad method tanks!
i think ill go with pond soil on bottom and fluval on top of it.
maybe 1 inch pond soil, and 2 inch fluval.
ill pass from a 13gallon tank, upgrade to a 31gallon tank.
+ So i want to start the best as possible.
it would be interesting to see this experiment again with more heavy root feeder like carpeting plants, crypts and swords. also im really surprised the root tabs caused the most nitrate and not number 6.
That's a huge amount of growth difference. Perhaps for the next one you could try soil's and us the walstad method.
Such an underrated channel. Usually channels with videos of this level of production have many more subscribers, but I imagine it’s just a matter of time :)
Man you have the best channel. Idk why you have so few subscribers for this quality. I love love love that you use scientific method, you get straight to the point with no personality selling and you’re really talented with this hobby. You have to keep this set up going. Add more time then right before worse tank plants get to unsalvageable add co2
Due to random variability, you need to replicate each test as a way to account for variation. Choose the two best, and replicate those three times each, thereby using all your six tanks.
Nice experiment! I would have added a cryptocoryne in each of the compartments. Just to compare a pure root feeder versus stem plants which receive most of their nutrients from the water instead of the soil.
been waiting for this video!! excited to see what the results are
I'm towards the end and holy cow those weird worms in tank #5 are pretty gross... burn it with fire!!
Fish absolutely love them! Mine smash them whenever they pop up
@@IndoorEcosystem But I am perplexed. Root caps are "sterile" looking, and sand is relatively sterile. I can only surmise that the transplanted plants had some eggs or something on them.
I think you should start again, but keep the fluval and tropica and put them up against some other brands/mixes. Like a tournament. Like others have mentioned, I think you should try and control the lighting more to make it more consistent across all the tanks. Using black plastic dividers or something.
Very good info, thank you. I have sand substrate and my tank went through a huge crash or two in the past month. I decided to add some stratum to the tank that has just inert sand. I wish I could replace it all, but I am going to leave the sand and just add stratum to it and let the fish decide what to do with it when they are able to get back into it. Theyve been in a hospital tank since the crash that happened after a water change. My plants have never grown very well, and when they did, I ended up getting staghorn algae. I do water changes 10-25% every week, but my water changes constantly because we get our water trucked in and I have a water softener. I am so annoyed with this situation, but I dont want to give up on fishkeeping. I really don't know what to do at this point. I am still water changing every week without fish in the tank, as it had to go through the nitrogen cycle again after the crash. I probably should have just started all over again. My water comes out at 6.0 or less pH - what can I add to my tank to buffer the pH to stay around 7.0 pH? Eggshells?
i think we should also consider the plants in the middle of each tank getting more light then the ones on the outer side since they have 2 connecting led sides and the others only have 1 side, which could be also a factor of to much light to much algae orso
Would make the Fluvol even more impressive considering how crystal clear and free from algae it was
Doesnt make sense actually
I wish you would've tested the Tropica Aquasoil without anything to compare it to thr Fluval stratum
Keep them going. Add 1 or 2 white cloud minnows or similar to each tank and add a little maintenance as you would with your other tanks. Fascinating experiment.
Its always great to experiment. Maybe try again but with some different substrate brands like UNS controsoil and ada amazonia
I agree, I think it would be great to see UNS controsoil vs Ada vs Fluval. And maybe after a few weeks start with your DIY co2 injection.
Now i know which soil I will buy for my next tank - FluvaL Stratum. I got no idea why i did not see this video before, but I love results with this tank. Awsome colours and health of all plants, almost no issues with algae and fact that lack of CO2 is not making a mess is huge win for me. Thanks for this video. I plan to rescape my tank in ner future, so this will be way to go. Now only design is left to choose and I am not best designer lol.
The way capped dirt works is the nutrients leaching slowly into the water. Too thin layer of sand (soft gravel) and nutrients cause algae calamity. With recommended 2"/5cm thickness the nutrients seep slowly and the plants need to reach nutrient-rich levels with their roots. So the plants won't grow fast from the start, but over the months that would change.
As the experiment goes, I think #4 wasn't capped properly and #6 may see some issues in the 1-2 months, but maybe not. Aquasoil also falls apart after some time. I'd say the best substrate would be thick bed starting with rich soil, thick layer of sand, some aquasoil and thin capping of sand. That is if I were to start a large planted aquarium going for years. For nano-tanks I'd go with pure aquasoil.
Nice video and good to see different soils and substrates work differently for a low tech setup. My guess would be due to the high ph in your water that was always lowered by your co2 usage in your other tanks, making it ideal for the plants. The pond soil + aqua soil could’ve better results due to the fact that the ph was lower and is favorable for plant growth.
Hello ! I have often read that it is absolutely necessary to rinse the fluval stratum before putting it in the aquarium, was this a misconception?
I think you should keep this going. No need for many major changes just keep it going with water changes and algae growth. I would like to see which substrate “exhausts” the substrate over time
Outstanding video/information. One question though. Is the pond soil a product from a supplier? Or is it actually where you’ve taken a bucket to a pond and got some of the substrate from the bottom of the pond?
I have been using pond soil from brico for 2 years and my 60 liter Aquarium with no co2 and low dosage of nutrions are really awesome! In my experience it went really well with pond soil.
Eu mantinha a experiência pelo menos mais um mês.
Estou realmente surpreso que as abas de raiz causaram mais nitrato e não o número 6. O número 6 é uma excelente surpresa.
Abraço desde Portugal!
I kept the experience for at least another month.
I'm really surprised that the root tabs caused more nitrate and not the number 6. The number 6 is an excellent surprise.
Hugs from Portugal!
You should have way more subscribers great videos
I think it would be great to try this with RO water or distilled. It was great that you tested pH since that will affect certain plant growth too and I'm not sure what you're water is out of the tap. Obviously different aquasoils will lower the pH to differing levels, but it would be interesting to see how much that might have had an effect. Really great video!
I was wondering the results for ada amazonia maybe keep this one going an try different brands
Wondering the same. Keeping it going with some others would be a good idea.
I'm sorry but when you say pondsoil and aqua soil what exact product are you reffering too? you only list 3 soils products and for all others you say gravel or pond soil or aqua soil maybe because I.m new to some of this,but it seems a little vague on pond soil (what brand )? aqua soil? (what brand) I love all your videos your really helping me learn, thank you for that!
Hey! The pond soil is from a brand called Velda. It is a type of potting soil specifically for water lilies. The aquasoil on top of the pond soil is Tropica powder soil.
Very interesting in tank #6 I’d like to you do more research on that . Natural soul with aqua soil on top
I would love to see you keep it going for a while longer. As someone who had her first aquascape in June and then had to move, I'm still setting up my new one. I use fluvall stratum and I'm gratified to see that it is performing well so far. I have never had nitrates, nitrites, or ammonia at high levels.
What pond soil did you use?
Keep it going for another month, the fluval stratum is the one I use. Of course it is the most expensive here in the USA
Fluval stratum is good, I'm using it but the soil is quite light. Hard to plant if you shallow plant. Need to put more soil so you can push it in further.
Tank #6 seems like a clear winner. Not sure why MJ was reluctant to declare that. I am also wondering what was more beneficial in Tank #6 since the other tank with same pond soil kinda failed. Was it the aquasoil that worked the best or because it was combined with aquasoil? What were the ingredients in each substrate? Looks like Fluval stratum has higher iron (hence the bright red)
It also depends on nutrients leaching from the pond soil and how well the upper layer capped it. I think with #4 the nurtrients were leaching too much and with #6 pond soil nutrients didn't saturate aquasoil that much yet. Frankly I have no idea, if that changes in 2-3 months or later after the aquasoil falls apart.
Brilliant experiment! I really appreciate your methodology 👍
My suggestion for a follow up test: take results from 4, 5, 6, and now run similar setups with base layer of pond soil, but this time 1st capped with inert black gravel / 2nd with smaller amount of pond soil and capped with sand layer 3 times thicker than soil / 3rd keep same as original #6. Maybe you’ll find an even better substrate combo.
I say keep it going for maybe another 2 or 3 months to see how the substrates do over the longer period. Very interesting experiment.
Would be interested in: peat+aquasoil, just peat, dirt+cap, just dirt ... I have a dirted tank with no cap, just sand mixed in. Would be interested to see what happens with peat, especially PH wise
This was very helpful in moving forward with my tank, I bought the fluval soil and now I know what to expect, love this thank you ❤
I’m thinking about using stratum in my next tank, did you like using it and was it easy to work with?
Keep it going and how long is your light cycle for
8 hours!
Definitely keep it for another few weeks to see one more update.
Keep it going, at least through the 3 month mark. I think that's a good amount of time to see how it's going to perform longer term. 2 weeks, things are still settling down to an equilibrium. Great info!
I wouldn't have thought of using Pond soil in an aquarium. But I will now.
I use fluval stratum it's a bit hard to plant because the substrate is light but always gave me good results.
Are you using it in a high tech set up or? just want to know how it performs in comparison with Seachem black humate, ADA, etc
It would be interesting to see how you’d revive those set ups that were not doing so great. Perhaps some lessons from there to the aquarists having similar problems.
Awesome video , glad too see Fluval looking good. I think maybe now try CO2 on the tanks and give another few weeks, or even top 4. Awesome video again MJ Aquascaping
An interesting follow up would be: How would you fix each tank (not changing the substrate) for example: how would you set the light, or dose nutrients, or ad co2, etc… to make each substrate work?
Since tank no. 6 won this experiment, it would be a great idea to try making an aquascape with that substrate with co2 (or maybe not)
keep it going. 3 months is needed to stabilize
Great experiment! Thx for doing it. Would also be good to know which substrate is most beneficial for keeping healthy fish with the least amount of water changes. 😅
I think tank # 6 would be perfect for people who want to submit their tanks for competition. You can get insane and healthy plant growth really quick, but that also would lend itself to higher maintenance. # 1 I think would be ideal for the more permanent tank in your living room as it can grow plants well, clearly, but it's not going to give insane explosive growth and cause a big chore every weekend.
I would like to see it keep going, maybe add a small bioload like shrimp to each. I am wonder if the zero nitrates are inhibiting the growth of 2 and 3 at this light level. Number 6 is really interesting, I used to use the old garden soil and sand cap method with mixed results...maybe this updated version is the way to go on low tech aquaria?
would be interesting to see a comparison head-to-head with pondsoil capped with Tropica Aquasoil and Aquasoil alone. Would it make a big difference?
fluval statum is undefeated in the North American market; cheapest and best results for the aquasoill department.
Pondsoil + aquasoil hightech setup pleasee. Considering it has the lowest ph and lowest Nitrate, that would be interesting. This will come in handy especially if you use it in iwagumi setup which is the hardest to balanced out (because of the low plant mass)
Good start and good video. The thing with substrate is that in nature it is stratified and has a complex structure. The other thing is that plant choice is important. #6 did better because the substrate was more complex. Add a little clay to the bottom and some buried rock/gravel (not sand) structure, and it would win by even more and with more types of plants.
I used aquasoil and fine round pebble sand. Had to clean the sand a lot though, but it's a dark colour with specks of other lighter colours. Looks like teeny tiny micro pebbles. Has worked fantastic. I cut the plants back weekly. No ferts and no C02 at all. The only issue is diatoms, no algae at all. But it's a shrimp and snail only tank and full of baby shrimp that graze on the diatoms, so guess that's great. It is a deep bed with red scoria at the bottom then the aquasoil and then the sand. I have to say the sand is so much easier to plant in that aquasoil, so glad I did it this way.
Great channel and love to see these kind of tests. For me No. 2 is the prevered one and looks the most natural.
Was hoping that you would also test the ADA aqua soil amazonia 2
Maybe you can add this one together with 2 other prefered soils (No 2 and 6) and start adding CO2
I would like you to keep this experiment running until nutrient deficiencies start appearing in the tanks, this would help to evaluate which one is the best in the long term. Thanks for this experiment and all your videos, really interesting and useful!
Appreciate all the effort and the scientific unbiased approach to the tests! As a next step you may compare Aquasoil and Fluval with different amount of light and CO2. Thank you for the great content!
Привет! Продолжай эксперимент.
I recently built a tank with WIO Wetlands Eonian Black (coarse) and I have noticed that it keeps raising my GH levels very high (at first over 50dGH in 5 days). Currently, I have to use RO water every 3 days to get the level back down below 10 dGH. Did you have the same issue? If yes, how long does it take to stabilize? It has been over 2 weeks for me and I'm not sure if I should switch substrates.
How about warm vs cold water experiment? I live in the tropics, tank water sits at around 28'C. I can't get it to go down further without a chiller. I know for you guys in Europe and the US keep the tank water at around 24-25'C. I wonder how different the growth of the plants will be between those temperature ranges, with all other things equal.
Didn’t expect root tabs to be so nutrient rich. The fluval substrate looks perfect for low tech setups.
I appreciate this video, but I think you haven't expressed enough confidence in your conclusions. I wouldn't say that it was up to personal preference, but rather, in the absence of CO2 injection, the clear winner is pond soil + aquasoil, with Fluval Stratum as a close runner-up. If you later want to investigate the effect of added CO2, that's another experiment, but this one was well done and provides compelling evidence. Thanks for doing this!
I’d change the white gravel for a dark gravel also
Hi MJ, I'm changing my substrate (i have inert right now) with the Tropica Aquarium soil, do you think that i should add root tabs (considering im using apt3, i thight about apt jazz as root tabs) immediately or wait a few months?
Thanks
Is it weird that I have a sense of national pride that Fluval did well?
Everyone ignores the fact that water is not static in nature and even hydroponic set ups require flowing water for healthy roots, the conventional substrate set up promotes anoxic conditions without movement of freshwater, slowing plant growth,
Just pump more CO2 and liquid fertilizer I guess,
Thanks for the experiment. I was about to order aqua soil for my low level aquascape project, but I think I better spend a little bit more and buy fluval stratum😊
@MJ AQUASCAPING - MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME :)
I'VE GOT A VERY LOW TANK SETUP AT THE MOMENT, BEEN GOING FOR 9 MONTHS BUT NOT HAD MUCH PLANT SUCCESS
VERY CLOSE TO BUYING A NEW TANK WITH TWIN STAR LIGHTING SO SHOULD BE REALLY GOOD FOR GROWING PLANTS, IM LOOKING AT EITHER GOING FOR POND COMPOST OR AQUA SOIL.
WITH DOING SOME RESEARCH, THEY SAY THAT AQUA SOIL CAN CHANGE YOUR PH WHICH SEEMS SCARY TO ME AS MAY KILL THE LIVESTOCK IN THE TANK.
IS THERE A AQUA SOIL THAT DOESNT AFFECT WATER PARAMETERS OR DO YOU FIND THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE OK AS LONG AS YOU DAILY WATER CHANGES IN THE SET UP STAGE?
MY TAP PH IS 7.5, KH IS 6 KDH.
You sir are legendary! I can’t tell you how many questions I’ve had that you answer in each video. Thank you for your content, it helps a lot when one doesn’t have access to be able to run my own experiments!
Should have added ADA Version 2 as well, considering its popularity.
I am curious why your pH is so high on all tanks…some of those tanks should be turning acidic with all the nutrient decay I would think.
Is starting tap water very high in dissolved minerals and pH?
Que buen experimento. ¿Nombre del sustrato número 6 por favor? Saludos muy interesantes tus videos
i could go with organic soil + stratum? 🤔hmm (just saying by the looking of 2 (stratum) and 6 (pond soil + aquasoil)
Just a quick question, i want to setup a tank for Caridina, is the Aquario Neo Soil good? cause here in my country the ADA Amazonia is expensive
I haven't the process of balance fully understood...it just seems that the tank with excess nitrates should have given the plants a boost rather than stunt growth; why is algae growing in this tank?
Maybe adding floater plants to the tanks to see what happens next. It's an interesting (although tedious for you I imagine) experiment. If it doesn't burn you out, I'd vote to add one more variable (whatever that might be) to the tank to see what happens.
Excellent. Please make an experiment with Fluval Stratum and other brands such as ADA
Hi MJ, do you have experience with basalt aquarium substrate?
Great experiment! Thanks so for your hard work!
I want to know what type of worms these were and what caused them! Next time, it would be helpful to keep all the options more or less consistent in color (so use dark brown or black gravel).
Add CO2 to all of them and see which one bounces back faster and recover from algae. I think we would have a great comparison between which one is better for low and high tech setups. :)
I use Fluval BioStratum and don't plan on changing anytime soon.
Cool little experiment, but way too many variables for me to be happy accepting any real "result" at the end. I'd like to see this experiment on a larger scale and taking more variables into account, some controls would be great too.
Very informative, thank you for making such a great video!
Is it possible to keep it going with your help in trying to balance and fix the tank, is it possible with water changes to fix 5 ? Is there anything you can do to try and save these setups? Just for another 30 day.
Try going outside and picking up some dirt and sand from nature. It's free, you won't get algae, PH issues or increased ammonia.
cool experiment, I can try it later at home, okay, thanks for the info, please see my video in space scape 👍🙏
If you're getting your plants from the land in Quebec, those "bugs" might be leeches.
Huge, this video shoulb be the base for every aquarist. Question please: What do you name aqua pond soil and aqua soil? Are these brands?
You could do it again with other soil e.g. JBL, ADA, etc.
Would have liked to have seen this with ADA, UND and Aquavitro soils
how to add substrate and soil for goldfish tank? I can not find very clear good explanation for it and i just like variety of goldfish..
I would like to see an experiment involving anoxic filtration (see dr Novak for that) compared with other type of filtrations please
Such a cool experiment! I would love to see something like this with CO2 injection
please make fatherfish style dirted tank (using his soil mix proportions for substrate)