up aquasoil

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

anyone try it?? I have a couple bags on the way to redo my 75, anyone use it?? I am planning on mixing a forest style w the perspective style of amanos he has been using lately with the bushes of plants in the front and the steep incline with foreground plants in the middle, also the driftwood on the sides will be erect to look similar to tree bottoms...

how are the nutrients in it, or is it more like flourish or EC, where it does not have much in the way of nutrients...

how is it for using on an incline, planning on using alot of rocks to build it up and keep in place

anyway if u have used the stuff I would appreciate an opinion..

 

[Tom Barr]

I saw it some years ago in Australia. It's nice stuff really.

It's more like ADA AS than EC or the inerts.........

 

[samh]

Yeah we use it down here with good results. Many guys use it for there erio/tonina/sygnonanthus sp tanks. Comparable results with ADA

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

sounds good, as I have not purchased by the L before only so many pounds of substrate, how much would be recomended for a 75 gallon that I plan on sloping really high in rear.. will use alot of fist and slight smaller sized rocks to build up slope layering substrate between

 

[pat w]

~14 l per inch of depth for your 48x18 footprint with just the substrate.

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

just got 5 9L bags in and ordered 5 more... tank will be going up sometime in january, have some discus in a holding tank and gettin some wood from Tom.... all rocks have been locally collected due to the cost of aquiring from an online source..

 

[Chunks]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes. What's the price per bag?

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

34 I think.. check it out on greenleafaquariums

 

[greenfinger]

It will lower your KH dramatically, much more so than ADA AS. And from my experience (plus some others in Australia), it's lifespan is much shorter than ADA AS, leaving a very fine and dark silt that will cloud your water badly. The colour of the soil isn't very appealing either, looks rather unnatural. I have since then gone back to ADA AS.

Forgot to add that UP AS is polymer coated.

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

I am planning on adding additional nutrients to bottom of tank before putting in substrate....

any recomendations>>??

some sort of osmocote, or mineralized soil, possible peat hummus with some laterite, never really looked into it before as I did not know flourish was basically inert and my previous tanks were setup using this thinking it had lots of nutrients in it..

plan on having tank up for a good amount of time, and I'm sure it will go through several changes but for the most part I like to plant really heavy, dont plan on using any heavy root feeders but one may never know.. so I would like for soil to be prepared encase I do, or if not just try to get the maximum amount of lifespan out of this stuff...


thanks for any and all opinions, if something real in depth has been writin about this and you can provide a link that would also be rad... I want something that I could easily obtain and put together, single dad with 2 small businesses, one of which is on a series for the DIY network so I'm a pretty busy dude and lucky I have enough time for the tanks I have....

also what about just putting some dry nutrients under the soil before I lay it, would they just absorb right into the water column?

 

[Tom Barr]

Osmocoat might be fine, about 5 grams per sq ft

This is a fair amount and you'll need to do many WC's in the beginning(2x a week for 1-2 months)

 

[Orlando]

This is incorrect. It is not polymer coated, this is word straight from the manufacturer. And as a retailer we do our homework in order to provide the correct information. The soil is actually much more robust in nature and will out last many current soils on the market. Its certainly designed to condition water for aquatic plants for the more acidic nature thats for sure. The color is black and will produce clear water on day one. Its a completely natural soil rich in clay which give it this look.

It will lower your KH dramatically, much more so than ADA AS. And from my experience (plus some others in Australia), it's lifespan is much shorter than ADA AS, leaving a very fine and dark silt that will cloud your water badly. The colour of the soil isn't very appealing either, looks rather unnatural. I have since then gone back to ADA AS.

Forgot to add that UP AS is polymer coated.

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

I really like the size of the soil granules and color, I prefer a black soil, my tank right now has about 80% Flourish black and Flourish black sand, and about 20% EC, as these are basically inert, they are not what I want, also the substrate is very deep and the sand seems to cause alot of problem areas, cloging up the substrate and I get more algae in these areas...

anyway I am psyched to try this stuff out and glad there is someone else putting out good soil aside from ADA, I have nothing against their products, I use some of their tools and have used some of their other products and was happy with the result... but it is tough on the east coast to find any of the new amazonia... usually sold out online and its too expensive to but it in 3L bags..

I have had good experience with Green Leaf Aquariums also and am happy to spend my money with them...

 

[Robert H]

Its basically a Taiwanese knock off of the ADA product from a Taiwanese manufacturer that has a whole line of knock off products from cheap glass diffusers to whatever. I am sure they are the bane of ADAs existence. I find it odd that they even use the same name. I would think Amano could sue them. How does it compare in price and functionality to the real thing?

 

[Orlando]

I think your misinterpreting what knock off is Robert. First, there are many soil substrates labeled as Aquasoil and Aqua Soils that are completely unrelated to aquariums long before it became relevant to planted aquariums. So, what is the real thing?
http://www.aquasoilss.com/
There are many soils on the market that are relabeled with many different names but in the end are the same soil, ControSoil,Oliver Knot Nature Soil, Columbo just to name a few that are all the exact same product. However you missed the most important aspect here, Up Aqua Aqua Soil is manufacturing process and formula is all there own, not to be confused with all the rest on the block. They can do this because Up Aqua business is a successful business has been for years so they have the capital to have a product like this developed for them, and a great product at that. This substrate is not new, its new to the US for sure, but has been used for years all over the AU,EU and Asia.

If your wondering how well it works maybe you should try some yourself before posting a potential biased post without any real hands on experinace. As an importer we do our homework before we dive into anything as large as bringing in something new, best thing you can do is test it your self. We actually love this stuff, its granular structure is far superior to many soils we have used in the past and unlike many other substrates it actually has a nutrient quality that plants can actually use.

I get my hands wet and dirty all the time.. Both of these tested with Up Aqua Soil 1-2 years ago.

 

[greenfinger]

This is incorrect. It is not polymer coated, this is word straight from the manufacturer. And as a retailer we do our homework in order to provide the correct information. The soil is actually much more robust in nature and will out last many current soils on the market. Its certainly designed to condition water for aquatic plants for the more acidic nature thats for sure. The color is black and will produce clear water on day one. Its a completely natural soil rich in clay which give it this look.

If that is what the manufacturer says, then my apologies. I am merely passing on information given by the AU distributor to a third party. Hardly concrete enough and I must have come across as harsh on the brand. I am simply sharing my experience with the soil. I bought the first batch of Up Aqua soil over 2 years ago when it arrived in Australia.

It did give me clear water from day 1, but not everyone. In less than a year, it disintegrated quickly, and I am not the only one who experienced this once again. Perhaps it is the water quality, management and so on, but as mentioned before, I will not use this soil again.

 

[Orlando]

No worries Greenfinger. We visited the facility in which the soil is manufactured 1 year ago and we were able to watch the process first hand. Quite a mess to say the least. The main difference in soil 2 years ago versus todays formula is the source of the soil. They lease the property from owners and most of the time everything is fine and well. But when communication is poor and owners get sour things changed and land rights go right out the window so they sourced new land that is now owned and fully farmed by Up-Aqua. The end product ended up much better and darker.

The problems you had are all to familiar with many soils including ADA soil. So, Im sure its not the quality of the soil, but the source. And now that Japan has problems with nuclear waste it makes me wonder if they had to source new land and hence why you see so many problems with ada soil to date. But still some folks love it and would sleep with it, others hate it and will never use it again. So, what do you do? If you have problems with one product and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth then you naturally move on to other means. ADA is not for everybody, nor is Up Aqua. I for one will use Up Aqua in every tank we set up that calls for nutrient rich soil and longevity.


These are the 2 last test tanks, excuse the ugly hardware, but its just test environments. Mostly harder to grow Tonia sp..

Salude friends!
Orlando

 

[greenfinger]

Thank you Orlando. Perhaps if I had tried the UP AS at a different time, a different batch, things would have been better. And certainly ADA AS has its own share of issues. Both AS has given me good results for plant growth including plants Eriocaulaceae spp., thus it is down to personal taste and experience which one to use. Water quality and other regimes is still more important for plant growth to me at the end of the day.

UP Aquasoil:

ADA Malaya Aquasoil:

 

[charlie]

No worries Greenfinger. We visited the facility in which the soil is manufactured 1 year ago and we were able to watch the process first hand. Quite a mess to say the least. The main difference in soil 2 years ago versus todays formula is the source of the soil. They lease the property from owners and most of the time everything is fine and well. But when communication is poor and owners get sour things changed and land rights go right out the window so they sourced new land that is now owned and fully farmed by Up-Aqua. The end product ended up much better and darker.

The problems you had are all to familiar with many soils including ADA soil. So, Im sure its not the quality of the soil, but the source. And now that Japan has problems with nuclear waste it makes me wonder if they had to source new land and hence why you see so many problems with ada soil to date. But still some folks love it and would sleep with it, others hate it and will never use it again. So, what do you do? If you have problems with one product and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth then you naturally move on to other means. ADA is not for everybody, nor is Up Aqua. I for one will use Up Aqua in every tank we set up that calls for nutrient rich soil and longevity.


These are the 2 last test tanks, excuse the ugly hardware, but its just test environments. Mostly harder to grow Tonia sp..

Salude friends!
Orlando

@Orlando, what is your fertilizing regime with the UP aquasoil?
Regards

 

[ReefJones]

Orlando, What Charlie said. I was enjoying reading this thread. Several years late, I know... But sorry it died! Such good first hand info being shared!