What kind of substrate is most suitable for nano tank?

[wks]

Hi, I intend to start an 8" cube nano planted tank. I'm looking for a type of substrate without having to use base fert. Any nano tank expert can give your recommendation besides ADA soil(grain size looks too big in such small tank)?
I intend to keep Hemianthus callitrichoides, Microsorium pteropus "narrow leaf" and Anubias barteri var nana "Petite" without any CO2 and clip-on light.

[benetay]

Actually there is another grain size from ADA which is smaller. Used for foregrounds in his setup. can actually use that for nano tanks.

[Plantbrain]

Small tank= small cost, go with the small ADA soil.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[evolim83]

Actually there is another grain size from ADA which is smaller. Used for foregrounds in his setup. can actually use that for nano tanks.

I beleive Bro Bene is referring to the ADA Powder Series of AquaSoil!

If I remember correctly, It come is packs of 3kg selling around $20!

[wks]

Hi benetay and Plantbrain, thanks for your recommendation. Benetay, can you provide a link to this smaller grain sized ADA aqua soil? I intend to use a black substrate (eg. ADA Amazonia) for my new nano tank. Does ADA aqua soil provides the necessary minerals like calcium, magnesium and iron? I checked through their product information, however they relvealed nothing about what they put into the soil.
evolim83, I do not wish to use Power Sand as recommended by ADA because this will increase the substrate thickness. That will make the tank looks unbalanced in terms of water/ substrate depth ratio.

[Plantbrain]

I might be the only one thus far that has done much investigating into what is or is not helping the plants grow with ADa substrate products.

I do not use the powersand based on a test I did.

I used only the soil and then EI, the results where better than the powersand + brighty series and the other bacter, Penac, tourmaline.

I also set up 3 more tanks with ADA soil and the EI.
We have a LFS that has the full line up of ADA products and tank displays. I check in on them and see how things look there also for a larger number of comparisons.

Many people bought everything Dupla sold, many bought heating cables etc, but today we know they did not do anything nor help a tank.

Powersand can help if your goal is to keep the water column "lean", but the only advantage there is if you believe the water column induces algae if it's not lean nutrient wise.

Obviously that notion is incorrect.
ADa soils do produce better plant growth IME than Flourite for some species, but other are not affected.

1. Growth.
So the worst is that it will grow the plants the same as Flourite, and with some plants: better.

That alone is good reason to buy it.
Here in the USA, 9 liters of ADA soil: 28$ MO, 36$ retail(but they give me a discount etc) which is enough for a 20 gal tank.

2. Cost
The cost for Flourite for the 20 gal tank: 30-40$. So it's about the same if not a tad cheaper.

The other thing, if you use just the soil, you will never have the powersand coming up and mixing together(PITA).

3. Glass scratches
It'll never scratch your glass along the gravel line.

4. Easy to use
No rinsing the dust off it. Add the mulm, a little peat(powersand is coated with peat BTW). Add water slowly to fill the tank.

These are fairly robust reasons to get this versus the Flourite.
I have little alligence to any one brand.

If it works and is a good deal, I'll tell folks.

The same attitude previaled back with Dupla products 20 years ago and I bought everything only to be pissed later after figuring out(took several years) I did not need a 500 $ set of cables or spend 25$ for a little bottle of daily drops.

Folks did not test to see which products they sold really helped, CO2 is the big market claim to fame. But that stuff is cheap locally, so few bought that stuff.

But CO2 really gave the hobby a great boost.

Regards,
Tom Barr