Alternative for ADA's PowerSand & PowerSand Special

[dimitri]

Hi all,

I am wondering if you guys here use any alternative to ADA's PowerSand & PowerSand Special?

I did some read-ups on them and have some after-thoughts:

1) Is it correct to assume that PowerSand contains the same kind of nutrients that are already present in their Amazonia soil?
2) PowerSand Special is the same as PowerSand except that it has additional Bacter 100 and Clear Super in their composition?
3) If both products' primary function is to create an ideal environment for bacteria colony to thrive in, would there be alternatives in the market to use in place of them?

I have come across some hobbyists using small lava rocks or even coral chips in place of PowerSand for the same purpose. In view of this, I am looking at using AquaClay's Media. Add in substrate additives, pour the soil over them.


They look pretty much like Eheim Substrat Pro and comes in 2 sizes. I'm thinking of using the ones that is roughly about 12mm in diameter. The reasons being:

a) they are lighter in weight as compared with the rest, while bearing similiar porous characteristics of Biohome, Substrat Pro etc...
b) inert and will not alter the water parameters much,
c) cheaper

I am also under the impression that it is easier to manage the AquaClay media, in the event of rescaping. As they are significantly larger than Amazonia soil, granules that got stuck to the plant roots during trimming/pulling out can be easily be pushed back into the soil or discarded

Any views or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[Urban Aquaria]

You can use those alternatives like lava rocks and aquaclay media (they look like hydroton LECA balls and probably work the same)... they will work as base substrate layer to create more places for beneficial bacteria to live in and encourage healthy root growth.

Just have to work out if using alternative base media with separate additives is more worth it than compared to using powersand special.

Don't use coral chips though, as they raise pH... those will counteract the pH reducing characteristics of the aquasoil and exhaust the soil's buffering ability more quickly.

The only disadvantage of using such base layers is they tend to pop up above the soil substrate when you do adjustments in plant layouts and regular plant maintenance (ie. topping and re-planting stem plants), so you'll need to spend abit more extra time to push the individual base layer pieces back underneath. Looking forward, it also makes recycling the aquasoil abit more difficult too, as they will be all mixed together during tank de-comm.

Other than those considerations, such base layers do help in improving long term plant growth, especially for rooted plants and heavy root feeders.

[dimitri]

Thanks for the reply bro!!

You have a pretty informative blog, keep up the good work!!

[limz_777]

i use it before but for purpose of making the soil higher , make sure you get the aqua version and remember to bag it

[dimitri]

What is the reason for bagging them?

[Urban Aquaria]

What is the reason for bagging them?

Bagging the base media helps prevent them moving about and popping up the soil, its a very good method to avoid that issue. Makes it easier to remove later on too.

Only thing is that the bagged ones should be in areas where there are no rooted plants as your tweezers might tear through the bags during planting and if the plant roots grow entwined into the bag mesh (especially for plants with super dense roots like cryptocorynes and echinodorus), when you pull those out the whole bag also get pulled out... happened to me before.