GlasGarten Environment Aquarium Soil

PH holds steady at 5.20-5.25. Can't use this as substrate due to PH possibly killing everything I would like to have.

I have used both powder and regular version.

In a ~100L tank, 55x40x45, i used 13L of the substrate, the minimum recommended ammount would be about 9L.

It makes the water a bit cloudy at the start but its not a big problem, it clears 1-2 days later.

I used RO/DI water of ph ~5.8 to fill the tank. Within less than a day, it buffered my ph to ~6,3-6,4. I am quite happy with it, since it says it may buffer water to ph as low as 5.5 and it would be quite impossible at this scenario to use CO2 injection.

I tested to increase water kH 1 unit to see what would happen. So i raised gH to 5 and kH to 1. Initially it increased my water ph to about 7. But it does seem that the soil absorbs kH, because a day later the water ph was ~6.4-6.5. As usual, small 10% water change i did later without adding gH kH, lowered the ph further to ~6.3-6.4 again. So overall, it does not seem to completely absorb kH, at least not within 1 day, which is very fine by me, some minor kH will help with CO2 injection. I will test again with slight higher kh increase to about 1.5 unit and see what will happen then after a couple of days.

Do not use kH increasing agents with this soil, it absorbs it and the more kH you dose the faster it will be depleted, i did it mainly for testing purposes.

The soil is very fine looking, extremely natural, fine dark brown granules. It has an amazing earthly smell too, i love that.

Also, it seems to have minor ammonia leach, but do not worry about it, its just minor. Just be careful if you make an ammonia start in the aquarium, initially use way less ammonia than you should to increase it to 3-4ppm, maybe even half or 1/3 of the dose of ammonia. After that just regulate it. It seems that the ammonia it leaches is only for the first week or so and as i said it quite minor.

First time that i used this soil. Different grain sizes prevent soil from roiling down 'hills'. Almost no dust in water after filing the tank, second day clear water. The grains doesn't smash easily, keeping good structure. The soil is more heavy than others 'amazonias' which is perfect for me for better planting (not floating plants after filling water).

A good surprise!

Recomended by my shrimp seller ;-) Zuhter :-) No Amonnium in my case after one week with old filter and good starter bacteria this cycle will go fast .... Nice dark brown color and regual is almost like a powder much ,much smaller granules than Aquasoil similar to Tropica ,a little bit dusty at the begining but all others are also I dont care for that will buy again in the future :O