Choosing a substrate for your planted aquarium

Hello and welcome back,

today we will touch the subject of substrate in the aquarium. I have used many types of substrates for many years now and I have seen other people use other substrates. I have come to the conclusion that the more successful planted tanks always use nutritious substrates.

The substrates that are at our disposal on the island of Cyprus are the following:

1. JBL Manado (~€20): this substrate has no nutrients at all. It is plain and simple but it has a

characteristics that aquascapers believe it is very helpful when growing plants. It has a high cation exchange capacity (CEC). In simple words this means that when we dose fertilizers in the water column or when the waste of fish are broken down, cations of Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphorus are attracted and stored in the substrate. These cations come from Ammonia and Nitrates contained in fish waste or from our fertilizers that contain KNO3, KH2PO4 etc. Now the substrate holds these ions that plants use as fertilizers to grow. Plants utilize them though their root system or the substrate releases them in the water column if there is an unbalance of ions between substrate and water column.

How does this help? Well it ensures that there are fertilizers available to the plants even if we forget to dose for a day or if we conduct a water change. It is our storage room for fertilizers in our planted aquarium!  


2. Inert substrate: any kind of sand or gravel that does not have CEC. It is purely used to anchor

plants and for decorative reasons. I have never managed to grow any plants in good health in such a substrate before. However, I have seen plenty of people succeed with just inert substrate. They use it in either low maintenance tanks or they add a nutritious substrate under the inert one which makes wonders to plants. Having experienced it with a nutritious under-substrate, plants grow like crazy. My advice, never use inert substrate by itself, always use a nutritious under-substrate and your problems will be far less. However, always have in mind that under-substrate tends to mix and come on top of your top layer substrate.


3. ADA Amazonia (~€40): without a doubt the most successful and nutritious substrate in the

market, used by thousands of aquascapers around the world. Designed and manufactured by the late Takashi Amano, ADA Amazonia contains all the nutrients plants require and it can be used as a standalone substrate or even better used with ADA Power Sand which is an under-substrate and even more nutritious. Having nutritious substrates seems to make carpeting plants spread easier. All plants grow healthy and luxuriously with bright green colors. This of course depends on other factors but substrate is a major one.

Further to the nutritious elements, this substrate lowers the kH and pH of the water. It makes water softer that plants tend to like more rather than harder water and water here in Cyprus has a really high kH/gH.

Unfortunately, we do not have any pet shops that I know off that sell ADA Amazonia or ADA products in general. Fortunately we have internet and the Germans. Aquasabi is an online German retailer that ships to Cyprus for around €8 or if the total is over €150 then shipping is FREE.


4. JBL Aquabasis: manufactured by the same company as Manado, this is an under-substrate that

can be used with plain, non-nutritious substrate. Highly advisable when using JBL Manado, gravel or sand, this nutritious under-substrate will promote healthy growth and a good anchoring media for plant roots.










5. Tropica Plant Growth: again an under-substrate that can be purchased online from Aquasabi or IDAGREX LTD in Limassol, this is highly nutritious and probably a bit better than Aquabasis.

Tropica are a leading pioneer in aquatic plants and all we can do is trust them when it comes to their products!










Here is an example of two tanks. The one above has JBL Manado alone and the one bellow has JBL Manado and Tropica Plant Growth. Look at the difference in health, the vibrant colors and the growth was much much faster in the bottom tank.

Thank for reading through. For any questions just drop a comment!