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. (read more)
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.