12696 Volcanic Soil Bio Stratum for Planted Tanks, 4.4 lbs.

Great soil for my fishtank plants, they are still growing strong. It was a good amount of soil for the price, has lasted me awhile with replacing the soil pellets about once a year. I did purchase mesh bags to put the pellets in since only one area of my fishtank has plants.

i bought this for my pinguicula bowl and i’m so excited to see how it does with my pings. it def make my pingdom look prettier than just the soil on top lol. i will also def be using it for my other plants like i see on my social media’s haha. i will say it’s def dusty so idk if you prefer to wash it off first or not but it leaves lots of black dust on your sink/hands/area. but so far it looks pretty good at draining the water too.

So far so good. I read a lot of reviews before buying this. No mud, no black water, fish are alive. I did this on Wednesday night and my water only got a little cloudy (video). 2 days later and it’s clear (picture). The stratum is still clearly granules, not mud. I bought this for my plants. They kept dying within a month because majority of them weren’t taking root. They already look healthier! I have tetras and danios in my tank. The fact that my neon tetras have their color means the water conditions are good enough. How I did it: 1. Cut a good corner off, pinched it and set the whole bag in the tank, found middle-ish area of the bag and bent it. Very slowly poured the first half into the tank (clearly without rinsing it) 2. I inserted my plants and decoration before adding water, personal preference. 3. I used a water jug automatic pump angled at a back wall where the filter goes to fill it. It clearly worked great. No mud, stratum never got disturbed. If I remember, I’ll comment back with a picture in a few months regardless of what my tank looks like. My tank is 8gallons tall, I could’ve gotten away with the 4.4 lbs bag but because I bought the 8.8 lbs bag, as recommended, I have leftovers to add to my friend’s 20 gallon tank when I do that.

In the past I've typically just had sand or gravel in my aquarium and didn't have much luck keeping aquatic plants alive, some would do okay but most would die despite adding an aquatic plant fertilizer. I prefer the look of sand instead of the look of plant substrate in my aquarium so when I learned I could just cap the plant substrate with sand I decided to try it and bought this Fluval plant substrate as I've seen it highly recommended. I've had it in my aquarium capped with white sand for about a month now, I bought various aquatic plants to try out with it shortly after adding the substrate to the tank and so far all plants are thriving, some have grown substantially to where I now need to start trimming the overgrowth. I was thinking about purchasing root tabs to help with the plants but now I don't think I'll need them with this Fluval substrate. I'm happy I can now successfully keep healthy aquatic plants and my fish and shrimp are loving them as well.

Perfect for semi-hydrophonic planting! Will purchase again!

Grabbed two bags for a new planted tank good amount per bag but if you think "ill need X bags" get 1 more just in case. 1 and 3/4 bags went into 20 gallon for a good 1.5 inchs of substrate and had a little left over. As as other have mentioned, if you are rough with this i can get cloudy or break up so handle it easy, dont pour from top of tank, place bag in tank slice it open and slide it out on the floor of the aquarium. I placed a plastic plate and poured my fill water on that to minimize substrate disruption. Fine particles cant be eliminated so go slow and easy to minimize, mine cleared up in about two hrs. Had a little left from second bag and tossed that in small betta tank to keep some extra plants alive, thats when i saw what some folks were saying about the fines. Used same process as my bigger tank but it was like chocolate milk. I continued to try and slowly exchange water to get the fines out but there was no saving it after 45 minutes of rinse and repeat literally, I said to hell with it and ended up tossing it in the trash because it was just too frustrating overall in the larger tank with the new plants that I've purchased they're already developing roots and starting to spread out into the strata a good clear indication that the plants are happy with their new home. When you do your maintenance procedure minimize how much you stir and disturb the strata you will get some minor and I do stress minor clouds in the localized area but that clears up within minutes.

*WARNING* if you have never used this like me please read this... they really dont tell you this so you will have to live and learn like me if you dont read this. Okay first off it is really small pebbles so when you go to rinse it make sure you have something with small enough holes that it wont fall through 2nd when you rinse it you will freak out(I did) because it looks like oil its so dark so keep rinsing until its a decent looking you wont get it clear but cloudy is good enough.3rd you will need something to pour on top I went to the store and bought bigger pebble bio stratum to pour on top of this bag of Bio Stratum. i was told to not use sand because it pull the vitamins out. now once you have everything in place pour your tank water on top of something so you dont upset the rocks and make it more cloudy. then wait 20minutes before you put your fish in. i did these steps and it has been 3 hours now and the water is starting to clear alittle. so i will update in a few days.

I have a few freshwater planted nano tanks, all 20 gallons or smaller, and I have used this or the Shrimp Stratum as the base substrate in every single one. As long as you do not stir it up too much, it keeps the water clear and does exactly what it is supposed to do. If you want to cap it with sand, you do not need to rinse it first. It will not turn the water brown unless it is handled incorrectly. Plants grow really well in it and when the nutrients eventually run out, which takes a long time, you can just add root tabs and keep the tank going for years. My tanks stay crystal clear and the plants look great. I recommend this to anyone who wants to keep live plants in their aquarium.

Jederzeit wieder.

Excelente las plantas se adaptaron rápido

This has worked great for my water Lillie's. It's a neat product, little balls is the only way I can describe it. The plants seem to like it and the fish don't dig in it as much as they did with the other dirt. Its a bit pricy but worth it.

Value for the money easy to use and gives great plant growth

Hands down the best it will make yur water cloudy after a few builds iv lernt to add this then add water empty it repeat a few times then add yur sand and plants dont prerence it like gravel in a bucket that will break it down just fill the tank gently then drain it do it a few times let. It sit with water for like w0 min each time once yur tank is cycled this stuff makes a world of difference detritus worms are in it not a bad thing but just remember if doing a shrimp only tank to have a guppy always on stand by to cleam the tank for you 😀