JBL PROSCAPE VOLCANO MINERAL

[Vítor]

Hi guys ,i have a planted tank and i wanted to get the neo soil for the substrate but the store that i was buying it from ran out of stock so i was wondering about getting the Jbl Proscape Volcano mineral, it says that has some nutrients and it's good for the roots. Have someone tried it?

I have some Elodeas, Ludwigia repens,red root floaters,fox tail,java moss,anubias and probably will get some more 

On the tank at the moment i only have 1 ancistrus and some red cherrys.

[Lennie]

On 4/24/2023 at 3:58 PM, Vítor said:

Hi guys ,i have a planted tank and i wanted to get the neo soil for the substrate but the store that i was buying it from ran out of stock so i was wondering about getting the Jbl Proscape Volcano mineral, it says that has some nutrients and it's good for the roots. Have someone tried it?

I have some Elodeas, Ludwigia repens,red root floaters,fox tail,java moss,anubias and probably will get some more 

On the tank at the moment i only have 1 ancistrus and some red cherrys.

Hey there,

Welcome to the forum.

I have JBL Proscape Volcano mineral as a bottom layer in 2 of my tanks. Used it for benefits+ to increase the height so I can use aquasoil more economically. It is covered with Tropica Aquasoil in both tanks.

In one tank of mine, I've directly used normal cheap crushed lava rock and again topped it off with tropica aquasoil. Have I noticed any difference between JBL one and classic cheap ones? Not really. Only the source is something you can trust easier, as it is hard to know what exactly each lava rocks may have or leech.

 

I have never seen someone using JBL Pro Volcano mineral as direct substrate. Just use it on the bottom of the tank instead, and top it with aquasoil, would be my suggestion. It does not hold the roots well alone. Also quite sharp for any fish, and very dusty.

With Neo soil, make sure to get plant soil and not shrimp soil btw. It is easy to get confused.

I bought plant soil but got shipped shrimp soil by the store. The store insisted very much that it is a plant one but contacting the Aquario Korea helped me to make final decision that it was a shrimp one. So sadly returned it and got Tropica again as I already am happy with it.

So  sadly couldn't try the neo plant soil. But pretty happy with tropica aquasoil in 3 tanks I have. If it is an option to consider

[Vítor]

On 4/24/2023 at 2:34 PM, Lennie said:

Hey there,

Welcome to the forum.

I have JBL Proscape Volcano mineral as a bottom layer in 2 of my tanks. Used it for benefits+ to increase the height so I can use aquasoil more economically. It is covered with Tropica Aquasoil in both tanks.

In one tank of mine, I've directly used normal cheap crushed lava rock and again topped it off with tropica aquasoil. Have I noticed any difference between JBL one and classic cheap ones? Not really. Only the source is something you can trust easier, as it is hard to know what exactly each lava rocks may have or leech.

 

I have never seen someone using JBL Pro Volcano mineral as direct substrate. Just use it on the bottom of the tank instead, and top it with aquasoil, would be my suggestion. It does not hold the roots well alone. Also quite sharp for any fish, and very dusty.

Understood, will do it then. My question was if i cold use it instead of the aquasoil but it will be better to use it with the aquasoil. Thank for you help!

[Lennie]

On 4/24/2023 at 4:39 PM, Vítor said:

Understood, will do it then. My question was if i cold use it instead of the aquasoil but it will be better to use it with the aquasoil. Thank for you help!

Yw! 

If you have any questions, hit me up

[Vítor]

On 4/24/2023 at 2:42 PM, Lennie said:

Yw! 

If you have any questions, hit me up

I have another doubt i was looking for the fluval stratum and now on amazon the 4kg bag it's on sale do you think 4kg would be enough to a 40 cm cube ? I want nearly 5cm of soil height.

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/24/2023 at 5:58 AM, Vítor said:

Jbl Proscape Volcano mineral

I'm trying to confirm what the JBL stuff is made of.  My assumption initially is that it's equivalent to either ecocomplete (lava rock) or to something made out of volcanic soil.


Yeah, so it's basically the same thing as ecocomplete.  It's rock, the rock has minerals.  It will trap detritus and nutrients in the pores, but the nutrients in the rocks themselves may not be readily available to the plants.  This video explains the use case.
 

As for alternatives to the Neo soil, what other soils are available in your area?  You can mix it with a variety of things.  The JBL I would only use as a base layer, not as a cap, and I would use it as a means to fill volume and provide gaps for roots to latch onto.

On 4/24/2023 at 4:20 PM, Vítor said:

I have another doubt i was looking for the fluval stratum and now on amazon the 4kg bag it's on sale do you think 4kg would be enough to a 40 cm cube ? I want nearly 5cm of soil height.

Here's just a visual so you can get an idea of how much it is.
 

From Fluval:
 

Quote

First, measure your tank’s length and width in cm – for example, 90 x 60 cm. Then, consider the thickness of substrate you want – for example, 8 cm. The amount of Stratum you need (in kg) is equal to length x width x thickness divided by 1000. In our example, 90 x 60 x 8 / 1000 = 43.2 kg of Stratum needed.

40x40x5 = 8000 / 1000 = 8 kg needed

[Vítor]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:42 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'm trying to confirm what the JBL stuff is made of.  My assumption initially is that it's equivalent to either ecocomplete (lava rock) or to something made out of volcanic soil.


Yeah, so it's basically the same thing as ecocomplete.  It's rock, the rock has minerals.  It will trap detritus and nutrients in the pores, but the nutrients in the rocks themselves may not be readily available to the plants.  This video explains the use case.
 

As for alternatives to the Neo soil, what other soils are available in your area?  You can mix it with a variety of things.  The JBL I would only use as a base layer, not as a cap, and I would use it as a means to fill volume and provide gaps for roots to latch onto.

Here's just a visual so you can get an idea of how much it is.
 

From Fluval:
 

40x40x5 = 8000 / 1000 = 8 kg needed

But the price are basically the same, so i will be using just the stratum,because i don't have co2 aswell and i saw some reviews ,and they said for low tech This fluval stratum was a good one so probably going for it ,the ones available here is just neo soil,tropia aquarium soil, and this fluval! Thank you so much!!!

[Lennie]

On 4/25/2023 at 2:20 AM, Vítor said:

I have another doubt i was looking for the fluval stratum and now on amazon the 4kg bag it's on sale do you think 4kg would be enough to a 40 cm cube ? I want nearly 5cm of soil height.

I have a 50 cm cube and I’ve used lava rock on bottom and it is not fully aquasoil, the front side is sand, it took 9L of aquasoil. It looks like this:

You basically calculate substrate like this: 40cm cube so;

length in cms x width in cms x the height of the substrate you want in cms / 1000.

so in your scenario; 40x40x5/1000= 8.

so you need two bags of 4 for 5cm aquasoil in a 40 cube basically.
 

However, I used what I had on hand for my betta tank, and although it was okay to plant carpeting plants with ~5cm height, it is pain to plant background plants. It just does not hold well. So If you have a chance I would try to aim a thicker layer of background, or you may try something like mine, sand in front, lavarock on bottom etc to make it a bit more economical. Aquasoil full tank alone can be a lil pricey.

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Lennie

[Vítor]

On 4/25/2023 at 3:06 AM, Lennie said:

I have a 50 cm cube and I’ve used lava rock on bottom and it is not fully aquasoil, the front side is sand, it took 9L of aquasoil. It looks like this:

You basically calculate substrate like this: 40cm cube so;

length in cms x width in cms x the height of the substrate you want in cms / 1000.

so in your scenario; 40x40x5/1000= 8.

so you need two bags of 4 for 5cm aquasoil in a 40 cube basically.
 

However, I used what I had on hand for my betta tank, and although it was okay to plant carpeting plants with ~5cm height, it is pain to plant background plants. It just does not hold well. So If you have a chance I would try to aim a thicker layer of background, or you may try something like mine, sand in front, lavarock on bottom etc to make it a bit more economical. Aquasoil full tank alone can be a lil pricey.

 

I do have some lava rock and i can put it in the bottom, i want that dark color in the substrate because i have some red cherrys i think it will look good so probably going with some lava rock in the bottom and getting the 8kg bag of the fluval, which aquasoil did you use?

[Lennie]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:33 PM, Vítor said:

which aquasoil did you use?

It is Tropica Aquasoil. I always use it: 

If you want neocaridinas, make sure to not go extremes on sides and meet their parameter needs, as these type of active substrates decrease ph and in my experience, suck up some gh. 

[Vítor]

On 4/25/2023 at 10:44 AM, Lennie said:

It is Tropica Aquasoil. I always use it: 

If you want neocaridinas, make sure to not go extremes on sides and meet their parameter needs, as these type of active substrates decrease ph and in my experience, suck up some gh. 

Have you had problems with algae with that substrate?

[Lennie]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:53 PM, Vítor said:

Have you had problems with algae with that substrate?

Algae is all about balancing the tank. Nutritient, light, stocking, water changes, etc. 

The substrate do leech nutritients and ammonia for the first weeks. I do big water changes once every 2 days for the first 3 weeks or so. 

Then I introduce established media, when I don't read ammonia and nitrite, I introduce fish. 

I don't face substrate related algae issues, but for example, If you don't do water changes, it keeps leeching nutritions when set up new, and with light and so on, sure, that is possible to come across issues.

I believe heavily planting from the start helps a lot. And I start with 6 hours of light, nothing more.

You can download tropica's app to your mobile and check their 90 day program. It tells you what to do for 90 days. You can combine your fishkeeping knowledge with the program and follow that

[Vítor]

On 4/25/2023 at 11:01 AM, Lennie said:

Algae is all about balancing the tank. Nutritient, light, stocking, water changes, etc. 

The substrate do leech nutritients and ammonia for the first weeks. I do big water changes once every 2 days for the first 3 weeks or so. 

Then I introduce established media, when I don't read ammonia and nitrite, I introduce fish. 

I don't face substrate related algae issues, but for example, If you don't do water changes, it keeps leeching nutritions when set up new, and with light and so on, sure, that is possible to come across issues.

I believe heavily planting from the start helps a lot. And I start with 6 hours of light, nothing more.

You can download tropica's app to your mobile and check their 90 day program. It tells you what to do for 90 days. You can combine your fishkeeping knowledge with the program and follow that

What i read is that the fluval doesn't freeing to the water collunm it does but a lot less the the tropica or neo. So they say that the tropica or Neo is good for a Co2 tank and the fluval for a low tech because the plants wont be able to catch all those nutrients without CO2

[Lennie]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:08 PM, Vítor said:

What i read is that the fluval doesn't freeing to the water collunm it does but a lot less the the tropica or neo. So they say that the tropica or Neo is good for a Co2 tank and the fluval for a low tech because the plants wont be able to catch all those nutrients without CO2

I never use CO2. Plants do well with tropica in my experience in 3 tanks of mine.

What I like about it is, I usually keep root feeders, so I just half dose the liquid fertilizer to the water column, and I personally never dose N. Well, in my opinion, algae utilizes the nutrition in the water column, and root feeders already get enough nutrition from the aquasoil already. So I try to provide trace elements to the water column as well as potassium. 

We don't have fluval one here so no experience with it. Wouldn't be fair to comment on that one for me

[Vítor]

On 4/25/2023 at 11:18 AM, Lennie said:

I never use CO2. Plants do well with tropica in my experience in 3 tanks of mine.

What I like about it is, I usually keep root feeders, so I just half dose the liquid fertilizer to the water column, and I personally never dose N. Well, in my opinion, algae utilizes the nutrition in the water column, and root feeders already get enough nutrition from the aquasoil already. So I try to provide trace elements to the water column as well as potassium. 

We don't have fluval one here so no experience with it. Wouldn't be fair to comment on that one for me

Hmmm , thank you probably im going for the cheapest of these 3 😂