Aqua Durt Substrate

I joined this forum for a specific reason. To warn people to stay away from a substrate called Aqua Durt. Aquariumplants.com sells it. And there is a seller on Ebay who sells it. People will fall into the trap of thinking it is cheaper and just as good as other substrates. DO NOT BELIEVE IT.

Please!....Please! stay away from it and tell everyone you know to never use it. Its a very bad product. The first time I used it, it quickly turned into a blue-green algae nightmare. I hung on for about a year trying to clear up the algae, then gave up thinking it was a bad batch. When ever I moved the substrate around it emitted clouds of fine silt putting high organics into the water.

I dumped my tanks and re-ordered new. This time it took awhile but after 4 to 6 months the blue-green algae reared its ugly stinky head. Again I did everything possible to get rid of it. Plants either grew poorly or died off. This time I felt sure it must be something I was doing wrong. Self doubt set in. I'm not new to aquarium keeping, though I still consider myself a novice at planted tanks.

Two weeks ago I decided to key word reviews for the company that sells the substrate. I found a review describing exactly what I was dealing with. Here is what it said.

"Buyer beware of their proprietary substrate. Do some extensive searching and you will see that it is Soil Master Select or Turface and at an elevated price for the product. Added your tank KH will decrease by 1-2 points per day for up to 6 months (although they state it is inert). Thirdly, it will “melt” in your tank. The instructions state to only rinse it once. That is because the particles disintegrate with agitation and a web search will show that you cannot, or will have a very hard time rinsing clear. Fourth, the material releases a yet to be identified substance into the tank that WILL cause uncontrollable algae blooms for a long time. I was bitten by the “cheaper than Eco-complete”. Now, I broke my tank down, and paid $10 more than the original purchase for Eco-complete. Their statement is propaganda and misleading. Call a reputable web supplier and ask them how many calls they get to fix issues with this substrate."

After I read this review I dumped my 30 and 55gal tanks again. I got lucky Petsmart had a sale on FloraMax for 8.00 a bag. I found a great seller on Ebay that had some nice gravel sand. Looks great and my fish are happy too. I'm sure the substrate was affecting their quality of health as well. Gill problems,lesions,fish loss, fish fighting a lot.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I felt the need to make aquarium consumers aware of this product. I'm including pictures of my 55 tank before I broke it down. Horrific nightmare.

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Ugh, sounds like garbage to me...

It certainly is....were you able to see the pictures? I didn't see them posted?

No pictures..

Okay...theres one of them.

wow!! I was looking at that for my 40 gal, I'm glad I didn't order it.

Please don't its very bad news. If you research what this stuff is a.k.a. Soil Master Select or Turface it is used as a soil conditioner. Commonly used in athletic fields. Such as baseball fields and I believe running tracks. Evens the surface, conditions the soil and absorbs moisture. In baseball fields absorbing the moisture during rain helps prevent rain out games. It is also used to grow plants such as orchids. But none of those senarios are submerging the stuff in water.

Anderson p. R. has somr crazy planted tank substrate that works really well.


Back to topic.

Holy cow I can see diatoms everywhere!!

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Yup....knowing I was going to dump my 55 I didn't bother to make it presentable to look at. I could peel off sheets like a banana

When I dumped my 30 the water felt itchy to my skin. Can you imagine how the fish felt swimming in it?

Again...please help spread the word to prevent sorrow in other peoples tanks.

The two known sellers are - Aquariumplants.com and a seller on Ebay called SubstrateSourse.

I'm considering contacting the seller. But like me it takes time for the problems to start, by then someone can say it wasn't their product.

It kinda looks like green carpet.

Moved this to the review section so it can be preserved in the right forum. Thanks for the heads up!

Yup, that's some nasty stuff. Don't think that's diatoms, I believe its cyanobacteria...

Go walstad method with a mineralize method to the dirted. No problems at all except gases getting a little stuck but thats where our friends MTS comes in play. Problem solved. Go dirted. Dirt dirt dirt.

I had the exact same experience with safe-t-sorb - same stuff as this aqua durt - a cyanobacteria extravaganza. But I have a heavily-planted turface 10g tank that's been thriving for years with nearly zero algae of any type. Go figure?

A number of people on here have had success with safe-t-sorb type substrates; I'm glad I'm not the only one who ran into the cyanobacteria fail.

pbmax wrote:I had the exact same experience with safe-t-sorb - same stuff as this aqua durt - a cyanobacteria extravaganza.  But I have a heavily-planted turface 10g tank that's been thriving for years with nearly zero algae of any type.  Go figure?

A number of people on here have had success with safe-t-sorb type substrates; I'm glad I'm not the only one who ran into the cyanobacteria fail.

 
Hey good to know, I've been using safe-t-sorb for a while now along with a lot of GSAS members as recommended by Roy and I love the stuff!

I've used mostly Turface in my tanks since I restarted in the hobby almost 3 years ago. It was recommended to my by a well known aquatic horticulturist. In my tanks I don't find that Cyanobacteria is specifically related to the substrate material. I periodically have outbreaks of Cyanobacteria like everyone else, but it can be in side-by-side tanks, one with Turface, the other with inert sand material.

I don't do a lot of water testing, as those of you who've spent time with me know, so I can't tell you what changes in the parameters bring this on. I just step up the water changes and sometimes use Maracyn to eradicate it, maybe add some plants to soak up more waste nutrients and adjust lighting.

This stuff could be in our tank water all the time in dormant form. It can come in thru the water source, on plants, rocks, wood, etc, then, when the conditions of light, nutrients & CO2/O2, get ''right'', it takes off. I also believe this is the case with most algae, not just the bluegreens.

Hope this provokes some thought.

Well said Ron, i agree 100%  

 
Just like the "red tides" that we get in Puget sound!

@Nick_87 Could be very much like that!

@BallardFishGuy Thanks!