Ultum Nature SystemsControsoil - Aquarium Substrate Soil Porous Gravel for Natural Aquatic Freshwater Planted Fish Tank, Brown (Fine, 10 Liters)

Amazing substrate! Can’t go wrong with it! The substrate when rinsing it off is very dirty and messy so keep that in mine! It will also make your tank very cloudy but it clears up within around 4 hours (if you have your filter going, in this case I have a sponge filter) or overnight without a filter. The next morning the water was crystal clear, I’ll probably update within a couple of months to see if my plants are doing any better than the gravel they were in but I have high hopes for this soil.This soil does great for bottom feeders! I have cory catfish and a betta in a 10 gallon tank and my cory’s now love to lift their behinds up to dig into the soil because it’s so soft and light weight. I’d highly recommend this for any bottom feeders that aren’t rough with the soil because the pellets CAN break and turn into little crumbles of dust or dirt.UPDATE: Still a really good substrate! I added Ludwigia Repens to my tank and they grew so fast along with the hornwort which I added a couple of weeks ago. My betta fish loves resting on it and weaving through the overgrown plants BUT the only thing is that the darkest shade that it comes in is two or three shades light so black is brown and brown is tan. I got the black/brown and it’s a dirty brown-tan color. It’s perfectly fine because I’ll be topping it off with Fluval but this is a better bang for your buck if you wanted Fluval but wanted a big bag.Update 2023:It’s still going strong and continues to help my aquatic plants thrive! I did realize that you need to wash the soil out a lot and wait a good amount of time for the black to really set in. After a few months the color changed from brown/tan to black with spots of brown throughout. It’s been a minute since I’ve bought this soil and the price has gone down drastically (by $30) so I’ll definitely be buying myself another back to touch up on the old soil.

my plants, love this substrate in my tank. The only downside is I feel like the filter sucks up a lot of particles from it so I did lay a top layer over it to help. Kinda keep that down after that. Super pretty super awesome plants. Love it.

We have had this in a tank for about two or three months now, the plants are doing great n this is our first tank with live plants. Our fish likes it. Looks good. Size was enough for 10 gallon tank

I love this stuff and it's a must have. The price is on the expensive side but you get what yah pay for❤️

I unfortunately have very hard, high pH water, so I got this to help correct the pH in my tanks. I found out through online research that most soil based substrates leach ammonia in the beginning. This one is not too bad, but I would still recommend soaking it in a bucket of treated water for at least a week or two before adding it to an established and occupied tank, especially if you have sensitive organisms like shrimp. When I measured the pH in the bucket after weeks (I had gotten busy with other things), this substrate brought down the pH from 7.6 out of the tap to under 6. It also brought down the GH and Kh. If you set this aside in treated water that has not had the pH adjusted otherwise, you will be able to tell the effect it has on your water (much harder to correct once in your tank). For a pH close to neutral, mix this substrate with substrate that drives the pH the other direction (I noticed that pH-raising substrates take MUCH LESS amount than acidifying substrates by volume to affect the pH, PLUS substrates change the water pH VERY SLOWLY, which is why you want to check at least a week or two after soaking, if not longer, to allow the pH to settle. If you look at the photos, in one tank, it looks like I only have this substrate, but in fact, I have fine gravel deeper down that’s keeping the pH from plummeting.One more tip: if changing out old gravel (I leaned that the substrate’s pH buffering capacities wear out at about 1.5 to 2 years), change it about 1/5 to 1/4 at a time (like starting on one corner of the tank and working your way around the tank with each water change) over weeks, to allow the new substrate time to colonize with nitrifying bacteria (cycle); otherwise, you risk crashing the cycle in your tank and having all your fish die.Finally, this substrate is VERY light. If you’re not careful, it will easily get sucked out when gravel cleaning. On the other hand, it is good for plants with delicate roots, but I’d recommend having at least 1.5 to 2 inches of substrate to make planting a little less challenging. This substrate would be excellent for fish with sensitive barbels (like coridoras) as it is super soft but not prone to getting sucked into gills like sand. It is also of very uniform color, allowing more contrast with the rest of the decor.

Great product very reliable.

Works very well and makes my fish tank so clear I would recommend this product