[APD] ADA's Substrate

["Kevin Sheller" <kevmo at aplants_com>]

The Riddle of ADA Amano's substrate.

Alright, in an almost-private conversation with Takashi Amano over lunch at
the Wash DC AGA convention, he talked quite a bit about his "Amazonia"
substrate. There were some interesting points -- I'm sure most of which have
been discussed here. Let me see how my memory serves:

1. He was very pleased with Amazonia -- he said that he didn't have to do
much water-column fertilization. Just use it and it works forever.

2. When asked "What IS Amazonia?" he responded that it was a substrate that
was cooked to the border of becoming ceramic, but not quite.

3. Of course, he places a layer of Power Sand as the base of his substrate,
covered by Amazonia.

So, doing some research through the APD archives to learn more about what
these things are, and what we have here in the U.S. that is similar, I find
the following information:

AMAZONIA
Schultz Profile Aquatic Plant Soil *IS* ceramic. So does that mean it is one
of the closest things we have to Amazonia?

Ryan Stover tells us, "...Amazonia contains more iron than the other Soils.
This comes from Do! Aqua vol. 1. This is ADA's more product orientated
publication."

And then does this mean that Amazonia is some sort of Flourite + Schultz APS
combo? Or maybe something like Flourite cooked to be almost ceramic??

POWER SAND
Bob Dixon and Luca discussed what POWER Sand was made of, and this is what
Mr. Dixon had to say:

"It is pumice, peat, and "a nutrieint rich clay", according to the official
ADA propaganda.  I built a substrate based on this info, using pumice
gravel, peat, and a couple different clays.  In the first tests I used
Fluval peat pellets and redart clay.  In the second set-up I used regular
nursery-style sphagnum and pyrophylittic clay.

The pumice is not organic at all, nor is the clay component.  The peat
certainly is, but I cannot say for certain that it is breaking down."

WATER
Of course, the water Amano uses may contain a bunch of nutrients as well.
Who knows? Maybe our substrates would perform just as well for Amano-san if
he used HIS Niigata well water.

What has the collective mind of the APD list learned to refute or prove some
of the things I've researched above?

Kevmo

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