jsenske

After having some long-term experience and getting lots of feedback from customers, I can officially say that regular Amazonia is superior overall to Amazonia II. I will personally not use Amazonia II in any of my/ADG tanks in the future. The growth is better with regular Amazonia, it's firmer and will therefore likely last longer and endure more re-scaping, and the consistency of that classic color is a plus as well.

Regular Amazonia receives our highest recommendation and the "start-up" issues it poses are easily overcome. Regardless of your tap water hardness, go with regular Amazonia for the best growth and long-term performance.

jazzlvr123

awesome thanks for the heads up

Bunbuku

Jeff

I will keep this in mind for the next scape!

A side question, under what circumstances would you use Malaya or Africana?

goalcreas

Yes, interested in that answer as well about the other substrate choices.

jsenske

I personally would not use those ever. Regular Amazonia 100%, period.

Tex Gal

Jeff, I continue to struggle with dust from the Amazonia II, after 4.5 months. I keep questioning the cause... If you have any help for me please tell me. Even though the AS is supposed to be great for plants many of my finer leafed plants are dying because of the dust.

Please see my thread below for what I've tried..
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...escape-15.html

JustOneMore21

Great! Now that I have a ton of Amazonia II in my 40 breeder, you tell me its not as good. (jk)

I will keep this in mind for future tanks, for sure. Glad to see you share your findings with us, Jeff!


Tex Gal, I have alot of dust issues in my 40B as well, but its mainly when I mess with the substrate. I really need to replant my foreground, but I'm really nervous about killing my fish from the dust (and potential ammonia release).

Tex Gal

Just to ease your mind - I have had no fish deaths, (at least not due to the AS - got a bad batch of nutrifying bacteria additive). They seem extremely happy in their mud pit. If you rescape tons you could add a few drops of prime or do a partial water change.

houseofcards

That's quite a 180. Weren't you considering not selling Amazonia in favor of Amazonia II just a few months ago? Are there any circumstances where you would recommend using Amazonia II?

Bunbuku

Jeff:

In this post from a while back http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...onia-ii-2.html you said that original Amazonia will be higher maintenance at initially as its a richer substrate - prolonged NH4 spike, more organics, cloudiness, algae etc.

Can some of these side-effects be mitigated by the use of RO/DI water and charcoal filtration? If so which type of charcoal is recommended, NA carbon or bamboo? Would the use of carbon be also dictated by type of setup, say Iwagumi vs heavily planted?