# ADA Products



## leomessi (Feb 25, 2010)

Anyone know if ADA products exist anywhere in Canada? I've searched and searched and I found a forum that mentioned ADA products being sold in BC. I'd love to get my hands on some ADA AS because Seachem Fluorite is so messy.

Btw, I'm new here so I guess I'd share a little about my tank at the moment. I have a 10 gallon planted tank with some glosso growing, java moss on driftwood and a couple background plants. I have an amazing amount of light for my plants + DIY CO2 working really well. I just wished I could get my hands on some ADA products.


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

I don't think you can get the ADA soil in Canada anywhere.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

I've looked into this as well in the past...there was someone who brought some in to toronto a few years ago but I haven't heard of anyone else doing so since. If you do find a source, please keep us posted.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

If you've never priced an ADA product, you don't want to. Expect to pay ten times the price for the same volume vs fluorite, which I honestly have never found to be that bad. Sure, it's dusty, but after letting it settle for a day and planting your tank it's not going to be messy again.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

ADA AS was brought in to BC and Toronto before....

But like Aquariam mentioned, expect to sell your first born to obtain any of it. As for flourite, I've never been a fan of it myself. I prefered eco complete in planted tanks.

I did hear about people bringing in some knock off of ADA soil. I just can't remember the name now. Being out of the planted tank game now has me drawing a blank on anything planted...


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

gucci17 said:


> But like Aquariam mentioned, expect to sell your first born to obtain any of it. As for flourite, I've never been a fan of it myself. I prefered eco complete in planted tanks.


Having said that, ADA is *the highest* quality in terms of materials and workmanship. You absolutely will not find a superior aquarium product. You also won't find a more expensive one.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

I have to agree, i don't really mind the the Seachem substrate, however, I would be pretty curious to see how the ADA works for myself - in particular the Aqua Soil Amazonia and the ADA "substrate system" in general.

There used to be a distributor in Vancouver called Akua Style. That said, given that their domain no longer exists and having heard that they had very little stock over the past year, i'm going to take a wild guess and say they have closed up shop. Everyone i have talked to is now ordering from Aqau Forest Aquarium in San Fran. for their ADA needs. http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=afa_product&cPath=26_3.

The other option would be to look into Red Sea's Flora Base. The chatter on the planted tank and nature aquarium forums suggest that it is an excellent product, second only to ADA aquasoil. This is available from Big Als online, but i have yet to see it in any of the retail locations. I have not tried it myself, but i am seriously thinking about getting rid of all my eco-complete and giving it a go.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

If you are looking for knockoffs, try Lucky Aquarium. They do have some kind of man made planted substrate.

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## leomessi (Feb 25, 2010)

My S.Fluorite gets a little bit of red-brownish dust along my plants. I replaced one of the foam pads in my canister to try to avoid bits of the particles returning to the tank.

Aside from that, plants seem to be growing really well. My glossos looks sweet. I was thinking about getting my hands on some Eco-Substrate, but I've looked at Pets and Ponds (based in Orillia) and Big Al's and it's pretty expensive.

I want to get my gf's sister who lives in LA to ship some ADA AS. But I'm scared she'd pay tons of money to ship 7kg's worth of it + the thought of paying some sort of customs fee on my part makes it seem not worth it.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

leomessi said:


> My S.Fluorite gets a little bit of red-brownish dust along my plants. I replaced one of the foam pads in my canister to try to avoid bits of the particles returning to the tank.
> 
> Aside from that, plants seem to be growing really well. My glossos looks sweet. I was thinking about getting my hands on some Eco-Substrate, but I've looked at Pets and Ponds (based in Orillia) and Big Al's and it's pretty expensive.
> 
> I want to get my gf's sister who lives in LA to ship some ADA AS. But I'm scared she'd pay tons of money to ship 7kg's worth of it + the thought of paying some sort of customs fee on my part makes it seem not worth it.


I honestly don't get what people think will happen because they use ADA AS. Will your plants grow better? More than likely. Is it a higher quality substrate? Without question-- but really, how bad is fluorite with laterite mixed in? I'd say it was pretty great. Roots love it and it produces virorous strong stems and happy plants. Why pay 90% more for a 6% improvement?

The law of diminishing gains really kicks in.

If this were a computer forum I'd say forget the ADA AS and overclock your fluorite to 5Ghz


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

> If this were a computer forum I'd say forget the ADA AS and overclock your fluorite to 5Ghz


Ok, so when I tried to increase the voltage to my fluorite for the overclock, I think something went wrong... There's a bit of black smoke coming from the surface of my water, and I don't think my fish are doing too well... Please advise... 

My understading of aquasoil is that it's 'superior' to anything else on the market because it contains lots of macronutrients. Also because it's muddy, so plants root well in it.

But from people I've spoken to about it, it's actually not that great... The macronutrients will eventually get depleted, and the muddy substrate will always be messy and there's nothing you can do about that...

One way or another your success will boil down to the nutrients that you dose regularly yourself, not the nutrients in your substrate. After all, that's what root tabs are for. So don't worry too much about it. You have a tried and true substrate already, you just need to rinse it a little better so there isn't as much dust.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

qwerty said:


> Ok, so when I tried to increase the voltage to my fluorite for the overclock, I think something went wrong... There's a bit of black smoke coming from the surface of my water, and I don't think my fish are doing too well... Please advise...


Ok well obviously you're liquid cooling...


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## leomessi (Feb 25, 2010)

hey guys. here is a video of my aquarium:

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?p=94303#post94303


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

i know lucky's was planning on getting a shipment of the ada aquasoil, you might want to give them a try and ask them about it. But as everyone has already mentioned, it's going to be very expensive. 

I used worm castings as my substrate with a layer of gravel ontop, and its working really well. My tank is low tech, no co2, just weekly ferts and my plants are growing like crazy. If you can manage to find some worm castings, i highly reccommend it as its really high in nutrients. My parents use it in the vegetable garden and we get mutant tomatoes every summer


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