Substrate Additives explained:

The Substrate additives from ADA are not precisely for growing plants per se - that is the primary job of Aqua Soil. Aqua soil delivers nutrients to plants directly and is the work horse when it comes down to just straight growing the plants. A better way to think of the additives is to think of it like a vitamin d supplement for your diet - will you die without it? No. Will you be healthier for taking vitamins? Probably, unless your diet is just already ridiculously awesome.

That being said, what the additives do is help 'balance' the aquarium on the bacterial side of things - everything I have talked about in regards to GDA and other algae's earlier is helped kept in control by the additives.

The ADA additives are:

Class 0:
Penac P
Penac W
Bacter 100
Clear Super
Tourmaline BC

Class 1:
Penac P
Penac W

Class 2:
Bacter 100
Clear Super
Tourmaline BC

Class 3:
Bacter 100

Class 4:
Bacter 100
Penac W



The two classes of additives: I've broken down the additives into two groups or classes, because basically these are the two groups that can be used separately from one another. In other words you can use Class 2 in your substrate without Class 1, but an "ideal" system would have both class 1 and class 2. However, it would not make any sense to break up Classes because the additives are co-dependent on one another in some regards. For example - there's no reason to have Clear Super if you have no Bacter 100, but at the same time if you were to ONLY have ONE additive, Bacter 100 is the one to get.

Class 1: Penac P & Penac W

These are some of the additives that have caused extensive debate in the hobby as being 'snake oil.' I won't cover the details of the argument here, but will state it's history just for the sake of avoiding the argument again and to let people be informed of prior baggage associated with the product.

Penac P is an additive whose description from ADA is literally "for plants." However, Penac products come from a company called plocher, whose philosophy is focusing on "energy," cleaning water, growing plants, restoring ecosystems, etc. It's in the holistic boat of theory.

That being said, I don't necessarily say that Penac P & W use energy to clean water - at one point the description was "using the memory of clean water to clean dirty water."

Penac P is basically a nutrient additive that helps to grow plant roots by keeping them healthy - you can also use it with your terrestrial plants. But basically a few spoonfuls of the product at the bottom is used to help grow plants. It contains Calcium Carbonate, Iron 3 oxide, Magnesium, Aluminum Oxide, Silicon Dioxide.

Basically what this does is that Amazonia can be -so- acidic that it helps to temper the acidic effects on plant roots, which can actually be harmed by the intensity of the acidity of Amazonia by making the soil more basic as opposed to acidic.

Penac W on the other hand is an additive that goes on the bottom as well, but is actually advised to use once a month with water changes. This additive directly oxygenates water and serves to also help neutralize the intensity of Amazonia's acidic nature to fortify plant roots.

When you use Penac W properly in the substrate when you setup your aquarium, if you examine your substrate you'll actually see that soil itself is "bubbling" with oxygen - as if it were plants pearling. This helps to rapidly oxygenate the substrate in preparation for the growth of beneficial bacteria.

When doing a water change, a dose of Penac W helps to clear the water and restore oxygen levels to the aquarium. When using pure RODI water it has the effect of balancing the RO water (which has nothing in it and pure RODI water is effectively unlivable) and making it a little harder.

Perhaps an unintended side effect - but if you were to gas your aquarium with co2 and your fish are on the brink of death as a result, adding a spoonful of Penac W causes a rapid, instant oxygenation of water and will save the fish from dying.


Class 2

This trio of additives, Bacter 100, Clear Super and Tourmaline BC all go towards growing bacteria. These additives turn your substrate into a secondary biological filter for your aquarium.

This adds stability by having a second source of filtration / available surface area in case of a filter failure (essentially say, if your filter failed for whatever reason over night, killing all the bio filtration there, you already have a source of bio filtration directly in the substrate of the aquarium saving you from a total system crash and just getting GDA instead of ammonia spikes).

Bacter 100 is specifically 100 different types of bacteria or microorganisms that are beneficial to planted aquariums. This goes beyond just bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle and includes bacteria that is beneficial and symbiotic with plant roots, etc. and aids in their health and is a detriment towards algae.

You can actually sprinkle Bacter 100 on top of the substrate if you get cyanobacteria or other problem algaes and over night the cyano bacteria will be eaten away by the bacteria and will likely not show up again.

If you are having a massive imbalance problem or your filter crashes, you can dose Bacter 100 into the aquarium to save the system from total failure by adding more bacteria.

Clear Super is essentially a food source for the bacteria - it is comprised of organic material that the bacteria use as a food source, until it becomes naturally occuring in the planted aquarium, which could take some time. Essentially this allows for the bacteria to flourish in the substrate system from day one without having to spend time to grow into the system, it's essentially there to help jump start the Bacter 100.

Tourmaline BC is a very high purity carbon, this helps to keep water quality up, which creates a more suitable environment for the bacteria in the substrate, as well as helps with overall water quality issues in the aquarium itself. Much like how Tourmaline F can be added to a filter to help polish the water, Tourmaline BC does this in the substrate.

As a side note - Power Sand serves as essentially a high-surface area surface for the bacteria to thrive in under the substrate (think of it as your biological media).

Class 0:

The effect of all the listed additives in your aquarium, Penac W, Penac P, Tourmaline BC, Clear Super and Bacter 100 is doing a few things: one it is neutralizing the effect of the extreme acidity (which is harmful towards bacteria) of amazonia in the soil itself. This aids in plant growth, prevents the rotting of roots and allows for Bacteria base to be highly successful in the aquarium.

Two, it keeps the substrate with a high concentration of oxygen. Beneficial Bacteria is highly dependent on oxygen exchange, which in later stages of the aquarium is aided with plant roots, but is not present in early stages of the aquarium. This enables greater health in the plants - and the greater survival of bacteria, which means more stability and less algae for the aquarium.

Three, it provides the Bacteria, pre-seeded, in the substrate already to essentially super-charge the system with bacteria which are beneficial to the substrate without being dependent on waiting for them to grow and occur naturally.

Four, it provides the food for the bacteria so they can thrive from day one.

Five it keeps the quality of the water and the environment of the system itself at top notch in the substrate.

While very few people think of it - soil actually has a certain 'health' factor to it, unhealthy soil leads to unhealthy plants. Unhealthy soil can be spotted by premature break down, 'gunk,' in the soil such as random cyanobacteria and other algaes, and a lot of broken down decaying organic matter (which I can take a picture of at some point), which clogs up and hurts plant growth by making it harder for roots to spread and overall lending itself to the system decaying and shortening the life span of soil. This occurs with -any- nutritious substrate.

These additives help prevent the condition of soil from decaying and maintain the environment in which plants grow in, which lends itself more to overall system health and the prolonging of your layout.

Class 3: if you were to only get one substrate additive, get Bacter 100 as you can still add it to increase bacteria counts and use it to combat cyano bacteria and balance the aquarium in an emergency.

Class 4: if you were to only get two substrate additives get Penac W and Bacter 100 - they can be added to the water to help in emergencies and both provide the most beneficial impact together.

Class 2: if you can only partially do the system - get these three, Bacter 100, Clear Super and Tourmaline BC as the Clear Super and Tourmaline BC support the growth of Bacter.

At this point - I think it's a lot of info for people to take in, so I'd be happy to answer specific questions to expound upon the overall philosophy and approach more.